OcapPub: Towards networks of consent

• Conceptual overview
  • ActivityPub
  • The mess we're in
  • Don't pretend we can prevent what we can't
  • Freedom of speech also means freedom to filter
  • Anti-solutions
    • Blocklists, allow-lists, and perimeter security
    • Access Control Lists
    • Content-centric filtering
    • Reputation scoring
    • Going back to centralization
  • A way forward: networks of consent
  • Must we boil the ocean?
• Key concepts
  • Object capabilities (ocaps)
    • Ocaps meet ActivityPub objects/actors
  • True names, public profiles, private profiles
  • Accountability and revocation in an ocap system
  • Rights amplification and group-style permissions
  • multiBox vs sharedInbox
• Limitations
• Future work
  • Petnames
• Conclusions

This paper released under the Apache License version 2.0; see LICENSE.txt for details.

For a broader overview of various anti-spam techniques, see AP Unwanted Messages, which is in many ways informed this document but currently differs in some implementation rollout differs. (These two documents may converge.) *

Conceptual overview

ActivityPub

The mess we're in

Don't pretend we can prevent what we can't

Freedom of speech also means freedom to filter

Anti-solutions

(Note that things in the anti-solutions category aren't necessarily "things that aren't useful", but rather "things that end up causing problems if they're the foundation".)

Blocklists, allow-lists, and perimeter security

Access Control Lists

Content-centric filtering

Reputation scoring

Going back to centralization

A way forward: networks of consent

Must we boil the ocean?

Key concepts

Object capabilities (ocaps)

Ocaps meet ActivityPub objects/actors

True names, public profiles, private profiles

Accountability and revocation in an ocap system

Rights amplification and group-style permissions

multiBox vs sharedInbox

Limitations

Future work

Petnames

Conclusions