Revolution.Social

Rabble and Alice Chan, Revolution.Social’s host and executive producer, talk about the launch and overwhelming reception to diVine, a new social video app that resurrects the six-second looping format of Vine and features archived original Vine content.This time, however, the app is built on open protocols and a promise to focus on real content made by real people, not AI. Within hours of announcing diVine at Web Summit in Lisbon, it had 10,000 signups on TestFlight, Apple’s developer testing app, and its beta program was full. Its early success is proof that new social apps can be built on the Social Media Bill of Rights and that consumers want better ways to connect and share online."We accept that one person controls Instagram and one person controls Twitter, one person controls TikTok,” Rabble says. “That is a dystopian nightmare. And so diVine isn't just fun videos, but also shows us a future of social media where power is shared."You can join the diVine mobile app waitlist and preview the videos people are creating at https://divine.video/Follow Rabble on BlueskyFollow the podcastThis episode was produced and edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod, and executive produced by Alice Chan from Flock Marketing.To learn more about Rabble’s social media bill of rights, and sign up for our newsletter, visit https://revolution.social/

Mallory Knodel is the executive director of the Social Web Foundation and former CTO of the Center for Democracy & Technology. Her roots go back to the activists, anarchists, and dreamers who built the open web, and then lost control of it to big business. “Especially in the smaller circles of digital human rights organizations and so on, [they] really understood that everything that they would work so hard for … could just be so easily undone from the top-down of a huge corporate,” Mallory says. “Nothing was durable at all.” Today on Revolution.Social, Mallory and Rabble talk about who controls Web 2.0 and how the fediverse gives us a second chance; how she convinced the IETF to evaluate protocols for human rights implications; and why content moderation should be contextual, not universal. They also discuss how Edward Snowden’s revelations changed global internet standards, the 2025 funding crisis and how Ghost provides a model for sustainable open-source businesses. ⁠⁠Follow Rabble on Bluesky⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠Follow the podcast⁠⁠ This episode was produced and edited by Eric Johnson from ⁠⁠LightningPod.fm⁠⁠, and executive produced by Alice Chan from ⁠⁠Flock Marketing⁠⁠. To learn more about Rabble’s social media bill of rights, and sign up for our newsletter, visit ⁠⁠https://revolution.social/

Srđa Popović, a key figure in the movement that toppled Slobodan Milošević, shares his insights from the nonviolent revolution and his work with CANVAS to empower activists globally. He argues that mere viral videos won't suffice for change, emphasizing the necessity of strategic planning and coalition-building. Srđa highlights the power of humor in activism and discusses modern authoritarian tactics that exploit apathy. He also offers creative protest strategies, including playful tactics that disrupt oppressive narratives and engage communities.

Pamela Wisniewski is one of the leading researchers on how social media affects teens, working at the UC Berkeley-affiliated International Computer Science Institute. In an era of moral panics around youth online safety, she believes the solution is to empower teens and teach them resilience, rather than restricting them. "We treat it as if our teens should know how to act online without any kind of training," Pamela says. "We don't give our 16-year-olds the keys to our car and just say, 'Hey, go at it.' But that's what we're doing with the internet." Today on Revolution.Social, Pamela and Rabble talk about why parental control apps fail teens; what her research into private Instagram DMs revealed about self-harm language and peer support; and why age verification bans push kids into more dangerous spaces. They also discuss the problems with addiction narratives and shame-based approaches, why anonymity is vital for vulnerable youth, and what teens themselves are telling us they want from digital governance. Teenovate Learn about the STIR Lab Pamela's Research: It’s Still Complicated Teen Talk Safety by Design Towards Resilience and Autonomy-based Approaches Follow Rabble on Bluesky Follow the podcast This episode was produced and edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm, and executive produced by Alice Chan from Flock Marketing. To learn more about Rabble’s social media bill of rights, and sign up for our newsletter, visit https://revolution.social/

In books like The Web We Weave and podcasts such as Intelligent Machines, journalist and educator Jeff Jarvis — formerly the director of the Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism at the City University of New York — has traced the history of media from the Gutenberg press to AI. And he says that today’s attempts to clamp down on the internet are nothing new. "Whenever there's an explosion of speech, those who controlled speech resent it," Jeff explains. "They try to fight it, they try to control it, they launch into a moral panic about it." Today on Revolution.Social, Jeff and Rabble talk about the pivotal battle between Twitter and third-party apps like UberMedia; how Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act protects free expression; and why Medium's human curation works better than Substack's anything-goes approach. They also discuss the problems with age verification laws, why the "commons resistance" in AI might succeed, and what Black Twitter's migration to Blacksky teaches us about reclaiming platforms. Follow Rabble: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Bluesky⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ This episode was produced and edited by Eric Johnson from ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LightningPod.fm⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and executive produced by Alice Chan from ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Flock Marketing⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. To learn more about Rabble’s social media bill of rights, and sign up for our newsletter, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://revolution.social/

2389 Research CEO Harper Reed was previously the CTO of President Barack Obama's 2012 reelection campaign, where he helped redefine modern political technology. Before that, he was CTO of Threadless, the crowdsourced T-shirt company that accidentally invented crowdsourcing. Harper has spent his career building systems that bring people together online—but also exploring why technology often produces unintended consequences. He recently published a paper on creating a social media ecosystem for AI agents, raising urgent questions about how humans and machines will interact in decentralized environments, and asks deep questions about the future of work in an AI world. Today on Revolution.Social, Harper and Rabble talk about what he learned from “juggling against homophobia”; why the Obama campaign taught him that technology isn't always the solution; and why the future of software is building interfaces for agents, not agents using human tools. They also discuss what type of engineers are most likely to be displaced by AI-assisted coding. Read more: We Built Social Media for Agents and They Won't Stop Posting Follow Rabble: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Bluesky⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ This episode was produced and edited by Eric Johnson from ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LightningPod.fm⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and executive produced by Alice Chan from ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Flock Marketing⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. To learn more about Rabble’s social media bill of rights, and sign up for our newsletter, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://revolution.social/

When a community wants to organize itself, it might decide between private ownership and state control. David Bollier has spent decades arguing that that’s a false binary, and that there is a better way: The commons. "The commons is as old as humanity," David says. "It's kind of the default setting for coordination and governance. It's just in the past 200 years or so, we've tricked ourselves into thinking that we're isolated individuals and that the social context and the Earth is irrelevant." Today on Revolution.Social, David and Rabble talk about why a platform being “open” isn’t enough to keep it safe from corporate takeover; the success of podcasting as a type of commons; and why we need to build parallel institutions rather than just protest existing ones. They also talk about the lessons from Bitcoin's governance conflicts, the vulnerability of shareholder value to collective action, and how the internet can “get back to the garden.” Read David's books Follow Rabble: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Bluesky⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ This episode was produced and edited by Eric Johnson from ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LightningPod.fm⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and executive produced by Alice Chan from ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Flock Marketing⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. To learn more about Rabble’s social media bill of rights, and sign up for our newsletter, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://revolution.social/

Adam Aleksic, known to his social media followers as the “Etymology Nerd,” has built a massive audience by decoding the origins of words, accents, and memes. In his new book Algospeak: How Social Media is Transforming the Future of Language, he talks about the ways our social media algorithms have accelerated the “context collapse” that changes the words we use. “You perceive this creator using a word like, I dunno, rizz, ate, slay, served,” Adam says. “These are all from the ballroom scene in the 1980s, this gay, Black, Latino space. But these words are now just being used by white girls. It's because you see this being used by somebody online … It's on your For You page. It feels like it's personalized.” Today on Revolution.Social, Adam and Rabble talk about the rise of words like “unalive” and “lowkey,” the shift away from human gatekeepers, and why the popularity of video and podcasts threatens the cultural power of writing. They also discuss the dangers of banning cell phones in schools and how social media algorithms can encourage racist AI slop. Read Algospeak: How Social Media is Transforming the Future of Language Follow Rabble: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Bluesky⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ This episode was produced and edited by Eric Johnson from ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LightningPod.fm⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and executive produced by Alice Chan from ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Flock Marketing⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. To learn more about Rabble’s social media bill of rights, and sign up for our newsletter, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://revolution.social/

In this discussion, Rudy Fraser, founder of Blacksky and a dedicated organizer, shares his vision for a community-driven social media platform. He emphasizes the importance of mutual aid and community accountability in shaping algorithms and moderation. Rudy highlights lessons learned from the George Floyd uprisings and the need for democratic tools in financial systems. He also envisions an internet of autonomous communities that prioritize usability and collective governance, empowering users to shape their own social spaces.

Mike Masnick, a pioneering tech journalist and founder of Techdirt, dives into the future of decentralized social media and his vision from 'Protocols, Not Platforms.' He discusses Bluesky’s innovative AT Protocol, emphasizing user control and the challenges of heavy regulations like age verification. Masnick shares insights on aligning economic incentives with user freedom and reflects on how AI could enhance decentralized systems. With a mix of history and optimism, he paints a vibrant picture of a more user-empowered internet.