The fediverse is discussing if we should defederate from Meta’s new Threads app. Here’s why I probably won’t (for now).

(Federation between plume and my lemmy instance doesn’t work correctly at the moment, otherwise I would have made this a proper crosspost)

  • Leraje@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I take your points entirely and I do understand why you feel the way you do. Maybe what I’m saying is more symbolic - a gesture - than a realistic chance of fending them off but I do feel it’s important to send that message, even if it costs them nothing financially.

    I only use one Meta product (FB) and only that because its a way to stay in contact with family and friends that are just not technically able to migrate to a healthier platform but I don’t use their app. I use the website, with Social Fixer, in a Firefox Container and use Frost on my phone. I have managed to get all my family and some friends to switch to Signal rather than WhatsApp and I have zero interest in Instagram. I think using mitigating methods and technologies like these, in conjunction with defederating from Threads (is it going to be one central instance?) is a viable way forward.

    • dfyx@lemmy.helios42.deOP
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      1 year ago

      I don’t see who this gesture is aimed at. Meta execs won’t care. They lose nothing. The result will be the exact same as building a closed platform from the start. And the users won’t even notice because the mainstream doesn’t even know that the fediverse exists.

      I agree that getting people away from Meta should be our priority. But we don’t do that by cutting them off from the fediverse and then begrudgingly making a Threads account to talk to the people we haven’t won over yet. We do that by showing them that there alternatives that they can use without losing access to the content they already follow.

      • Leraje@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Sure, Zuck isn’t going to give two shits that you and I might defederate from Threads and maybe it is just a gesture but I still think it’s one worth making. The crux of it is - do they care enough about getting the data from .world or .helios42.de to go to the trouble of building a scraper? If they don’t, then defederating is the right thing to do, in my opinion. If they do then you’re right, its pointless.