@urlyman Short answer to both questions: #FediPact. I did not abandon Twitter and FB, to then get re-colonized here. As I've said before: I will not get suckered into the #zuckerverse.

The way I see it, federating with #threads poses 3 problems.

1. They emit trash. As in: #nazi and other hate talk not being moderated.

2. They ingest data. Anybody who thinks #meta deserves a chance in that regards is bonkers.

3. Network dynamics. Once you federate and people build connections, defederation becomes so disruptive that it becomes progressively more difficult over time. We should nip such asymmetrical power imbalances in the bud.

Framing this as an individual choice, rather than as a collective action, misses aspects of all 3 problems.

I'm more than a bit surprised, how this is apparently not self-evident to many people. You'd think the trainwrecks of Twitter and FB would have opened people's eyes to the abhorrent dystopia of corporate social media, and their #techbro data capitalism. Isn't that why we're here, and not there???

As to choosing kolektiva.social: I like the vibe, it fits my politics, and the content moderation policies look rather sane. Plus, I get to post a long rant like this, and I still have >85% of my character limit left 😁.

If you made it this far, you deserve a flower 🌼 🌸

It would be a mistake to interpret the current lull in interest, and the odd nature of the Threads launch, as reasons to relax. On the contrary, this is the perfect moment to act on the protective impulses that engendered the FediPact.

Moreover, the push towards centralization, surveillance and algorithmic harvesting by Facebook-linked authoritarians, which is meeting no resistance from those at the top of the development and administrative hierarchy, makes urgent action nothing less than a necessity for everyone of a marginalized or targeted identity, all true believers in FLOSS, and radicals of every stripe.

This is the time to convene, prefigure, and build a Free Fediverse.

8/20

#FreeFediverse #FediPact #DefederateMeta #Meta #Facebook #Threads #Prefiguration #DualPower #Fedifam #Communalism #FacebookFediverse #Zuckerverse #FacebookMafia

Meta will federate for the same reason that Google pays Mozilla tens of millions a year to keep Firefox alive. But that comparison only takes us so far, because in this case, it's more like Google dishing out the money only on the condition that Firefox disables ad-blocking and sends telemetry to Google.

So, we have multiple, recent and ongoing indicators. We have motives and strategies which fit a type. Every signal beams in the same direction, and there are none which contradict it. Meta is coming.

And the ActivityPub protocol and major fediverse development projects are firmly under the control of facilitators who are smoothing the way. This is a blog post by one of the primary Mastodon developers, with a proposal to add in backend hooks for the algorithmic surveillance and telemetry collection demanded by the Facebook Mafia.

https://renchap.com/blog/post/evolving_mastodon_trust_and_safety/

7/20

#FreeFediverse #FediPact #DefederateMeta #Meta #Facebook #Threads #Prefiguration #DualPower #Fedifam #FacebookFediverse #Zuckerverse #FacebookMafia #Openwashing

A recent paper by @Mer__edith , @davidthewid and Sarah Myers West discusses the openwashing ploy utilized by Meta and other tech giants, in which "AI" and other exploitative technologies are obfuscated by a thin veneer of democratization.

Paper: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4543807
Fedi thread: https://mastodon.world/@Mer__edith/110905980596068726

@pluralistic riffs further on the openwashing concept: https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/18/openwashing/#you-keep-using-that-word-i-do-not-think-it-means-what-you-think-it-means

Meta currently has a big problem with regulators - particularly in the EU - demanding more interoperability from their social media operations. ActivityPub federation with their throwaway Threads side-project buys them a low-cost, low-risk figleaf. Perhaps we can term this particular variant "interop-washing"?

6/20

#FreeFediverse #FediPact #DefederateMeta #Meta #Facebook #Threads #Prefiguration #DualPower #Fedifam #Communalism #FacebookFediverse #Zuckerverse #Openwashing

Now to the question of motives. This has also been called into question. Why, after an early July Threads launch with over 100 million "signups" (all of which carried over from existing Instagram accounts), would Meta care about our puny little nothing of a network?

According to one analytics firm, that usage number had dwindled to 576,000 by early August.

https://www.similarweb.com/blog/insights/social-media-news/threads-first-month/

Suddenly the fedi, with an estimated DAU of 1.8 million, doesn't seem so puny. But beyond any question of numbers, there is a crystal clear benefit to federation, one which would fit a well-worn pattern for the Zuckerberg entity - openwashing.

5/20

#FreeFediverse #FediPact #DefederateMeta #Meta #Facebook #Threads #Prefiguration #DualPower #Fedifam #Communalism #FacebookFediverse #Zuckerverse #Openwashing