It could be the same for news companies - you’d know that “@[email protected]” is the real guy, because the domain name is owned by Channel 4, and verified by HTTPS.
This!
This is how Mastodon (and Lemmy, etc.) is supposed to work. The BBC should have their own instance with accounts for every programme, presenter, news area, weather area, genre, etc. B&Q should have their own instance with an account for each store, for trades people, for (categories of) offers, etc. Sports teams/leagues should have their own instance with accounts for each team, players, coaches, etc.
Then I can join any instance (or start my own) and pick local BBC news and weather, gardening offers at B&Q, etc. and you can pick anything you want.
The beauty is that the BBC controls the BBC instance, B&Q controls the B&Q instance, etc. I can even control my instance. There isn’t one company in control. They aren’t giving out blue ticks or letting bots post misinformation. When an account/instance becomes untrustworthy you can mute/block/defederate.
The biggest failing to me is that you can’t click follow on one instance and have it follow on your instance. But it’s a limitation of websites, they’d need something like how advertisers track you across websites with JavaScript. It would have to be centralised.
This!
This is how Mastodon (and Lemmy, etc.) is supposed to work. The BBC should have their own instance with accounts for every programme, presenter, news area, weather area, genre, etc. B&Q should have their own instance with an account for each store, for trades people, for (categories of) offers, etc. Sports teams/leagues should have their own instance with accounts for each team, players, coaches, etc.
Then I can join any instance (or start my own) and pick local BBC news and weather, gardening offers at B&Q, etc. and you can pick anything you want.
The beauty is that the BBC controls the BBC instance, B&Q controls the B&Q instance, etc. I can even control my instance. There isn’t one company in control. They aren’t giving out blue ticks or letting bots post misinformation. When an account/instance becomes untrustworthy you can mute/block/defederate.
The biggest failing to me is that you can’t click follow on one instance and have it follow on your instance. But it’s a limitation of websites, they’d need something like how advertisers track you across websites with JavaScript. It would have to be centralised.