It’s almost unfeasible to expect that every single human being out there is going to uphold the ethical dynamic in all the situations. Instead, our ability to construct independent decisions gives us the privilege to go ahead and take decisions that benefit us, even if it’s at the expense of others. After learning what could be the repercussions here, we came up with a concept of dedicated regulatory bodies. These regulatory bodies would have the power to extend stringent penalties, in case anyone attempts to bypass the established rules. Unfortunately, this didn’t stop people or organizations from conceiving ways through which they can escape the vigilant eye of governing forces. The unscrupulous activities remained rampant, and once technology was integrated into the fold, regulatory bodies got muddled into an even bigger set of problems. Technology’s expansiveness, which was pretty much its unique selling point, now offered these rule-breakers many more pathways to avoid their compliance obligations. This, as you can guess, posed a serious challenge for the authorities. They were trying, but the world of tech wasn’t as easy to navigate as it looked from the outside. Nevertheless, with the help of some masterfully-planned upgrades, the control is now finally swinging back in their favor, and the latest example of it is big enough to accommodate a former U.S. President.
The Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC) has sent out an official notice to Donald Trump in relation to his new social media project called Truth Social. In its notice, the agency claimed that Trump’s platform breached the open-source software licensing agreement by all but reproducing the decentralized social media network, Mastodon. It’s not to say that you are prohibited from using Mastodon’s code, but for doing so, one must fulfill the needs of operating in line with Affero General Public License, something that the Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG) has failed to achieve so far. For instance, as per the agreement’s terms, anyone using the code must make their own source code available to others. Instead of doing that, TMTG has labeled its Truth Social service as ‘proprietary’.
“Today, we saw the Trump Media and Technology Group ignoring those important rules — which were designed for the social good,” SFC policy fellow, Bradley Kuhn stated. “We will be following this issue very closely and demanding that Trump’s Group give the corresponding source to all who use the site,”
Truth Social’s bid to eliminate any connections with Mastodon got so brazen that the platform once deemed a sighting of Mastodon’s logo on its platform as a mere bug. As per the notice, TMTG now has 30 days to establish compliance with the regulations. If the company is unable to do so, the SFC will terminate its access to code. Other consequences that might appear in conjunction with the termination include strict legal action against the entity.