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submitted 1 year ago by Greg@lemmy.ca to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

The arguments I've heard about tracking etc are misguided and don't understand the actual risks.

Firstly, posts on the fediverse are already likely being consumed by advertising platforms like Facebook & Google. It would be trivial for big tech companies to setup relays that act as scrapers.

Secondly, the value in platform's tracking individuals is for advertising. There is no mechanism for these platforms to identify you browsing the we if your instance federated with threads. Your instance won't share cookie sessions etc with threads. It doesn't increase your exposure.

Thirdly, these platforms have the know how to deal with spam and they will be incentivised to share that tech with other federated instances.

Don't get me wrong, Facebook is an evil company. But I haven't heard a decent argument as to why them joining the fediverse is a bad thing. We always have the option to defederate in the future.

Change my mind.

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[-] Zadkine@lemmy.world 183 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Basically this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace,_extend,_and_extinguish

First they will add loads of new users and become the dominant instances. Then, they will add their own proprietary features that other instances cannot support. Finally, their extensions become the new de-facto standard, marginalizing the original implementations.

Since Meta has proven itself to be an evil company that does not act in good faith, it is better to not federate with them from the start.

[-] OtakuAltair@vlemmy.net 4 points 1 year ago

Even if they do go through with that and become bloated, doesn't that just mean the fediverse's userbase will be back where we started? Mastodon's ceo/founder seems to agree

Doesn't bother me much honestly, I'd rather be able to follow some of my favourite artists on Threads from the comfort of Mastodon/Lemmy, even if that's only until Threads goes downhill.

[-] Zadkine@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

No, because when (not if) Threads goes downhill they will have become the dominant platform with all the users and special communities (just like Reddit was and still is). I want Lemmy to become that platform, not Threads. The whole idea is not to be beholden to yet another corporate techbro overlord.

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this post was submitted on 06 Jul 2023
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