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Alex Gleason
jessel is an engineer building AP integration at Threads: @0xjessel

The plot thickens.

RT: https://universeodon.com/users/jessel/statuses/111577326694062537
15 Dec 2023 at 17:32 | Open on gleasonator.com
Alex Gleason
Hey @mosseri a couple of my services aren't receiving requests from Threads. It's unclear if it's a technical issue or purposefully blocked. I am assuming it's a technical issue on your end, and planning to work around it, unless you create some transparency about which servers are blocked.
15 Dec 2023 at 16:39 | Open on gleasonator.com
Alex Gleason
Alex Gleason
Fellas. Mark Zuckerberg blocked Spinster because he can't handle grandma at her worst and doesn't deserve her at her best.

RT: https://nicecrew.digital/objects/c037562c-6a0f-44a1-bfb1-918fe944889d
15 Dec 2023 at 5:07 | Open on gleasonator.com
Alex Gleason
"Maximalist Grandmacore" from /r/zillowgonewild
15 Dec 2023 at 4:46 | Open on gleasonator.com
Alex Gleason
Alex Gleason
Facebook has infiltrated the Fediverse. Only one man can stop this.
15 Dec 2023 at 3:26 | Open on gleasonator.com
Alex Gleason
It's been 24 hours and I've had to modify two fedi projects to make them compatible with Threads. Embrace Extend?
15 Dec 2023 at 2:29 | Open on gleasonator.com
Alex Gleason
They're not really extending anything, just requiring something that was previously optional. So it's kind of an Extend.
15 Dec 2023 at 2:30 | Open on gleasonator.com
Alex Gleason
@ottman can y'all see Threads on your end? Specifically @mosseri
14 Dec 2023 at 23:26 | Open on gleasonator.com
Alex Gleason
Alex Gleason
Spinster is updated with the fix for Threads, and still unable to fetch. This confirms it's blocked.
14 Dec 2023 at 21:45 | Open on gleasonator.com
Alex Gleason
Well, here is my one-liner to fix federation with Threads in Pleroma. So at least we have that. https://gitlab.com/soapbox-pub/rebased/-/merge_requests/296/diffs
14 Dec 2023 at 21:23 | Open on gleasonator.com

@alex https://www.w3.org/TR/activitypub/#actor-objects
>Actor objects MUST have [...] the following properties:
>outbox
So for once it is Pleroma who's fucking up the standard. No bugs my ass.
Screenshot_20231215_003042.png
Screenshot_20231215_003042.png
14 Dec 2023 at 21:31 | Open on ryona.agency
Alex Gleason
I was able to successfully follow Mosseri from my server. Gleasonator is not blocked.
14 Dec 2023 at 21:31 | Open on gleasonator.com
Alex Gleason
Nostrbros,

I have modified the Mostr bridge to work with Threads. It works correctly in my test environment. But it does not work in production on mostr.pub due to the issue outlined here:

RT: https://gleasonator.com/objects/971aec23-a2bc-4b88-8cee-e76b5692451e
14 Dec 2023 at 19:54 | Open on gleasonator.com
Alex Gleason
Fellas, I think threads.net might be blocking some servers already.

It does not work on any Pleroma servers yet. (EDIT: this issue has been fixed https://gitlab.com/soapbox-pub/rebased/-/merge_requests/296/diffs ) But I believe that is an unintentional compatibility issue. However some servers seem to be outright blocked.

Let me explain. Threads requires signed fetches. What that means is that every GET request to a threads.net resource needs to be cryptographically signed. Threads will then look up the signer and verify its signature.

The flow looks something like this:

gleasonator.com -> GET threads.net/zuck (signed by /actor)
threads.net -> GET gleasonator.com/actor

The request to Threads contains a signature, with information about how to verify it. Threads will then verify it by fetching info from the origin server before returning the data.

You can see Threads fetching your own server by looking at the "facebookexternalua" user agent. Try this command on your server:

grep facebookexternalua /var/log/nginx/access.log

If you see logs there, that means Threads is attempting to verify your signatures and allow you to access their data.

On Gleasonator, I am seeing logs there. It is trying to let me establish a connection, even though it fails due to a bug in Pleroma or Threads. This means Gleasonator is not blocked.

However, on Spinster, and the Mostr Bridge, I have no requests from Threads at all, despite sending signed fetches. graf reports that Poast also isn't receiving any requests.

I do not believe they are operating on a whitelist. If so, it wouldn't make sense for Gleasonator and many other widely-blocked servers like gameliberty.club to be able to fetch from Threads.

So then I thought it may just be a caching issue, or a fluke on their end. But when I make a request from Gleasonator, I get the pingback from Threads within seconds. On Spinster and Mostr, there is no attempt being made at all.

So I am starting to think they may be blocking at the server-level already. And they are blocking Poast, Spinster, and the Mostr Bridge.
Fellas, I think threads.net might be blocking some servers already.

It does not work on any Pleroma servers yet. (EDIT: this issue has been fixed https://gitlab.com/soapbox-pub/rebased/-/merge_requests/296/diffs
14 Dec 2023 at 19:47 | Open on gleasonator.com
silverpill

@alex I also see attempts to fetch instance actor in my log, but the last one was ~5 hours ago. Now when I make a signed request, threads.net doesn't react at all, even if I send a signed request as a different actor.

14 Dec 2023 at 20:02 | Open on mitra.social
Michael Vogel
@alex What I just found out: Friendica does the requests with their system actor. That actor only has got an inbox, but no outbox. After I added the outbox to the profile, I was able to fetch a user.
14 Dec 2023 at 22:52 | Open on pirati.ca
Michael Vogel

@alex Over night some posts from Threads (from Adam Mosseri) appeared on my system, so this seems to work fine.

One is a video where Adam Mosseri explains the launch in Europe and the steps towards the Fediverse. It appears as if he has got a deep knowledge of this whole topic. For example he made clear that the whole system is the Fediverse, the Protocol is ActivityPub and Mastodon is one of many applications in the Fediverse. Here he is already better than a lot of the Mastodon users of the Fediverse, who always call it "Mastodon".

I'm still not 100% where this will lead to and which motivation they drive. I don't think that their primary target is to dry out the Fediverse. They have got 100 million active users per month, the fediverse around 2. You don't invest such a lot time just for 2% gain.

Same is valid for this "they want our profile data" argument. They can gain some information about which user interacts with other users. But this doesn't help their ad business, since they cannot connect Fediverse accounts with IP addresses or cookies or any other tracking techniques.

By now I think that they want to avoid trouble via the EU because of their Digital Markets Act.

@alex Over night some posts from Threads (from Adam Mosseri) appeared on my system, so this seems to work fine.

One is a video where Adam Mosseri explains the launch in Europe and the steps towards the Fediverse. It appears as if he has got a deep knowledge of this whole topic. For example he made clear that the whole system is the Fediverse, the Protocol is ActivityPub and Mastodon is one of many applications in the Fediverse. Here he is already better than a lot of the Mastodon users of the Fediverse,...

15 Dec 2023 at 3:38 | Open on pirati.ca
Alex Gleason
Well there's nothing to do with Threads at the moment, unless someone can point to new profiles being fetched or posts coming through.

Back to writing my custom websocket pool.
14 Dec 2023 at 16:13 | Open on gleasonator.com
realcaseyrollins

@alex Only three #Threads profiles can be viewed right now, I suspect that the test is only being extended to the #Threads engineers, admins, and devs rn

@mosseri@threads.net

@0xjessel@threads.net

@christophersu@threads.net

14 Dec 2023 at 16:34 | Open on social.teci.world
Alex Gleason
Mastodon.social seems like it can talk to Threads fine, but nothing I do makes it work.

curl -H "accept: application/activity+json" -H "user-agent: http.rb/5.1.1 (Mastodon/4.2.2; +https://mastodon.social/)"; https://www.threads.net/ap/users/mosseri/

Even pretending to be Mastodon.social's user-agent 404s. I wonder if they have an IP whitelist.
Mastodon.social seems like it can talk to Threads fine, but nothing I do makes it work.

curl -H "accept: application/activity+json" -H "user-agent: http.rb/5.1.1 (Mastodon/4.2.2; +https://mastodon.social/)"
14 Dec 2023 at 13:54 | Open on gleasonator.com
Alex Gleason
Alex Gleason
It seems that we'll be able to see them, but they won't be able to see us.

RT: https://mastodon.social/users/Gargron/statuses/111576825980285552
14 Dec 2023 at 6:08 | Open on gleasonator.com
Alex Gleason
Alex Gleason
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