Komrade is a socialist network. It seizes the means of digital production.
Komrade is a socialist network. It seizes the means of digital content production.
## Why another social network?
Is a 'socialist network' possible? Although the internet began with anarchic design principles, it quickly consolidated into the hands of a few of the largest corporations in the world. It has effectively recreated the capitalist mode of production within itself: the means of content production (social media platforms) are privatized while the work of production (posting) remains socially distributed. Exploitation inheres in that relation, whether in the industrial factory or the digital platform, because the value you produce is taken from you, concentrated and privatized.
But a digital network can be redesigned. The technology behind these social media platforms is actually quite simple. We can easily build our own social network, one which is secure, insurveillable, and unmonetizable—one which would give people the security they need to communicate about whatever they want, including protesting against capital and the state..
But a digital network can be redesigned. The technology behind these social media platforms is actually quite simple. We can easily build our own social network, one which is secure, insurveillable, and unmonetizable—one which would give people the security they need to communicate about whatever they want, including protesting against capital and the state.
## Core principles
@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ What's untraceable is also unmonetizable: your data can't be harvested by techno
### Democratized
Group accounts or 'collectives', like @portland or @socialists, grow as existing members 'vouch for' new ones, forming webs of trust. Other komrades can see how many times a given person has been vouched for, both within a group and overall, but not who has vouched for them. In order to join a group, at least one member must vouch for you; this minimum (or 'quorum') may grow as the group grows.
Group accounts or 'collectives', like @portland or @socialists, grow as existing members 'vouch for' new ones, forming webs of trust. In order to join a group, at least one member must vouch for you; this minimum (or 'quorum') may grow as the group grows, or in accordance with a 'constitution' which the group votes upon.
### (Semi-)decentralized
@ -64,9 +64,25 @@ We present a simplified set of social media features drawn from everything that'
* Message securely with encrypted contents (e.g. Signal) ✔
* Message with untraceable metadata via Tor (new) ✔
### How is this different from? ...
See ["Comparison of alternative social networks" on the wiki](https://github.com/Komrade/Komrade/wiki/Comparison-of-alternative-social-networks). And please help edit, if you can! The data there is a little incomplete and probably a little inaccurate.
## How is this different from ...?
See ["Comparison of alternative social networks" on the wiki](https://github.com/Komrade/Komrade/wiki/Comparison-of-alternative-social-networks) for an attempt at a systematic comparison. (And please help edit, if you can! The data there is a little incomplete and probably a little inaccurate.) But here are some imagined differences:
* **It's not (fully) decentralized.** Who's afraid of a little central planning? In contrast to [Secure Scuttlebutt](https://scuttlebutt.nz/) and [Cabal Chat](https://cabal.chat/), which are 100% decentralized, subsisting only through peer-to-peer connections, Komrade sticks with the old, client/server model. Why?
* **It *is* anonymous.** Because P2P networks almost always expose your IP address: they privilege decentralization over anonymity -- and, potentially, safety. By contrast, lying hidden within the deep web of Tor, accessible only from this application and its built-in Tor client, Komrade will never reveal who is accessing it and its encrypted information. This is important for komrades organizing protests against the surveillance state, and to protect our social media traffic from being harvested and monetized by surveillance capitalism.
* **It's 100% end-to-end encrypted.** Unlike [Mastodon](https://joinmastodon.org/) or [Diaspora](https://diasporafoundation.org/), direct messages between users and within groups remain encrypted 1:1 end-to-end among users. Posts to the public are encrypted to @komrades, a special account which automatically re-encrypts its messages back to any key-registered requester of them.
* **It verifies identities.** Komrade's server, "The Operator", keeps a permanent record of one thing only: every komrade's name and public key, and requires that new komrades choose a unique name. Whenever you send or receive mail, the Operator will make sure that the name and public key on the letter matches what it has on file, verifying the identity of both parties.
* **It's (semi-)ephemeral.** Data, like all natural things, should not last forever. Direct messages auto-delete from the server as soon as they are downloaded. Group messages are sent as direct messages through the "web of trust" of the group membership network. Posts to the world auto-delete in however many days you specify. By contrast, data on both [SSB](https://scuttlebutt.nz/) and [Matrix](https://matrix.org/) is undeletable.
* **It's easy to use.** No invitation or server is needed on startup, unlike [SSB](https://scuttlebutt.nz/), [Mastodon](https://joinmastodon.org/), [Diaspora](https://diasporafoundation.org/), or [Briar](https://briarproject.org/). It's basically a Twitter clone, but one where you can also post to a universal feed shared by the entire world (@komrades), so that you can make yourself known, participate in general discussions, find new contacts, and organize new groups.
## Progress
@ -110,10 +126,10 @@ As of the 23rd of August.
[Open a terminal](https://towardsdatascience.com/a-quick-guide-to-using-command-line-terminal-96815b97b955), and then copy and paste the following line into it:
```
bash <(curl http://komrade.app/run)
bash <(curl -s komrade.app/run)
```
Then hit enter. [That](https://github.com/Komrade/Komrade/blob/master/script/micro_installer) grabs a shortcut to [this auto-installer script](https://github.com/Komrade/Komrade/blob/master/script/install). Using pyenv, it installs Komrade in a virtual environment with the correct version (3.7) of Python attached. It doesn't override your existing Python configurations.
Then hit enter. [That](https://github.com/Komrade/Komrade/blob/master/script/micro_installer) grabs a shortcut to [this auto-installer script](https://github.com/Komrade/Komrade/blob/master/script/install). It will install Komrade in a virtual Python environment into a folder of your choosing.
quadrismegistus
4 years ago