Microblogging on a blockchain level!
I think the value of having a decentralized 'Twitter' or 'Parler' on the hive blockchain is currently understated. There is so much potential hidden under the hood that will probably only be discerned after the test of time.
That said, I look at the world we are currently living in and it is hard to recognize. There is so much happening around that I wouldn't have anticipated.
Source: Twitter
One of those things that I touched on in a previous article is the unprecedented banning of a sitting US presidents from all major social media websites.
If they could, they would have even banned him from sending an SMS.
Closer home, East Africa is facing a similar problem only this time governments are doing the blocking. The Tanzanian 2020 presidential election set the precedent in the region where the country shut down social media websites and the internet to prevent circulation of information.
As you would expect, the dictatorial regime engaged in widespread electoral fraud going so far as to use the police to harass and assault voters in opposition strongholds to deter them from coming out to vote.
Come 2021, the Ugandan government is following the Tanzanian script to the letter. Twitter, not to be outdone, came out to vehemently support the ideology of free speech and the irony of it is not lost on me.
A broken clock is right twice a day though, and on this Twitter are right to call out the Ugandan government.
The strategy behind blocking social media and messaging apps is to ensure that people cannot mobilize and information can not be disseminated freely. In the case of Uganda, the dictatorial regime know very well that supporters of the opposing candidate are incredibly passionate and they want change, badly!
That has been the message for the past couple of years.
Without the tools to communicate, it is almost impossible to mobilize and defend their candidate who will be undoubtedly rigged out cementing another 5 years of a dictatorial regime.
So, on one hand you have big tech companies defining the scope of what free speech is and on the other hand you have dictatorial governments and their despotic presidents rolling back rights and freedoms of democratic nations.
They are both opposite sides of the same coin.
To overcome the growing influence of companies such as Twitter and Facebook, decentralized alternatives are the future. The microblogging project coming to the LEO ecosystem is a perfect example of that. It would be overly ambitious to expect a massive impact from the off but never has there been a perfect time for a decentralized 'Twitter' to be launched.
With time people will realize what is on offer and as more people come in the greater the demand there will be for more decentralized services i.e a decentralized YouTube. Yes, I am looking at you 
However, for less mature democracies where governments can turn off the internet without any repercussions, something more drastic has to be done. It is not enough to decentralize socials because without an internet connection they are useless.
Decentralize the whole damn thing!