1y ago

Are you going to try Meta's Threads?

Will people here use/try Meta's #threads when available? Would love to know the reasons or if it would be just for fun/curiosity.

The amount of data collected is insane imo.

361 comments

Definitely not. I didn't come to the Fediverse to be under social media companies again.
- Almost same take here - but I also understand that there may be some people which would use/try it for whatever reasons.
  
  They can try all day. I will not. Mastodon it is for me.
- 💯❤️

The amount of data collected is so insane that it won't come out in the EU for now. And I like it that way.
- Now these are news for me, thanks for the info.
- Yup. Not going to be available so it’s an easy decision for now
- It doesn't have to come to EU to get this data though, all it has to do is start federating. I'm really curious how is that all going to work out, legally speaking.
  
  Not totally true, the real value is combining data from different sources, but since the data they get wont have your email /ip/device/contacts etc it will be a lot harder to harvest usefully for advertising. Maybe they will figure out things to use it, but what they can use is already quite public, so they don't really need to federatie for that

I stay the fuck away from anything Meta/Facebook, so absolutely not.
- I wish more people would adopt this approach.
  
  I don't know anything about the number of users they're expecting to have with this, but I'll be very surprised if it's a significant number. I just don't get why anyone would want to join it, not only for what it is, but also for the whole facebook/meta nonsense. But I suppose some folks still actively and frequently use Facebook, so what do I know!

Everything I don't like about twitter combined with everything I don't like about Facebook? hard pass.
- This. To quote Friar Tuck from ROBIN HOOD PRINCE OF THIEVES: “I’d rather roast in hell.”

Thanks to @m0bi13 who posted this breakdown for context :
Data collected by #threads:
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Health & Fitness

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Financial info

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Contact info

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User content

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Browsing History

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Usage Data

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Diagnostics

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Purchases

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Location

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Contacts

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Search history

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Identifiers

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Sensitive Info

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Other Data

Oh fuck no. The very first line is basically a HIPAA violation. It gets worse from there. We require less disclosure from Supreme Court Justices and Presidential nominees.
This is a trainwreck waiting to happen - even if Facebook itself doesn't abuse this level of power, you know that bad actors within the organization will. And once the information is collected, you know that tyrannical governments all over the world will be falling over themselves to get access to the data. This is a stalker's wetdream, an Orwellian orgasm of truly grotesque proportions.
Keep the Fediverse from Zucking. Just say no to Threads.
- It’s not a HIPPA violation. That law doesn’t apply to companies like Meta beacause they do not fit the definition of an entity that the law was written towards. This is just people freely giving away their personal health information and nothing more. From your own link:
  The HIPAA Privacy Rule establishes national standards to protect individuals' medical records and other individually identifiable health information (collectively defined as “protected health information”) and applies to health plans, health care clearinghouses, and those health care providers that conduct certain health care transactions electronically.
  
  Yep, you're technically correct. If it's voluntarily provided, FB isn't a health plan, health care clearinghouse, or health care provider...
  Good thing they'd never do anything to get that data without you giving your consent.... o zuck it, you get the point.
  
  So … medical information is only protected if handled by medical professionals. If the abusive mega-corporation owned by a psycho billionaire wants to do whatever the fuck they want with it, good luck.
  
  "Banning me from your private platform violates my freedom of speech!"
- an Orwellian orgasm of truly grotesque proportions.
  Loved this. Is it still hyperbole if it is the best way to reflect the obscene abuse they are trying to pull off?
  I think i will shamelessly start using it myself!
- Lmao Zucking. Never heard that one before lol
- I'm all for the outrage, but what did people expect? It's the same amount of information already collected through the Facebook and Instagram apps, it's nothing really new.
  ETA: just to be extremely clear, that's a bad thing.
- @Arotrios
  @m0bi13 @edu4rdshl
  Ok and how is this worse than what Facebook already does? Or TikTok? Or Instagram?
  You list all these things as if this new platform is going to be the first and only thing to harvest all your personal data. Like it’s shocking and new and so much worse
  How is it worse? It’s the same bullshit. If you already have Facebook, and most do unfortunately, they are already doing that. And I would bet TikTok takes this much and more and has worse actors.
  
  It's worth nothing because it's trying to come here, hungry, grasping, looking to wriggle its tentacles into our federated spaces and suck as much content and data and joy out of us as possible. This is a coordinated corporate effort, with the backing of millions of dollars, to bring centralized control to federated spaces. Their play is that once those spaces become reliant on the traffic that Facebook brings, they'll acquiesce to the weight of the corporate presence, particularly when it comes to developing new features or engaging data security.
  Big tech companies do this all the time with promising new open source projects, gaining control of them in the growth phase through their support and audience, and then throwing their weight around once their presence becomes a necessity. Plus, its very likely that the federated nature of instances means that if you post content on your instance of choice, it will end up on Facebook if federated with them. Right now, if you want to avoid the Zuckening, you can do so by not having Facebook, Insta, Tinder, or any of the services that motherzucker runs. If #threads becomes a thing the Fediverse relies on, you can bet your bottom dollar it will zuck the life out of the place if it can't directly control it.
  
  "Yeah smoking is bad for you, but we're already doing it so what's the problem?"
  
  @bathrobe I don't know about tiktok, but I think that it is the same data that Facebook collects. And the worst is what we have at the end, "Other Data". That means, each moment Meta can decide to collect yet more things without to inform the user.
  @m0bi13 @edu4rdshl @Arotrios
  
  I agree tiktak and so are probably the same or worse. But this doesn't mean that it is fine that the new app does it.
  
  All of those are terrible and I refuse to use them for the same reasons. It isn't that it is worse, it is just more or the same.
  
  It's worse because a large portion of people here are the people who don't use Facebook/instagram/tiktok. So while this isn't a new extreme in terms of privacy breaches, it is a new level in terms of what's potentially affecting us directly.
  
  Why does it need to be worse than the awful shit awful companies are already doing in order for it to be a concern?
  Especially to people here?
  Believe it or not, some of us aren't using any of those apps.
  And maybe, just maybe, people should be horrified at what those other apps are collecting, top.
- You know, that every post or comment you make on lemmy/kbin can be sent to every federated instance and stored (collected) there? And those comments/posts may contain any of the information from the list, especially when aggregated from different sources and with all the basic meta-data available.
  A company as big as meta needs to explicitly state that or they will have serious legal problems.
  Of course, we know that Meta will want to abuse that data to monetize as much of it as possible and they have means to do so. On the other hand rogue federated instances could also abuse our data. That is the cost of being open. Company providing closed service can better protect our privacy, but we cannot trust them to do so (especially when the make money by processing and selling data).
  I think those problems cannot be solved by technology – open or proprietary, but need to be solved by regulations and law enforcement. And at the same time the regulations should not block all data sharing, as then fediverse could not exist (now I wonder if lemmy/kbin can even be 'legal' according to GDPR, but IANAL). Tough problem.
- @Arotrios Why would I want an inferior version of mastadon? But seriously I will likely only end up with one if they auto generate it. (a few family use ig and fb as their only communication so it's checked occasionally via web with adblockers etc....ugh).
  @m0bi13 @edu4rdshl

not a fucking chance

Nope. This company is on my blacklist and I won’t try anything they make.
- Cries in Virtual Reality Headset

No webpage + only phone app interaction = NO, THANK YOU.

My brother in Christ, you're asking people on Lemmy if they're going to try meta spyware

Let's see...
I despise Facebook/Meta.
I don't want to help Mark Zuckerberg get more money.
I was never fond of Twitter, either - an interesting concept, poorly executed.
If I did want a Twitter-ish post feed, there's Mastodon.
So no, I won't be trying out the Zuck's attempt to eat the Muskrat's lunch. Sounds like a gross spectacle no one asked for.

Nah, fuck that and fuck them

They should call the instance "metastasis" cuz that company is fucking cancer.

People on Twitter are already trying it because Twitter has been shit.
Someone in my circle created their account and already deleted it. Their explanation was a FAQ screenshot for Threads saying that it doesn't matter who you follow or who follows you, the algorithm will show or hide things from you based on what they think you will enjoy and there's no way around it and you also can't sort by new.
I mean, are companies really paying attention to user needs? Lol
- I mean, are companies really paying attention to user needs? Lol
  I often wonder if these are the result of some middle-manager just doing things to justify their job. Like website redesigns most of the time feel like someone needed to justify their job. It's almost always worse than the old design. How can you take what you had and then "improve" it by making it worse?
- I've stopped using LinkedIn because it keeps defaulting to Relevant instead of Recent, and Relevant apparently means posts from 2 weeks ago. But at least there you can manually set it to Recent every time.
  A social medium where sorting by Recent is impossible will be a no-go.
  
  My current issue with LinkedIn is that they're trying so hard to force me to use their app on mobile.
  The latest way is that they're no longer allowing you to do the "easy apply" from mobile without their app.
  I don't want the damn app though. There's no good reason to lock features that work fine on a desktop browser away from mobile users unless they install the app.

Not a chance.

No! - I'm not a dumbfuck. Mark Zuckerberg once said people who trust him with their personal information are dumbfucks. I have never had an account on any of his platforms, and never will. If something I'm using integrated with his products I'd just stop using it. Just no!
- Unfortunately, we’re kind of stuck with WhatsApp where I live but I Signal with the willing.
  Otherwise, I avoid Facebook products like the plague.

"Did you mean: Give away your personal info?"

Just seeing the list of privacy data collected is enough to make me baulk. I barely ever use Facebook or Twitter as is, I'm not touching that shit with a 10ft pole.

I would have more privacy waking naked in the street

I think Carrot said it best…
- Lol. Carrot is always on point.
- What is this?
  
  It’s an iOS/iPadOS weather app: https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/carrot-weather-alerts-radar/id961390574

I wouldn't try meta's anything.
I wouldn't try a meta fire extinguisher if I was on fire.

absolutely fucking not.
I think we need to cut them the fuck off here. It's obvious Meta sees the Fediverse and Mastedon as a competing threat to its communication ecosystem and wants to EEE ths shit out of ActivityPub

No, and I will go one step further by blocking the Threads domain assuming kbin itself doesn't choose to defederate from it.

No.
As you pointed out way too many data permissions
While I'm not in the "everything for-profit companies does is inherently evil" camp, Meta has done some sketchy stuff.
It's mostly microblogging from what I can tell, and that's best in smaller instances or instances heavily moderated / filtered to feel that way which Threads likely won't be
It's name, even though it won't really be mixed threads like the name implies, will mess up momentum for the Threadiverse to mean AP actual threaded apps, and terms are hard.
I'm sure their TOS, privacy policies, or moderation policies aren't going to be any better than other Meta apps.
That being said, I do like:
They are planning to federate via AP unlike Bluesky
Meta is trying new things other than VR.
- They are planning to federate via AP unlike Bluesky
  We know that they are using ActivityPub. Afaik, we don't know if they are planning to federate with non-Meta instances (or with instances vetted by Meta). It is entirely possible that they use ActivityPub only to federate their own instances and ignore anyone else.
- Agreed 💯. Didn't know they were planning to federate.
  
  Well people say it's an attempt at the famous "Embrace, extend, and extinguish" from Microsoft.

lol no. It's not even legal in the EU.

Definitely not.

Hard pass. I’m shit tired of being advertised to and packaged as a product at the same time

Yikes no.

We need to let meta die slowly, so no.

Privacy-wise, I already use Facebook, WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram, and I'm pretty sure that Mark Zuckerberg knows everything that he'd ever want to know about me. I largely believe in the conspiracy theory that Meta actively listens in on users in some way to serve them ads and targeted content, even if the evidence is circumstantial at best.
Despite this, would I still use Threads? Probably not.
Microblogging isn't my thing. 140 characters is nowhere near enough space to articulate your thoughts and it feels like the site was originally designed around SMS text message limitations more than anything. I also don't like how the only way you can get any genuine interaction on places like Twitter or even Mastodon is to be a celebrity.
I do agree that we should collectively defederate Threads much in the same way that everybody on the fediverse collectively blacklisted Gab, not necessarily as a fuck-you to Zuckerberg, but because a flood of Instagram normies would completely cripple other instances with traffic.

It's just a cover for another data-collecting-machine made by the big players. **No thanks! **

The last thing I need in my life is to have my privacy debased by another data collection app disguising itself as social media, and even less to participate in another echo chamber shitshow like Facebook or Twitter. Hard pass…

Nah. No need to as Mastodon and Lemmy exist, and I have no desire to give Meta data.

Tangentially-related, I'm actually really excited to use Threads's federation with Mastodon to bring interested friends and family over to Mastodon. If you get all the same benefits (connection, more people) with none of the ads or privacy downsides, then it seems like a no-brainer to join Mastodon over Threads.
But to answer the question, no. I run my own Mastodon (and Lemmy) server. I'm kind of all-in on the fediverse.
- If anything, Threads will operate more like BlueSky. Anybody who thinks they'll allow the Fediverse to gain the upper hand is sorely mistaken. Joey does not share food. Their main goal is to take over the space vacated by Twitter. Their secondary goal is to suck any data they can out of the Fediverse and discard it when it's convenient. The Fediverse is a body to step on on their way to the top.
- Having the Instagram branding would bring more celebrities and such, which will undoubtedly attract more people to the fediverse.
  Once they’re in and are more familiar with the whole thing, moving them to Mastodon shouldn’t be that hard.
  
  You say that but I fully believe Meta will tamper with their instance to push external users to sign up in order to engage with anything, while limiting the ability for them to get back out, effectively aiming to become the de-facto 'center' of the fediverse.

Absolutely the fuck not. There's no room at the Inn for removed like me on Meta apps ¯(ツ)/¯
I was permanently banned from Instagram a few months ago because I'm a pornstar. A lot of industry folks were banned around the same time. In retrospect, I wonder if they were trying to clean up the app ahead of the launch of Threads.
I had experienced temporary bans before over the years, we all had. But losing my account and then having my new account banned again within two days, all without posting anything even approaching NSFW was fucking awful. It really hurt a lot of us financially.
So fuck no, I'm not going to spend my time creating content and IP, posting photos, and engaging with my fans on their new platform. I doubt I could join it anyway.
- The puritanical standards of most social media and Apple especially are just pathetic.

Nope. If I wanted something similar to twitter, I would use Mastodon, not Meta's privacy hell.

I can't see any reason for me to ever try it. I've got plenty of social media to deal with already, and this doesn't seem to be offering anything new or interesting for me. Plus the creepy permissions even keep me away from joining temporarily out of any curiosity I might have.

If they're going to make money off my data, then they can pay me to use Threads.

Nah, I'm good

Nope. I have a barely-used Instagram account from before the sale to Facebook. I keep it in hopes that, someday, a regulator will force them to sell IG or spin it off. I have zero interest in having anything else to do with Facebook or any of its subsidiaries.

That's like getting picked up from Catholic Boys Choir by a white van with "Free Candy" spray painted on the side.

Why even ask that question on Lemmy
- Why no? As you can see there are several users who are going to use/try it.
  
  Guess my expectations were inaccurate.

That's gonna be a no from me, dawg.

Fuck no. I need fewer Meta apps in my life, not more.

No, bye Zuck.

Meta is just Facebook trying to hide their awful reputation under a new name. I will never call them Meta.
I'll be damned if I'm going to use any more of their spy products than I have to, too.
- This is the reason I call my quest 2 VR headset my "oculus" or "Oculus quest 2" because that's the original company name. Unfortunately that headset is the only reason I have a Facebook account, but I never use Facebook and it's minimally linked to me at all, doesn't even have my real name like they wanted. In fact, the only qualm I had about getting it was the Facebook account requirement, everything else about it is great besides that

I think the idea of it is pretty smart, Instagram probably has a lot of shared users with Twitter. If the quality of Twitter decreases then Instagram making a competitor seems like an easy win, especially if the issues plaguing Twitter aren't plaguing Instagram. The privacy concerns due to required permissions are probably the most concerning, but if you were using Twitter and Instagram you're probably not even considering that.
I'm definitely not going to try it, but I kinda hope Twitter completely busts at this point. Elon's next autobiography is going to be, "The Art of the Deal 2: How I won by losing $44 Billion."
- As much as I hate Meta and hate Twitter, more competition between them is a win imo. It also helps break the mindset of people that there aren't any alternatives to twitter, which makes them more likely to try things like Mastodon.
  If I use it it'll be from a federated fediverse instance after Threads connect to it. I'm not running there, but I genuinely think it's better that it exists.

Never. Just look what data they collect.

I hate to think that it might gain popularity with the Crowd trying to leave Twitter. I certainly don't plan on trying it. I have several friends that think Bluesky or Thread will be a good move after Twitter, but I can't see either option being good for the userbase long term.

361 comments