Technology

59436 readers

3535 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

Follow the lemmy.world rules.
Only tech related content.
Be excellent to each another!
Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
Politics threads may be removed.
No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

Threads to reportedly allow account migration from Threads (www.theverge.com)

submitted 1 year ago by jason@lemmy.weiser.social to c/technology@lemmy.world

8 comments fedilink hide all child comments

The head of Instagram apparently says it’ll be possible to migrate accounts from Threads, retaining at least that part of the ActivityPub protocol.

Meta plans to eventually hook Threads into ActivityPub, the decentralized social media protocol that also powers Mastodon. That integration isn’t ready at launch, though, as I previously reported. When it’s enabled, Threads users will be able to interact with Mastodon users and take their accounts with them to other clients that support the ActivityPub standard. As Mosseri puts it, this is a move designed to appease creators who have grown increasingly wary of relying on the whims of centralized social media companies. “I think we might be a more compelling platform for creators, particularly for the newer creators who are more and more savvy, if we are a place where you don’t have to feel like you have to trust us forever,” he says.

If true, it seems like a positive development. This is a Mastodon (and Calckey and Misskey and everyone else, of course) account tool that I thought there was no way they’d allow.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] titaniumarmor@lemmy.world 21 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

This is the first E in Embrace, Extend, Extinguish. At the end of the day, Meta will do whatever it believes is most likely to maximize its profits.

Meta is a fisherman, and this is the bait. We need to recognize the threat that corporations pose to decentralization quickly and refuse to federate with them before the EEE cycle can even begin.

[–] Mereo@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

This is Eugene Rochko's answer (CEO of Mastodon) regarding the question:

Will Meta embrace-extend-extinguish the ActivityPub protocol?

There are comparisons to be made between Meta adopting ActivityPub for its new social media platform and Meta adopting XMPP for its Messenger service a decade ago. There was a time when users of Facebook and users of Google Talk were able to chat with each other and with people from self-hosted XMPP servers, before each platform was locked down into the silos we know today. What would stop that from repeating? Well, even if Threads abandoned ActivityPub down the line, where we would end up is exactly where we are now. XMPP did not exist on its own outside of nerd circles, while ActivityPub enjoys the support and brand recognition of Mastodon.

Source: https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2023/07/what-to-know-about-threads/

[–] titaniumarmor@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The brand recognition of Mastodon is a rounding error for players like Meta and Google. The fediverse needs time to grow its user base. If we open the doors to the tech giants from the start, then their users will have no motivation to leave those platforms. On the other hand, we would leave ourselves vulnerable to the allure of moving back to the tech giants whenever they decide the time is right to cut us out of their walled gardens.

If we want decentralized social networking to thrive, then we have to leave big tech out of the equation.

[–] Mereo@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago

I agree with you. I just showed what Mastodon's response was.

load more comments (1 replies)