this post was submitted on 06 Jul 2023
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I just read this point in a comment and wanted to bring it to the spotlight.

Meta has practically unlimited resources. They will make access to the fediverse fast with their top tier servers.

As per my understanding this will make small instances less desirable to the common user. And the effects will be:

  1. Meta can and will unethically defedrate from instances which are a theat to them. Which the majority of the population won't care about, again making the small instances obsolete.
  2. When majority of the content is on the Meta servers they can and will provide fast access to it and unethically slow down access to the content from outside instances. This will be noticeable but cannot be proved, and in the end the common users just won't care. They will use Threads because its faster.

This is just what i could think of, there are many more ways to be evil. Meta has the best engineers in the world who will figure out more discrete and impactful ways to harm the small instances.

Privacy: I know they can scrape data from the fediverse right now. That's not a problem. The problem comes when they launch their own Android / iOS app and collect data about my search and what kind of Camel milk I like.

My thoughts: I think building our own userbase is better than federating with an evil corp. with unlimited resources and talent which they will use to destroy the federation just to get a few users.

I hope this post reaches the instance admins. The Cons outweigh the Pros in this case.

We couldn't get the people to use Signal. This is our chance to make a change.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (5 children)

I share your priorities, but I don't think you understand the depth and breath of how they can ruin this for us... The only guarantee is that, at some point (maybe tomorrow, maybe in 5 years), they'll ask "how can we extract value from this investment?". That's what a corporation is, it can't help it anymore than fire can choose how hot to burn

But even before then, we have misaligned goals. At best, their priority is to generate an endless stream of advertiser friendly content, extract information about users, and grow endlessly. At worst, they want to use us to help kill Twitter while ensuring federation of individuals does not become a viable model for social media

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (3 children)

How would they ensure this latter thing?

In my current understanding, it's readily possible today (on Lemmy and related software), what could Meta do to keep this from continuing to work?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Convince the population at large it doesn't work, or even that it's dangerous.

Like community run utilities, universal healthcare, or any number of things that so obviously work better without a profit motive

Make the populace at large see the fediverse as a failed experiment, a hive of criminal activity, or a bunch of tiny toxic echo chambers

Hell, they could even push legislation that makes running social media out in the open impossible for individuals

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

As for the first points, yes, that may happen, but is it a problem for users who already are part of a 'better' experience here than on the for-profit platforms?

I, for one, find much better discourse here than anywhere on reddit, let alone Meta or Twitter.

Also exemplified by me engaging much more here than ever on the others. I do prefer quality over quantity - everyone is invited to join the table, but I don't see much benefit in luring people there who would ultimately only dilute or be disruptive - ie, not really into the thing that's happening here.

For the last point, well, legislators can certainly try. While telling people it's all for their benefit and upholding freedom and democracy and equal opportunity and whatnot. And even keep a straight face.

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