this post was submitted on 06 Jul 2023
49 points (98.0% liked)

Lemmy.ca's Main Community

2814 readers
1 users here now

Welcome to lemmy.ca's c/main!

Since everyone on lemmy.ca gets subscribed here, this is the place to chat about the goings on at lemmy.ca, support-type items, suggestions, etc.

Announcements can be found at https://lemmy.ca/c/meta

For support related to this instance, use https://lemmy.ca/c/lemmy_ca_support

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
 

I've seen that some instances have already done it preemptively.

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 36 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (28 children)

Admins are in agreement that we don't want federation with Meta.

I don't see us currently federating with them - https://lemmy.ca/instances

We'll make sure it stays that way! I've added threads.net to our blocklist.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I decided to sign on here because of this stance. Also I missed the company of my fellow Canucks ;)

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Great to have an official answer. Thank you!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

This is great news—thank you!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Thank you!!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

It would be nice to see a post detailing why you are defederating this instance from threads.net

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

I know lemmy.world isn't blocking any instances but they aren't federating meta's Threads.net yet.

load more comments (22 replies)
[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago

+1 for defederating

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (3 children)

What are the objectives of defederating?

To protect our data? They can create stealth instances and get the same data. I think we have to accept and be mindful that the things we share on the fediverse can be exploited by people we don't like.

To exclude their users? I understand they have partnered with Namecheap to offer users customized instances with their own domain. Is it even a technical possibility to exclude all their users' instances?

To make a statement? Okay, but then we need to do more than just defederate.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

This article has been circulating around the fediverse and I think it greatly illustrates why it's so important to defederate from large corporations before they can get a foothold. It's about so much more than just them getting our data.

https://ploum.net/2023-06-23-how-to-kill-decentralised-networks.html

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It's more about protecting ActivityPub protocol than anything.

Before we know it, thread will impose its proprietary protocol and the fediverse will simply die with it.

Honestly, I'm not sure if it will happen. Social media is already pretty much corporate world so we will see what will happen.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I don't see a point in defederating. As long as the only data they get is the content of my posts and votes and replies I don't care. More people in the fediverse strengthens it and splitting up into kingdoms is basically what we have now. Defederation should be done only if being federated is harmful to the users here.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

I want to know what you guys are talking about, and I think a get the gist of it, but my lord, do I feel old and don't understand actually most of those words. Is there a "explain to me like I'm 5" place I could ask what are those federations and threads?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I vote to block them as well. Don't let Meta get its claws on lemmy.ca content or user info.

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

You're absolutely right!

Meta is a threat to the privacy of fediverse users, if there are fediverse instances that remain federated with Meta.

Ross Schulman, senior fellow for decentralization at digital rights nonprofit the Electronic Frontier Foundation, notes that if Threads emerges as a massive player in the fediverse, there could be concerns about what he calls “social graph slurping." Meta will know who all of its users interact with and follow within Threads, and it will also be able to see who its users follow in the broader fediverse. And if Threads builds up anywhere near the reach of other Meta platforms, just this little slice of life would give the company a fairly expansive view of interactions beyond its borders.

https://www.wired.com/story/meta-threads-privacy-decentralization/

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

A lot of us just left a site because it was ruined by corporate greed. I don't think corporations belong in the fediverse. If there's a vote, I vote for defedding with Threads.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (4 children)

The ideals that led to the Fediverse are antithetical to companies like Meta

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Made an account here because of it; lemmy.world was my first server and I'm fairly against any federation with meta or any tech giant. Tolerance paradox applies here too!

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

I don't know if we are but I think we should. No interest in interacting with facebook in any capacity.

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

I'm new to federation as a concept, but isn't the only thing you accomplish from defederating Threads is that this community will miss the opportunity to grow its userbase? Isn't the whole point of the fediverse that anyone can be anywhere and access anything from anywhere else?

If so, the only people who come out behind are the people signing up on Threads specifically, who are granting every piece of personal data to Meta. But people signed up on other instances are protected.

As far as I understand, the existing fediverse is not at risk of anything, correct?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (6 children)

I guess people are worried about Meta pulling some moves out of Embrace, Expand, Extinguish playbook.

load more comments (6 replies)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

It is at risk. Meta/Facebook have done this before. They embrace, extend and then extinguish. Eventually they say the only way to be safe as to use their products, force people to switch over as all the content is generated on threads and there goes the fediverse. It's better to get ahead of them and just not allow them to link up. Facebook is a hostile actor in this space and needs to be treated as such.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Just wanted to ask, but how do you defederate a non federated platform like threads? Does it just block the website and its links on this instance?

Edit: nevermind apparently they also used ActivityPub so it makes sense. But as a non microblogging website like lemmy that is more like reddit than Twitter, what does defederation mean?

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

Pretty sure it just simply means content won't cross over in either direction.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I switched from my lemmy.world account to this one because I assumed this instance would defed from meta.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I'm running a small Gotosocial based instance and will be defederating simply because I'm afraid of the bandwidth and general load when like there is 1+ billion new users federating via Threads.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I, for one, vote in support of defederation from Threads. No reason to allow Meta to use our content to boost engagement on their for-profit platform. And pull users away from places like Lemmy at that.

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

I don't see anyone here arguing that this instance should remain federated with Threads. So far it's unanimous that we should defederate from them. I agree. We should keep this separate.

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

Why should we defederate from threads genuine question? They can’t control us can they? Or is it because it would ruin many instances due to the amount of users posting content on threads resulting in many threads post on home feeds here on Lemmy?

load more comments
view more: next ›