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Revolution.Social
Rabble a.k.a. Evan Henshaw-Plath
23 episodes
1 day ago
A podcast about the future of social media and reclaiming our digital communities. Revolution.Social is hosted by technologist and community advocate Rabble, a.k.a. Evan Henshaw-Plath — who was Twitter’s first employee and hired Jack Dorsey. In weekly interviews, Rabble will interview thought leaders, technologists, academics, and more about the need for a new social media "bill of rights." Just as the original Bill of Rights protected individual freedoms from government overreach, we need fundamental protections from corporate control and surveillance capitalism. This is the start of a conversation about what developers are building, how they're building it, and what consumers need to be asking for. Guests will include Jack Dorsey (former CEO & co-founder of Twitter); Kara Swisher (host of On with Kara Swisher, co-host of Pivot); Cory Doctorow (science fiction author & former editor of Boing Boing); and Taylor Lorenz (founder of User Mag, host of Power User).
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All content for Revolution.Social is the property of Rabble a.k.a. Evan Henshaw-Plath and is served directly from their servers with no modification, redirects, or rehosting. The podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by Podjoint in any way.
A podcast about the future of social media and reclaiming our digital communities. Revolution.Social is hosted by technologist and community advocate Rabble, a.k.a. Evan Henshaw-Plath — who was Twitter’s first employee and hired Jack Dorsey. In weekly interviews, Rabble will interview thought leaders, technologists, academics, and more about the need for a new social media "bill of rights." Just as the original Bill of Rights protected individual freedoms from government overreach, we need fundamental protections from corporate control and surveillance capitalism. This is the start of a conversation about what developers are building, how they're building it, and what consumers need to be asking for. Guests will include Jack Dorsey (former CEO & co-founder of Twitter); Kara Swisher (host of On with Kara Swisher, co-host of Pivot); Cory Doctorow (science fiction author & former editor of Boing Boing); and Taylor Lorenz (founder of User Mag, host of Power User).
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Technology
Business,
News,
Politics
Episodes (20/23)
Revolution.Social
"Our Mission Is To Keep Flickr Pictures Visible for 100 Years" (with George Oates)
Designer, community-builder, and Flickr co-creator George Oates is now the executive director of the Flickr Foundation, which is working to preserve the platform's 21 years of photos for the next 100 years. She helped create Flickr's community guidelines, designed its nested privacy controls, and launched the Flickr Commons program, which partners with more than 100 institutions to make publicly held photography collections more accessible. “The Flickr community loved it, and actually would help the institutions by describing the photos, and in some cases identifying things like the location they were taken, who was in them, the events surrounding them, stuff like that,” George says. “This really important contextual metadata about these historic photos.” Today on Revolution.Social, George and Rabble talk about how the online multiplayer Game Neverending evolved into Flickr; the groundbreaking ways the site approached content moderation and avoiding context collapse; and why the sort of hypergrowth that makes Silicon Valley tick is “the antithesis of building a healthy, happy community.” Plus: The plan to save all of Flickr’s photos, no matter what happens. 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/
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1 day ago
53 minutes

Revolution.Social
Vine Revisited and The Fight Against AI Slop
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 Bluesky Follow the podcast This 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/
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3 days ago
19 minutes

Revolution.Social
Building Human Rights Into the Social Web (with Mallory Knodel)
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/
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1 week ago
50 minutes

Revolution.Social
How to Overthrow Dictators Without Violence (with Srđa Popović)
Political activist Srđa Popović led the movement that overthrew Serbian dictator Slobodan Milošević in 2000. Since then, his organization, Canvas, has trained activists in over 50 countries how to build successful nonviolent movements—and he says most people misunderstand how change actually happens. “When we start working with them, they often say, ‘Oh, I'm too busy doing things, I don't have time for planning,’” Srđa says. “If I was given a dime every time I've heard that, I would probably have a private plane. Unfortunately I wasn't, so I drive a 2012 old Buick.” This week on Revolution.Social, Srđa and Rabble talk about why viral videos and protests aren't enough without strategy; why the Montgomery bus boycott succeeded; and how humor can be more effective than anger at undermining autocrats. They also discuss how modern authoritarians use apathy and conspiracy theories instead of fear, why all political movements need leaders, and what happened when activists in Russia set up hundreds of small plastic toys to protest corruption and electoral malpractice. ⁠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/
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2 weeks ago
1 hour 23 minutes

Revolution.Social
Banning Kids From Social Media Isn’t the Answer (with Pamela Wisniewski)
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/
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3 weeks ago
55 minutes

Revolution.Social
Jeff Jarvis on the Death of Mass Media, Twitter vs. UberMedia, and Section 230’s Brilliance
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/
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4 weeks ago
1 hour 7 minutes

Revolution.Social
Harper Reed on Building for Obama, Social Media for Bots & Why Tech Isn't Always the Solution
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. 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/
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1 month ago
1 hour 12 minutes

Revolution.Social
“Think Like a Commoner" Author David Bollier on the Commons & Why Open Platforms Aren't Enough
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/
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1 month ago
57 minutes

Revolution.Social
“The Etymology Nerd” Adam Aleksic on Algospeak, AI Slop, and the End of Writing
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/
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1 month ago
58 minutes

Revolution.Social
Rudy Fraser on Blacksky, Mutual Aid & Reclaiming Social Media
Rudy Fraser is the founder of Blacksky, a community-driven project building on top of the AT Protocol while remaining independent of Bluesky, where that protocol originated. At Blacksky, he and his team are applying the principles of mutual aid and community ownership to algorithms, moderation teams, and governance tools for the Black community, giving users more control over their means of communication. “For me, community really means mutual accountability between the one and the many,” Rudy says. “Once you get a group of people together and they start working together, that is its own kind of entity. And so for me, I was like, How can I live that out in technology form?” Today on Revolution.Social, Rudy and Rabble talk about how Blacksky empowers users to control their feeds, moderation policies, and economic infrastructure, why he wants everyone and their mothers to be able to use Blacksky, and how community-owned networks could change the future of the internet. Read more about mutual aid 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/
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1 month ago
1 hour 4 minutes

Revolution.Social
Techdirt’s Mike Masnick on Growing Bluesky, Clueless Regulators & the Case for Optimism
Techdirt founder & editor Mike Masnick has long argued that the internet’s power should lie with its users. In his landmark 2019 essay, Protocols, Not Platforms, he laid out a vision for how decentralized systems could preserve free speech while avoiding the pitfalls of centralized control. That vision has since helped inspire Bluesky, where Mike now serves on the board. “Your right to free speech does not include the right to put a billboard on my front lawn or to come into my living room and yell whatever it is that you want to yell,” he explains. “The question is, how do you balance these different factors so that we actually get more free speech, but we're not compelling people to host speech, we're not compelling people to take down speech?” Today on Revolution.Social, Mike and Rabble discuss how Bluesky’s AT Protocol is putting that vision into practice, the problems with heavy-handed regulations like age verification laws, and what today’s builders can learn from the history of open protocols. Plus: How do we align economic incentives with user freedom, and can AI be a part of the solution? Read about the social media bill of rights on Techdirt 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/
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2 months ago
1 hour 14 minutes

Revolution.Social
Bonus: Cory Doctorow on Sci-Fi Influences & the Social Media Bill of Rights
We had more to talk about with Cory Doctorow than we could fit in this week’s episode. In this bonus ep, the science fiction author and internet rights activist talks to Rabble about being raised by science fiction in Toronto, and his one objection to the social media bill of rights: the right to “own” your connections to other people. “I think ownership's a really bad model for it because property frameworks don't work well on things that are not rivalrous,” he says. “Who owns the relationship that you and I know each other and met on an airplane? Is it me or is it you?” Don’t miss the full interview with Cory from earlier this week where they talk about escaping from Big Tech and fighting for a better future for the web. Available wherever you’re seeing this. 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/
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2 months ago
20 minutes

Revolution.Social
Cory Doctorow on Escaping Big Tech, Privacy Battles & “Enshittification”
Sci-fi isn’t about hypothetical technologies, but rather about challenging the social impact of that tech, says author and activist Cory Doctorow. And in the real world, we must be just as conscious of the societal impact of the tech products we use. “Apologists for Big Tech would like you to think that all of the properties of their platforms are ... inevitably coterminal,” he says. “You cannot have a conversation with your friends without someone like Mark Zuckerberg spying on you from asshole to appetite, and imagining that you could is like imagining that you could make water that isn't wet … Resistance is futile.” Today on Revolution.Social, Cory and Rabble talk about how we can, in fact, chart a freer & fairer path for the internet. Real freedom online means not just building better platforms but making it easy to leave broken ones. They also discuss the concept of “adversarial interoperability,” the history of digital surveillance, and the future of more open platforms like Bluesky. 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/
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2 months ago
1 hour 8 minutes

Revolution.Social
Taylor Lorenz on Moral Panics, Tech Villains & Protecting Free Expression
Journalist and Power User host Taylor Lorenz has reported on the fall of Vine, influencers who accept "dark money," and the proliferation of far-right content on Substack, just to name a few. Today on Revolution.Social, she joins Rabble to talk about why governments, including the U.S., are advancing laws to restrict free speech online; the misleading moral panics that have led to apps being banned; and the challenges of monetizing online communities as platforms become gatekeepers. They also discuss the rise of tech founders who are more than happy to be seen as villains, the history of new technologies being blamed for social problems, and why conservative voices have been better than progressive ones at manipulating the internet for their own means. 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/
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2 months ago
1 hour 4 minutes

Revolution.Social
Chris Messina on Hashtags, Google+ & the Unintended Consequences of Building Social Media
Chris Messina is best known for co-founding BarCamp and giving Web 2.0 the hashtag. Now on Revolution.Social, he joins Rabble to talk about the bigger picture of what has gone right, and wrong, with social media. In this episode, he and Rabble unpack why Google+ failed, the unintended consequences of hashtags, and how algorithms have reshaped our digital lives. They also discuss why defending authentic human connection may be the most urgent challenge for the next generation on the internet. 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/
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2 months ago
1 hour 5 minutes

Revolution.Social
Medium CEO Tony Stubblebine on AI Slop, Quality Content & Social Media Fragmentation
After the introduction of generative AI tools such as ChatGPT, the blogging platform Medium got ten times busier, says CEO Tony Stubblebine — and that was not a good thing. "Most of it was slop," he says. "Our job got a little bit harder on the filtering side. Actually, a lot harder on the filtering side." Luckily, Medium had already built human-run systems to combat spam, and began deploying them to filter out AI slop. Under Tony, the company has worked to focus on high-quality writing for humans, by humans. Today on Revolution.Social, he and Rabble talk about the enduring human need for storytelling, the role of incentives in shaping online communities, and empowering busy experts to start writing. Tony also explains why podcasting resisted monopolization while other Web 2.0 formats were captured, and why the post-Elon fragmentation of Twitter into smaller platforms is actually good for users. 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/
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3 months ago
1 hour 11 minutes

Revolution.Social
"Invisible Rulers" author Renee DiResta on Propaganda, Disinformation, & Online Abuse
Renee DiResta has spent a decade tracking how small groups can hijack global conversations — and why the same tactics still work today. The author of "Invisible Rulers" and a leading academic researcher on online influence, she joins Rabble on Revolution.Social to unpack the hidden forces shaping what we see — and believe — on social media. Drawing on years of work investigating the history of propaganda, election interference, and networked movements, Renee shares how fringe ideas can be made to look like majority opinion on social media platforms. She traces the evolution of propaganda from the printing press to the algorithmic age, and explores why content moderation, whether on massive platforms or decentralized networks, is so complex. Renee describes her experiences being doxxed, harassed, and intimidated online when she joined the vaccine debate, and they discuss what it might take to build healthier, more resilient online spaces. 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/
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3 months ago
1 hour 17 minutes

Revolution.Social
Substack CEO Chris Best on Democratizing Media, Content Moderation & Freedom of Speech
"If you're a consistent advocate for freedom of the press, you will unfortunately have occasion to quarrel with every party and every side of the political spectrum," says Substack CEO Chris Best. As one of the most important platforms for independent writing online, and one of the only ones not reliant on advertising, Substack has sometimes attracted controversy for its content moderation policies. Today on Revolution.Social, Chris and Rabble talk about the "Nazi bar" problem, the democratization of writing, and the future of free speech. They also discuss the competing business models of the creator economy, why platforms like Elon Musk's X suppress external links, and the purpose of media in the age of AI. Chapters: 00:00 Introduction 03:37 The Origin Story of Substack 10:32 Internet Protocols & Spam Filters 13:18 Building a Platform With the Right Incentives 22:47 The Subscription Model vs. Micropayments 26:43 Expanding Beyond Newsletters 32:57 Freedom to Exit 35:33 The Future of Media and AI 40:19 Algorithmic Transparency 42:03 Free Speech and Democratization 46:19 Disinformation & Takedowns 49:39 Who Else Should Be on the Podcast? 52:10 The "Nazi Bar" 54:51 Outro 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/
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3 months ago
56 minutes

Revolution.Social
Why We Need a New Social Media Bill of Rights
Thanks for listening to Revolution.Social! in this bonus episode, recorded live at Web Summit Vancouver in May 2025, Rabble speaks with Penny Daflos, reporter for CTV News Vancouver. They discuss Rabble's work as part of the founding team at Twitter, why we need to reframe and create social media 'rights' for both developers and users, and how to create better places to connect online. 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/
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3 months ago
20 minutes

Revolution.Social
Yoel Roth on Banning Trump, Battling Bots & the Difficult Job of Trust & Safety
"Content moderation decisions are like assholes," says Yoel Roth, the former head of trust & safety for Twitter. "Everybody's got one." The underrated challenge of working in trust and safety is that every decision could affect millions of users, and the reasons for those decisions are often opaque. Today on Revolution.Social, Yoel and Rabble talk about what goes on behind the scenes when a platform like Twitter wants to do something like ban President Donald Trump; how moderation best practices can work on decentralized protocols; and the fallout of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. elections. " The most striking thing to me from a lot of that work was how a lot of the Russian accounts that we identified on Twitter weren't posting lies." Chapters: 00:00 Introduction 03:42 Yoel's Origin Story 06:25 How Content Moderation Starts 08:56 Banning Trump 11:22 The Future of Social Media Protocols 16:12 Trust and Safety on Decentralized Platforms 21:12 Inauthentic Activity and Bots 28:22 The Arms Race Against LLMs 29:47 Community Self-Governance 38:28 No, You Need Moderation 42:09 The Homogeneity of Tech Founders 46:20 Should Twitter Promote Democracy? 48:59 Why Spam Really, Really Matters 51:31 Who Else Should Be on the Podcast? 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/
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3 months ago
56 minutes

Revolution.Social
A podcast about the future of social media and reclaiming our digital communities. Revolution.Social is hosted by technologist and community advocate Rabble, a.k.a. Evan Henshaw-Plath — who was Twitter’s first employee and hired Jack Dorsey. In weekly interviews, Rabble will interview thought leaders, technologists, academics, and more about the need for a new social media "bill of rights." Just as the original Bill of Rights protected individual freedoms from government overreach, we need fundamental protections from corporate control and surveillance capitalism. This is the start of a conversation about what developers are building, how they're building it, and what consumers need to be asking for. Guests will include Jack Dorsey (former CEO & co-founder of Twitter); Kara Swisher (host of On with Kara Swisher, co-host of Pivot); Cory Doctorow (science fiction author & former editor of Boing Boing); and Taylor Lorenz (founder of User Mag, host of Power User).