the fact that there's a mastodon.social username in this pic of Meta's P92 Mastodon client is awesome
@tonyg is that you?
https://www.theverge.com/2023/6/8/23754304/instagram-meta-twitter-competitor-threads-activitypub
/by @alexeheath
@chrismessina @tonyg @alexeheath It is exciting to see more ActivityPub adoption. This is huge.
@Gargron
Honestly I am very concerned that federation with Meta will undermine Mastodon's core mission, which you proudly display on your website's landing page.
It's safe to assume that Meta will continue to algorithmically decide what appears on their users' feeds. After all, Meta is really in the advertising business, not the people-connecting business!
And they have a pool of what, a billion users that will immediately have the ability to sign in? Even with a small percentage of that, any instances federating with them will start seeing a lot more of whatever Meta is pushing to their own users' feeds, as those users become more likely to boost or share it.
Users on Mastodon/other Fediverse instances will find that their reach expands if they play to the Meta algorithms, and the 'non-algorithmic' culture here will quickly turn into the same inauthentic, commodified influencer posting that corporate, for-profit social media has become known for.
Federating with Meta could well end up ruining the exact thing that makes Mastodon and the Fediverse so exciting and appealing.
I hope that admins of large instances take some time to deeply consider these possibilities before federating with a company that has done so much damage to society.
@smallpatatas @Gargron @chrismessina @tonyg @alexeheath
Yes, I agree, I am here becuase it is NOT facebook, what also worries me is all the baggage that comes with meta, celebrities etc, We have people on here who are not celebs as such, they hare proper jobs in high end research, I seem to be following a lot of people with PhDs etc, actual scientists who are dedicated to their work. People here post intelligent and intellectual content, but also respond rationally to posts and correct people in a way that is helpful.
@chrismessina @smallpatatas @Gargron @tonyg @alexeheath
Indeed, but it is probably something we need to discuss as a community, as we know what big tech do, Embrace, Extend, Extinguish.
Meta are profits and data driven, fedi provides little for them inj that respect so there has to be some hidden motive somewhere.
I would hope domain blocking will some how mitigate their influence.
@zleap @chrismessina @smallpatatas @Gargron @tonyg @alexeheath "Embrace, Extend, Extinguish" - what a perfect expression of big tech's playbook.
@lmgenealogy @chrismessina @smallpatatas @Gargron @tonyg @alexeheath
It could be an unfair assessment of meta, but big tech has a 'reputation' of trying to crush opponents, sometimes with legal orders, other times they buy projects out, then eventually end those projects or they use EEE. we just don't know.
@chrismessina other than the obvious fact that small email servers will often be marked as spam, is there an algorithmic component to what emails you see? Because Meta's entire business model depends on their ability to keep you scrolling, so I can't imagine they're going to give up on algorithms...
As for the 'each server setting up its own rules' aspect: how might those rules change the effects I've described, other than in the case of a server exercising their ability to defederate - which is of course what I'm suggesting they should consider? @zleap @Gargron @tonyg @alexeheath
@chrismessina @zleap @Gargron @tonyg @alexeheath wanted to circle back to this comment where you point out that each server can set up its own rules with respect to federating with Meta.
Here's another problem with this thinking, beyond my original reply to @Gargron: virtually no admins have told their users what they plan to do, despite the fact that the multiple polls I've seen show that between 40-70% of users want to outright Fediblock any Meta instance.
Meta has done absolutely horrific things, for decades.
What happened to the principle of informed consent for users? https://mstdn.patatas.ca/@smallpatatas/110533043724390295
@smallpatatas @chrismessina @Gargron @tonyg @alexeheath
40 to 70 % does touch on a large number of users, so yea I would support fedi block, however we could do with a short paragraph we can share on our blogs etc as to why meta Activty Pub instances are blocked.
Based on experiences of ourselves and or others META is not consdiered to be a responsible entitiy who put the interests of users (safety, welfare, etc) above profits, track users, misuse data, allow vulnerable people to see adverts, be victims of horrific bullying, trolling, and abusive behaviours including grooming, coercive control and enabling this despite tools being in place and being used, people still come to harm.
We simply don't trust META
We are PEOPLE and not here to be exploited for PROFIT
@chrismessina @zleap @smallpatatas @Gargron @tonyg @alexeheath
Facebook has platformed multiple genocides & continues to foster private terror groups
of course meta/facebook/zuckerberg will use any new platform to continue to commit & allow harm
That's what they do
@Mordantivore @chrismessina @smallpatatas @Gargron @tonyg @alexeheath
A good reason to defederate, it will make an interesting conversation when someone joins the Meta fedi instance, tries to connect with people, on mastodon and are unable to, and the response from mastodon (and other fedi services) is that Meta services are blocked as Meta it is a cesspit of hate speech etc.
@zleap @smallpatatas @Gargron @tonyg @alexeheath I don't know that these concerns will turn out to be realized.
That's the point of federation: each server can set up its own rules.
Plenty of people use different email services and clients, and none of their choices affect your experience of email. This shouldn't be all that different from that situation.