#Threads is testing federation for a few selected profiles. I'm now following @mosseri! It's one-way for now, but it's exciting. It's a step towards the interoperable social web that we've been advocating for 🙂
@Gargron we can have an interoperable social web without the likes of zuckerberg and his ethically questionable and privacy invasive platforms. He does not deserve the benefit of the doubt because he's already proved that he doesn't deserve it time and time again
@Gargron Eugen, I know I'm not the only one who believes that Threads will become the "MEGALOVANIA of the fediverse". If it happens billions (or milliards) of people will join. Gonna follow Mossery and even you on Threads. Also you can follow me on Threads @luiscgm20
@aeisenberg@not2b@VE2UWY Automatic migration as a feature is relatively speaking a moot point. Some platforms here still don’t have it either. If you can follow all the same people from a different platform there’s no barriers to switching to a different platform.
@Gargron@not2b@VE2UWY there’s no guarantee that threads will allow its users to migrate as normal mastodon instances do. I’m not hopeful that they will allow it, but I have no evidence either way.
@VE2UWY@Gargron I think the movement might well go in the other direction. Threads/Instagram users might realize that they can escape the ads and the algorithm without giving up connections to their friends. If threads.net becomes yet another fediverse server why not choose a better one?
Make no mistake, this is huge for Mastodon. Currently people have to choose between X, Mastodon, and Threads, and network effects play a dominant role in that choice. If we can say, you can access all the folks that went to Threads from a Mastodon account, that makes it a far more attractive option given all of its other perks 😉
@oliver@lancehomer I admit I'm a little suspicious that they started with this rather than the other way around. I wouldn't be surprised if they end up doing a lot of can-kicking before making Mastodon visible via Threads.
@Gargron@mosseri Nope, nope, nope. I have an Instagram account and often get bombarded with Threads — see who you know etc. crap from there. I refuse to download it!!!
@Gargron the argument works also the other way round. If I can get the fediverse from my data collection site of choice, I have no motivation to make an account on mastodon.
@Gargron I know who owns threads and this is all I need to know. I do not want to engage with them in any fashion. If I cannot block their interaction with mastodon I guess I will be leaving mastodon as well. If I wanted to interact with threads, facebook, meta, truth social, or any other fascist social media site I would join those sites. I am here because I do not want to be there.
This is the kind of company you're excited about working with?
There is zero chance Meta is genuinely intetested in interoperability, they just want to take over control of whatever community the Fediverse has built up. As their CEO said, people who trust him are "stupid fucks".
@Gargron Do you still trust meta? Their only interest is to harvest & sell user data. I am really concerned about meta creeping into our privacy. Are there any checks in place to prevent data collection?
@feditips@Gargron Threads is going to lay in ActivityPub support whether we like it or not, because the EU won’t let them stay in business there if they don’t. That ship has sailed; nothing we do here can change that.
What instance admins *can* do here is block Threads. If they do, they’d also block Threads users from…easily moving to their friendly neighborhood Mastodon host.
Who would that help, and more importantly, who would that hurt?
@Gargron As #meta federation approaches actuality, I’m feeling more nervous and skeptical that there will be any way to protect ourselves from an onslaught of commercialization and or bot-filled infiltration. Maybe paranoia, but it’s concerning.
@feditips@Gargron Yet. New things get rolled into old things in stages, that’s just normal IT development cadence. The whole point of the APub deal with the EU was that antitrust claims would be set aside if Meta tears down their walls and lets their users exit with their social graph. If they don’t fulfill that part of the bargain, they lose their ability to operate in the EU, yes?
This is huge, especially when you consider many people, politicians & brands on #Threads will consider setting up their own instances under their own domain & connect with the rest of the #Fediverse!
Also with prominent sites using #WordPress, we could see everyone from #NASA to the #WhiteHouse join the Fediverse (pending activation of the #ActivityPub plugin).
@Gargron thank you for this. I’ve seen a lot of noise (and outrage!) today about how Meta will harvest user data from federated servers and insert advertising. I appreciate that you’ve addressed these points clearly in this blog for lay people like me to understand!
Many commercial platforms that had access to open protocols were one-way and stayed one-way. The idea is to suck people in who use the open protocol, and not give back.
I remember the times where all important chat platforms from Google Talk to QQ were XMPP, and you could use essentially any XMPP client to talk to them, BUT they never did the interconnection with other XMPP servers.
@feditips@Gargron Please tell me this is a terrible anachronistic April Fools' prank.
There's zero chance Meta has any interest in anything but kneecapping their competition and/or buying it up to destroy it. It's become a time-honored tactic under robber-baron capitalism.
@Gargron@mosseri How do you plan to properly protect users and combat dangerous hate groups like LibsOfTikTok? Groups which Meta are either unable or unwilling to keep off of the platform.
And short of defederating how are smaller instances meant to keep up with the increased moderation workload that this will require?