As an experienced activist as well as a tech nerd, it seems to me there are a couple of paths forward. One is to press SWF to change. If there’s any chance of that happening, Mallory – the executive director, and also the director of the Exchange Point 501(c)(3) fiscal sponsor – is the key here. Looking at her writing about the Fediverse (here’s a post from February), my guess her view of the Fediverse has largely been shaped by conversations with Evan … I have no idea whether she’ll be open to other perspectives but with her feminist and human rights background she might well be. Also, I think I saw @benwerd post that he’s an advisor, and fastly’s one of their launch parterns so Anil Dash is potentially involved at least to some extent; they both understand the importance of equity and safety, and think about things strategically, so they could potentially be allies. Jon (@jdp23) | Blåhaj Zone is my initial attempt to engage on that front.
Of course there’s no way of knowing how amenable Mallory will be, or for that matter how much power she really has, so your mileage may vary as to whether it’s worth the effort. From a social justice activist perspective, I still see it as useful: if SWF keeps on their path, there’s a clear and public paper trail that they’re choosing a path that they know is racist and anti-LGBTQ+. And from an anti-Meta perspective, if they don’t change path, it’ll be another data point highlighting that people who embrace Meta almost always wind up having to compromise their principles.
In terms of the protocol, I’d strongly recommend letting people know you’re planning on voting with your feet unless something changes – and start thinking about what that could look like. If you’re doing something with an all-public focus, AT is (at least in my opinion) likely to be a much better choice today anyhow. There aren’t any great alternatives right now for scoped-visibility protocols as far as I know but there are lots of interesting possibilities and other protocol stacks to build: LEAF is building on WIllow. What about something based on Veilid? Spritely Goblins has some great ideas. And for that matter AT could potentially be extended to scoped visibility; Bluesky’s said it isn’t on their short-term priority list but it’s certainly something they’re interested in.
And from an activist perspective, I’d be very loud about starting to investigate other protocols – and why you’re doing it. To be clear, I personally don’t think SWF is the the primary reason to look at other protocols; there’s also AP’s complexit and lack of attention to safety, the racism and dysfunctionality of the SWICG, and Meta’s embrace-extend-exploit plans for AP. But SWF in its current form doubles down on all of that. So focusing on that could help pressure them to change … or, if not, highlight that they’re choosing to be part of problem.