this post was submitted on 16 Dec 2023
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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".

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[–] [email protected] 30 points 8 months ago (5 children)

How about users make decisions for themselves and block Threads if they want?

[–] [email protected] 36 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Threads' size will unaviodably disrupt the Fediverse if they federate fully, regardless their intentions. I think the appropriate approach is making interaction opt-in, like social.coop does: https://social.coop/@eloquence/111588877096843391

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Threads said that they're going to be opt-in. Each user will have to actively enable federation, so all this scary news seem a bit pointless to me.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago

Yes, for now. There is discussion to make it opt-out, which Eugen advocates for. Also, if it remains opt-in, very few people there actually have any reason to opt in, which is quite fishy because that means they are trying to keep their silo. Either way we should treat them with caution.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago (2 children)

I think the issue here is users data will be on threads server which god knows how it will be used. To train AI? To target ads ? Nobody knows so better everyone block threads and keep internet safe as these companies have destroyed internet.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 8 months ago

Anything that touches the internet can be scraped. Mastodon DMs aren't encrypted, and public posts are obviously public. There's nothing stopping someone from using the API or any web crawler to harvest data on mastodon users anyway.

Not arguing for/against threads, tbh I don't even use mastodon much because I don't really like the idea of microblogging to begin with

[–] [email protected] 10 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Public Mastodon posts are already indexed by search engines.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Indexing by search engines and what Meta harvests are astronomically different - I fail to see your point.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

If I am on Mastodon, there is nothing that Threads can collect from me that they can not get already. My posts are public, Meta or anyone else doesn’t need permission to look at them.

The only risk is if I am sending direct messages to someone on Threads from Mastodon, then obviously Meta has a copy. ActivityPub is not E2E encrypted, you shouldn’t be using it for private communication at all, the threat model is the same between Threads and any other Mastodon server.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (2 children)

Alright, fair enough, but why would anyone allow meta even an inch of space into a 'free' platform? Have you seen the numerous ( and to be fair, much better articulated) comments on this very thread concerning "EEE"? Don't you think it's alarming how many people support Meta joining?

I'm thinking of it from a grand scale: Folks in this thread are essentially saying "awe, c'mon, it's probably okay if Zuck's mega-corp puts it's foot in the door of a burgeoning federated forum community; what could go wrong?"

Hey- let's talk in five years and see what happens- yeah?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago

Alright, fair enough, but why would anyone allow meta even an inch of space into a 'free' platform?

It's an open protocol, they can join if they want. That's kinda the point of being an open protocol, anyone willing to implement it just can.

I imagine that if tomorrow Meta decides to run a free email service ala Hotmail or Gmail you'd be demanding that they will destroy email everywhere if they aren't put on every black hole list immediately?

[–] [email protected] -1 points 8 months ago

I’m okay with Threads federating because there are a some people I know who won’t use Mastodon but will use Threads, and I would like to talk to them without downloading Threads. That’s probably true for most of the people supporting it, or they just think it should be up to individuals instead of the admin making unilateral decisions about who you’re allowed to talk with.

Threads joining would also introduce a far wider group of people to Fedi that isn’t just “nerds who like Linux and/or programming”, which is the bulk of people using Mastodon (and Lemmy, for that matter) right now. I’m not really concerned about EEE because there will always be a huge chunk of people using the FOSS platforms.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago

I fully support this.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 8 months ago

Why not just let the serial killer psychopath hang out in the mall, if people don't want to hang out with them they don't have to.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 8 months ago

This is the way.