Back in the nineties (yeah, I remember the opening line of "The Goldbergs"), companies were establishing their online presence by securing their domain and putting up their own website to secure their brand online. I still remember the PLDT.com lawsuit - if you have forgotten about it or don't know this lawsuit filed by the Philippine telecommunications company, then you better DuckDuckGo it! Anyway, owning your domain and launching your own website is now SOP for companies! If you don't have an official website, it says a lot about your company, right?

This, however, changed when the new frontier was social media. Companies and other organizations vie for their own accounts and channels on different social media sites. Each try to get "verified" to get that extra street cred.

However, these companies are beholden to a couple of companies, of which they don't have any influence on. Heck, not even governments have control of these social media companies! If and when the social media company decides to limit, restrict or block their account, all they can do is appeal. However, here we are today, with companies, organizations and even government agencies, using social media as if it is their own official online service.

With what is happening at these popular social media sites today, now is the time to get back on the open internet, one that is not controlled by a select few (who are mostly greedy). Similar to official company or organization websites, which are under their full control, companies and organizations should embrace the federated universe (fediverse) and start controlling their online social media presence, content and all! Anything that appears on the official website does not need to be verified or debunked by the owner of the website (unless, of course, it was hacked and defaced). No dependency on a third-party company whatsoever!

The same can now be said of social media. Companies can spin up their own ActivityPub-based service, Mastodon, MissKey, Pleroma, CalcKey, you name it, there are tons of options, with each one talking to each other and echoing their content (this is a simplification of how federation works, but feel free to go into the nitty-gritty by DuckDuckGo the ActivityPub protocol - it is a standard and is free). It is just another online service that companies and organizations must now consider as part of their online presence, like their official websites.

To illustrate, suppose Manila Bulletin joins the fediverse with social.mb.com.ph. All user accounts under @social.mb.com.ph are automatically verified by the company as their employee or contributor. Manila Bulletin does not need to rely on another company to verify each of their accounts as official. They may even apply the same rules for posting on their website and publishing on print.

Readers have the peace of mind of knowing that only Manila Bulletin-verified accounts are on @social.mb.com.ph! Let's extend this more by dreaming of having a @social.gov.ph fediverse server. Readers can be assured that accounts under that server are verified by the Philippine government! Heck, this can even be made better by having each government agency have their own, e.g., [email protected] - with CHED in full control of the @ched.gov.ph, there is no doubt that anything posted by the account can be considered as official from the office of commissionerA, right?

No need for that blue, gray, gold or whatever color the foreign social media company owner thinks of to indicate that the account is verified! Academic institutions, commercial companies, like PLDT, Smart and Globe, non-government organizations, you name it, having their own server on the fediverse gives their social media presence all within their control!

No dependency on foreign companies, whose incentive is to collect user data for their revenue generation. No content restrictions, no rules, except for what your company dictates. Why be at the mercy of a single person, who can suspend or delete your account depending on how they woke up that day? When this happens, all you can do is appeal - with no guarantees!

Would you continue risking it? Look at what is happening <"https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/dec/15/twitter-suspends-accounts-journalists-musk"> on one popular social media site right now. Time to join the fediverse, it won't hurt, you know. Heck, you can join the fediverse and still use these popular social media sites, right? I wonder when Manila Bulletin will wake up and join - maybe be the first major news company in the Philippines to be on the fediverse!