🧵 Hey all! This is a new account, I'm still Zecharias Zelalem, freelance journalist and aspiring OSINTer providing news and analysis on the Horn of Africa for a variety of international media outlets. For the past year or so, I posted via @zekuzelalem@journa.host, but I've transitioned away from that instance. I'll be posting from this account from now on. After recent changes on the journa dot host instance, I had no choice but to set up elsewhere. Hope to continue exchanges and friendships here.
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Zecharias Zelalem
•Zecharias Zelalem
•Last week, the Journa server was taken over by new management. None of us were notified, and I found out when server updates caused account to freeze for a few hours.
The instance has now been taken over by a "Jeff Brown" from Newsie. Now, I have no idea who he is and have no ill will towards him. But the individual is not a journalist. I couldn't find anything on him online that would suggest that he would be trustworthy enough to oversee management of Mastodon's largest journalism instances.
Zecharias Zelalem
•Zecharias Zelalem
•Coincidentally, a number of fediverse friends & I engaged in discussion a month ago about a journalism verification portal that was set up by the very same individual. I had expressed shock at how some of the most renowned journalists in the game, permitted him to become the authority figure for establishing our journalism credentials on Mastodon...even though none of us could verify his own. Imagine my shock to learn that this individual had since taken over the server.
https://journa.host/@zekuzelalem/111065323361408802
Coincidentally, a number of fediverse friends & I engaged in discussion a month ago about a journalism verification portal that was set up by the very same individual. I had expressed shock at how some of the most renowned journalists in the game, permitted him to become the authority figure for establishing our journalism credentials on Mastodon...even though none of us could verify his own. Imagine my shock to learn that this individual had since taken over the server.
https://journa.host/@zekuzelalem/111065323361408802
Zecharias Zelalem
2023-09-14 20:12:21
Zecharias Zelalem
•These concerns and more, are what convinced me to stay on Journa and not to consider "Newsie." Standards were upheld by actual journalists at Journa. I can't say the same for newsie, which as @fifilamoura and others pointed out, hosted the US based infamous climate change denying, far right extremist outlet known as Newsmax. At best, the individual took no precautions or was sloppy or worst, outlets like Newsmax are considered purveyors of journalism.
https://circumstances.run/@amtiskaw/110437393480951772
These concerns and more, are what convinced me to stay on Journa and not to consider "Newsie." Standards were upheld by actual journalists at Journa. I can't say the same for newsie, which as @fifilamoura and others pointed out, hosted the US based infamous climate change denying, far right extremist outlet known as Newsmax. At best, the individual took no precautions or was sloppy or worst, outlets like Newsmax are considered purveyors of journalism.
https://circumstances.run/@amtiskaw/110437393480951772
skaffen-amtiskaw
2023-05-26 22:41:31
Zecharias Zelalem
•So Journa & Newsie, two of Mastodon's most prominent journalism servers and home to journalists from around the world seeking safer online havens...are overseen by Mr. Jeff's entity known as "Fourth Estate."
I can't find anything solid on this Fourth Estate, which claims to be a non profit focused on press related issues.
It has a Wikipedia page, citing dead links or Fourth Estate's own website for all of its questionable claims.
Again, red flags, red flags.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_Estate_Public_Benefit_Corporation
An international, non-partisan, human rights, journalism organization
Contributors to Wikimedia projects (Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.)Zecharias Zelalem
•Zecharias Zelalem
•But as a journalist, it would be immoral and extremely selfish for me to stay quiet after taking care of my personal needs, and not express my serious concerns and worry for the future of journalism safety on Mastodon, and for the friends and colleagues who remain connected to both instances.
I feel very uneasy at how things are looking like for the press. This is the last thing I expected to see happen on a platform that marketed itself as a safe escape in the midst of the #TwitterMigration.
Zecharias Zelalem
•Monitoring instances is no easy task. It requires commitment, finances and a dedicated team.
I can understand if the team overseeing Journa decided that after a year, other parties should shoulder the burden. On top of your day job, family etc...you're dealing with the daily demand to clean a platform that threatens to be swarmed by fascists, trolls and racists if abandoned for even a day. I imagine it can be rigorous.
But...journalists should have been notified.
Not notifying us was wrong.
Zecharias Zelalem
•Personally, I'm not willing to compromise. I lived and worked in a country where journalism results in life sentences. As a result, I spent years in exile, investigating war crimes and it came with maneuvering past cyber lynch mobs, daily death threats, and slander both online, offline and on regime propaganda TV.
Forgive me if I'm unwilling to gamble or risk anything. I can do without the uncertainty.
Zecharias Zelalem
•Lastly, considering that journalists are by nature people who question and dig away at anything screaming a lack of transparency, I'm surprised that only a few (if any?) journalists have sounded alarms or protested.
Journalists flocked to Mastodon last year, and a year later, there's barely a whimper as one man's silent takeover/ownership of journalism platforms and even a verification tool here has him establish a monopoly, despite none of you knowing anything about him.
You shock me!
FIN.