Oh 100% agreed. It makes the NDA’s that have already occurred with all this even more sketchy.
My personal guess is that these NDA’s are because of one of two reasons.
Threads/Facebook talks about their specific proprietary software and how it functions etc.
Threads/Facebook is offering money for access/federation to instances.
It is entirely possible it’s also both at once thinking about it.
I dislike Facebook with a passion along with Google. However as much as I dislike Facebook, proper discussion and information is essential. Without these things people tend to panic and assume worst case scenarios.
People seem to have forgotten one of Zuckerbergs quotes.
“ Zuck: People just submitted it. Zuck: I don't know why. Zuck: They "trust me" Zuck: Dumb fucks”
This was during the time he first released Facebook. It’s part of a chat transcript that was released and verified.
Also during 2008 the FTC quoted Zuckerbergs own word at him during a trial.
“It’s better to buy than to compete”
This was from an email Zuckerberg sent earlier that year during the WhatsApp acquisition or near it.
These two quote should tell everyone exactly what to expect from this company and person. Considering how their track record is atrocious.
Without proof it’s nothing more than speculation.
This isn’t going to be a productive conversation without proof. There is also the point-of-fact that if there was a NDA involved with said person. They wouldn’t be allowed to speak on it with anyone not listed. So we wouldn’t honestly be allowed to know legally without getting that admin in trouble.
Sure, they can approach any admin regarding federation. they still need approval of the Instance owner and the rest of the admin team as far as I’m aware.
I am curious though. Why not just join an instance that has already outright stated they will not federate with Threads?