Censorship: Why All Blockchain Projects Should Join Steem (especially Status)
When we at Steemit originally decided to go down this path, we were motivated partly by our fears about what results from centralized control over information. The problem with closed and centralized systems is not that they are populated by evil people--it’s that closed and centralized systems are systematically flawed because people are flawed.
The Problem With Centralized Content Platforms
As long as anyone controls any platform, their flaws will become expressed in the system. If anyone, for example, controls what can and cannot be posted, then they will control what can and cannot be posted as evidenced by the actions of Twitter, Facebook, and now Medium. When faced with something they do not understand, they will be incapable of dealing with it appropriately, for as Upton Sinclair once said, “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”
Since we released and open-sourced the Steem blockchain protocol over two years ago, followed closely by steemit.com (our flagship Steem application), things have certainly changed a lot, but not for the better. This was demonstrated in a recent post by the Status team, a blockchain project that is building a mobile operating system for Ethereum.
Censorship on Medium
In the Status team’s own words:
Recently, we attempted to publish a blog post announcing our latest Bug Bounty Program. The post was immediately suspended, followed by an automated email noting a general violation, without detailing any specifics, and a link to Medium’s recently updated policy regarding cryptocurrencies. Though we had not violated any of these policies, we re-submitted several revisions that carefully edited out any potential trigger words, like “bounty,” “ETH,” and “SNT.” The post was never successfully published.
Like the Status team, we too are concerned about the “creeping censorship around cryptocurrencies,” which only validates our initial motivations for embarking on this journey and why we want to wholeheartedly invite all blockchain projects, not just Status, to Steem - whether it’s through steemit.com, busy.org, dlive.io, or one of the many other user-interface DApps that have now been built to leverage Steem’s Decentralized Content Management System and Decentralized Reward Distribution Mechanism (Proof-of-Brain). Steem remains the only blockchain autonomously rewarding content creators and has distributed over $40 million worth of rewards to users all over the world since its launch.
Steemit.com is the #1 site for user-generated content relating to blockchain technology, but in addition to that, posting through any Steem interface makes your content available to all Steem interfaces, so that you are not beholden to any single platform. Finally, because Steem is a decentralized blockchain, it remains censorship-resistant, meaning your content is safe and not controlled by anyone.
We Believe in Blockchain
As one of the most mature projects in the space, we have proven through action that we believe in blockchain, cryptocurrency, decentralization, and censorship resistance. That’s why we want every project, regardless of whether they are powered by Steem, to feel welcome on this platform we have created. Of course, even if we didn’t want you, there’s nothing we could do to keep you from posting and even earning STEEM! That’s the beauty of decentralization.
So join us, Status! Because just like you:
We want our society to be freer for everyone. We believe the forces of censorship and centralization are often closely bound and we worry when we see the power to freely express ourselves so arbitrarily limited.
If the people at Status--or any other blockchain project--want to communicate with Steemit, Inc. they can e-mail us at [email protected]. They can also sign up for a free Steem blockchain account via https://signup.steemit.com/ and start posting their content via steemit.com as soon as their account is approved.
We look forward to having you here!
Team Steemit
Preventing censorship is very important and I think we're all with you there. Decentralization is a critical element. Other projects should be joining Steem for sure. That said, if everything is left up to the masses, then abusers (scammers, spammers, bidbots, etc.) will fill that void and destroy the user experience for those masses fairly quickly, as we've seen here. With a few simple tweaks by the benevolent entity that operates this site, it could be a lot more fun for a lot more people to use.
Steem should be decentralized; Steemit should use some common sense to better manage its site for the vast majority of the users.
Indeed.
Same applies even more strongly to decentralized systems. Indeed, it empowers the most flawed people to run amok with their abuse, crime and scams, with no laws or checks in place. Neither @donkeypong nor I really need to point out the overwhelming amount of evidence for Steemians only behaving in their own self-interests, rather than making Steem a valuable content creation and curation platform.
With centralized systems, there's always competition where the less flawed systems has the potential to win. I hope that's exactly what Communities and SMT will achieve here on Steem.
Beyond that, there needs to be some basic common sense measures to better organize Steemit.com to be better for discovering valuable content. Remember, what consumers really want is creating and consuming good content.
there's that line again: 'good content'. that's surely in the eye of the beholder in a world of free speech. it implies some element of control needed over the 'bad' content.
A lot of the content on youtube has great content, but it's not got the most views. You've got to make a personal effort to engage with a certain kind of 'good' content that is good for you, that informs you, or rewards you outside of it, in the real world.
Agreed, what is good or bad depends on objectivity, not subjectivity. It depends on who makes the rules, on who the judges are. If we are our own judges of each other's content, comments, etc, then we all determine, define, what is good content and what is bad content like you said, in the eye of the beholder, with all doing what is right in his or her own eyes as mentioned in the Bible before the time of the Judges.
there are criteria you could write down to help define what is good or bad content, but this would only go in a certain direction. It's better for bad content. Good content could be informational, but not popular or engaging. Not so easy.
Interesting.
An interesting article. I subscribed to you. Subscribe to me, we will be friends
Hi @liberosist, I have found Steemit Inc. not interested in doing anything to remove the recently discovered flaws with Steemit. I have almost left the platform due to its inherent and persistent flaws. Platform was good. The people behind it let it be ruined. I am here because of the sane voices like yours.
When I joined Steemit in June 2017, I found it to be a gift economy. It has, for best part of last 7-8 months, turned into a bad user experience after invasion of bots. Steemit is not for the masses anymore, I feel.
On behalf of @buildteam I wish to say that we appreciate this official communication inviting all crypto to join Steem, we feel the same and our objective is to help onboard new and existing ICO's onto Steem. This official message will be useful in such future engagements to help further promote Steem. Future positive communication from Steemit like this in future is welcome.
This is a great idea and will hopefully lead to some cooperation and partnerships that will help crypto and blockchain projects increase use case and aid mainstreaming.
Yes and I am glad to see that Steemit is reaching out! With EOS social happening soon, we have to do everything we can toi promote SMTs and hivemind communities.. we MUST promote steem, to Reddit 4chan instagram and youtube comments and just go CRAZY promoting steem with quotas and massive amounts of reward pool Diverted to promoting steem on legacy social media with its billions ofusers! imagine we CAn have quarter of a billion users liek reddit but MORE cuz reddit is cool but STOPS being intersting after a point while Steem KEEPS going and is ALWAYS FOREVER interestingc uz WE get to BUILD stuff on Reddit its CLOSED but on STEEM its OIPEN
so yeah man WOOOOOO
We have decided to curate this post with our Steemvoter (SV) Guild; @buildteam and @steemvoter stands in solidarity with the concept of unifying crypto on the Steem blockchain.
Note: You should receive many guild votes shortly to assist with visibility of this post!
While I do see the value against censorship in Steem & Social Media on blockchain technology - I'm worried about the adaptability in regards to new laws & regulations.
For example:
What is your stance on GDPR compliance?
As far as I understood it, even blockchain projects have to make sure that users are in control of their data, who must be able to request the deletion of their data.
This article is quite interesting: https://cointelegraph.com/news/gdpr-and-blockchain-is-the-new-eu-data-protection-regulation-a-threat-or-an-incentive
What are your thoughts on that Team Steemit?
The lawyers and Data Protection Officers can wield the GDPR against any blockchain if they decide to do it. This is why I launched a "Call to arms" and pleaded for blockchain project teams to come together and agree on a strategy as soon as possible.
There are ways to deal with this challenge but if left to fester, problems will arise. The "tragedy of commons" I fear can gain hold here is that no one wants to stump up the necessary resources to build this defense group against self-serving interpretations of GDPR by vested interests.
I know you know this already, but for those who don't know, Steemit will delete people's accounts they said in their new TOS for violating their TOS, which makes me laugh at how they talk about not having censorship(most people are on Steemit and not busy.org). It is in their new TOS that they will work with the EU and within their laws framework, and also they would turn people in if the government asks for it.
If Steemit stops showing people's posts on Steemit.com your posts basically are censored, the super majority of people use Steemit.com as their main site. That isn't to say some people are abusive and or threats of harm shouldn't be dealt with, but many countries don't have free speech so turning them in to their respective governments will get people in trouble just for talking online(which is insanity to get in trouble for that).
I stopped using Steemit due to this and am on busy.org now.
I made a comment over on their blog from a bit ago and never got any serious response from anyone, I detailed some of the problems with this and how bad it can get depending on which laws Steemit decides to follow(like turning in people in China would get them jailed for life for them criticizing the government).
https://staging.busy.org/@steemitblog/updated-steemit-com-terms-of-service-and-privacy-policy#@truthforce/re-steemitblog-updated-steemit-com-terms-of-service-and-privacy-policy-20180615t214135326z
Steemit Inc can't delete accounts. They prob. meant removing their delegation.
Accounts are often created through Steemit (@steem) with an initial 15 SP delegation. And some users are exploiting this.
That's what the TOS is for. Making sure that people who are exploiting the system, are getting punished - i.e. removal of delegation.
Interesting debate because one of the basic premises of steem is that what you've published cannot be removed and you are held accountable for your choices to post. Past posts, even if deleted or updated remain in the BC. And there is a valid argument in that.
I think the big difference here is that steem is not part of a country. It is global and decentralized so in essence it is not under any jurisdiction at the moment. Governments use threat of force (jail) and financial sanctions for compliance and the public via advertisers use financial sanctions to force compliance with the current whim of the mob. This is what we've been seeing on Youtube. But with steem there is no "one" to attack. It's a totally different paradigm.
They can go after the interfaces such as busy and steemit via their corporate registrations and server location but not the actual BC.
Further to that, the GDPR is in response to large megacorps using peoples' data to make money whereas steem is nothing like that (is that statement correct btw?). So right from the get go it's a totally different situation.
So even if they find a target to go after there is the paradigm difference issue which is that the data has been the users' all along versus FB where for copyright efficiency they make you give them ownership of your data. There's no greedy mega corp that controls steem.
When doing seminars and talking about steem I always emphasise many times over the permanent nature of steem (plus rules 1-3 of steem - don't lose your password).
But there is Steemit, Inc. The Steem protocol and blockchain are mostly in their control. It is entirely possible for governments to take action against Steemit, Inc.
Of course, another organization or a set of (more) decentralized actors could revive/ fork the protocol and blockchain if Steemit, Inc became a pawn.
I agree, though, no one would bother Steemit with GDPR right now. However, if Steemit gets way more prominent and there are abuses, Steemit, Inc is possibly vulnerable.
Steemit.com is in compliance with GDPR.
The Steem blockchain (or most blockchains in general), probably not.
in that you can remove old posts whenever, as requested by a user?
For those who don't know, GDPR is the General Data Protection Regulation which is a EU law thing. By the way, EU Bans Memes. EU imprisoned Tommy Robinson over free speech. Tommy talked about children sex trafficking, rape, murder. Many murderers are not sent to jail. Tommy was sent to jail. Many people say things that the EU dislikes and are then sent to jail, each day now. #FreeTommy
Allowing content to be deleted off blockchains is dangerous.
This is pretty interesting! It would be pretty cool to have multiple blockchain projects work around here and post their news here instead of sites like medium or twitter that are further censoring crypto currencies, here we have a true space for freedom of speech and every project should feel welcomed here! Just like @mannacurrency was quickly loved and accepted by all steemians! They even saw an amazing growth in their user base after joining Steem and I'm pretty sure that if any legit project decides to make their home here, the results will be the same.
We agree! There are already a number of projects leveraging Steem, but there's always room for more!
We also want to reach out where a lot of people are on places like Twitter because a lot of people are still there.
Amazing timing. My latest blog post talked about the most important aspect of blockchain and cryptocurrency is decentralization. This is what we need to drive home to the masses...the future of humanity is freedom and that can only be achieved through decentralization.
Anything that is centralized is subject to being taken over. It is really that simple. Not all in centralized systems are evil but an evil one will use a centralized system.
I applaud the efforts of the development team to put this idea out there. Promoting STEEM as a decentralized platform is a great idea. I hope this article goes viral throughout the entire internet. It would be great for other developers/projects to see what this blockchain offers.
STEEM is a diamond in the rough as they say. It will not be an undiscovered gem forever.
Time to get on board.
I'm pretty sure if legit projects come, they will be all embraced here, just like Manna was!
Agreed @taskmaster4450 !
Regards, @gold84
They actually have an account here, assuming legit: @status-im
We all should join Steemit.
Looking forward to the release of Steemit media tokens
While I cannot deny the fact that this article is fantastic and well written, I still cannot ignore the fact that there is no true decentralization on Steemit at the moment. In fact, there is a centralization within the decentralization. How do I mean?
At the moment, the whales can flag a minnow into extinction. This means that a whale can censor what he or she wants and does not want. In the end, Steemit has degenerated into a platform where all animals are equal but some are more equal than the others. We claim to be decentralized but we are intolerant.
We must stop flagging by voter power, otherwise we will make a primitive empire out of our beloved Steemit. I trust this meets you well.
That's not quite the same thing as decentralization in this case, however. I know what you mean — it can be intimidating to think that a higher rep can adjust your rewards and penalize your own rep with a heavy flag... but this still doesn't truly censor you. The posts you make are in the chain, for good. Even with a negative rep and UI hidden posts or comments, your followers, and anyone else, can still find the entirety of your work in the STEEM blockchain, forever, just as you put it there. This really isn't true of many other social media, which can disappear any trace of you or your intellectual property at any time.
The flagging and rep system are both tools designed to help our community try to decide on and enforce common societal rules and values, but they are not perfect. There has been a lot of discussion on how to improve these tools, and I think we'll see some positive changes to both over time. While it may feel like true censorship to be flagged, just remember that absolutely nothing and no one can take your work out of the chain and away from the people who are looking for it!
Thanks for this new perspective. Sounds convincing.
Agreed, Steemit seeks for checks and balances. I like the competition of Steemit and cryptocurrencies in general. Free markets can be tough but I like them.
Yes you are right, steemit is actually not decentralised. It is in fact a company registered in NY. So that is an avenue of attack, however the blockchain itself is decentralised. It's on computers all around the world and even if China, Russia and the US got together to unplug all of those computers steem would continue.
I don't know of a portal into the steem bc (busy/steemit/zappl and many more) that is not decentralised. However, with not too much technical skill we can all build our own portal in. It won't be as polished as the above but the functionality is there for all of us and that cannot easily be taken away.
The whales, whilst they have a lot of power, are not centralisation. They are points with a large amount of power but they cannot dictate what you do or write. All they can do is make it harder to find you. Youtube and FB on the other hand can literally stop your content. BTW technically steemit/busy etc can also can also dictate what you see however that would not last long at all.
Governments and corporations are single entities. Each whale is for the most part a different entity with their own ideas and ways of thinking. They might come together on issues but it's not the same as a government or corporation.
Thing is, the whales have to be careful because if they are irresponsible they risk losing everything overnight. That's millions of dollars they can blow if they are too douchie. So it behooves them to take right action. And if one or two whales jeopardise the system it is definitely in the interest of the other whales to correct that. This is one of the philosophies behind steem's voting system and is covered in the white paper.
Agreed, I prefer Steemit over Facebook and even Gab and Minds. I wonder if there are videos or articles on how people can plug directly into the Steem.IO blockchain, to post, or even to design platforms. Like you said, we have Steemit, Busy.org, Dlive, Dtube, and other Steem apps, but I may want to design my own app. We all may want to do that.
Check this page for starters
https://steemit.com/programming/@cryptonik/build-your-own-steemit-interface-with-steemjs
Thanks.
check the tuts in this channel
https://discord.gg/VuQeC4
steemdevs on discord
Yes the info is all out there. But it's not neatly gathered hence it's difficult but therein lies opportunity.
Yeah, Steemit can be tough, but do you make money on Facebook? I make money on Steemit. I like that. Facebook deleted my Hitler photo. I don't think Steemit has ever removed anything of mine and Steemit probably can't delete my photos, either, or so I've been told.