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Threads Has Begun Federating Via ActivityPub
(daringfireball.net)
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this post was submitted on 15 Dec 2023
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Technology
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This perspective of "Either you agree with me or you're complicit in a conspiracy against me" is incredibly childish and immature.
Sometimes people have different opinions than you. Try to find a way to deal with it.
To me it's like warning someone to not stand in the middle of the highway, and having some guy go "don't tell me what to do, I have the right to disagree with you".
There are idiots in the world and their opinions are actually idiotic. :)
It's 100% super obvious that Meta wants to control the fediverse, and that's why they are coming for it.
Can you explain how it's 100% super obvious? I thought a popular platform with many users entering the fediverse might be good for exposure but it seems like the consensus here is that it's actually bad. Help me understand how it's bad?
In summary we know everything Facebook does is pretty evil, it's "super obvious" that this will therefore be pretty evil too, right?
Since almost everything on the Fediverse is open for all to see, anyone can already be mining the data just by setting up their own instance of Lemmy or Mastodon. This might make it difficult to sell fediverse-generated data for profit.
I'm sure they have a plan (otherwise they wouldn't be doing it!), maybe it relies on using their app which also has your real name and phone number, maybe it's for some legal loophole which means all fediverse users technically agree to their terms just by federating. I don't know what they're up to, but given their previous behaviour I think it's safer not to even let them try!
Maybe it's to avoid getting hit by antitrust sanctions and some EU legislation:
"Look, we're open, we're using the same ActivityPub protocol as thousands of others, our users can choose to leave whenever they want" - Meta, probably
(...then 99% of their users proceed to DGAF and stay on Threads)
Ok yeah make sense! I'm definitely not a fan of Facebook's and Meta's data policies either.
But how is anyone going to control a decentralised platform tho? What you're describing seems like it would only apply to users on instances controlled by Meta, i.e. on threads itself. Or maybe I still don't understand how the fediverse works.
One way I can think of is by being such a big player that they dominate and can thereby exert their will. For example, lemmy.world is the largest lemmy instance and we've seen a few communities on other instances dry up in favour of the ones on the big server. Now imagine that server is a hundred times bigger than the next largest and the people in charge have an active financial interest in moving people to their platform - if they play it carefully (and I'm sure they'll be employing people to think about how to do this) they can shift the existing content into a place they can control it.
That doesn't really apply to Lemmy's content though, since unlike Lemmy.world, Threads users won't be able to create /c/ communities. If a Threads user wants to post to a community in a way that Lemmy recognizes them, they'll have to post it to one under a Lemmy instance's control, or Lemmy users won't see a thing.
That was just an analogy, I believe Threads is targeting federation with Mastodon rather than Lemmy
Alright I see, thanks a lot for explaining
tell your friends
Normally and with very many other issues ... I would agree with you ... but on this issue I'm very adamant about what I see and believe.
Think about it ... Facebook is a billion dollar corporation and they show interest in your little world and the little things you are doing and they want to join you. This is a company that already has billions invested in systems that already have billions of users and millions of dollars of man power and technological resources. Why do they want to step into what we are doing here? Why do they feel a need to step into our space? Do they need more users? Do they need help from us?
Big corporations are only interested in perpetual growth at all costs. They are also deathly afraid of competition or the potential of future competition. Look at the history of manufacturing, automotive corporations over the past hundred years ... it's a long history of the strong eating the weak.
I agree my argument may sound childish or extreme but in this instance it's pretty clear ... if you let them in, it's basically the beginning of the end for the fediverse.
It's the metaphorical Trojan Horse .... once it's inside and firmly established, everything will be lost.
I think there's a much simpler explanation. Elon's actions are causing users to want to leave the platform. Meta wants to pounce on this opportunity. ActivityPub is an established, open source protocol that allows Meta to quickly spin up a Twitter competitor. The federated nature means that Meta can reduce regulatory risk. At the same time, they can lobby for increased scrutiny of Twitter since it isn't interroperable like Threads.
I have no idea if this is actually how Meta is strategizing. But what I definitely know is that Meta absolutely doesn't consider federated social media a threat. They aren't trying to squash us. They're aimed at Twitter. If they make some change that degrades the experience for us, absolutely we should consider defederation. Until then, let's try to make some converts out of Threads users.
It's a type of squashing .... they step in, take over, control it and the whole thing becomes something that is beyond our control and becomes another platform that is operated by a private corporation to manipulate and manage thought, content and private freedoms. Basically squashing the Fediverse that we originally wanted to exist.
Once a major powerful corporation steps in and is given access ... it's like allowing a local gang member in your town to use your living room to deal drugs ... at first you get some benefits but eventually, they'll take over your house, throw you out and tell you go somewhere else because you don't own the house any more, no matter what anyone says.
That's not how the fediverse works, there is no obligation for any instance to federate with any other, and there are large groups of instances that block each other right now.
Meta can't throw anyone out of whatever instance they're on, it's just not possible.
yes not presently ... but one an entity like Meta becomes the dominant system in this universe, eventually, they will build all the keys and controls to regulate it all ... that's the point when they will lock out whoever they want
this is like the debate with climate change ... no one really understands what's going to happen in a few decades so we don't care ... when in reality, the time to do something about some future catastrophe is now ... it's the same thing with the fediverse, don't allow big corporations in now, because we won't be able to do anything about it later when they've overwhelmed everything.
Meta is already the dominant social network, and yet here we are. They can't take that back, they can't stop people from spinning up their own ActivityPub instances (if you don't know how, go to YounoHost and do it the simple way), Meta can't stop these instances from communicating among themselves in any way their owners see fit.
Sure, Meta can lock out whoever they want out of Threads... but that's the status quo already: the whole fediverse is currently "locked out" from Threads, they can't lock it out any more.
As for climate change, the time to do something was over 125 years ago... so yeah, that boat has sailed many many times over:
https://blogs.bl.uk/science/2016/12/the-first-paper-on-carbon-dioxide-and-global-warming.html
They're saying that those opinions are naïve.
I see you conveniently left out the bit where they said people could also just be naive. Kind of funny how you attempted to take the moral high ground and lecture this person like they were a small child, yet you yourself cherrypicked in bad faith just to have some little takedown moment. One of you certainly came off more childish and immature in this exchange and it wasn't the other guy.