WARNING: Phishing Attacks, HTML markup to hide urls, are now in Mastodon.
While Mastodon does not have markup to allow hiding urls, they share API with "friendica" and friendica ALLOW HIDING URLS.
And friendica accounts can post on Mastodon.
I have asked for a solution, none is forthcoming.
Click NO LINKS that come friendica. Be wary of links on Mastodon, as if Mastodon were "email" - without any protections.
Multiple reports of other fediverse branches allow hiding urls. No Clicking links
@kevinrns running akkoma here, i assume pretty much all fediverse software will allow you to post such links though. and yeah, itâs âjust as safe as emailsâ, itâs still just a fancy html editor after all, why would it be safer?
youâre still on the internet, iâd argue youâre still expected to follow basic security advice, like checking the url youâre going to when hovering, checking the url bar before entering any information, and using a context-aware password manager for all your logins that doesnât autofill when the domain doesnât match.
this kind of link customisation feature has been available on forums and online boards for decades at this point. some more modern internet discussion platforms seem to have removed it, which i think made some people forget, or just not learn, to use those other, safer, ways of ensuring the url youâre clicking on is what you expect. maybe mastodon should warn users with a pop-uo before opening such links? i donât know, iâm not a ux designer, you can advocate for it upstream with whichever fediverse software youâre using if you want it tho, fedi is all about havibg options, after all
Did I answer this? The freedom to hide urls reminds me of the right to racist propaganda.
Let me phish! For freedom.
@kevinrns well, this is the web, you are free to use extensions on your webbrowser that change that behaviour if you donât like it. it seems far from the same as propaganda to me
if youâre just looking for excuses to be angry at something, i see no point in arguing further. if you really want change, i suggest advocating for it on the mastodon and other fediverse-compatible social networkâs issue trackers
keep in mind though that this is an ability websites have had since the world wide web was invented at cern, and this is the first time iâve heard it being compared to propaganda
Kevin Russell
yuki - queen of the snow