Im out of the loop on the meta wanting to do something related to the fediverse. could somebody get me up to date / explain it to me?
Meta (the corporation behind Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram) created a new platform called Threads. It’s basically a Twitter with Zuckenberg instead of Elon Musk. And Meta said that it wants to use the ActivityPub protocol in Threads.
ActivityPub is the protocol used by Mastodon instances to talk with each other. For example, you can post from mastodon.social and someone in social.vivaldi.net can read it and reply, or vice versa. So as soon as Threads uses the ActivityPub protocol, those Mastodon instances will be able to talk with Threads and vice versa.
That sounds good, right? Well… no. Meta, Alphabet/Google, Microsoft, they’re that sort of nasty business that doesn’t play by the rules. Odds are that Meta is trying to use a shitty strategy called Embrace, Extend, Extinguish towards Mastodon. For example, here’s what Meta could do:
- enable ActivityPub protocol in Threads. Mastodon users access Threads content and vice versa. Use this to kickstart Threads’ userbase and seed its initial content.
- make a few divergent changes in Threads, that give Mastodon users a harder time accessing content in Threads than the opposite. So Mastodon users are encouraged to create Threads accounts.
- when there are considerably more people using Threads than Mastodon, Meta “pulls off the plug” of ActivityPub, denying Mastodon users the Threads content that they were able to access. Now Mastodon becomes a ghost town, because most of its users and content are in Threads.
I’m using Mastodon as example but note that this also affects Lemmy, since it also uses the same protocol - it’s how I can see and reply to your post, even if you’re form lemmy.world and I’m from lemmy.ml. So, once Threads implements the ActivityPub, you’ll see Threads leaking into Lemmy too. And in the rest of the Fediverse.
And now all that “facebook stuff” discussion going on is about ways to prevent Meta from ruining Mastodon and potentially the rest of the Fediverse.
Zuck sees the fediverse as a viable threat to corporate power or he’s desperate for any kind of win…maybe both.
Probably both. It’s a competitor that he cannot buy, and room for expansion of his data mining business.
Ah, the Walmart way of doing business with small companies.
Yup, pretty much. “We’re friends”, then “we’re friends but I’m better than you”, then “I stand alone”.
Their Threads thing is going to be a Fediverse Instance. Once it attaches, it’ll dwarf the rest of the place, we’ll basically be a pimple on its ass, and people are afraid Zuck is gonna ??? profit, basically. They’re likely right.
Majority of Lemmy is pretty anti-Zuck, but there’s a persistent group of either Zuck fans, people that want Insta content on here or general free-market types that want to see him join and are pretty passionate about it.
I miss days when internet forums were big and no corporation tried to actively kill them
Metabook just released a Twitter clone, Threads, which they say will use the ActivityPub protocol eventually (though it doesn’t now), and that will enable connections to networks such as Mastodon and Lemmy. Many people using those feel like we’re pleased to be on independent, open source internet app and worry that being connected to Zuckstagram will basically ruin it or they’ll try to take it over somehow.
Yah, I really don’t want to see Lemmy become infested with p*nis enchancement ads, pseudo-science slime, and watch Russian bots commandeer US & other elections (yet again).
Here is an excellent article, written in layman’s terms, that can help provide historical context to why people are freaking out about Meta joining the fediverse.
https://ploum.net/2023-06-23-how-to-kill-decentralised-networks.html
This quote really spoke to me: "By competing against Meta in the brainless growth-at-all-cost ideology, we are certain to lose. They are the master of that game. They are trying to bring everyone in their field, to make people compete against them using the weapons they are selling.
Fediverse can only win by keeping its ground, by speaking about freedom, morals, ethics, values. By starting open, non-commercial and non-spied discussions. By acknowledging that the goal is not to win. Not to embrace. The goal is to stay a tool. A tool dedicated to offer a place of freedom for connected human beings. Something that no commercial entity will ever offer."
I know that Meta stated they ultimately want to move Threads to the fediverse, but I have a hard time believing they will. The average social media user on their platforms will not be able to figure it out. I’m okay with that.
They’ll move to the ActivityPub protocol. This is almost guaranteed, as it will provide the platform protection against privacy and anticompetition laws that are currently being drafted against monolithic social media platforms.
But it won’t stop there. They’ll use the protocol, but Instagram doesn’t, so Threads will always have “extra” features that aren’t a part of ActivityPub.
This means that while ActivityPub users will be able to migrate to Threads and preserve their connections, Threads users won’t be able to move elsewhere in the Fediverse and keep all the components of their service.
And Threads already dwarfs the rest of the Fediverse in users after less than two days, despite not being available in Europe due to incompatibility with real privacy laws.
Their first “enhancement” will be to dumb it down until the average Facebook cretin can understand it. Maybe they’ll come up with the fediverse equivalent of Clippy.
I know that Meta stated they ultimately want to move Threads to the fediverse, but I have a hard time believing they will. The average social media user 9n their platforms will not be able to figure it out. I’m okay with that.
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Thanks you all for answers
