this post was submitted on 16 Dec 2023
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Meta just announced that they are trying to integrate Threads with ActivityPub (Mastodon, Lemmy, etc.). We need to defederate them if we want to avoid them pushing their crap into fediverse.

If you're a server admin, please defederate Meta's domain "threads.net"

If you don't run your own server, please ask your server admin to defederate "threads.net".

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[–] [email protected] 99 points 11 months ago (5 children)

Comment stolen from user "copygirl" from blahaj.zone:

Looks like they'll be harvesting your data if you follow anyone from Threads, maybe even injecting ads. Unsure what happens to the data of people that get followed by a Threads user. A large part of the fediverse is here precisely because they want to escape corporate meddling, data-hoarding, advertising and other anti-user malpractices. There's a number of people talking about this, here's a recent post that highlights some of the things from their TOS.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 11 months ago

It's not as if something was preventing them from

data-hoarding

and

harvesting your data

here anyway.

So that part about being followed by a Threads user is just a bit stupid.

The danger is in them becoming an integral part of the network where people don't bother to register at a normal instance, and then Meta pulling out and the network remaining half-dead.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Anyone can collect the data anyway, and I'm sure at least one person out there is already harvesting our Fediverse data.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 11 months ago (4 children)

There's a big difference between some random person and Meta collecting the data.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 11 months ago

Who says that Meta is not already harvesting our data? Lemmy really is about moving control out of corporate hands and decentralisation advantages, but profiling is insanely easy on the Fediverse, and it really cannot be different because of its inherent interconnectedness. It makes no sense to migrate from conventional social media to Fediverse equivalents if all one cares about is privacy.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago (1 children)

How do you know that meta hasn't created an account on a popular well federated server and it's using those credentials to scrape the fetiverse?

You have to assume whatever your post to the Internet is available to anyone and everyone connected. Why would federated servers be and different.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

created an account on a popular well federated server

Why would they do that?

They would create a custom instance.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

Everything is public on fedi (if we're talking about communities alike), so any bot can and is already scrapping everything through regular HTTP. You must be extremely ignorant to think otherwise.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Meta can collect every scrap of Lemmy right now

Edit: downvote for what? My comment is true

[–] [email protected] 12 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Is there any sort of legal precedent that covers a situation where:

  • I am a user on a network server.
  • Meta connects their server to my server so their users and I can interact.
  • Am I now bound by a terms of service on Meta's server that I have not agreed to and may have never seen or been presented with?

When I joint my instance, am I implicitly agreeing to any terms of service that exist on any instance that my instance decides to federate with?#

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

Someone actually asked an almost identical question on StackEx a while ago. (things may have changed since) From what I got from skimming the answer, is there is precedence, and it should be covered within the TOS of the hosting website/network (i.e. lemmy.world)

https://law.stackexchange.com/questions/7773/does-a-tos-also-apply-for-third-party-resources-on-a-website

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

Lemmy and mastodon profiles are public so I don’t know if privacy concerns are a problem unique to federation with meta considering they could just scrape your profile if they wanted the data that bad. I’d be much more concerned about small instance admins losing funding as users migrate to instances that federate with meta until threads and the big instances are the only ones left on the fediverse

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

How can they possibly steal any data other than what you publicly shared on the internet?