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𝓻𝓻𝓪

Wow the Mastodon FAQ on Meta is a piece of work. Really short-sighted and apolitical.

"Will Meta embrace-extend-extinguish the ActivityPub protocol?"

1. Yes.
2. 'No, look at XMPP, that is still around' is the worst argument. XMPP is completely harmless and neutered with respect to challenging platform power. There are great people working on it and I use it daily for many years, but from a political perspective it is dead. It improves but is steadily years behind the curve with features. Momentum and perspective matter! It could have been turned around if an easy integration with Mastodon was made as it would have given Mastodon instances e2ee messaging, but that didn't happen. (Not too late for that yet btw!)
3. Here is how Meta will EEE ActivityPub:
It will start with Meta being the first ones that ship full account portability including post history. That is hard problem to solve decentralized, which is why we have it yet. But Meta won't care about that. They will just use Meta nameservers as a centralized identity provider which will make it possible. (Similar to how Bluesky does it btw. ) They are extremely well positioned to do this, FB is already "the identity platform" and there is regulatory pressure. From there on there will be increasing incompatibility and extensions on Meta's terms.

6 Jul 2023 at 7:09 | Open on post.lurk.org
12 comments
𝓻𝓻𝓪

"Will Meta be able to show me ads?"

What prevents someone from liking or boosting sponsored posts from a generic sugary beverage company and that showing up in your timeline? It is a sad fact but true: people actually "like" and share ads.

Even then, what prevents Meta from sending out ads in your friends name the way they do on their own platforms? X like this, so now we show it to you as well!

6 Jul 2023 at 7:16 | Open on post.lurk.org
𝓻𝓻𝓪

"Will Meta get my data or be able to track me?"

Yes Mastodon servers don't forward your IP to remote parties. However, Meta has several social applications that are widely used including Facebook, Whatsapp, Instagram and there is a good chance that someone in your household is using those and that this can be used to facilitate that. Meta's tracking famously relied on the decentralized web and webmasters implementing Like-buttons and such to create aggregate profiles and track individuals across the web. The core thing is, you don't have to be on Meta to be tracked.

In addition however, focusing only on IP-address is an intentionally narrow thread model to make it look less bad than it is. A more honest and complete answer to this question would look like this post privacy.thenexus.today/fediver by
@thenexusofprivacy

"Will Meta get my data or be able to track me?"

Yes Mastodon servers don't forward your IP to remote parties. However, Meta has several social applications that are widely used including Facebook, Whatsapp, Instagram and there is a good chance that someone in your household is using those and that this can be used to facilitate that. Meta's tracking famously relied on the decentralized web and webmasters implementing Like-buttons and such to create aggregate profiles and track individuals across...

6 Jul 2023 at 7:23 | Open on post.lurk.org
𝓻𝓻𝓪

"Will a large platform like Meta joining Mastodon overwhelm smaller servers?"

That depends on how you define overwhelm doesn't it? From a technical standpoint: if we look at the amount of trouble many servers had in November 2022 with regards to scaling that gives us some indication of the challenges. But also how people dealt with it: buying more computer or staying small intentionally.

However, the sheer numbers are going to be absolutely crazy. See attached screenshot. I think we might start to see server blocks just in order to stay online to be honest. We can't win this scaling game so we need to find other models.

The FAQ ends with: " small servers will not be affected, and may not even notice the presence of Threads, except when they decide to follow specific users." That is a huge "except", of course people will start following Beyonce and what not and that will definitely impact smaller servers. Or what if Beyonce boosts a message from a small server to all her followers?

If we consider overwhelming culturally and socially the argument of @joenepraat has some merit: todon.nl/@joenepraat/110661775

"Will a large platform like Meta joining Mastodon overwhelm smaller servers?"

That depends on how you define overwhelm doesn't it? From a technical standpoint: if we look at the amount of trouble many servers had in November 2022 with regards to scaling that gives us some indication of the challenges. But also how people dealt with it: buying more computer or staying small intentionally.
6 Jul 2023 at 7:52 | Open on post.lurk.org
𝓻𝓻𝓪

"Will Meta enforce content moderation policies on other servers?"

"Just like any Mastodon server, Threads will have their own moderation policies and tools, and just like any Mastodon server, they will be able to choose which content to block on their platform. However, their decisions can only affect their own platform. "

Of course, this is the best one. Typical libertarian individualist approach, no idea of coercion or unpleasant tradeoffs, nor of interdependence.

What if Meta defederates from you until you accept their ToS? What if you don't want to, but have to because all of your friends and family are on Meta? I mean, this is the dynamic they have been rolling with since forever. Why would this be different?

Mastodon.social is for all intents and purposes already unblockable because it is so big, and you will sever so many valuable connections by blocking the instance. This dynamic will only be exacerbated by Threads.

"Will Meta enforce content moderation policies on other servers?"

"Just like any Mastodon server, Threads will have their own moderation policies and tools, and just like any Mastodon server, they will be able to choose which content to block on their platform. However, their decisions can only affect their own platform. "

6 Jul 2023 at 8:20 | Open on post.lurk.org
fsnk :NeonCat:

@rra
Alternate view:

Mastodon.social isn't unblockable because of its size

If anything, the opposite. It's so big that it's insufficiently moderated & many servers already limit/suspend federation with it for that reason

There's no profit motive to drive servers to fight for eyeballs, no advertisers to serve, and a lot of discourse is based on false assumptions born from cut & pasting corporate, profit driven, commercial goals onto what are largely community & personal projects

6 Jul 2023 at 8:43 | Open on mastodon.acc.sunet.se
anti-bergsgatan aktion

@rra nah let's just block mastodon.social. What's the point of the fediverse if it's just gonna end up as twitter with different css

6 Jul 2023 at 8:45 | Open on radikal.social
Allan Haverholm

@rra Hmm, I'm the person you don't want to tell, "Do whatever you want but you can't do that". Now I wonder how my TLs would look if I just blocked .social (and maybe .art as well) for a month?

6 Jul 2023 at 10:09 | Open on imaginair.es
Duco

@rra well, the Fediverse currently has a few million users. It's still kind of small. Currently you can not follow your friends on Instagram or twitter. If Threads federates and blocks your server, it's still like it is now, isn't it? So we don't loose anything really, or not?

I understand your concern, but it could also be the other way around. Currently your friends loose their contacts switching from Instagram to Pixelfed. If Thread federates they can switch to Mastodon without loosing them.

6 Jul 2023 at 10:19 | Open on norden.social
Duco

@rra I have also described a potential future here: norden.social/@duco/1106653748

We will see how it will turn out in the future. There are some realistic risks that Threads will damage the Fediverse, but there also chances how it can improve the Fediverse. The Fediverse is decentral, so everyone can decide how they react to it. We can not stop them from implementing the ActivityPub standard anyway. So let's wait and intervene when it turns into the wrong direction.

6 Jul 2023 at 10:26 | Open on norden.social
Job

@rra @thenexusofprivacy one of my biggest "forgot to bookmark" regrets is a thread (I suspect it was on Twitter, so it's probably gone anyway) where someone tried to give an exhaustive overview of all direct and more importantly *indirect* ways that companies can track you.

Especially the latter, where they don't even need to directly track you because they essentially can build a you-shaped silhouette through context clues, was a disturbingly deep rabbit hole of hard-to-avoid technologies.

6 Jul 2023 at 8:36 | Open on vis.social
clayote

@rra My reading on github suggested that the fact we don't currently have full post migration is due to performance and moderation concerns and not because there's an issue with the current way of proving you own both accounts. Is there something I'm missing?

6 Jul 2023 at 7:23 | Open on peoplemaking.games
Dragan Espenschied
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