Damus: Decentralized Twitter Rival Banned In China

• Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter, recently backed a decentralized Twitter rival called Damus.
• The app was available in China’s Apple App Store for two days before it was taken down by the CAC for violating national speech rules.
•The goal of the open-source Nostr protocol is to provide a censorship-resistant social media platform accessible anywhere in the world.

Jack Dorsey’s Initiative

Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter, recently backed an initiative called Nostr – a distributed social media protocol on which various new initiatives are being developed. One such initiative is Damus – a decentralized Twitter rival that works on Apple devices and is powered by Bitcoin Lightning Network.

Banned In China

Damus was available in China’s Apple App Store for two days before it was taken down by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) for violating national speech rules. Apple cooperated promptly after being asked to by the authorities.

The Goal Of Nostr Protocol

The goal of the open-source Nostr protocol is to provide groundwork for a decentralized, censorship-resistant social network that can be accessed from anywhere in the world thanks to its use of cryptographic key pairs and Bitcoin Lightning Network transactions. Other applications built on top of Nostr include Anigma (an alternative to Telegram) and Jester (a chess software).

Elon Musk & Decentralization

In 2019, when he was still CEO of Twitter, Jack Dorsey allocated funds to develop a decentralized social media system and plead with Elon Musk after his takeover of Twitter for the service to be moved onto an “open source protocol funded by a foundation”.

Conclusion

Decentralized platforms such as Damus offer users more control over their data while also providing them with an uncensored platform where they can share their thoughts without fear or repercussion. While this may lead to some issues such as those seen in China with Damus’ takedown it is important that users have access to these platforms so they can freely express themselves without fear or censorship.