I think we agree, the problem is people defining global platforms as “the bar”. We overemphasize the importance of global reach; it is important, but not everything needs to be global, least of all personal communication between small groups of friends. I don’t really want everyone herded into these public platforms where central authorities can determine who is blessed with the ability to speak to other people. I also don’t want people with political grievances to be cut off from places where they can air those grievances publicly, as this leads to bad outcomes. We need both kinds of spaces.

The web of trust idea is good, I have thought about it before as well, and I think there’s a couple of people who tried building a platform around it (I don’t think they got very far into the process though). I should be able to filter based on trusted people with similar taste. I shouldn’t have to accept a central authority’s notion of what is acceptable, excepting content that violates US law. That’s all I care about in terms of moderation.