Ivan Sigal

Bluesky's Patent Non-Aggression Pledge - Bluesky Bluesky develops open protocols. We're taking a short and simple patent non-aggression pledge to ensure that everybody feels confident building on them.

Bluesky runs on open protocols with open source code. Today we’re taking an additional step and making a patent non-aggression pledge to ensure that everyone can build confidently on our work.

Learn more and read the pledge in our blog post: bsky.social/about/blog/1...

Own Your Algorithm == Ow Ya! Lovely to see the new G in the wild.

Were you looking for this, just happen to already have known about it, or stumble upon it? I have questions.

Very pleased to see this #Indiesky project put #freeourfeeds funds to good use, supporting Northsky in their community building efforts. Congratulations @transrights.northsky.social and @knowtheory.net @bmann.ca

"The true free speech absolutists in the tech industry aren’t the ones making the most noise. They’re the ones building platforms that are untouchable. Whether those solutions operate on blockchain or some other technology, it’s clearly the future of free speech." cc @ivansigal.bsky.social

Not just a good argument, and on a vital issue, but damn funny. I wish more policy writing made me chuckle.

Amazing news. Alaa pardoned after, this time, six years in prison and a lifetime fighting for freedoms in Egypt. What an inspiration. This would be a good time to grab his book, "You have not yet been defeated": what it takes to fight oppression. #freealaa fitzcarraldoeditions.com/books/you-ha...

Reminder that I'm hosting a new podcast at @issuesinst.bsky.social where I basically invited a bunch of my friends who work in really interesting areas and we talk about what they do with a lens of disaster studies and speculative fiction. The conversations have been amazing!

That's a wiiiiiiiiild omission with a lot of downstream consequences.

It's interesting to contemplate why we didn't collectively discover this sooner too.

Eurosky Live: Berlin 2025 · Luma Showcase • Keynotes • Panels Join founders, developers, media, policy-makers, and investors for a full-day public programme exploring the European open social…

Hello everyone! Announcing Eurosky Live: Berlin 2025. Join founders, developers, media, policy-makers, and investors for a full-day public programe exploring the European open social web.

If you're building on ATProto and interested in showcasing, please reach out!

To register: luma.com/knk1342n

Sketch of approach here: www.eurosky.social/development-...

We have a draft of a legal analysis for a commons moderation to support European regulation, potentially applicable to other regulatory environments too. Still working through some details on it though

Thanks Michael!

Ahead of tomorrow's hearing on European "censorship" of Americans under the Digital Services Act, I have a new blog post explaining why that is not a thing.

You can get the gist in about two minutes of skimming the bold text, or stay for the details.

1/

cyberlaw.stanford.edu/a-primer-on-...

House Republicans Want To Doxx Wikipedia Editors Over Bogus ‘Bias’ Complaints

Congress has absolutely zero constitutional authority to investigate a private website for its editorial decisions. Zero. None. This is First Amendment 101. Yet House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer and…

The times they are a-changing

Europe urgently needs a remedy for the ‘Brussels defect’ The EU must stop thinking it can turn thorny political controversies into solvable technical issues

"officials may treat digital protections as bargaining chips rather than a crucial bulwark of European democracy or a defence against foreign influence". The Brussels defect, as told by the Financial Times: www.ft.com/content/5820...

Super interesting: Russian FSB demanding direct entry into smart speakers in personal spaces, with legal support. Where else, if anywhere is this happening, or might it happen in the future?

How Graze Sponsored Market Blew Away Benchmarks While Fundraising for Public Media The results are in - decentralized platforms are better for business. Read more about how we 3x'ed industry benchmarks while raising money for a good cause

@graze.social breakdown of returns for campaigns on Bluesky: "dollars went three times further on Bluesky than they would on any other social platform." Their words, for your consideration: www.graze.social/blog/how-gra...

The next internet for news? Publishers gather to discuss protocols over platforms Journalists and tech industry workers gathered at Protocols for Publishers to talk about building an internet that works for news.

Nice write-up about #protocolsforpublishers, a great event in NYC last week I had the pleasure of helping with, with thanks to @knowtheory.net @bmann.ca @chadkoh.com @ruperts.world and many brilliant participants: www.niemanlab.org/2025/08/the-...

Today, we're launching the first Beta of Bounce, a tool that lets you migrate your social graph across protocols!

We got such a positive response from our announcement, and we're so excited for folks to try it out.

Here's what you need to know when you Bounce: blog.anew.social/bounce-beta-...

Escaping the chains of tethered products: the Juice Rescue project How could a group of executives halfway across the world, with a single email, disrupt my community’s mobility, and what could we do about it?

This action to confront the conceptual and actual failure of tethered electronics, in this case electric car chargers, and how to escape by @natematias.bsky.social, is excellent! #righttorepair natematias.com/portfolio/20...

Introduction to AT Protocol Walkthrough of the various parts and concepts in Bluesky's AT Protocol (ATProto), the types of servers involved and how it all fits together

My "Introduction to #ATProto" blog post that I've been working on for some time is ready 🙂 It goes through things like records, lexicons, DIDs, then PDS/AppView etc. and how it all works together. Let me know if anything is wrong!

More parts later, with the Fedi comparisons & misconceptions etc.

Also yet to broach: those govts with reg regimes that are overtly anti-expression/authoritarian, which is where I've had my focus for the past 20 years. See also: transnational repression.

Local communities and standards difference: absolutely, which is why permissionless labeling/feeds is such a good thing. And why under this system, separating the legal obligations from culture norms might be useful.

Worth throwing in here the challenge of responding to a range of regulator environments. Under Euro regs, data controllers and platform providers need to be directly/differently responsive. We're working on a Commons approach to lower response burden; there are complications though.

Protocols for Publishers Showcase · Luma Protocols for Publishers is an event and workshop series that brings together publishers, developers, and researchers to explore open protocols for a…

Aug 20th -> Showcase evening with talks by @ruperts.world @devingaffney.com @ivansigal.bsky.social lu.ma/gb050dwt

Aug 21st -> invite only publishers summit

My dear friend and distance cycling partner @natematias.bsky.social is riding the equivalent of Mt. Everest this weekend, as a fundraiser for @globalvoices.org, my online home for over 16 years. Please support Nathan and Global Voices! globalvoices.org/2025/07/24/f...

Excellent to see end-to-end encryption messaging for open social and a great complement to atproto, thanks to @tessa.germnetwork.com and team at @germnetwork.com .

It's from Jim Jordan's 145 report on the DSA and censorship, which is a bizarre mix of (1) correct in describing the DSA's mechanics and sources of concern and (2) super hazy in establishing that bad things are actually happening, despite all that subpoenaing.
judiciary.house.gov/sites/evo-su...