commit: 69fa5885c9a6a5723f037efff6d05da2c9887fbb
parent 13771ad2be53c23499fea002fdc960ba35f79ff4
Author: Drew DeVault <sir@cmpwn.com>
Date: Thu, 23 Sep 2021 15:08:54 +0200
Internet reclamation
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+---
+title: Nitter and other Internet reclamation projects
+date: 2021-09-23
+---
+
+The world wide web has become an annoying, ultra-commercialized space. Many
+websites today are prioritizing the interests of the company behind the domain,
+at the expense of the user's experience and well-being. This has been a
+frustrating problem for several years, but lately there's been a heartwarming
+trend of users fighting back against the corporate web and stepping up to help
+and serve each other's needs in spite of them, through what I've come to think
+of as Internet reclamation projects.
+
+I think the first of these which appeared on my radar was [Invidious][inv],
+which scrapes information off of a YouTube page and presents it in a more
+pleasant, user-first interface— something which [NewPipe][np] also does
+well for Android. These tools pry data out of YouTube's hands and present it on
+a simple UI, designed for users first, with no ads or spyware, and with nice
+features YouTube would never add, like download links, audio mode, and offline
+viewing. It shows us what users want, but YouTube refuses to give.
+
+[inv]: https://github.com/iv-org/invidious
+[np]: https://drewdevault.com/2019/04/02/NewPipe-represents-the-best-of-FOSS.html
+[nt]: https://github.com/zedeus/nitter
+
+Another project which has been particularly successful recently is [Nitter][nt],
+which does something similar for Twitter. Twitter's increasingly draconian
+restrictions on who can access what data, and their attitude towards logged-out
+users in particular, has been a great annoyance to anyone who does not have, and
+does not want, a Twitter account, but who may still encounter Twitter links
+around the web. Nitter has been quite helpful in de-crapifying Twitter for these
+folks. I have set up an automatic redirect in my browser which takes me straight
+to Nitter, and I never have to see the shitty, user-hostile Twitter interface
+again.
+
+[Bibliogram][bi] is another attempt which has done its best to fix Instagram,
+but they have [encountered challenges][bi issues] with Instagram's strict rate
+limits and anti-scraping measures. Another project, [Libreddit][lr], is
+attempting to fix Reddit's increasingly anti-user interface.
+
+[bi]: https://sr.ht/~cadence/bibliogram/
+[bi issues]: https://git.sr.ht/~cadence/bibliogram-docs/tree/master/docs/Instagram%20rate%20limits.md#tldr-what-does-it-mean-if-an-instance-is-blocked
+[lr]: https://github.com/spikecodes/libreddit
+
+All of these services are more useful, more accessible, and more inclusive than
+their corporate counterparts. They work better on older browsers and low-end
+devices. They have better performance. They aren't spying on you. In short,
+they are rejecting the [domestication of their users][domesticate] that the
+platforms they interact with have been trying to do. Their efforts are part of
+an inspiring trend of internet activism which rejects the corporate shells and
+walled gardens without giving up the useful data they have stolen away inside.
+
+[domesticate]: https://seirdy.one/2021/01/27/whatsapp-and-the-domestication-of-users.html
+
+Here are some more services full of user-hostile behavior I'd like to see
+replaced with user-first, high performance, FOSS frontends:
+
+- Facebook
+- GitLab and GitHub
+- Medium et al, via an open source [readability][0]-as-a-service platform
+
+[0]: https://github.com/mozilla/readability
+
+I would be happy to redirect myself away from any of these services for a
+faster, lighter weight, more inclusive, user-first experience. Any others you'd
+like to see?
