Billions of people across the globe live under restrictions on news and social media, with censorship applied to websites and social media platforms. However, the emergence of decentralized social media projects, such as Lens, Farcaster, and Phaver, could now offer a way to break through information blackouts.
In much of the Western world, the debate about online censorship has become central to the infamous “culture wars” where the social media banishment, or reinstatement, of controversial, high-profile individuals can make headlines and provoke endless online arguments. In many cases, there are likely to be legitimate reasons to question whether social media firms are overstepping the right to citizens’ freedom of speech; however, there’s also a counterargument argument that centralized social media firms are operating a business, and as such, can choose to ban anyone they like.
However, culture wars aside, censorship is still one of the most sinister tools that can be deployed by ruling bodies against vocal dissent. Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights grants everyone the right to seek and receive news and express opinions, typically in areas such as press freedom or access to social media.
Even so, authorities in many countries actively suppress this fundamental right, often in service of carrying out other human rights abuses. In the worst cases, such as in Eritrea and North Korea, journalists are imprisoned or even killed for speaking out against the government. However, billions of people in the world, including China, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, and Iran, live under restricted access to news media and communications. At the same time, journalists and campaigners can face punitive measures for failure to toe the government line.
How Web2 Facilitates Censorship
The centralized model of social media operations makes it too easy for governments to breach their citizens’ human rights by censoring information. Content blocking prevents individuals from accessing certain websites, while social media platforms can shut down individual pages or accounts. Malaysia, Tunisia, and Morocco have all taken steps to block access to sites or individuals critical of their governments.
Another more extreme model is for governments to simply operate their own centralized versions of social media apps or news outlets delivering propaganda.
Decentralized Protocols Gain Ground
Web3 protocols now provide a beacon of hope for those who find themselves silenced. Decentralized networks cannot be shut down by laws, and open, permissionless access means that nobody can be censored or banished from the platform by a central authority. Thanks to advancements in the underlying technologies, such as higher throughout and the ability to index off-chain information, social media platforms are becoming more user-friendly and adoptable. For instance. Lens Protocol, launched by Aave founder Stan Kulechev, accrued over 100,000 profiles within the first year of launch, while competitor Farcaster has had over 15,000.
Both offer people the opportunity to “own” their profile as an NFT with portability between apps built using the respective protocols. However, Phaver has emerged to take this a step further – enabling true ownership and portability of Web3 social graphs across any supported platform. This means someone could take their follower count and engagement statistics with them when moving anywhere in the Web3 social media space.
Users can simply sign up using email or an existing Web2 login and set up a Phaver profile, connecting any established Web3 accounts such as Lens or CyberConnect.
The process is deliberately designed as a “Web 2.5” onboarding to help bring Web2 users into the Web3 social sphere step-by-step. Once set up, the user can then enter the Phaver app and begin curating their feed within the Phaver environment, where activity is broadcast off-chain. They only need a crypto wallet once they want to publish on-chain using connected social accounts like Lens and create their decentralized portable social graph as an NFT.
The Phaver protocol also rewards users for creating, curating, and moderating content using a points-based system, where points can be redeemed for token rewards. The app has had over 250,000 downloads to date, and accounts for the majority of posting activity on Lens.
Cast-iron Credibility
For journalists and campaigners, the portability and censorship resistance offered by Phaver is crucial since it enables them to demonstrate their established credibility. Currently, if someone is shut down on one platform, they have to attempt to convince people on the other platform that they are who they say they are and start from scratch. With a solution like Phaver, their entire social proof history becomes transportable and cannot be simply deleted or changed.
Critics often argue that a lack of censorship leads to a degradation in standards of online behavior. However, while Web3 social platforms offer huge potential to fight censorship, it’s still easy enough to implement basic standards of behavior among users. For instance, voting mechanisms could be used to enact a network-wide ban for accounts found to be in breach of community rules.
The centralized Web2 model of social media represented a huge leap forward regarding the availability of news and information, but the industry has proven vulnerable to interference and censorship, failing to serve the needs of the networks on which it depends. Web3 offers a more robust and future-proof way to connect online while providing true ownership of our social footprint in a way that can’t be wiped out on a whim.
