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Lemmy.world Admin Response to Meta/Threads

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 @mwadmin@mastodon.world.

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381 comments

  • 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.

    I'm glad you mentioned this, because this seems like the most important point that seems to often get lost. This is primary a potential issue for Mastodon servers, not Lemmy/Kbin/etc.

    • Kbin's microblogging is basically msstodon so it would be affected.

      • Not only that, but the way Magazines work, you can access them via Mastodone, and Masto users can interact in threads just like lemmy users. There is a lot more integration with mastodon than many people realize.

        • I'm answering to your comment from Mastodon. So yes, even if Threads doesn't federate with Lemmy, there could be some interaction.

    • It's still an issue for the Fediverse, and even the concept of free software, federated services as a whole.

      I said before - right now, Fediverse has momentum due to Twitter and Reddit blowing up. Threads is already taking some of that momentum away both in news articles and taking in potential Twitter/Reddit refugees.

      If they decide to fuck with Mastodon after people get used to Threads presence, they can leave the whole concept in pieces.

      • Threads is already taking some of that momentum away both in news articles and taking in potential Twitter/Reddit refugees.

        In both cases, the only ones who are running away and using Threads are those who can not handle Twitter's entertaining hell scape and normies who used Reddit. Whom also, already had an Instagram account, dormant or not, or in less percentage made a new one for the first time. Threads remains unavailable in Europe because it's incredibly invasive on privacy any how.

    • Kbin has a microblogging feature and that puts them at immediate risk. And if their one dude or however many people are on their development team can put together something that combines both, do we really think that we won't wake up to meta's new community feature a month or 2 from now?

381 comments