What the Hell Is Going on with Framework's Socials?

Time for a sudo shutdown -h now on October 14, 2025

People are up in arms that they’re cozying up to fascists. I’m mad they’ve abandoned non-ghastly social networks.

You’ve probably heard of the Framework Computer & fascism(?) debacle by now. (Which weirdly is in many ways related to the Ruby Central & fascism(?) debacle which I reported on elsewhere.)

In the case of Framework, it seems that the controversy has certainly taken its toll. The Discord mods, last I heard, had gone on strike as it were, and the thread which blew up in Framework’s community forum has shown no signs of stopping (1500+ comments and counting!).

I’ll give credit where credit is due. At least Framework’s top brass is making an attempt to engage with critics. You may not like what they’re saying, but it’s good that they’re saying something. (That is in stark contrast with Ruby Central, an organization I have decided has completely forgotten how to talk to programmers. Rather odd for an organizations whose only job it is to provide support to and talk with programmers.)

The most recent entrant into the debate is Framework’s blog post on their 2025 sponsorships to date. I’m glad they’re being transparent about this. One item which certainly caught my attention:

That’s, um, a fair chunk of change to throw at a somewhat niche programming conference—one which DHH (David Heinemeier Hansson) is the grand boobah of (being the creator of Rails and all). DHH is of course also the creator of Omarchy, one of the projects along with Hyprland which kicked off the Framework controversy in the first place. (DHH is a noted purveyor of fascist rhetoric.)

But what is really gnawing at me aren’t these sponsorship disclosures nor is it what Framework is publicly saying. It’s the fact that their social media team is going nuts on X (xcancel link) yet has all but abandoned Bluesky and Mastodon.

I counted how many posts (originals plus replies) the company has made in the last 96 hours on all three platforms. Here is my count:

1. X: 82 posts (including meme-style shitposting of a16z!)
2. Bluesky: 0 posts
3. Mastodon: 0 posts

I mean, that’s not even a fair fight! Go ahead. Check for yourself. Framework Computer’s non-X microblogging accounts have gone dormant. (Were they ever very busy to begin with?!)

This is an extremely bad look.

While the Fediverse is not large, it is chock full of Linux enthusiasts. Linux is clearly overrepresented in every poll and in every conversation regarding computing platforms. Hell, Framework’s Mastodon account has over 26,000 followers…certainly less than X’s 101,469 but definitely nothing to scoff at. (Bluesky…er, perhaps. 😏)

I don’t understand why this calculus would be complicated. It is inexcusable that Framework’s social media marketing team would think it’s OK to piss off thousands and thousands of fans and potential buyers. I’m not even writing this article to say they should leave X! (I mean, everyone should leave X but that’s a different article.) I’m simply saying that the one-two punch of aligning with bad actors then trying to spray rhetorical room freshener to lessen the stench, combined with kicking non-X users to the curb, is self-sabotage.

Look, if I wanted to hang out in “mainstream” spaces which are deteriorating for lack of ethics, I’d stick to using mainstream computing products. Framework is a company for tech nerds who want to be weird. Their stated mission is literally political. I don’t think you get to have your cake and eat it too.

Framework needs to decide what it wants to be when it grows up, and that’s fine, but I hope they decide quickly. We’re sort of left here looking rather foolish, wondering if we’ll ever vouchsafe to cheering them on again. 🤨

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