Big news for the #Fediverse!

[bonfire@indieweb.social]

RE: https://socialwebfoundation.org/2025/12/19/implementing-encrypted-messaging-over-activitypub/

Big news for the #Fediverse! End-to-end encryption is coming to #ActivityPub.

@swf with support from @sovtechfund is coordinating two interoperable implementations.

Bonfire is proud to be one of these first two projects, alongside #Emissary by @benpate

We think #E2EE should simply be the default for any private communications, and we’re especially thrilled to bring private, trusted collaboration to the fediverse.

#JustBetweenUs #Privacy #Encryption #SocialWeb

[bonfire@indieweb.social]

We hope this will enable the fediverse to become a safer space for activists and communities to organise, coordinate, and collaborate meaningfully. By making secure, user-friendly messaging a core part of the fediverse, we can help lay the groundwork for decentralised networks where people can go beyond talking in the mythical ‘global town square’ and actually organise and accomplish things together.

[alisynthesis@io.waxandleather.com]

@bonfire is it feasible that someone could build a chat client that would let any Fediverse account privately talk with any other Fediverse account?

Because that would be insanely cool.

[bonfire@indieweb.social]

@alisynthesis The initial idea is that all fediverse apps (clients and servers) should implement the standard for maximum interoperability. But it's definitely worth thinking about what we could do to make that possible in any case!

[acb@mastodon.social]

@bonfire @swf @sovtechfund @benpate Will this mean the possibility of friends-only (i.e. people you select, rather than anyone who follows you) posts on Mastodon/Pixelfed/similar? If ActivityPub ever gets mass adoption, that will be important, because when everyone’s here, so are griefers, trolls, pig-butchers and as yet uncategorised hostile actors.

[benpate@mastodon.social]

@acb @bonfire @swf @sovtechfund

This *specific* tech will make private groups, similar to Apple Messages, Signal, and WhatsApp.

It won’t make “Friends Only” posts, but.. both Emissary and Bonfire already provide different flavors of “Circles” that let you choose the visibility of your posts. https://emissary.dev/circles

Id live for other Fediverse tools like Mastodon to add this too.

[kariboka@mastodon.social]

@bonfire @swf @sovtechfund @benpate is it client or server side?

[fat_farang@mastodon.social]

@bonfire @swf @sovtechfund @benpate Around the world I can hear politicians screaming, "But what about the children? We need to stop this."

[benpate@mastodon.social]

Emd to end => Client side encryption. And only you will hold the private keys.

Messages travel via ActivityPub inboxes, but are opaque to the servers.

@kariboka @bonfire @swf @sovtechfund

[erebion@chaos.social]

@bonfire @swf @sovtechfund @benpate Ooof, just another instant messenger..?

We've already had XMPP since the 90s... and since then it's become pretty reliable.

i hope there'll at least be interoperability. I'm so tired of new ways to communicate that are not interoperable with what's already there.

#xmpp

[benpate@mastodon.social]

@erebion @bonfire @swf @sovtechfund

Agreed. End to end encryption is nothing new. That’s why we’re using the MLS protocol that’s supported by tons of other messaging systems.

I think the “new” part will be building it alongside ActivityPub, so your existing network of contacts can talk to you in either plaintext or encrypted.

I’m not sure where in the world you are, but in my corner of it, it seems good to set up more ways for regular people to commmunicate reliably and safely.

[erebion@chaos.social]

@bonfire @swf @sovtechfund @benpate It doesn't matter whether people use landline or a mobile phone or even a satellite phone. They can call me.

But somehow everyone agrees it's just the way it is, you cannot contact someone that uses a different instant messenger.

Where the hell did this take the wrong turn?

We were promised the internet would let us all communicate with each other, anytime. Freely. A large network, decentralised. And suddenly we have many islands instead. :(

[benpate@mastodon.social]

Yup. Politicians probably will. Hopefully they start with bigger targets like Google and Apple.

The Fediverse has a unique advantage here, being so spread out means that there’s no one server that’s really worth going after.

And if someone forced to take E2EE off of one specific server, then everyone there could just up and move to a new servers. At max I t would be a day of downtime.

@Fat_Farang @bonfire @swf @sovtechfund

[erebion@chaos.social]

@benpate @bonfire @swf @sovtechfund

More ways aren't bad. But those ways should have turns and roundabouts and small footpaths and bridges and maps.

What good is a way that only connects a couple places, but isn't accessible from the rest of the world?

[benpate@mastodon.social]

Yeah, you’re not wrong about that. Back in the day, I loved the Trilliam IM client because I could sign in to every IM network from one window.

I’m hoping ActivityPub can become that landline+mobile+sat phone combo on the Internet.

UX will be key, here. Let us cook for a bit, and get some screenshots out to all of you. I’d love to hear your feedback once I have something to show for it.

@erebion @bonfire @swf @sovtechfund

[erebion@chaos.social]

@benpate @bonfire @swf @sovtechfund I'll read up on what ActivityPub does, but MLS seems like a pretty good start and makes me fear it somewhat less. :-)

Still, we need well thought out interoperability in our FOSS communities. We're more and stronger together.

[erebion@chaos.social]

@benpate @bonfire @swf @sovtechfund

Things I wonder:

- Where will the keys be stored?
- Where will the code come from?

I hope none of those will be answered with "browser".

Also, signing in to all messengers in one tool is nice, but what we need is to be able to communicate directly.

It's nice if I can talk to Johne Doe on IRC and Jane Doe on AOL, but what if I want to have a group chat? Yeah. :/

[benpate@mastodon.social]

Yes. 💯

That’s why “app builders” like Bonfire and Emissary are so interesting for this space.

We enable the “long tail” of technology adoption, and make it possible for tiny communities to launch highly customized Fediverse apps with very low effort. Small paths, many branches.

AtlasMaps.org (for instance) took me about six weeks start to finish. Other community-specific servers will launch even easier.

😎

@erebion @bonfire @swf @sovtechfund

[benpate@mastodon.social]

Jump on the GitHub issues. We’d love to talk.

https://github.com/swicg/activitypub-e2ee

And, I’m happy to walk you through how I’m trying to approach it. We have a tight timeline, but more eyes is still better at this point.

@erebion @bonfire @swf @sovtechfund

[benpate@mastodon.social]

Keys will be encrypted on the browser, locked with a separate password that’s not shared with the server.

There are some other synchronization issues we’re going to work out, but not before our first sets of code are due.

There’s more here than I can cover in 500char toots. But I’d be happy to chat some time to hear your thoughts

@erebion @bonfire @swf @sovtechfund