Mastodawn

Matthieu Jul 11, 2023

Observators: Wow, Threads has 100M users that's a lot of data to harvest.
Meta: Actually we will only start monetizing at 1B users.
Mastodon alarmists: The fediverse is in great danger!!! Meta will drain all health and credit information across ActivityPub and throw ads at you. All 2M nerds we have here are very precious to them and in great danger. We have to stop it now by implementing allow lists instead of block lists and destroying decentralization, single user instances and everything that made the fediverse a great place. Only then after killing the fediverse we will be free from meta.

Seriously this is probably how meta will monetize:

if (user.is_local()) {
    monetize(user)
} else {
    nobody_cares()
}

If you're done worrying about privacy (non-)issues. We can talk about their moderation practices. Why libsoftiktok is still not banned and why it's probability a good idea to at least silence them.

#meta #threads #threadsapp

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Jon

@matthieu_xyz speaking of Libs of Tik Tok and privacy risks, what do you think of the scenario #1 here where a somebody who's blocked #Meta and doesn't make any public posts could still have their #fediverse account revealed on #Threads -- and so get exposed to Libs of Tik Tok and anybody else who's into harassing #trans people?

"Even if I only make followers-only posts, which aren't public and can't be boosted, if somebody who's following me replies, any of their followers on Threads will see my account name and instance."

https://privacy.thenexus.today/just-blocking-threads-isnt-enough/

Why just blocking Meta's Threads won't be enough to protect your privacy once they join the fediverse

At least, not with today's software.

The Nexus Of Privacy

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Matthieu Jul 11, 2023

@jdp23 That is a risk, but I think the risk is low. Even if your name end up on Threads, it won't get too many eyes on it. Way too many posts. It will just get drowned by all the other posts.

And Accounts are public. Even if you only post for followers only, you account name is public and discoverable. It's the same problem with search and public post. Where people think they're public but "hard to discover". That is not true at all and we need to end this myth. People need to understand that public is public. You can lookup their name on any big instance or big relay and find them.

Worse!! The name of your instance can be a very clear indicator of you being part of a certain group! A bully can simply look at the list of server and decide to target an LGBTQ instance.

I recommend people to understand that this is a vastly public place. What it means for it to be public. And if it doesn't satisfy their needs to find a more private space. Like, Discord, Matrix or XMPP, with a hard to guess handle, because even there your name can still be discovered.

And again. There are much much worse places on the fediverse right now than Threads. Bullies and harassers are already on the fediverse. They make "parody accounts", they make targeted attacks and they already know how to find you. All of this is happenening right now without Meta. And those places are NOT defederated with two layers or whatever. All of those places are two hop away from you. You just don't realize it because of natural clustering and follow links and because just one layer of defederation actually works!

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Jon Jul 11, 2023

@matthieu_xyz Thanks for the detailed response. Here's a ffew of followon questions

It sounds like you see the risk as lower than many trans people who see themselves as likely to be targeted do. Usually, the people who are being targeted are the best-equipped to assess the risks.

How much expertise do you have with the techniques that groups like Libs of TikTok use to harass and brigade #trans people (or with techniques for online harassment in general), and with how people protect themselves today?

"Even if you only post for followers only, you account name is public and discoverable." Really? If all the harasser knows is that a trans person has an account somewhere in the fediverse, and that person's only made followers-only posts, how will they find the account name?

For that matter, suppose the attacker even guesses the instance. If somebody's only made followers-only posts, how would you discover their account name?

[I agree that accounts are public, and there's no way to change that; that's another problem that should be addressed, but outside the scope of this post.]"There are much much worse places on the fediverse right now than Threads."It depends on how you look at it. There are instances with a higher concentration of bad actors than #Threads -- but the bad actors who are active on Threads (like Libs of TikTok) are as bad as anybody on the fediverse, and a lot better organized, and with 100,000,000 total users my guess is that there are a lot more of them. But I certainly agree that there are really horrible instances on the fediverse today, so let's not argue about who's worse.

Today, well-moderated #fediverse instances that focuse on safety blocks the instances with bad actors -- and the instances that federate with them. Gab's an obvious example, and so are some of the "freeze peach" instances.

It seems to me that people who suggest blocking #Meta and instances who federate with it are applying the same standard: block the instance who's hosting bad actors, and the instances who federate with it. Do you see it differently?