Forking is as simple as a human algorithm.

It is a non-algorithm that allows the development of a collective content.

"With 15 years in the industry as an expert in algorithms and design, Haugen offered a number of suggestions – including changing news feeds to be chronological rather than algorithmic, appointing a government body for tech oversight, and requiring more transparency on internal research."

It is an action: a way to put written matter into relation.

Writing is an act of assembling words into sentences, images and sound into content. Content that influences reality and therefore changes it. A loop of continuous transformation between description of our surroundings and the surrounding itself.

When fragments are forked, they are forked by a HUMAN BEING. The feed is not created by a machine.

“Haugen’s proposal to create a carveout in section 230 around algorithmic amplification would do more harm than good,” said Evan Greer, director of the activist group Fight for the Future. “Your feed would become like Disneyland, where everything in it is sanitized, vetted by lawyers, and paid for by corporations.”

What if the feed is an action of curating by operators themselves, instead of being assembled by an algorithm? FORK

What about a transparent and non linear feed? The feed on vorstellen.network is multilinear, it develops with the use by operators like a field of trees, with crossing branches. It shows a chronology (latest fragment added on the top on the list), but it doesn't force the operator or the visitor to experience it through it.

When forking, every operator bears a responsibility for their connections, and development of the feed. Not just for their own content.

In this sense: no fork, no feed.

"...which imposes a duty of care on social media companies to protect users from harmful content."

Forking empowers freedom of expression through non machinic associations among a group of people, every operator bears a responsibility of what they decide to share and connect on the platform.

Of course vorstellen.network is an artistic project which act as a catalyst and try to create a discussion about certain problematic issues around big corporations. It doesn't design a solution, it rather offer an example of how things could be other.

Is forking a way to observe semantic transformations?

Rather it is a way to experience semantic transformation: multilinear, collective, fragmented, and refreshing digital text.

(citations from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/oct/05/facebook-frances-haugen-whistleblower-regulation)