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Dear server admins, please defederate threads.net. Dear users, ask your server admin to defederate threads.net.

mstdn.social Fedi.Tips ๐ŸŽ„ (@feditips@mstdn.social)

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-so...

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".

809 comments
  • We should avoid making blanket demands like this to the fediverse as a whole. I happen to support your position, but we should take into account the diverse nature of the social web.

    Instead of making demands, explain your reasoning and leave each community to make up their own mind. This is the beautiful nature of the social web; we have broken decision making down into many smaller units instead of one mega instance/corporation.

    Find a community that resonates with your own thinking on this issue, and over time a thousand different servers will gather experiences and a picture will start to form; was federation with Meta a good or a bad thing?

  • Oddly, this may well be what really spurs on decentralisation. I suspect more and more individuals, or small groups, will spin up their own instances rather than all gravitating to the bigger ones, due to issues like this.

    Because, ultimately, the more tech-savvy users (the ones more likely to be into the Fediverse, anyway) will want to decide for themselves what content they do and don't see.

    And it's nothing to do with whether or note someone likes/trusts Meta. It's people being able to make their own decisions on what content they want to be able to follow and not have it decided by someone else based on their interests. If someone's friends/family/fandom has a heavy Threads presence, they can spin up their own instance and be able to follow that content themselves without it really affecting anyone else. (and without having to sign up to Threads themselves...)

  • Honest discourse for the purpose of highlighting any possible issues and fortifying against the EEE process. (Prepare for war; hope for peace):

    Let's say they were able to join... (We should at the very least go over this possibility, as it can also help our admins decide.) How would we be able to protect our network?

    Would making sure any features of one instance/app be open and able to be modified and/or gracefully integrated into another be an option? (similar to the GPL license) An example would be keeping a party from restricting access to a private network only through their app. (looking at you, gTalk and iMessage)

    Any other suggestions?

    • similar to the GPL license

      It's already AGPL, which indeed is, similar to GPL lol.

      • I thought AGPL only makes sure that a modification from the original must be released, and doesn't cover new unmodified software that would connect to a server.

        A company like meta could easily design their own product from scratch that would also have it's own network and just a simple plugin that can communicate with the fediverse. Wouldn't this could be a way for them to skirt around sec. 13 of the AGPL.

  • I highly recommend using Boost for Lemmy for mobile use. One simple reason at the moment (there are many): it has a tagging feature that allows you to display text next to a user's handle. ITT there are 4-5 users I've tagged as centrist or right wing trolls and they are all the fuck over the thread, arguing in favor of Facebook being a part of the fediverse. This does not surprise me in the least, but at least the tagging helps me immediately identify the shitbirds making bad faith arguments so I can easily ignore their garbage opinions.

  • I'd personally at least give them a chance. Defederating is a pretty easy process and can be performed at any point in time. At least some Threads users may as well get to know about Lemmy and switch to it.

    Upd: yes I do understand many people don't trust Meta and neither do I. But I also understand lots and lots of users here are using anonymous accounts, and federation information is already public to begin with. Combining the fact that Fediverse may gain more than it may lose, including more users, original content, recognition and etc, I generally think it's worth the risk. I am generally content with any decision, just sharing my two pennies of thought.

    • Meta has had plenty of chances in the past as a massive leader in the social media market. Those chances have been used to conduct illegal violations of user privacy, monopolize multiple market sectors, and ultimately go as far as actively abetting crimes against humanity. It is entirely reasonable and I think fundamentally imperative not to give them any more chances.

    • Here's a question that I haven't seen asked of people wanting to give them a chance. What will them federating help the fediverse in any way?

      • We don't want/ need to be bigger
      • We have plenty of content if you go to hot and find popular communities you like. So much so, that that they want to come here to use it. They currently don't let any threads users communicate with non-threads users unless you leave the app.
      • They're an advertising company, are we missing the advertising?

      If you have things that they could add in a positive way, feel free to add to this.

    • "We should give John Wayne Gacy a chance! Sure he's a serial murderer who has stated that he'd keep killing if he weren't under lock and key, but that's no excuse to not invite him to the party!"

  • Let the user decide. If lemmy/mastodon user wants to block threads, let them. Defederating entirely is idiotic gatekeeping.

  • Better yet, I'll request the admin specifically to federate with Threads, so that I can move across the stuff that I care about to mbin from the Threads app.

809 comments