Technology

Before everyone freaks out, this has zero impact on our communities. Chill.

They can already do this by bringing content from Mastodon to Meta platforms via links and screen grabs, this only speeds up the process.

Personally, I love that they're not federating day one. Because I don't want any instances I use to federate with them, I don't want to be connected to a Meta platform unless I deliberately go to a Meta platform to use it.

To expedite the process, Mastodon instances should just defederate from them entirely. Don't let them access that data through ActivityPub. They can build their own platform on the Fediverse and we can have our network of smaller connected instances.

Them doing this does not affect our communities unless we let it. Defederate from them and we can go on our merry way and they can have their own ad laden instance that's not connected.

Everyone, relax. Continue building your communities here and ignore Meta in their unconnected instances.

Importantly, posts hosted and visible on Meta's server will be subject to Facebook's content moderation rules, which means those policies will likely have a sweeping impact across the Fediverse.

Is it just me or does that sound like anything on instances hosted outside of meta's own that can be merely seen from theirs? I'm all for moderation, the stricter moderation against hate-speech is part of why I joined Beehaw. But if I'm reading that right (I hope I'm not), then it seems like they plan to call the shots on other instances as if they have any say in what everyone else does right out of the gate.

Maybe what's meant here is simply defederation of entire instances and banning of problematic users like any other instance does, ok. But it could also mean pressuring admins to enforce Meta's TOS on a case-by-case basis which feels like the start of EEE tactics.

I hate everything about this. I came here to escape the Corporations damnit!

Why is noone talking about GDPR data deletion request and copyright striking them into oblivion?

Last I checked noone gave them permission to grab any of our data, much less profit off it. Let them pay fines to the grave.

The Verge article is paywalled for me, but the screencaps Alex shared in his toot don't really support his summary. The article mentions that Threads can import content from Mastodon as an example of the sorts of things ActivityPub supports, and that's about as close as it gets.

And then there's this:

The company is planning to create a roundtable for administrators of other servers and developers to share best practices and work through problems that will inevitably arise, like Meta's server traffic putting strain on other, smaller servers.

Emphasis mine. How would Meta's server put strain on other, smaller servers if it's not federating with them?

I'm fully willing to believe Meta wants to EEE ActivityPub, but this particular claim doesn't seem to check out.

So basically they're just going to be a leech. Blech.

Hunh. ya know- I wouldn't be surprised if many of those "bot accounts" are infact, from meta, planning a takeover of everything here.

I'm only thinking how meta can scrape analytics.

I don't know why everyone's all doom and gloom right now. Yes, this is a massive issue, but they're not even federating right off the bat, just allowing accounts to be imported. Who's to say Threads will even take off? While they may take a bunch of new users, I can't see a ton of people currently using Fedi services switching to Facebook (I refuse to call them Meta).

Yes, we need to be on our guards, but don't forfeit the battle before it even begins.

So... let me see if I've got this right: Meta is going to start a Twitter-like instance on the fediverse that will be marketed to Instagram members and will be subject to Facebook's content moderation rules, and Mastodon users who want to will be able to transfer their accounts to Meta's instance, in which case they will be subject to Facebook's content rules.

I keep trying to see what all of the fuss is about, but no matter how often I look at it or from how many different angles, all I see is Meta and Zuckerberg doing yet another faceplant.

It's as if Walmart announced that they were going to open a chain of art house cinemas and market them to Walmart customers.

Every instance and user should block meta's shit ASAP!

Anyone operating an instance should defederate from this shit immediately. This is exactly the kind of corporate overreach that isn’t welcome here. This will end very poorly for the fediverse I think.

The fediverse is gonna be like 2 servers that act like they care about privacy in a few years

I'm shocked! SHOCKED! Meta isn't playing on an equal playing field? There's no way I could have ever seen that coming!

If this fediverse thing works like its advertised to, whatever meta does won't have any effect on the rest of the network

That didn't take long. Welp, the fediverse was a good idea. We are in the darkest timeline.