Meta will release an ActivityPub-enabled Twitter clone/competitor this summer. Will you join in or defederate?

Here is what we know about it so far:

  • It will most likely be called Threads.
  • It is not known what domain it will use for usernames.
  • In mockup screenshots, a user replies to someone using an @mastodon.social handle, it's very likely that they will federate.
  • It will be side app of Instagram. It's not clear how much of the new network will be baked into the main app.
  • Your username and verification status will carry over, so early adopters won't have an advantage for their preferred username.
  • Your followers will not carry over but there will be an easy way to pick and follow people on your Instagram list.

Personal observations:

  • Many people that I talked to about it think that this will be Meta's attempt at an "EEE".
  • Some Mastodon instance admins that I chatted about it say that Meta will "likely attempt to pull their user data", and they "will defederate immediately".
wagesj45,
wagesj45 avatar

Many people that I talked to about it think that this will be Meta's attempt at an "EEE".

probably. but the normies wouldn't have joined a federated service anyway. and when the "extenguish" part comes, it will just go back to the status quo (i.e. normies on private FB service, the rest of us on federated instances)

Some Mastodon instance admins that I chatted about it say that Meta will "likely attempt to pull their user data", and they "will defederate immediately".

got bad news for anyone that thinks meta wouldn't just run a crawler and scrape anything they want from your server.

at worst i'd see this as a net-neutral to the fediverse.

Kichae,

This is my thinking as well. I'm going to silence them on my Calckey instance, just because it's going to be a very noisy and poorly moderated space, but it will functionally be its own thing within a couple of years.

It's just using ActivityPub because it's new, it's likely not pulling from Facebook for content, and the existing Fediverse gives new users an active ecosystem to engage with making it not feel empty.

Maybe there'll be some good UX ideas there to steal, beyond a high profile URL backed by high capacity servers.

dreadgoat,
dreadgoat avatar

Fear of EEE is never a reason to reject investment. Something like EEE always arrives eventually, either externally or internally. When things get too big, they begin to collapse under their own weight one way or another. The dead burn and new life is born.

Reddit lasted around 15 years as the de facto Front Page of The Internet, which is honestly an amazing run. Twitter has been around for almost as long and only recently entered its death throes. Even Instagram which arrived "late" in web2.0 terms is over a decade old. We've all been spoiled by these marathon runs of social media services and have forgotten that before these, any popular Place To Be used to only last about 2 years before being smoked by something better, or just proving themselves to be generally unsustainable.

With that in mind, anyone and anything that contributes to the accelerated growth of the Fediverse is a good thing in my book, bearing in mind that accelerated growth comes with a shortened total lifetime. That just means we'll have something even better, sooner. When kbin and lemmy and mastodon all die, maybe even ActivityPub itself dies, to be replaced by some new technology, paradigm, interface, or experience 5+ years down the line.

I'm happy we're all here now but I don't expect to be here forever. Large scale investment and adoption absolutely will kill what is being built here, but that's just the nature of life and progress. Bring it on.

MeowdyPardner,
MeowdyPardner avatar

I'm of the same mind - I'll watch with great interest and welcome interaction with users on Meta-run instances, but I don't think it'll be much of a threat to the fediverse. The increased activity from Meta will in some ways be a rising tide that adds to the appeal of existing instances, and their development on top of ActivityPub will potentially be useful as case-studies of what kinds of UX can feasibly be built on top of ActivityPub, and may serve as lessons to existing fediverse projects that we can learn from as we find ways to provide good UX on top of a complex federated system - either as good examples of ways to present federated data structures in ways that are easy to understand, or as examples of what not to do if they do something that doesn't work well.

Very_Bad_Janet,

My limited understanding of this is once a Meta instance user follows or communicates with another user or magazine/collection on a kbin, Lemmy, Mastodon or any other Fediverse instance, that account is now accessible to everyone on that Meta instance. Other people with Meta accounts can see those kbin etc. posts on their federated timeliness. What that also means is that there is less of a reason to visit kbin, Lemmy etc. for their content and create an account in one of their instances. Meta becomes the face of the fediverse.. In other words, it can kill off the need for non-Meta instances. (Maybe I am misunderstanding this. If I am, please someone provide the correct info!)

I personally do not want a Meta instance account because I like the anonymity of my kbin and Mastodon (and Reddit) usernames. I updated my FB pic once and Meta automatically updated my IG one. My IG handle was automatically that of my FB one. It was very annoying (and inhibiting). I don't want everyone and their Nana seeing what my interests are.

Plus, it may just be another way to data mine and will be filled with ads and boosted posts from magazines im not subscribed to and people and hastags I have no interest in.

EnglishMobster,
EnglishMobster avatar

People who want Facebook accounts will make Facebook accounts.

The Fediverse isn't going anywhere. There will be plenty of people who don't want to make Facebook accounts, and they will live on existing instances as before.

Note that Meta is trying to make a Twitter clone. The "threadiverse" (Lemmy, Kbin, etc.) - while it can interop with Meta's Twitter clone - will always have a better UI for making content. Kbin and Lemmy will continue to have a reason to exist.

atypicaloddity,

their development on top of ActivityPub will potentially be useful as case-studies of what kinds of UX can feasibly be built on top of ActivityPub

Absolutely. Devs at Facebook, Twitter, etc have built a ton of great things that have been adopted by web devs across the industry. I'm looking forward to what they do with ActivityPub that we get to 'steal'

kux,
kux avatar

It will most likely be called Threads

Meta going for the nuclear option

Briaxe,

Probably so. They have to do something now that the "Metaverse" is dead.

e-ratic,
e-ratic avatar

Was it ever even alive?

stormageddon,

I know this is an upopular opinion to have in the Fediverse, but I'll probably try it out. Twitter, as mush as it pains me to admit, had its uses pre-Musk. And a lot of people have stayed on the platform because they don't have anywhere else viable to be (because of the size of their audience or how complicated jumping into the Fediverse can be, for example). So a mainstream alternative to Twitter that's not run by the dumbest boy in school is very much a market Meta can take advantage of. And while I doubt they have good intentions behind including ActivityPub, I'm in "wait and see" mode for now.

SumasFlats,

I turfed Twitter when Musk took over, and as a huge footy fan, have lost a ton of awesome news and funny sources that I followed for years. I would assume all those accounts are still posting on Twitter because that's where their audience is... So something run by Meta would certainly tempt those accounts regardless of the intentions behind the service.

EnglishMobster,
EnglishMobster avatar

Bear in mind that there are already large ActivityPub platforms that are run by bad actors. Most of the users of those platforms don't even know they're on the Fediverse.

The one that comes to mind is Trump's Truth Social. Internally, it's built on Mastodon. It can technically federate with anywhere else.

Most places defederate with Truth Social because they don't want to be associated with it - but it's still Fediverse and still technically can interop with everyone else.

DarkThoughts,

Hell no.
I don't care for the twatter format and I have an absolute hate boner for Facebook & Zuckerberg.

nova_ayashi,
@nova_ayashi@reddthat.com avatar

I think the obvious option is to defederate. Meta has a long history of data farming and strict content control. The latter especially I know would make many activitypub users angry. Zuck makes a new Twitter? Alright, are you allowed to post boobs? Probably not.

But yeah, obviously I can’t tell instance owners what to do, but I don’t think it’s a good idea to federate with Meta.

operator,
operator avatar

AHAHA i can already see whats gonna happen.

  1. Meta pouring millions of dollar into the development
  2. Meta releases their new network
  3. Most instances, especially the big ones, defederate(*)
  4. Metas app fails due to failing content and engagement.

The only option they have is forcing everyone from insta & co over to Threads.

*) I am not a fan of defederation, but I'd rather defederate Meta than freely give them all the data. Makes it harder for them to crawl^^

DataVortex,
DataVortex avatar

Since I already have an Instagram account, I will probably try it out, mainly because I'm curious about how will it work and look. I want to see what their take is, and how they approach certain things. But that's about it. I won't be using it past that, because I'm already on Mastodon using Mona and that's where I'm staying at.

In any case, I guess that I could follow some people over there from my Mastodon account.

The1Morrigan,

Meta or Facebook, I'm never going back to using their sites/services.

doughheid,
doughheid avatar

I probably won't be signing up but I will be happy to see a polished, sane, federated clone that normal people will want to use and what everyone can learn from that. I still spend a lot of time on Instagram, and if they can reproduce that feel and keep it mostly separated from Facebook then it will do well.

I don't know the technical details of federation, but I wonder if the noise of a massive network suddenly appearing will overload small instances out of existence.

yourgodlucifer,

I think calckey is pretty nice I don't think there is an app for it yet though but I don't even think it needs an app the web experience is very smooth

!deleted117478,

deleted_by_author

    •
    mrbitterness,
    mrbitterness avatar

    I concur.

    0xtero,
    0xtero avatar

    Some Mastodon instance admins that I chatted about it say that Meta will "likely attempt to pull their user data", and they "will defederate immediately".

    If they want to do that, they're already doing it. There's really nothing that could stop them, they don't need to create their own service for it.

    0xtero,
    0xtero avatar

    I don't use their products, so I won't be joining in, but I am cautiously interested about their ActivityPub functionality.
    Hopefully they'll work with W3C with the standard (instead of building own extensions) and perhaps even open source some of their tools. I don't think that's going to happen, but one can hope.

    Also - if all 1.2bn MAU's from Insta are suddenly "fedi-enabled" maybe I'll be able to follow some of the things that haven't transitioned over the fediverse (chess players, Formula 1, NHL etc). Would be awfully nice.

    luna,

    I will defederate any corporations that try to get onto ActivityPub, especially facebook. They already managed to kill XMPP, and now everyone's acting as if they can't do anything malicious with ActivityPub. Gosh I hate how bad the takes are on here, I guess it's similar to Reddit in that regard

    wahming,

    Maybe instead of insulting others you could give your opinion on how they might screw up ActivityPub?

    moldyringwald,
    moldyringwald avatar

    Idk I personally don't think it will be a good thing. Lots of good federated platforms already exist and anyone on insta or facebook can already come here if they want to escape all the qanon boomers and minions memes. I don't think a proprietary ad-driven capitalism machine really aligns with what the fedi is all about

    jcrm,

    I don't see this as a bad thing. I hate Facebook with a passion, but if it means more money going into UX development of federated services, I'm all for it. To me that's the biggest problem with them right now.

    The concerns about data use are worth noting, but I don't think are to be worried about. They can get the data anyway, and what we really need is better data privacy laws in place in general.

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