2 New Social Networks With Very Different Political Twists 99
judgecorp writes "Frustrated at the off-topic chatter on Twitter, British MP Louise Mensch has launched a supposedly rival service. Despite the name, Menshn, this is apparently not a hoax, but a site aimed at 'on-topic' conversation, initially around the U.S. election. Mensch is a former 'chick lit' author, and a Member of Parliament since 2010. She has taken part in questioning of Rupert and James Murdoch, and urged control of social media." If "control of social media" urged by sitting politicians strikes you as undesirable, or the hyper-focused content seems constraining, take heart: an anonymous reader points out an online community of a different stripe — a social network launched by Wikileaks, intended to be "a secure, surveillance-resistant social network purpose-built for Friends of WikiLeaks." Whether or not your politics line up with those of most Wikileaks supporters, you might wish for some of the features FoWL is designed to provide: "By design your details are encrypted, and hidden from everyone except your immediate contacts. Even we can't access them. Connected by FoWL, friends of WikiLeaks will communicate however they like, including using secure person-to-person methods. As the network grows away from the site infrastructure, it becomes autonomous and decentralized, opaque to observers and impossible to compromise."
Friends of Wikileaks (Score:1, Interesting)
This sounds like unsocial social media. Social media is all about attention-whoring, and doesn't sound like FoWL can do that.
Impossible? (Score:5, Interesting)
"...impossible to compromise."
Sounds like a challenge for NSA!
We already have this (Score:4, Interesting)
a site aimed at 'on-topic' conversation
We already have this, its called the comments section of our local dying newspaper. I would assume your local newspaper, if any, is similar. The comments on articles are exclusively filled with sloganeering by "both" sides written by paid political hacks. The problem with the business model is its already dying, because on a percentage basis, roughly no one wants to read idiotic "divide and conqueror" sloganeering. Why sling meaningless slogans on a new site, if you're already slinging them on the old site?
So when will Mensch's resign? (Score:5, Interesting)
Given that she has chosen not to work full time as an MP any more while she goes off to start another "lifestyle company", I assume she doesn't need to earn £66k of tax payers' money, let alone all the expenses (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_parliamentary_expenses_scandal) every year as a result.
So.. where is the resignation letter, Louise?
Beware beware the NSA security letter (Score:3, Interesting)
Does anyone seriously believe the founders of Wikileaks still have any control whatsoever of such a valuable source of information about leakers?
Nothing but a pure sweet grade-A honeypot. Oh bother.
Re:So when will Mensch's resign? (Score:4, Interesting)