Fediverse

Left this in another response to previous poster, but since you summarized the points, I wanted to link the article as well: https://ploum.net/2023-06-23-how-to-kill-decentralised-networks.html

I feel like Google is, or has, done this with AOSP

I seen a lot of people post this and they always think that the counterpoint to that would be just don't allow them to build exclusive features into the standard. If they add a feature, fine but it has to be for everyone.

If they start adding exclusive features then the developers can block them at a API level. The open source GNU license still gives the original developers creative control over the project and they can shut down anything that is not contributing to open source standards. Is there a need for individual instances to take action unless you think that the developers won't block Meta, and they hate meta, so they will. But right now there's nothing for them to do because Meta haven't actually done anything yet.

How does defederating mitigate EEE?

Yeah Meta is a terrible company, I don't actually believe anyone is arguing otherwise, but the point is that if they are defenderated all that will happen is that people who are on instances that defederate from them won't be able to see or interact with their content. However the inverse will not be true, so the data will still be scrapable. So if your argument for defederating is that you want data privacy then you're arguing about a moot point. You don't get data privacy either way.

Now just to be clear here, I am not saying that defederating from them is a bad idea I'm just pointing out that the argument of privacy is moot. The only way to prevent your data being scraped by facebook would be to not use activitypub at all.

If they're really just after data at all costs, they could easily spin up an instance that has no apparent link to threads and federate secretly. I agree with other arguments about not federating with them but idk, all these data privacy arguments against federating with threads are so dumb. If they want it, they'll get it because getting it is so absurdly easy.

I’m so tired of that article.

Neither the people advocating for dedederation nor that article ever explains how defederating is going to defeat EEE.

They also don’t get access to all the data that I think is most invasive (federated or not). I expect my posts, comments, votes, and follows on a public forum to be public. I don’t expect which posts I open, which comments I read, and how long I view each one for (a much larger and more invasive pool of data) to be public, and that’s what I don’t want Meta to get. By not using threads, they don’t get that. By using threads (or any Meta product) they do get that, and they probably use it to shovel more ads in your face.

While I am a little cautious of the possibility of EEE, I feel like the majority of fediverse users are anti-corporation and relatively technically informed, and would anticipate any attempts to extinguish it would be poorly received and ineffective. (Edit: although I do think this argument is reasonable and haven’t really decided whether I think federating with threads is a good idea)

Either way, federating with threads won’t give them any non-public information, which is substantially better than if you used their products directly. The other information is there for anyone to grab, so it’s kind of weird to complain about them reading it. If you put up a sign in your yard, you wouldn’t complain about people who walk by reading it.

If they want mastodon or lemmy data, they already have access. Full stop.

Downvoting facts you don’t like doesn’t change reality, unfortunately.