this post was submitted on 24 Dec 2023
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Fediverse

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The link goes to this users Mastodon post on the subject. I'm going to copy part of the text of his post without having to post the Threads post they were shown. Click through if you want to see for yourself, avoid if such things are upsetting to you.

"This was a post promoted to me from within Instagram to try and get me to use threads. Ill say that again: this is the promotional content shown to non-threads users as an inducement to join threads."

If you do click through to the Mastodon thread, you'll see several other people confirming they've seen the same or similar posts promoting Threads.

I've said the same thing in comments to other Threads related posts in this community but I'm going to say it again; didn't we create and use fediverse software like Mastodon, Lemmy, PixelFed etc in large part to escape the constant hate-baiting and algorithmic manipulation of companies like Meta? Why are so many in the fediverse prepared to throw their fellow fediverse users under the bus by exposing them to a company and a set of users who not only say these things and not only allow them to be said but actually use them as a promotional tool to encourage more people onto Threads?

If Threads was a fediverse instance, it would've been defederated from by just about everyone by now. Why are some people bending over backwards to give Meta a free pass?

'Wait and see' I hear people say. I can already see.

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[–] 0x0@social.rocketsfall.net 37 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Thank you for actually writing out what happened. I still can't make sense of Mastodon threads. Whoever had the idea to make you click "read more" on each individual post to read it needs to take a basic UX course. Absolutely unusable.

[–] leraje@lemmy.blahaj.zone 22 points 10 months ago (1 children)

The 'read more' is deliberate. I realise it's annoying but it's there for posts containing content warnings like this guy's - not everyone wants to be ambushed by that level of hate, so providing a warning and then hiding the content to give people the option is a bit kinder.

[–] davel@lemmy.ml 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Downvotes for accurately answering the question 🤷 Life is full of mysteries.

[–] spaduf@slrpnk.net 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

More like Lemmy has a toxicity problem.

[–] irreticent@lemmy.world 25 points 10 months ago (1 children)

At least they're blatant in showing us who their target audience is.

[–] Starglasses@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 points 10 months ago

That's not a good thing. There have been minimal consequences for being hateful, so now advertisers are comfortable spreading hate to get more money/users/etc.

The cancer of hate is growing.

[–] casmael@startrek.website 20 points 10 months ago

Facebook can get fucked. I hope mark Zuckerberg goes fucking bankrupt trying to get his fucking ‘metaverse’ shit to take off. What a fucking spoon. The sooner someone invents a reason why it’s not a massive advantage to be a complete psychopath the better.

[–] DarkenLM@kbin.social 9 points 10 months ago

Well, Threads was meant as a Twitter competitor. Seems like the toxicity levels are starting to get on-par.

[–] averyminya@beehaw.org 8 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I literally just posted an image of this elsewhere, let me get my other account it's on.

[–] wolfshadowheart@slrpnk.net 7 points 10 months ago (1 children)

CW, an image example of the content described in this thread. Hateful content. Linking to a comment of mine where I post a screenshot. My spoilers are iffy on mobile so for now please consider this link a spoiler tag for the CW

https://slrpnk.net/comment/4903011

This was shown to me on my personal Instagram, my partner is heavily involved in our queer community. I was shocked when I saw this post on Instagram, then I saw it was from Threads. Way to fucking validate my position about every reason I've been giving to defederated from Threads.

I was searching for hours today for somewhere to post this. I ended up finding just a random community with a somewhat relevant post just to get it off my chest since there's nothing to really do about it. But thank you for this post, I only hope that this is the push people on the fence need to realize that Meta shouldn't be embraced.

It's sickening. I'm so sorry for everyone who is just looking for a place to express themselves as they are, now on the verge of being hoarded by these type of people.

On an aside but regarding Threads federation - are people's smaller servers even equipped to be able to handle the potential traffic of Threads users? Or would it not work like that? Like, if a link to my comment above for example were posted on threads and it blew up and 25m people were trying to view it... Wouldn't that effectively DDoS my instance if it's not able to handle that kind of traffic?

And threads is supposed to be a good thing somehow. Psh.

[–] averyminya@beehaw.org 4 points 10 months ago

Just confirming this is me and my post.

[–] __@fedia.io 8 points 10 months ago

I (am blessedly fortunate to be able to) run a single user instance for myself. By definition, I don't see this shit.

But I rage for the folks who do.

It's real simple: However one perceives oneself is valid, full stop. Who the hell am I to suggest otherwise? I'm not in anyone else's head.

These motherfuckers, and threads, have more than one suicide upon their heads I'm quite sure.

As for me, it's no trouble at all to call someone by their preferred (anything) - Countless kids decided in their late teens to use their middle name, or something totally unrelated. You wanna be "Skip," I'm good with that. Dunno why, wouldn't be my choice, but... All that's relevant is that you identify as Skip or Buddy or Lisa or Suzie.

[–] derin@lemmy.beru.co 8 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I saw the same post! Was in my feed on Instagram, kind of like an ad to download Threads. It was preceeded by two posts from attractive young women looking for "travel partners".

What an inept way to promote a website: Two bots and a bigot.

[–] CaptObvious@literature.cafe 1 points 10 months ago

On the other hand, “Two Bimbos and a Bigot” would be a great parody podcast title or SNL segment. :)

[–] CaptObvious@literature.cafe 6 points 10 months ago (4 children)

I’m currently looking for a new Mastodon home that goes a step further than the Fedipact. I’m looking for an instance that not only refuses to federate with Facebook themselves, but also blocks any other fediverse instance that does allow Facebook’s content. Any suggestions?

[–] leraje@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 10 months ago

Not a clue. I totally sympathise with your feelings on the matter but I've not heard of an instance offering that.

[–] Uranium3006@kbin.social 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Honesty that's a bad idea, we don't need to fragment instances until federation stops working to defeat threads

[–] spacecowboy@sh.itjust.works 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

What makes you think that a for profit company like Meta has any altruistic or not-profit-driven reason to join the fediverse? There is zero chance that them federating doesn’t hurt the fediverse and benefit them. They wouldn’t be doing it otherwise.

[–] sour@kbin.social 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

is not worth blocking instances that arent threads

[–] Uranium3006@kbin.social 4 points 10 months ago

Exactly. That kind of infighting is gonna wreak us. People are too quick to fediblock and it makes it hard to use many instances

[–] __@fedia.io 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Can you expound on 'block'? IIRC, Jerry blocks threads proactively on his microblog instances, and the user can undo that. Is that what you're looking for, or something further?

[–] CaptObvious@literature.cafe 1 points 10 months ago

I’m looking for a Mastodon instance that both blocks Facebook and blocks any other instance that does federate with Facebook.

[–] humancrayon@sh.itjust.works 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

socel.net is one i've been a part of since I joined. Its mainly art and design focused. Bonus #1: It has Neil Gaiman and Matthew Schofield (former art director for The Simpsons). Bonus #2: I believe the owner's response when they pledged to block anything with facebook was "Get fucked Zuck."

[–] CaptObvious@literature.cafe 2 points 10 months ago

Definitely checking them out. Thanks!

[–] leraje@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 10 months ago

There's replies to this post that I can't see whilst logged in. No idea why, a foible of federation maybe.

“We” created the Fedi to have interoperable systems and to give users autonomy over their accounts and their feeds. That’s why there’s an option for users to block other users and even entire servers.

Not sure what the scare quotes round 'we' are for, but anyway, personal autonomy is a great thing, but when your autonomy negatively affects other people's desire to remain on a platform, then its not so much autonomy as selfishness. I'm well aware users and instances can be blocked, but when Meta start truly ramping up Threads we'll be talking hundreds of millions of users and god knows how many domains/instances. Trying to avoid hate is going to become the primary thing some people have to do. Or just leave the fediverse.

No one is doing that.

Yes, they are. There are whole instances out there dedicated to (so called) minority groups who some of the hate groups on Threads, both now and in the future, will come after. They already do this on Twitter, TikTok, etc etc - do you think they'll just not do that on Threads? Or that Meta will moderate them appropriately?

You see it as the Fediverse promoting Meta but we see the opposite.

Is that a joke? You honestly think that by federating with Threads, your average Threads user is going to see the promised land of the fediverse and switch in significant numbers?

I’ve literally never seen anyone say this except FediPacters as a strawman

Then you've not been paying attention.

[–] moitoi@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 10 months ago

We all knew this will happen then you can take preventive measures or not. I always think preventing os a better option with lower cost.

Now, people have to act otherwise they are supporting these views. The fediverse is a safe space for many minorities. You may not be part of one of them but the fediverse doesn't work like other social media. You don't have one parent company to take in account. You are accountable or at least the instance you're on. This is due to federation.

People have to change their mind on this too. We have to change this rule. We have to move more like one. This can be called unionizing. People and instance have to unionize to keep the leadership in social media. This will be a non individual response to the issues. We look collectively at them with tolerance as a common contract.

This is the opposite of how these companies like meta work. They want to put the responsibility on the individual as always. They grow their capital from this by exploiting the cognitive free work of the user. It's completely individual and the algorithms help to push this logic at the extrem. By thinking, the fediverse should not have a common response, people are playing the game of these companies.

This is why we have to change and unionize, to have a peaceful place where we put the common first and reject the individualism. We can show people that a better place with different rules than what we see for now 40 years is possible online.

[–] Prandom_returns@lemm.ee 1 points 10 months ago

A garbage social network run by garbage people using hate to spur comments and clicks!? Well that's unheard of!

On a serious note, thanks for sharing this.