1. Meta/Facebook has a horrific track record on human rights:
- https://www.amnesty.org.uk/press-releases/ethiopia-facebook-algorithms-contributed-human-rights-abuses-against-tigrayans
- https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/dec/06/rohingya-sue-facebook-myanmar-genocide-us-uk-legal-action-social-media-violence
- https://www.theverge.com/2018/7/18/17587080/mark-zuckerberg-holocaust-denial-kara-swisher-interview
2. Meta/Facebook is trying to join the Fediverse. We need to defederate them.
3. If you're a server admin, please defederate Meta's domain "threads.net" (here's how on Mastodon https://fedi.tips/how-to-defederate-fediblock-a-server-on-mastodon/)
4. If you don't run your own server, please ask your server admin to defederate "threads.net". Your admin is listed on your server website's About page.
Meta just announced that they are trying to integrate Threads with ActivityPub (Mastodon, Lemmy, etc.). We need to defederate them if we want to avoid them pushing their crap into fediverse.
If you’re a server admin, please defederate Meta’s domain “threads.net”
If you don’t run your own server, please ask your server admin to defederate “threads.net”.
This is what I’ve been wondering. Facebook’s past behavior definitely worries me, but I haven’t been able to think of the mechanism by which they could actually hurt ActivityPub. What more could they do beside just defederate from everyone? We would be left with what we currently have, which is fine with me.
Can anyone else think of a direct path by which Facebook could hurt ActivityPub?
They implement ActivityPub and connect to all the available servers. A load of new users will see the content here and all the communities here will be absolutely flooded with new content and users.
2. Extend:
ActivityPub will be extended. Many new features will be added, that don’t really match the standard, but they are mostly useful so some developers will try to add them to let’s say Lemmy. They won’t be blr to develop new features on their own and some stuff with threads will always be broken or half baked. Threads users will belittle the users here, some will maybe go there, cause it just works and is otherwise the same.
New users at the same time will most likely go directly to threads cause it’s backed by a giant company, always works and has more features.
3. Extinguish:
They will cut the federation.
Communities here will feel empty and most users will just leave. Only the hard core will stay and that won’t be sustainable. The fediverse becomes even less attractive for new users and will devolve into a niche community.
Throw 50 fulltime programmers at development and crowd everyone else out. Or fork it with something clearly superior since they can afford to pay people to work on it fulltime.
I mean development. It’s happened with other projects before when large corps get involved. Of course, the existing developers of a project don’t have to allow that to happen.
You’d be a moron to trust them obv, but how would Threads using ActivityPub extingush the Fediverse?
This is what I’ve been wondering. Facebook’s past behavior definitely worries me, but I haven’t been able to think of the mechanism by which they could actually hurt ActivityPub. What more could they do beside just defederate from everyone? We would be left with what we currently have, which is fine with me.
Can anyone else think of a direct path by which Facebook could hurt ActivityPub?
Embrace, Extend, Extinguish
1. Embrace:
They implement ActivityPub and connect to all the available servers. A load of new users will see the content here and all the communities here will be absolutely flooded with new content and users.
2. Extend:
ActivityPub will be extended. Many new features will be added, that don’t really match the standard, but they are mostly useful so some developers will try to add them to let’s say Lemmy. They won’t be blr to develop new features on their own and some stuff with threads will always be broken or half baked. Threads users will belittle the users here, some will maybe go there, cause it just works and is otherwise the same.
New users at the same time will most likely go directly to threads cause it’s backed by a giant company, always works and has more features.
3. Extinguish:
They will cut the federation.
Communities here will feel empty and most users will just leave. Only the hard core will stay and that won’t be sustainable. The fediverse becomes even less attractive for new users and will devolve into a niche community.
Throw 50 fulltime programmers at development and crowd everyone else out. Or fork it with something clearly superior since they can afford to pay people to work on it fulltime.
What does “crowd everyone else out” mean specifically here? People could still choose to use non-Threads ActivityPub apps.
I mean development. It’s happened with other projects before when large corps get involved. Of course, the existing developers of a project don’t have to allow that to happen.
Fork Mastodon? You mean like Threads?
Yeah, but open source it.
Right, I’ve also yet to see what defederating from a hypthetical Threads instance could prevent.
Especially given that Meta needs federation to comply with the Digital Markets Act.