So the user X in the above example could be any account focussed on #GlobalSouth topics. Replace #Namibia with any other country or topic concerning the global south.

The dynamic described above will play out in all these cases.

(continues)

@Feral Thoughts I don't live in the Global South, rather in Eastern Europe. I am also facing the issue myself (i.e. content in my language and relevant to me is just almost impossible to find, especially if it's not the topic I'm looking for). The truth is that besides the english-speaking world and Germany, national communities are simply struggling to exist in the Fediverse. Most of the stuff in my feed is in either english or german, with content in Romanian (my language) mostly being aided by the RSS feeds that I follow here on Friendica.

Otherwise, I keep switching to centralized platforms like Facebook or Reddit for content that's not available outside them. Even with Threads being federated, there are simply no accounts that I can follow here, not only because federation is opt-in on behalf of Threads, but also because Meta has not enabled Fediverse functionality in Europe at all, due to GDPR compliance issues.

It's an unfortunate situation anyway.

Probably getting your friends to Friendica and letting them know about the RSS functionality could help a little for you as well. Or probably enough people with connections in the Global North could gradually form a community that could grow exponentially and also bring locals in the process. Otherwise, I don't know. I can only recommend you to do what I do:

• If you have something in mind, any thoughts, put them up here, and use your own language. The Fediverse will only grow if more people speak more languages. I know it mostly looks like you're speaking into the void, but remember that the content is done by all of us, who joined here. Once you have enough content, people might start following you for more.
• Always approach either social topics or topics of your interest (i.e. a hobby you might have, like singing a certain instrument, bird watching etc.). I see lots of non-english accounts (and english too, if you count India for that matter) that are just promoting a certain business no one has heard about, probably even only offering local services. That is very unlikely to show any interest for me, despite how many hashtags that post might have. If you have a social media account for your business here, just make it a bit quirky, make it so that people would interact with your content (in a positive way, hopefully), even if they don't buy your product. But again, try expressing your true self whenever possible if you're not selling anything.
• What's wrong with gathering a following from the Global North too? You can also showcase some of your traditions, snippets of your life out there, you can present events that happen in your country and giving them a perspective that shows how the Global North is affected as well. i.e. since you're in Brazil, write about the rainforests of the Amazon river, idk, or someone in Africa could tell more about what's happening with Wagner, citing local sources. At some point, I thought about starting a weekly newsletter myself, here on Friendica (because you can send posts via email too!) about whatever happened in the previous week in my country. I sadly couldn't beat my laziness to do it, though, so I'm also posting my photos from time to time instead. Guess that also gives a glimpse into the life here.
• Be stubborn. Keep using the Fediverse no matter what. Seek more information about how the Fediverse works and let people know about it. It is hard, indeed. But it's a sure way to get people here. Talk about it to your friends, invite them to your server, show them how it is cooler than the centralized social media platforms, lurk on places like lemmy.world/c/fediverse, @fediversenews@piefed.com, r/fediverse, r/Mastodon, maybe even help newbies out there if needed. When I joined the fediverse a while back I thought it would be this interesting, FOSS, federated stuff that I'm gonna access once in a while to check what's new. Instead, Elmo brought people here, and I'm also here almost daily, commenting stuff from random people I find online like you 😁

Keep in mind that we're talking about a 10 mln. people population here (give or take), so what you post can only get you so far. It sucks, but it is what it is. That's half the population of my country and the number of users on Facebook alone. The other 10 mln. stay in part on TikTok (or DobiTok how we call it after the last elections) or other platforms. In time, I do hope this place will grow and diversify enough.

@petrescatraian

I applaud your perseverance with the #Fediverse, but this isn’t about your tenacity, or of mine.

I am pointing out that the present architecture and social makeup of the Fediverse ensures that it will remain the online equivalent of a cozy white suburban neighbourhood.

Some may say there’s nothing wrong with that; I already received replies to that effect. I suppose that too is a legitimate viewpoint.

(continues)

@petrescatraian

At some level, this is about conflicting visions of what the Fediverse ought to be.

(continues)

@petrescatraian

And in that context, I would add

union.place/@feralthoughts/114…

@Feral Thoughts It's a complicated topic indeed. The vast majority of the Fediverse stands against racism, so if you find any racist content feel free to report it, as the mods should take care of it. There is no platform that can be non-racist from a technical standpoint without greatly infringing everyone's speech (including people using other languages, as one word might be bad for one language and inoffensive for the other, and vice versa), but at least we can be better at moderating the speech of the users than other platforms that are outright not even trying any more nowadays (*ahem* Xitter, Meta *ahem*). Probably AI will be the solution for this issue as well in the future, or probably there will be a better automated system in any way, but we as humans haven't been able to come up with anything better in this regard yet.

I, for one, am no technician in any sort of way, but I welcome any folks, of any skin tone, of any nationality, that joins the Fediverse, as long as they are being respectful towards others in their speech by any means possible (sorry, Kanye West, you're not welcome).

Regarding:

Black and brown folks have no reason to undertake the Sisyphean task of pushing the #Fediverse up the hill of egalitarianism

The Fediverse sadly is not owned by a single entity, commercial or otherwise. It is just a collection of server software, all communicating with each other. That software can have an entity behind it, though, and they can promote it, individually. What this leads to is smaller projects (i.e. Akkoma/Pleroma or *key forks for microblogging) being less influential than bigger software like Mastodon, despite the former being probably more fitting for a certain category of people than the latter (including, maybe, in moderation).

Now getting back to the diversification topic, given how the state of things are, I don't know how this will be fixed quicker than by offering free internet access to developing nations or whatever other predatory unethical tactic. There are some projects ongoing, like the fedidevs starter packs platform or hashtags like #FollowFriday or others - but you have to be aware of them for them to be accessible to you.

So again, there's not a single solution for onboarding the fedizens and keeping them on the platform. I really don't know. Sorry I couldn't be more helpful than that.

@FediTips

If/when the Fedi grows, and becomes socially influential in any of our massively unequal societies; the established powers will rush in, and drive it towards centralization. Or force it to shrink back to its original tiny, socially irrelevant size.

You cannot assume linear scaling, you cannot assume that today’s tiny Fediverse, already flawed in many ways, will scale up without changing character.

This will be as much the case for the global north Fedi as the global south Fedi.

The Fedi right now is far, far larger than before 2022 (when Musk bought Twitter).

The structure of the Fedi where the servers are owned by thousands of grassroots people means we can ignore corporations if we choose to. That didn't change with the surge in 2022, and Mastodon's software developers were offered VC money in 2022 but they turned it down.

We mustn't obey in advance by assuming that corporations will control everything. An alternative is possible and exists here.

@FediTips

I am not obeying in advance, or assuming anything about corporations. Nor am I cynical about the possibilities of change.

I know about mass defederation of gab.com and truth.social. But you have to remember that the Fedi is still tiny, in terms of user base and interactions. It just isn't relevant enough for truly powerful forces to expend resources sufficient to subdue it.

(continues)