blaine
When Facebook started, they bootstrapped networks by downloading & matching contacts from email. Twitter, and everyone else, did the same. Threads is blowing up because Facebook is using their monopoly on the social graph. Legislation to guarantee easy, fast access to your own contact lists for use in non-billionaire-owned media would help level the playing field, because Zuck & co sure aren't going to give the connections they stole back to us otherwise. 21 comments
 
coldclimate
@blaine my levels of anger about the endless clusterfuck that is billionaires in tech is leading me towards the ultimate question: do their houses burn?
blaine
@coldclimate yeah, it does, but not with useful timelines nor format for use by open alternatives. GDPR should specify that access needs to be as fast and specific as internal tools have access.
Tom Scott
@blaine @coldclimate TBH I struggle to see how Threads is compliant with GDPR's principles incl migrating the social graph from one service to another (I assume they would argue it is a 'compatible' purpose?) so providing an API for others to do the same would also be incompatible with GDPR. I think?? 
Alistair Davidson
@derivadow @blaine @coldclimate Not if you're accessing it yourself! GDPR mostly just requires consent and legitimate purpose.
Alistair Davidson
@derivadow @blaine @coldclimate Hmmm. I am allowed to download a copy of my own address book (in fact isn't this a GDPR requirement itself?). Whether it's legal to accept an upload to a different service might depend on how that services uses the data (IANAL)
Tom Scott
@moh_kohn @blaine @coldclimate ah yes I see what you mean. I was thinking about the upload bit (or meta just using the data in another product). 
Oblomov
The Digital Markets Act should force them in that direction, which is probably one of the reason they aren't launching P92 in the EU 
Pelle Wessman
@blaine GDPR should let you export your contact list easily, someone should push that issue 😅 As it is now: Thread is one big antitrust case(?)
Eric Jennings
Jonathan Frederickson
@blaine I don't know. They are saying that they're planning to support migrating your followers out of Threads, and I would guess that'll be via the `move` activity since that's how it's generally done on the fediverse. So it kinda seems like they're already doing this? I do think you're right that it needs legislation though. There's a part of me that feels like they're only doing this because the DMA is about to require them to in Europe anyway.
CaliGal
Ugh....Thread is going to be another Twitter ala Elon Musk meaning no one will stop the trolls, the lies, etc. I don't use anything connected to FB. I don't use the Messenger or Instagram. I have closed groups. I wish I could just quit, but I have family and friends around the country I would otherwise not have as much contact.
Chris J. Karr
You CAN export your data from platforms like Facebook. The missing part is the new social network implementing an importer that can parse that data and start rebuilding your network at your new digs. Something the PixelFed folks around here are doing right is not ignoring that opportunity and building tools to bring your Instagram content over to their platform. Next time you see a European, thank them for the GDPR which has resulted in these options.
Half Cocked Law
@blaine yes, what we need is freely-distributed data on everyone's scraped internet presence.
Guillaume Ross
Eric Jennings
@blaine Actually what’s funny to me about this is that Instagram got started by bootstrapping on Twitter’s social graph before Twitter realized they should lock that data down. Doubt Instagram would’ve taken off if they hadn’t piggybacked on Twitter’s social graph back in the day. So the idea of Meta now making a Twitter competitor bootstrapped off Instagram is just the next level of sticking it to Twitter. (Also Facebook shouldn’t have been allowed to buy Instagram.) |
Gregory's Server
@blaine I think threads is going to be the next Google Social (or whatever it was called).