Ars TechnicaHow Threads’ privacy policy compares to Twitter’s (and its rivals’)
Here’s what is collected by Threads, as well as by Twitter, Bluesky, Mastodon, Spill, and Hive Social.
GrayGooGlitch 
@arstechnica
The article has a factual mistake. Mastodon isn't trying to pick up the people leaving Twitter, it's just here and they show up. We don't advertise, we aren't in the trades talking up decentralized networks, we just exist and they find us.
The article has a factual mistake. Mastodon isn't trying to pick up the people leaving Twitter, it's just here and they show up. We don't advertise, we aren't in the trades talking up decentralized networks, we just exist and they find us.
Rob Shearer@GrayGooGirl Funny how the most decentralized network has one person able to speak authoritatively (“factually”) on the entire network’s motivation.
Michael Gemar@rvcx @GrayGooGirl Precisely because it’s decentralized, it’s a “fact” that Mastodon isn’t trying to get Twitter users, since “Mastodon” isn’t trying to do *anything* — it’s like ascribing motives to the sea.
@michaelgemar That doesn’t really play; you may as well say that no software is trying to do anything because it’s not sentient.
Both ActivityPub and Mastodon were created with intent, and it’s well-documented that a big part of that intent was to offer an open alternative for Twitter and Facebook users. Pretending that it’s just some weird coincidence that Mastodon happens to lure away Twitter users is utterly asinine.
@michaelgemar Bur also…there is an actual company behind Mastodon. With a Twitter account. Relentlessly promoting Mastodon as a superior alternative to Twitter.
@rvcx Right, but in a real sense that “Mastodon” doesn’t speak for the network. When Twitter first melted down, there was a *lot* of hand-wringing by the original denizens here about the influx of new users from the birdsite, and certainly a large proportion of folks were not pleased. One can’t say that Mastodon as the totality of the network wants Twitter users.
@michaelgemar Ah—now we’re getting to it. The “original denizens” count, but the foundational intent of the network and protocol, the biggest instances, and the main company behind it all don’t.
@rvcx Let’s try this: Can “Mastodon” the company ban Nazis from the network? Twitter and Threads have absolute control over who can use their network. “Mastodon” doesn’t (witness Gab, and various alt-right instances). There is no single centralized authority.
But at this point we may just be quibbling over terminology. I’m honestly no longer sure what the larger point is we’re arguing…
@michaelgemar The statement that Mastodon “has positioned itself for years as an alternative to Twitter” was called factually inaccurate, on some bizarre philosophical premise that when something is decentralized every statement about it is false. What embarrassing, empty-headed horseshit.