Paul Haddad May 19, 2023
I, for one, welcome our new Meta overlords.
https://liahaberman.substack.com/p/icymi-instagrams-new-app-could-be
ICYMI: Instagram's New App Could Be Here By June

Meta's hosting secret meetings with select creators to share details

ICYMI by Lia Haberman
Show threadGracjan NowakMay 19, 2023

@paul They mention it’ll be compatible with Mastodon. What?! Did I read that right? Is this some alternative reality I’m living in? 🙊

I still hate and don't trust that company though. Even I they'll attempt to build something decentralized.

Show threadBrennan StehlingMay 19, 2023

@gracjan @paul It will support ActivityPub which is a W3C standard. It should be possible to interact that way. I am not quite sure of the benefits to a company like Meta or how the user experience in apps like Mastodon will be. I use Pixelfed and can follow my account on there and even boost posts with my account on Mastodon.

My guess is Meta will make it harder for content to get into their domain while they will make it easy for their content to get out to any ActivityPub capable service. If their apps are better in terms of design and usability I expect many will use it.

Show threadGracjan Nowak
@brennansv @paul I’m aware of #ActivityPub, but I’m also skeptical of #Meta’s willingness to change. They’re the primary actor who got us into this whole mess of #centralization, #surveillance, addiction, hate speech and extremist content, fake news, conspiracy theories, vendor lock-in, etc. I’m afraid that instead of a meaningful paradigm shift which started happening because of the #Fediverse, will end up in a similar situation.
May 20, 2023 at 11:28amWeb
Show threadBrennan StehlingMay 20, 2023
@gracjan @paul Many of these problems will remain on any platform because some people are bad actors.
Show threadGracjan NowakMay 20, 2023
@brennansv @paul That's true, but Facebook enabled these things on a scale that hasn't been seen before. They also showed, over and over again, through bad decisions and inaction, that they don't care about the huge detriment to society as long as their bottom line is safe. In my opinion, they are the worst tech company (or at least very high on that list).
Show threadBrennan StehlingMay 22, 2023
@gracjan @paul I would focus on what can make Mastodon and what ActivityPub apps can do to be better in every including mitigating abuses. This is the classic problem of building a platform/website/app for one purpose and users using it differently than was intended. Abuse it just a subset of that problem. If we are distracted by what others are doing we won’t have as much energy left to what we want to improve.