Should sh.itjust.works preemptively defederate from Threads?

Threads is the not-so-new reddit-like twitter-like public forum platform by Meta, the same commercial company behind internet behemoths like Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp. They’re working on ActivityPub integration so that they can bridge (federate?) with the fediverse. As far as I know, the focus is on Mastodon instances, but in the future that could include Lemmy instances too.

Some have raised the question, worried about the future of the fediverse or even claiming that it goes against its definition.

What do you think should be done?

EDIT: correction

EDIT.2: The Vote is on! Go make your voice heard. You have until Friday the 29th.

Fediverse instances’ status on federation with Threads

  • djidane535
    22·
    1 year ago

    Disclaimer: I know it’s an unpopular opinion, but despise what I said in my message, I am not strongly for or against federation with Threads. I just feel it’s better to give another point of view to the situation (there is no harm, people who disagree with this instance final decision will just migrate somewhere else, regardless of the choice).

    —

    I don’t think we should treat Threads differently than any other instance. If they cause no harm, they should be allowed. As a consequence, I would personally not defederate immediately.

    I am more concerned at a more general level, in the sense that federating with a large instance can be difficult / impossible to handle moderation-wise (which is not specific to Threads). This could be solved by simply putting the charge on Meta (just like any instance): if they can’t moderate their content, we will defederate (and revise the decision if changes are made on their side).

    I also don’t really see why this would hurt the fediverse: it’s not like they can’t already get all the data they want from the fediverse, and the moment they will push ads to the fediverse, the instances will just defederate.

    People will just follow the content they seek. If they have to migrate towards another instance federating with Threads (or directly leave for Threads), they will (which might not be an issue for the fediverse).