There has been significant discussion in recent weeks regarding Meta/Threads. We would like to express our disappointment with the negative and threatening tone of some of these discussions. We kindly ask everyone to engage in civil discourse and remember that not everyone will share the same opinions, which is perfectly acceptable.
When considering whether or not to defederate from Threads, we’re looking for a decision based on facts that prioritize your safety. We strive to remain neutral to make an informed choice.
First, there seem to be some misconceptions about how the Fediverse operates based on several posts. We’ve compiled some resource links to help explain the details and address any misunderstandings.
Fed Tips , Fediverse , ActivityPub
Initial Thoughts:
It seems unlikely that Meta will federate with Lemmy. When/if Meta adopts ActivityPub, it will likely affect Mastodon only rather than Lemmy, given Meta’s focus on being a Twitter alternative at the moment.
Please note that we have a few months before Threads will even federate with Mastodon, so we have some time to make the right decision.
Factors to Consider:
Factors to consider if Meta federates with Lemmy:
Privacy - While it’s true that Meta’s privacy settings for the app are excessive, it’s important to note that these settings only apply to users of the official Threads app and do not impact Lemmy users. It’s worth mentioning that Lemmy does not collect any personal data, and Meta has no means of accessing such data from this platform. In addition, when it comes to scraping data from your post/comments, Meta doesn’t need ActivityPub to do that. Anyone can read your profile and public posts as it is today.
Moderation - If a server hosts a substantial amount of harmful content without performing efficient and comprehensive moderation, it will create an excessive workload for our moderators. Currently, Meta is utilizing its existing Instagram moderation tools. Considering there were 95 million posts on the first day, this becomes worrisome, as it could potentially overwhelm us and serve as a sufficient reason for defederation.
Ads - It’s possible if Meta presents them as posts.
Promoting Posts - It’s possible with millions of users upvoting a post for it to trend.
Embrace, extend, and extinguish (EEE) - We don’t think they can. If anyone can explain how they technically would, please let us know. Even if Meta forks Lemmy and gets rid of the original software, Lemmy will survive.
Instance Blocking - Unlike Mastodon, Lemmy does not provide a feature for individual users to block an instance (yet). This creates a dilemma where we must either defederate, disappointing those who desire interaction with Threads, or choose not to defederate, which will let down those who prefer no interaction with Threads.
Blocking Outgoing Federation - There is currently no tool available to block outgoing federation from lemmy.world to other instances. We can only block incoming federation. This means that if we choose to defederate with our current capabilities, Threads will still receive copies of lemmy.world posts. However, only users on Threads will be able to interact with them, while we would not be able to see their interactions. This situation is similar to the one with Beehaw at the moment. Consequently, it leads to significant fragmentation of content, which has real and serious implications.
Conclusion:
From the points discussed above, the possible lack of moderation alone justifies considering defederation from Threads. However, it remains to be seen how Meta will handle moderation on such a large scale. Additionally, the inability of individuals to block an instance means we have to do what is best for the community.
If you have any added points or remarks on the above, please send them to @[email protected].
I’ll connect the dots for you:
-You said if the single lemmy.world instance federates with meta/threads you would delete your accounts and no longer use lemmy. -I asked that if you thought one of the attractive parts of lemmy is you can choose which instance you wish to be a part of. -Your response was no one should federate with meta.
Your response completely disregarded my question with an irrelevant opinion.
An actual answer to my question looks like: “Yes, you can choose which instance you participate in, but I dislike that idea that any instance would consider this.” “Even though I can go anywhere, I prefer lemmy.world” “Youre right, I hadn’t considered just moving myself somewhere else.”
You could answer “no you can’t do that” but that wouldn’t be factual.
Regardless of how I actually feel about this federation with meta issue, the point I am making is that if you don’t like that lemmy.world is taking their time to make decision about this, you can choose to go to an instance that has already decided not to federate with meta. It does not make sense to leave all of lemmy because a single instance has decided to do something you don’t like. That’s the WHOLE POINT of this instance based situation. If you don’t like what an instance is doing, go somewhere else where you like what they’re doing. If you can’t find an instance that does that, make your own or leave the whole thing.
At this point, I’m trying to get you to see that you don’t have to throw out the baby with the bathwater. I don’t know why I’m doing that because it seems your MO is to yell and be mad and threaten to leave lemmy. Shit or get off the pot. No one cares or will care if you never use lemmy again.