Meta's upcoming AcitivityPub-enabled app Threads will only come with an "import from Mastodon" option. The new network won't federate on day one.

giallo@beehaw.org to Technology@beehaw.org – 355 points – Alex Heath (@alexeheath@mastodon.social)
mastodon.social

Full report is on The Verge.

116

You are viewing a single comment
View all comments

Importantly, posts hosted and visible on Meta's server will be subject to Facebook's content moderation rules, which means those policies will likely have a sweeping impact across the Fediverse.

Is it just me or does that sound like anything on instances hosted outside of meta's own that can be merely seen from theirs? I'm all for moderation, the stricter moderation against hate-speech is part of why I joined Beehaw. But if I'm reading that right (I hope I'm not), then it seems like they plan to call the shots on other instances as if they have any say in what everyone else does right out of the gate.

Maybe what's meant here is simply defederation of entire instances and banning of problematic users like any other instance does, ok. But it could also mean pressuring admins to enforce Meta's TOS on a case-by-case basis which feels like the start of EEE tactics.

Meta is going to be treating content on any instance in any way it suits them. They're entering this as the 900 pound gorilla and expect they'll be able to throw their weight around, naturally. They'll treat all Fediverse content as "their" content and take, take, take.

There's no way to win this. The only winning move is not too play. Defederate all their instances sight unseen.

That way when they claim to be part of the Fediverse we can say "so, who are you federating with, yourself?" and we will be able to point out it's just same old Facebook with a new coat.

How would they pressure admins? Threaten not to take their instances data and put ads on it? What leverage has Meta here?

They will very soon have the largest userbase of any instance. If your instance gets blocked by Meta, your users suddenly have a fraction of the reach because no Meta people can see your posts anymore. That would put a lot of pressure on admins I imagine.

I doubt people who would use Meta's instance are the sort of interesting people I'm on Lemmy for.

If the other instances federate with Meta's you won't have a choice. Content from Meta users will be pouring in.

Sort of, you don't have to subscribe to their communities or follow users from Meta. We don't want to talk with Facebook users, that's not why we're here. There isn't a single person on Facebook who would feel disrupted if they suddenly didn't see my content anymore, either.

Me too and I don't think it'll be a threat to Lemmy but on Mastodon, there are a lot of old people who already use Meta platforms themselves.

I was thinking the absolute worst case scenario is a bad faith use of the regulatory laws aimed at Meta but put on a firehose and aimed at federated servers who don't prostrate before them.

Things like partnering with copyright holders for automated DMCA floods for literally all images on the instance that have copyrighted content visible.

It just means they'll block users who don't abide by local site rules, which is standard practice.

Remote content is viewed locally, via mirroring, so in order for local users to see that remote content it had to be hosted on the local site. If that content does not meet local community standards, it gets removed, and the poster gets blocked.

This absolutely puts pressure on other admins to adhere to Meta's standards, because if they don't then they'll risk being defederate, but that's the whole history and controversy of Fediblock in a nutshell.

Meta won't have control over what users on other instances post. Instead, they'll just have very strong influence over the rules on instances that desperately want to federate with senpai Meta.

Strong echoes of Microsoft's "embrace, extend, and extinguish" strategy...

And really it's nonsense. If we wanted to be on Facebook then we already would be. Meta coming in and telling everyone how to run their instances because a Facebook user might see their content, won't bode well.

In a worst case scenario this could gut everything. I've had several 30 day facebook bans for morbid funny memes, like the classic with Dahmer asking, "Are you hungry? I've got Ben and Jerry in the freezer".

Nearly everything I find on imgur that I'd want to share with my few old friends on Facebook is either too dark/morbid or would be copyright claimed. Practically everything I find funny, the mods there think is "glorifying violence". It's ridiculous.