@clifff if this is a #Mastodon interface? Then #Threads must be blocked from all of #fediverse to prevent our content gets leaked to #meta / #Facebook. Yes, I know everything on fediverse is public and can be easily scraped, but I still wouldn't like Meta to have it on a golden plate without any effort.

Also, it is still possible some conversations are not meant to be public.

Cc.: @Gargron

@mahmoudajawad @clifff @Gargron An awful lot of Mastodon data is simply not locked behind anything. Blocking the Threads app won't do much in that case.

The screenshots above are Threads asking the user's phone for data stored on that phone, and won't affect other users.

Not saying it's not a problem. But it shouldn't affect any user other than the one installing Threads. It's around as intrusive as TikTok or Facebook.

@codefolio @mahmoudajawad @clifff @Gargron

Also, all this blocking and #fedipact is just panicking.

If blocked, you MUST use their app to interact with those people.
If not, there's a huge community coming that we can interact with without giving up data.

I wouldn't doubt it if Meta started or fueled the panic so you'll have to give up your data when your non technical family and friends move in.

@TheActualBrian @mahmoudajawad @clifff @Gargron

I can't imagine Meta had to start a panic over this. Given what Mastodon is and does, this was going to be something a lot of people worry about. Not even unreasonably.

In order to intentionally start a panic over this and risk getting caught, Meta would need to be significantly more worried about Mastodon than yet seems likely.

@codefolio @mahmoudajawad @clifff @Gargron

I don't think they're worried.
I think they want to be isolated from the greater fediverse.
If they're the dominant server and you must use their app, then they get your data or you are isolated from the majority.

Besides, you're correct. They didn't have to start it.
I wouldn't put it past them, but they didn't have to.
This is "The Monsters are Due on Maple St."

@TheActualBrian @mahmoudajawad @clifff @Gargron

Frankly them being isolated from the larger fediverse may be the best choice for the rest of us.

It's got precedent. I mean, Gab and Parler are ActivityPub and isolated like that, and mostly it just works out.

We can't stop them, but mostly don't have to deal with them. It might as well be an entirely different tech.

@codefolio @mahmoudajawad @clifff @Gargron

So, decide for everyone to block entire, large servers because, ... why?

Why decide to blanket block anything to do with Meta before it even exists?

@TheActualBrian @mahmoudajawad @clifff @Gargron

Short version: to avoid the same problem as Google with XMPP, Microsoft with SMTP, etc.

To avoid the leverage and pressure they gain by interoperating - they can make incompatible extensions to ActivityPub. Once they do that, we're stuck either supporting that (expensive, kills dev momentum) or not supporting it (being second-class citizens on our own servers.)

You could say "Meta won't do that" and I'd say "that seems very, very unlikely."

@codefolio @mahmoudajawad @clifff @Gargron

Straw man. No one said they won't.

If they do, act then.

It's open source. That's, what I'm continually told, is the beauty of it, and now it's only open if certain people are not panicked by what one might do.

Prejudgment.

Also, if they do, they cut themselves off.
So what?

@TheActualBrian @mahmoudajawad @clifff @Gargron

The thing is, if they do that, they *don't* cut themselves off. They make the rest of Mastodon look like a second-class service while taking a lot of the Mastodon userbase with them. "Join us or watch your service slowly degrade as other people use Meta-specific features that look lousy or just don't show up on your server."

@TheActualBrian @mahmoudajawad @clifff @Gargron Open Source fixes some problems but not others.

XMPP was open-source, including the significant majority of clients. SMTP was open-source in the same way.

Open Source doesn't magically make this go away, which is why there's a history of it causing severe problems to established Open Source ecosystems.

@TheActualBrian @mahmoudajawad @clifff @Gargron

I'm not opposed to other actions. Defederation might be extreme. Maybe there's something better that's not as extreme.

I'm not sure what.

But "wait and see" is just giving them more leverage for the obvious ugly showdown. So that doesn't seem like a good compromise.

@codefolio @mahmoudajawad @clifff @Gargron

HA!

You have zero leverage.

It's open source. You can't stop them.
The main, Mastodon App being the killer app was the one and only chance of dominating the platform, but everyone wanted to believe that a million, tiny servers with hundreds of apps would magically protect them.

Mastodon is leaving them behind because they're trying to hold it back.