Meta is downranking/hiding political content on Threads. The company says Threads will “not recommend any content/accounts that post about politics.”
Here’s the issue: what counts as “politics” is often any news abt people who have had their whole existence politicized, such as news about Black people, LGBTQ people, disabled ppl, women, etc. Climate scientists, public health experts etc also considered “political” https://www.axios.com/2024/02/09/meta-political-content-moderation-threads
@zbyte64 I get that.
Let me rephrase.
Why is it an issue that one instance on the fediverse silences (or even outright censors) certain topics, people, views or ideas?
@Pandora @berkes @zbyte64 This is the answer right here. It's not a problem if any specific instance sensors any specific thing. Because as the concept of an instance you can just choose to ignore and move to something better. But threads is not presented as simply an instance of the federverse. And presents itself as an alternative to Twitter, a complete and whole experience by itself.
The fact that federation is only just happening kind of speaks to how much of a side thought it really is.
@wolfkin @Pandora @zbyte64 > The fact that federation is only just happening kind of speaks to how much of a side thought it really is.
No. That's provably false. Not only did the engineers at Threads outline this very well, Eugen and some other major players in the fediverse *urged* them to do it this way.
It's not an afterthought. It's "do it well, or else we'll ruin federation. For us, but potentially for the existing fediverse". Tread carefully. Measure twice, cut once.
Taylor Lorenz
Bèr Kessels 🐝 🚐 🏄 🌱
Jason Kraus
Minnà Pandora
wolfkin