Welcome back to the Web5 newsletter!

Hello everybody!

This is the round-up of my Web5 week. Five links show you what, in my opinion, has been important in the Web5 orbit during the last few days.

Web5 is a new, decentralized web with a priority on privacy and data security. It aims at everyone becoming the owner of his digital identity. In short: Web5 is the better Internet of the future.

And here we go.

1. Strong weapon of dictators and invaders

The latest report on Internet shutdowns in 2022 by Access Now is here. It shows that the countries with the most shutdowns were:

1. India

2. Ukraine (shutdowns by Russian occupants)

3. Iran

Be smart! Shutdowns are a very strong weapon for undemocratic and authoritarian regimes. They happen in silence, they prevent communication between people and they can cost lives, especially during periods of unrest or public health emergency.

2. Russians buying Twitter Blue

Russian propagandist’s Twitter accounts are buying Twitter Blue subscriptions massively. They could try to influence public opinion in the West in a pro-Russian way. Twitter Blue accounts are given more reach and prominence on Twitter.

3. Russia bans messengers

By March 1st, Russia has banned several Western messengers from being used in government organizations. Among them are Discord, Microsoft Teams, and Skype. This is nothing special since there is a war going on and I don’t care about if employees of the Russian government can use Western apps or not.

Instead, this shows a different problem. Being banned can happen anytime and anywhere to any app, as long as it is a centralized app. If all the data is running on a central server, if conventional owners are running the company, one push of the button or one decision by a CEO can bring a loss of connection and data. Take my advice and choose the good services here.

4. Using WhatsApp? Read this 👇

WhatsApp belongs to the most popular messenger apps in the world. The reason is a free service with all the tools, needed for a quick conversation with friends and family. On the other hand, there’s a downside: WhatsApp belongs to Meta.

5. Bluesky is almost here

For months, the TBD crew was working on a new kind of social network. Similar to Nostr, Bluesky will be based on the AT Protocol and keep users independent from certain apps and be interoperable instead. But since Jack Dorsey is the founder of Bluesky, many people expect more than just a decentralized network. We will see.

You can join the Bluesky waitlist here:

Just nice.

This website shows what kind of wonders you can find on Google’s Street View. This can be funny, moving, upsetting…

Thanks for reading this! 😍

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See you next week!