Public Square Networks

Implementing the First Amendment

Exceptionally American

Public Square Networks implement free speech in the American sense, providing each publisher with a means of establishing identity, attaching verified political status to that identity if desired, and publishing into one or more networks.

Viewers, similarly, are free to obtain content from one or more Public Square Networks based on a variety of logic, including the Publisher identities.

Global Identity and Content Addressing

Each publisher identity is both available and verifiable outside of any specific network, and each piece of content carries a globally unique address and provenance indicating the source. Individual content items may be published to multiple networks, networks may inherit some or all content from other networks, and viewers are able to get content from multiple networks without duplication. The net result will be that censorship on any given network is no longer effective in silencing publishers or narratives, and may very well have the opposite effect.

Radically Open

The primary mechanism of enforcement of free speech is individual agency. The network components will be made freely available so that any person who finds the moderation practices of a given network unacceptable is free to launch another network that inherits the content of the existing network and then adds to it as desired.

Third Party Verification

The publisher identities must also support third party verification in the form of verifiable claims. Publishers who wish to make certain information reliably known in connection with their identities will use verifiable claims to do so.

The first example of a useful verifiable claim would be the political subdivisions in which a voter wishes to exert influence.

Explicitly Public

It is crucially important to understand that Public Square Networks, and the identities that publish to them, are explicitly public. Anything contributed to a Public Square Network is published - that is to say, it is presented to the public and made visible to anyone who chooses to view it.

Result: Free Speech & Association

Public Square Networks enable publishers to avoid censorship and empower viewers to find the news and commentary they want. Those who find any particular network lacking, including the main network operated by Ology Newswire, are free to launch their own.