░▒▓█ 𝕘Ｒαᐯ𝕀т𝐀ѕ █▓▒░May 18, 2025

The main flaw i see with #fedipact logic is: if meta was really more of a threat to Fedi then Fedi is to #Meta, why wouldnt “Project92” or whatever just start a covert instance runnin mastodon on a random domain name unaffiliated with meta (at least on the surface level) and just harvest all the data they want that way?

I just don’t see that much of a harmful impact in harvesting data that is already public, i get sending a message that we dont want corpos on #fediverse, but maybe we should start considering the harm Fedi can do to meta by using the ole “embrace, extend, extinguish” route as a sort of uno reverse card and out extend the corporations for once.

pl.ugh.im

Show thread𝙻𝙴𝚅𝙸  

@gravitas So let me get this straight!

Their #meta Network: Max Security prison, no one can see what's happening inside unless they have an account, no one can exit because users there are hostages

Our network: open to anyone including them, you're free to join (well, kinda), and you're free to leave..

They close down everything, their users data and content are theirs, we open everything, they also jump here to empower their platform by our content (and data)..

#Fedipact feels to me like: "Nah they used everyone but not this time"

> I just don’t see that much of a harmful impact in harvesting data that is already public

Read about #shadowdragon It'll change your mind

May 18, 2025 at 9:32pmWeb
Show thread░▒▓█ 𝕘Ｒαᐯ𝕀т𝐀ѕ █▓▒░May 18, 2025

@levi I already know about shadow dragon, that doesnt change my mind, in fact its why I think something like the fedipact is relatively useless in terms of actually preventing any data harvesting.

Not federating with threads doesnt stop law enforcement from contracting a company to make their own mastodon instance that just doesnt announce who is behind it. It doesn’t make Mastodon admins immune from jail if they go against a gag order saying they have to monitor and NOT announce they are monitoring users.

The idea that you can just de-federate from bad actors, implies that you KNOW who the bad actors are, and that is most certainly not something that can be 100% known. Bad actors don’t normally announce they are going to do bad things ahead of time, they just setup an instance quietly and start harvesting data.

Do you honestly believe that fediverse services are not already being actively monitored by law enforcement in every way imaginable? Do you think the people who host instances would refuse to comply with a court order to hand over records, or that they would risk jail time to go against a gag order informing users they’ve been ordered to monitor them?

It just seems naive to me to think that threads is an actual threat to the fediverse in and of itself more so then the fediverse is to Meta/X/Amazon/etc.

Show thread𝙻𝙴𝚅𝙸  May 18, 2025

@gravitas the idea is not about data privacy, the idea is about content ownership, it would be like we're contributing to Threads just because they showed up, Threads showed up years past Mastodon and people (im talking about normies) knew about it but not Mastodon, I never and will never use #Threads but I bet they hide server names from user handles In their App UI so Mastodon users appear like They're Threads users Idk.. correct me, we're talking about a company that lied about the number of their users, this marketing strategy doesn't just work on investors it works on people too

By being a part of Threads we're making Big tech bigger for free.. as in free beer .. you're right about your rogue server theory ... yes fedipact isn't meant for that..

But like I said you can't play reverse uno on Meta because they have more users than you, they market bigger than you, their onboarding is better than yours because their users are already onboard.. (when you open a Meta app you see the logos of other apps, it makes you want to check them out, and you only need your existing account to try them)

Show thread░▒▓█ 𝕘Ｒαᐯ𝕀т𝐀ѕ █▓▒░May 19, 2025

@levi I just think we have more to gain from federating then they do.

The UI on the threads app actually does make it clear what server someone is on, but they also don’t allow reposting of anything from fedi, and people you “follow” from fedi don’t show up in the normal threads feed. You also can’t share or reply to posts from fedi, all you can do is like posts, which you will only see if they @ mention your threads account.

I do think you’re mostly correct it’d be very hard to reverse things on them with things being how they are currently stacked way in meta’s favor, but it’s not impossible. I guess I’m just thinking we could try to better strategize around it. I dont think its impossible to beat them, at least not to have their same content without them making money of it in a way that costs them more then it “costs” the fediverse, which I would consider a win.

Like I think Meta would not be very happy if a fedi site popped up and just mirrored any meta account you pointed it at… they actively do things to prevent this like no longer allowing third party apps and restricting API access, but there are ways around that similar to how a lot of reddit content is mirrored onto lemmy, much to the dismay of the Reddit share holders who want that content to only be viewed on their site with their advertising/tracking attached to make them more money.

Its just something to think about: What if instead of ignoring them, we embraced the idea to an extent that makes their content visible to our users without giving meta the clicks/views they use to get advertisers money. Especially when you consider how much worse advertising gets on their sites year after year, if we offered just an ad free alternative with the same content, they probably wouldn’t be very happy, but it’d be too late to put the genie back into the bottle.