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Introduction to the Protocol Reader

Paper Venkatesh Rao
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This introduction situates the emergence of protocol-based social technologies as a response to Twitter's 2022 ownership change, distinguishing between users seeking alternative platforms and those exploring fundamentally different technological paradigms like the Fediverse, ActivityPub, Bluesky/ATProto, and Farcaster. Rao frames the resulting confusion around what 'protocol' means as the entry point for understanding a significant shift toward decentralized, protocol-oriented alternatives to traditional platform models.

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