自治財政局財政課総務室 非常勤職員採用情報
第319回官民競争入札等監理委員会 書面審議(会議資料)
情報通信審議会 情報通信技術分科会 陸上無線通信委員会 900MHz帯自営用無線システム高度化作業班(第7回)
行政不服審査会事務局総務課 非常勤職員採用情報
わかる・つながる!地域社会DXセミナー申込開始
FM放送用周波数の拡充に係る需要調査の結果の公表並びに無線設備規則及び特定無線設備の技術基準適合証明等に関する規則の一部を改正する省令案等に係る意見募集
特定電気通信役務提供者の損害賠償責任の制限及び発信者情報の開示に関する法律施行規則の一部を改正する省令案等に対する意見募集
一般職事務系業務説明会の情報を更新しました
第29回 公共サービス改革小委員会(会議資料)
What You Should Know When Joining Bluesky
Bluesky promises to rethink social media by focusing on openness and user control. But what does this actually mean for the millions of people joining the site?
November was a good month for alternatives to X. Many users hit their balking point after two years of controversial changes turned Twitter into X, a restrictive hub filled with misinformation and hate speech. Musk’s involvement in the U.S. presidential election was the last straw for many who are now looking for greener pastures.
Threads, the largest alternative, grew about 15% with 35 million new users. However, the most explosive growth came from Bluesky, seeing over 500% growth and a total user base of over 25 million users at the time of writing.
We’ve dug into the nerdy details of how Mastodon, Threads, and Bluesky compare, but given this recent momentum it’s important to clear up some questions for new Bluesky users, and what this new approach to the social web really means for how you connect with people online.
Note that Bluesky is still in an early stage, and many big changes are anticipated from the project. Answers here are accurate as of the time of writing, and will indicate the company’s future plans where possible.
Is Bluesky Just Another Twitter?At face value the Bluesky app has a lot of similarities to Twitter prior to becoming X. That’s by design: the Bluesky team has prioritized making a drop-in replacement for 2022 Twitter, so everything from the layout, posting options, and even color scheme will feel familiar to users familiar with that site.
While discussed in the context of decentralization, this experience is still very centralized like traditional social media, with a single platform controlled by one company, Bluesky PBLLC. However, a few aspirations from this company make it stand out:
- Prioritizing interoperability and community development: Other platforms frequently get this wrong, so this dedication to user empowerment and open source tooling is commendable.
- “Credible Exit” Decentralization: Bluesky the company wants Bluesky, the network, to be able to function even if the company is eliminated or ‘enshittified.’
The first difference is evident already from the wide variety of tools and apps on the network. From blocking certain content to highlighting communities you’re a part of, there are a lot of settings to make your feed yours— some of which we walked through here. You can also abandon Bluesky’s Twitter-style interface for an app like Firesky, which presents a stream of all Bluesky content. Other apps on the network can even be geared towards sharing audio, events, or work as a web forum, all using the same underlying AT protocol. This interoperable and experimental ecosystem parallels another based on the ActivityPub protocol, called “The Fediverse”, which connects Threads to Mastodon as well as many other decentralized apps which experiment with the functions of traditional social media sites.
That “credible exit” priority is less immediately visible, but explains some of the ways Bluesky looks different. The most visible difference is that usernames are domain names, with the default for new users being a subdomain of bsky.social. EFF set it up so that our account name is our website, @eff.org, which will be the case across the Bluesky network, even if viewed with different apps. Comparable to how Mastodon handles verification, no central authority or government documents are needed for verification, just proof of control over a site or record.
As Bluesky decentralizes, it is likely to diverge more from the Twitter experience as the tricky problems of decentralization creep in.
How Is Bluesky for Privacy?While Bluesky is not engaged in surveillance-based advertising like many incumbent social media platforms, users should be aware that shared information is more public and accessible than they might expect.
Bluesky, the app, offers some sensible data-minimizing defaults like requiring user consent for third-party embedded media, which can include tracking. The real assurance to users, however, is that even if the flagship apps were to become less privacy protective, the open tools let others make full-featured alternative apps on the same network.
However, by design, Bluesky content is fully public on the network. Users can change privacy settings to encourage apps on the network to require login to view your account, but it is optional to honor. Every post, every like, and every share is visible to the world. Even blocking data is plainly visible. By design all of this information is also accessible in one place, as Bluesky aims to be the megaphone for a global audience Twitter once was.
This transparency extends to how Bluesky handles moderation, where users and content are labeled by a combination of Bluesky moderators, community moderators, and automated labeling. The result is information about you will, over time, be held by these moderators to either promote or hide your content.
Users leaving X out of frustration for the platform using public content to feed AI training may also find that this approach of funneling all content into one stream is very friendly to scraping for AI training by third parties. Bluesky’s CEO has been clear the company will not engage in AI licensing deals, but it’s important to be clear this is inherent to any network prioritizing openness. The freedom to use public data for creative expression, innovation, and research extends to those who use it to train AI.
Users you have blocked may also be able to use this public stream to view your posts without interacting with you. If your threat model includes trolls and other bad actors who might reshare your posts in other contexts, this is important to consider.
Direct messages are not included in this heap of public information. However they are not end-to-end encrypted, and only hosted by Bluesky servers. As was the case for X, that means any DM is visible to Bluesky PBLLC. DMs may be accessed for moderation, for valid police warrants, and may even one day be public through a data breach. Encrypted DMs are planned, but we advise sensitive conversations be moved to dedicated fully encrypted conversations.
How Do I Find People to Follow?Tools like Skybridge are being built to make it easier for people to import their Twitter contacts into Bluesky. Similar to advice we gave for joining Mastodon, keep in mind these tools may need extensive account access, and may need to be re-run as more people switch networks.
Bluesky has also implemented “starter packs,” which are curated lists of users anyone can create and share to new users. EFF recently put together a few for you to check out:
- Electronic Frontier Foundation Staff
- Electronic Frontier Alliance members
- Digital Rights, News & Advocacy
“Fediverse” refers to a wide variety of sites and services generally communicating with each other over the ActivityPub protocol, including Threads, Mastodon, and a number of other projects. Bluesky uses the AT Protocol, which is not currently compatible with ActivityPub, thus it is not part of “the fediverse.”
However, Bluesky is already being integrated into the vision of an interoperable and decentralized social web. You can follow Bluesky accounts from the fediverse over RSS. A number of mobile apps will also seamlessly merge Bluesky and fediverse feeds and let you post to both accounts. Even with just one Bluesky or fediverse account, users can also share posts and DMs to both networks using a project called Bridgy Fed.
In recent weeks this bridging also opened up to the hundreds of millions of Threads users. It just requires an additional step of enabling fediverse sharing, before connecting to the fediverse Bridgy Fed account. We’re optimistic that all of these projects will continue to improve integrations even more in the future.
Is the Bluesky Network Decentralized?The current Bluesky network is not decentralized.
It is nearly all made and hosted by one company, Bluesky PBLLC, which is working on creating the “credible exit” from their control as a platform host. If Bluesky the company and the infrastructure it operates disappeared tonight, however, the entire Bluesky network would effectively vanish along with it.
Of the 25 million users, only 10,000 are hosted by a non-Bluesky services — most of which through fediverse connections. Changing to another host is also currently a one-way exit. All DMs rely on Bluesky owned servers, as does the current system for managing user identities, as well as the resource-intensive “Relay” server aggregating content from across the network. The same company also handles the bulk of moderation and develops the main apps used by most users. Compared to networks like the fediverse or even email, hosting your own Bluesky node currently requires a considerable investment.
Once this is no longer the case, a “credible exit” is also not quite the same as “decentralized.” An escape hatch for particularly dire circumstances is good, but it falls short of the distributed power and decision making of decentralized networks. This distinction will become more pressing as the reliance on Bluesky PBLLC is tested, and the company opens up to more third parties for each component of the network.
How Does Bluesky Make Money?The past few decades have shown the same ‘enshittification’ cycle too many times. A new startup promises something exciting, users join, and then the platform turns on users to maximize profits—often through surveillance and restricting user autonomy.
Will Bluesky be any different? From the team’s outlined plan we can glean that Bluesky promises not to use surveillance-based advertising, nor lock-in users. Bluesky CEO Jay Graber also promised to not sell user content to AI training licenses and intends to always keep the service free to join. Paid services like custom domain hosting or paid subscriptions seem likely.
So far, though, the company relies on investment funding. It was initially incubated by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey— who has since distanced himself from the project—and more recently received 8 million and 15 million dollar rounds of funding.
That later investment round has raised concerns among the existing userbase that Bluesky would pivot to some form of cryptocurrency service, as it was led by Blockchain Capital, a cryptocurrency focused venture capital company which also had a partner join the Bluesky board. Jay Graber committed to “not hyperfinancialize the social experience” with blockchain projects, and emphasized that Bluesky does not use blockchain.
As noted above, Bluesky has prioritized maintaining a “credible exit” for users, a commitment to interoperability that should keep the company accountable to the community and hopefully prevent the kind of “enshittification” that drove people away from X. Holding the company to all of these promises will be key to seeing the Bluesky network and the AT protocol reach that point of maturity.
How Does Moderation Work?Our comparison of Mastodon, Threads, and Bluesky gets into more detail, but as it stands Bluesky’s moderation is similar to Twitter’s before Musk. The Bluesky corporation uses the open moderation tools to label posts and users, and will remove users from their hosted services for breaking their terms of service. This tooling keeps the Bluesky company’s moderation tied to its “credible exit” goals, giving it the same leverage any other future operator might have. It also means Bluesky’s centralized moderation of today can’t scale, and even with a good faith effort it will run into issues.
Bluesky accounts for this by opening its moderation tools to the community. Advanced options are available under settings in the web app, and anyone can label content and users on the site. These labels let users filter, prioritize, or block content. However, only Bluesky has the power to “deplatform” poorly behaved users by removing them, either by no longer hosting their account, no longer relaying their content to other users, or both.
Bluesky aspires to censorship resistance, and part of creating a “credible exit” means reducing the company’s ability to remove users entirely. In a future with a variety of hosts and relays on the Bluesky network, removing a user looks more like removing a website from the internet—not impossible, but very difficult. Instead users will need to settle with filtering out or blocking speech they object to, and take some comfort that voices they align with will not be removed from the network.
The permeability of Bluesky also means community tooling will need to address network abuses, like last May when a pro-Trump botnet on Nostr bridged to Bluesky via Mastodon to flood timelines. It’s possible that like in the Fediverse, Bluesky may eventually form a network of trusted account hosts and relays to mitigate these concerns.
Bluesky is still a work in progress, but its focus on decentralization, user control, and interoperability makes it an exciting space to watch. Whether you’re testing the waters or planning a full migration, these insights should help you navigate the platform.
Australia Banning Kids from Social Media Does More Harm Than Good
Age verification systems are surveillance systems that threaten everyone’s privacy and anonymity. But Australia’s government recently decided to ignore these dangers, passing a vague, sweeping piece of age verification legislation after giving only a day for comments. The Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Act 2024, which bans children under the age of 16 from using social media, will force platforms to take undefined “reasonable steps” to verify users’ ages and prevent young people from using them, or face over $30 million in fines.
The country’s Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, claims that the legislation is needed to protect young people in the country from the supposed harmful effects of social media, despite no study showing such an impact. This legislation will be a net loss for both young people and adults who rely on the internet to find community and themselves.
The law does not specify which social media platforms will be banned. Instead, this decision is left to Australia’s communications minister who will work alongside the country’s internet regulator, the eSafety Commissioner, to enforce the rules. This gives government officials dangerous power to target services they do not like, all at a cost to both minor and adult internet users.
The legislation also does not specify what type of age verification technology will be necessary to implement the restrictions but prohibits using only government IDs for this purpose. This is a flawed attempt to protect privacy.
Since platforms will have to provide other means to verify their users' ages other than by government ID, they will likely rely on unreliable tools like biometric scanners. The Australian government awarded the contract for testing age verification technology to a UK-based company, Age Check Certification Scheme (ACCS) who, according to the company website, “can test all kinds of age verification systems,” including “biometrics, database lookups, and artificial intelligence-based solutions.”
The ban will not take effect for at least another 12 months while these points are decided upon, but we are already concerned that the systems required to comply with this law will burden all Australians’ privacy, anonymity, and data security.
Banning social media and introducing mandatory age verification checks is the wrong approach to protecting young people online, and this bill was hastily pushed through the Parliament of Australia with little oversight or scrutiny. We urge politicians in other countries—like the U.S. and France—to explore less invasive approaches to protecting all people from online harms and focus on comprehensive privacy protections, rather than mandatory age verification.
EFF Statement on U.S. Supreme Court's Decision to Consider TikTok Ban
The TikTok ban itself and the DC Circuit's approval of it should be of great concern even to those who find TikTok undesirable or scary. Shutting down communications platforms or forcing their reorganization based on concerns of foreign propaganda and anti-national manipulation is an eminently anti-democratic tactic, one that the U.S. has previously condemned globally.
The U.S. government should not be able to restrict speech—in this case by cutting off a tool used by 170 million Americans to receive information and communicate with the world—without proving with evidence that the tools are presently seriously harmful. But in this case, Congress has required and the DC Circuit approved TikTok’s forced divestiture based only upon fears of future potential harm. This greatly lowers well-established standards for restricting freedom of speech in the U.S.
So we are pleased that the Supreme Court will take the case and will urge the justices to apply the appropriately demanding First Amendment scrutiny.
Speaking Freely: Winnie Kabintie
Winnie Kabintie is a journalist and Communications Specialist based in Nairobi, Kenya. As an award-winning youth media advocate, she is passionate about empowering young people with Media and Information Literacy skills, enabling them to critically engage with and shape the evolving digital media landscape in meaningful ways.
Greene: To get us started, can you tell us what the term free expression means to you?
I think it's the opportunity to speak in a language that you understand and speak about subjects of concern to you and to anybody who is affected or influenced by the subject of conversation. To me, it is the ability to communicate openly and share ideas or information without interference, control, or restrictions.
As a journalist, it means having the freedom to report on matters affecting society and my work without censorship or limitations on where that information can be shared. Beyond individual expression, it is also about empowering communities to voice their concerns and highlight issues that impact their lives. Additionally, access to information is a vital component of freedom of expression, as it ensures people can make informed decisions and engage meaningfully in societal discourse because knowledge is power.
Greene: You mention the freedom to speak and to receive information in your language. How do you see that currently? Are language differences a big obstacle that you see currently?
If I just look at my society—I like to contextualize things—we have Swahili, which is a national language, and we have English as the secondary official language. But when it comes to policies, when it comes to public engagement, we only see this happening in documents that are only written in English. This means when it comes to the public barazas (community gatherings) interpretation is led by a few individuals, which creates room for disinformation and misinformation. I believe the language barrier is an obstacle to freedom of speech. We've also seen it from the civil society dynamics, where you're going to engage the community but you don't speak the same language as them, then it becomes very difficult for you to engage them on the subject at hand. And if you have to use a translator, sometimes what happens is you're probably using a translator for whom their only advantage, or rather the only advantage they bring to the table, is the fact that they understand different languages. But they're not experts in the topic that you're discussing.
Greene: Why do you think the government only produces materials in English? Do you think part of that is because they want to limit who is able to understand them? Or is it just, are they lazy or they just disregard the other languages?
In all fairness, I think it comes from the systematic approach on how things run. This has been the way of doing things, and it's easier to do it because translating some words from, for example, English to Swahili is very hard. And you see, as much as we speak Swahili in Kenya—and it's our national language—the kind of Swahili we speak is also very diluted or corrupted with English and Sheng—I like to call “ki-shenglish”. I know there were attempts to translate the new Kenyan Constitution, and they did translate some bits of the summarized copy, but even then it wasn’t the full Constitution. We don't even know how to say certain words in Swahili from English which makes it difficult to translate many things. So I think it's just an innocent omission.
Greene: What makes you passionate about freedom of expression?
As a journalist and youth media advocate, my passion for freedom of expression stems from its fundamental role in empowering individuals and communities to share their stories, voice their concerns, and drive meaningful change. Freedom of expression is not just about the right to speak—it’s about the ability to question, to challenge injustices, and to contribute to shaping a better society.
For me, freedom of expression is deeply personal as I like to question, interrogate and I am not just content with the status quo. As a journalist, I rely on this freedom to shed light on critical issues affecting society, to amplify marginalized voices, and to hold power to account. As a youth advocate, I’ve witnessed how freedom of expression enables young people to challenge stereotypes, demand accountability, and actively participate in shaping their future. We saw this during the recent Gen Z revolution in Kenya when youth took to the streets to reject the proposed Finance Bill.
Freedom of speech is also about access. It matters to me that people not only have the ability to speak freely, but also have the platforms to articulate their issues. You can have all the voice you need, but if you do not have the platforms, then it becomes nothing. So it's also recognizing that we need to create the right platforms to advance freedom of speech. These, in our case, include platforms like radio and social media platforms.
So we need to ensure that we have connectivity to these platforms. For example, in the rural areas of our countries, there are some areas that are not even connected to the internet. They don't have the infrastructure including electricity. It then becomes difficult for those people to engage in digital media platforms where everybody is now engaging. I remember recently during the Reject Finance Bill process in Kenya, the political elite realized that they could leverage social media and meet with and engage the youth. I remember the President was summoned to an X-space and he showed up and there was dialogue with hundreds of young people. But what this meant was that the youth in rural Kenya who didn’t have access to the internet or X were left out of that national, historic conversation. That's why I say it's not just as simple as saying you are guaranteed freedom of expression by the Constitution. It's also how governments are ensuring that we have the channels to advance this right.
Greene: Have you had a personal experience or any personal experiences that shaped how you feel about freedom of expression? Maybe a situation where you felt like it was being denied to you or someone close to you was in that situation?
At a personal level I believe that I am a product of speaking out and I try to use my voice to make an impact! There is also this one particular incident that stands out during my early career as a journalist. In 2014 I amplified a story from a video shared on facebook by writing a news article that was published on The Kenya Forum, which at the time was one of the two publications that were fully digital in the country covering news and feature articles.
The story, which was a case of gender based assault, gained traction drawing attention to the unfortunate incident that had seen a woman stripped naked allegedly for being “dressed indecently.” The public uproar sparked the famous #MyDressMyChoice protest in Kenya where women took to the streets countrywide to protest against sexual violence.
Greene: Wow. Do you have any other specific stories that you can tell about the time when you spoke up and you felt that it made a difference? Or maybe you spoke up, and there was some resistance to you speaking up?
I've had many moments where I've spoken up and it's made a difference including the incident I shared in the previous question. But, on the other hand, I also had a moment where I did not speak out years ago, when a classmate in primary school was accused of theft.
There was this girl once in class, she was caught with books that didn't belong to her and she was accused of stealing them. One of the books she had was my deskmate’s and I was there when she had borrowed it. So she was defending herself and told the teacher, “Winnie was there when I borrowed the book.” When the teacher asked me if this was true I just said, “I don't know.” That feedback was her last line of defense and the girl got expelled from school. So I’ve always wondered, if I'd said yes, would the teacher have been more lenient and realized that she had probably just borrowed the rest of the books as well? I was only eight years old at the time, but because of that, and how bad the outcome made me feel, I vowed to myself to always stand for the truth even when it’s unpopular with everyone else in the room. I would never look the other way in the face of an injustice or in the face of an issue that I can help resolve. I will never walk away in silence.
Greene: Have you kept to that since then?
Absolutely.
Greene: Okay, I want to switch tracks a little bit. Do you feel there are situations where it's appropriate for government to limit someone's speech?
Yes, absolutely. In today’s era of disinformation and hate speech, it’s crucial to have legal frameworks that safeguard society. We live in a society where people, especially politicians, often make inflammatory statements to gain political mileage, and such remarks can lead to serious consequences, including civil unrest.
Kenya’s experience during the 2007-2008 elections is a powerful reminder of how harmful speech can escalate tensions and pit communities against each other. That period taught us the importance of being mindful of what leaders say, as their words have the power to unite or divide.
I firmly believe that governments must strike a balance between protecting freedom of speech and preventing harm. While everyone has the right to express themselves, that right ends where it begins to infringe on the rights and safety of others. It’s about ensuring that freedom of speech is exercised responsibly to maintain peace and harmony in society.
Greene: So what do we have to be careful about with giving the government the power to regulate speech? You mentioned hate speech can be hard to define. What's the risk of letting the government define that?
The risk is that the government may overstep its boundaries, as often happens. Another concern is the lack of consistent and standardized enforcement. For instance, someone with influence or connections within the government might escape accountability for their actions, while an activist doing the same thing could face arrest. This disparity in treatment highlights the risks of uneven application of the law and potential misuse of power.
Greene: Earlier you mentioned special concern for access to information. You mentioned children and you mentioned women. Both of those are groups of people where, at least in some places, someone else—not the government, but some other person—might control their access, right? I wonder if you could talk a little bit more about why it's so important to ensure access to information for those particular groups.
I believe home is the foundational space where access to information and freedom of expression are nurtured. Families play a crucial role in cultivating these values, and it’s important for parents to be intentional about fostering an environment where open communication and access to information are encouraged. Parents have a responsibility to create opportunities for discussion within their households and beyond.
Outside the family, communities provide broader platforms for engagement. In Kenya, for example, public forums known as barazas serve as spaces where community members gather to discuss pressing issues, such as insecurity and public utilities, and to make decisions that impact the neighborhood. Ensuring that your household is represented in these forums is essential to staying informed and being part of decisions that directly affect you.
It’s equally important to help people understand the power of self-expression and active participation in decision-making spaces. By showing up and speaking out, individuals can contribute to meaningful change. Additionally, exposure to information and critical discussions is vital in today’s world, where misinformation and disinformation are prevalent. Families can address these challenges by having conversations at the dinner table, asking questions like, “Have you heard about this? What’s your understanding of misinformation? How can you avoid being misled online?”
By encouraging open dialogue and critical thinking in everyday interactions, we empower one another to navigate information responsibly and contribute to a more informed and engaged society.
Greene: Now, a question we ask everyone, who is your free speech hero?
I have two. One is a Human Rights lawyer and a former member of Parliament Gitobu Imanyara. He is one of the few people in Kenya who fought by blood and sweat, literally, for the freedom of speech and that of the press in Kenya. He will always be my hero when we talk about press freedom. We are one of the few countries in Africa that enjoys extreme freedoms around speech and press freedom and it’s thanks to people like him.
The other is an activist named Boniface Mwangi. He’s a person who never shies away from speaking up. It doesn’t matter who you are or how dangerous it gets, Boni, as he is popularly known, will always be that person who calls out the government when things are going wrong. You’re driving on the wrong side of the traffic just because you’re a powerful person in government. He'll be the person who will not move his car and he’ll tell you to get back in your lane. I like that. I believe when we speak up we make things happen.
Greene: Anything else you want to add?
I believe it’s time we truly recognize and understand the importance of freedom of expression and speech. Too often, these rights are mentioned casually or taken at face value, without deeper reflection. We need to start interrogating what free speech really means, the tools that enable it, and the ways in which this right can be infringed upon.
As someone passionate about community empowerment, I believe the key lies in educating people about these rights—what it looks like when they are fully exercised and what it means when they are violated and especially in today’s digital age. Only by raising awareness can we empower individuals to embrace these freedoms and advocate for better policies that protect and regulate them effectively. This understanding is essential for fostering informed, engaged communities that can demand accountability and meaningful change.
“Can the Government Read My Text Messages?”
You should be able to message your family and friends without fear that law enforcement is reading everything you send. Privacy is a human right, and that’s why we break down the ways you can protect your ability to have a private conversation.
Learn how governments are able to read certain text messages, and how to ensure your messages are end-to-end encrypted on Digital Rights Bytes, our new site dedicated to helping break down tech issues into byte-sized pieces.
Whether you’re just starting to think about your privacy online, or you’re already a regular user of encrypted messaging apps, Digital Rights Bytes is here to help answer some of the common questions that may be bothering you about the devices you use. Watch the short video that explains how to keep your communications private online--and share it with family and friends who may have asked similar questions!
Have you also wondered why it is so expensive to fix your phone, or if you really own the digital media you paid for? We’ve got answers to those and other questions as well! And, if you’ve got additional questions you’d like us to answer in the future, let us know on your social platform of choice using the hashtag #DigitalRightsBytes.