- cross-posted to:
- unitedkingdom
- cross-posted to:
- unitedkingdom
Hi! 👋 Here’s our #introduction. We’re BBC Research & Development; we explore and test new technology to discover how the BBC can best make use of it in the future. For 100 years our engineers have been at the forefront of developments in broadcasting. We’re now researching how everyone could get TV & radio via the internet – along with all the flexibility and creativity that brings. 5G, AI, next-gen audio, UHD, personal data… we are investigating all these – and more! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzztGFXYR1Y
And believe it or not, there are now people rallying for the BBC to be defederated. Sure I understand that the current British government is pushing some of their newscasters into less than reputable positions, but to ban the entire domain preemptively?
I guess people don’t want the Fediverse to gain any popularity. If people consider BBC to be quintessentially evil, what news outlet would even be considered welcome?
Maybe some people actually don’t want the fedi to become popular because they’re into gatekeeping and despite saying ‘it’s the future’ etc, actually just want it to stay small and underground?
And yeah, the BBC having a 6 month R&D experiment isn’t exactly the same as a Fox News takeover (not that that would even be possible)
I saw one arts instance has defederated on the grounds that the BBC is a transphobic organisation. I would personally dispute that.
I think those people need to realise this is a massive step up for the fediverse. The BBC literally has global reach.
Eh, the BBC has definitely been involved in spreading transphobia.
I still think their joining the Fediverse is a good thing for the adoption of decentralised social media.
Both of those things can be true.
I supported a pre-emptive Threads defederation, because I expect them to Embrace-Extend-Extinguish the fediverse for the sake of profit.
For the BBC, I don’t feel as overtly opposed. They don’t really have the user base to overextend us with, even if they tried to get their audience on mastodon lol. They haven’t seemed blatantly profit driven in the past. And they’re starting their own instance, using fediverse tech.
Does anyone think this is the BBC’s Embrace step? It’s not sparking any alarm bells for me, but can I get a sanity check?