It looks like Threads has taken their next incremental step in two-way federation: according to Mark F***ing Zuckerberg "now you'll be able to follow people from other fediverse servers who liked, followed or replied to federated profiles on Threads." ...

The Nexus of Privacy

It looks like Threads has taken their next incremental step in two-way federation: according to Mark F***ing Zuckerberg "now you'll be able to follow people from other fediverse servers who liked, followed or replied to federated profiles on Threads." As always in the fediverse, opinions differ:

If you're concerned about harassment, stalking, and data harvesting threats from Threads ... the risks just increased substantially. This post is for you, with information about how to dcerease them.
if on the other hand you're one of the many people here who see federaton with Threads as a good thing, then Zuckerberg's announcement is good news, and this post is for you to share with friends who are at risk.

So, if you don't want your posts going to Threads, now's a good time to move to an instance that blocks Threads.

If you're on an instnace that doesn't block Threads and don't want to move yet, you can still block the domain yourself. This doesn't provide as much protection as being on an instance that blocks Threads, but it's certainly better than nothing. How to block Threads on Mastodon - and a reminder that blocking on the fediverse only provides limited protections has instructions, with screenshots.

Still, if you're concerned about Threads, it really is much better to move to an instance that blocks them. Even this doesn't provide bulletproof protection, but it's stronger than individual domain blocking. Unfortunately, you can't move your posts (although you can create an archive), but you can usually keep of your followers.
@FediTips Transferring your Mastodon account to another server is a thorough guide. Erin Kissane's Notes From a Mastodon Migration and Cutie City's Migrating Servers are also very useful -- it's worth reading all of these before you move!

And if you're really concerned about the risks and want to have protection be as bulletproof as possible, I agree with Kissane's suggestions in Untangling Threads

"I think the nearest thing to reasonably sturdy protection for people on fedi who have good reason to worry about the risk surface Threads federation opens up is probably to either…
block Threads and post followers-only or or local-only, for fedi services that support it, or
operate from a server that federates only with servers that also refuse to federate with Threads—which is a system already controversial within the fediverse because allowlists are less technically open than denylists.

We're starting to see examples of that second approach now -- The Website League is one, an island network where none of the servers federate with Threads; see their December update for more. I expect we'll see more of these over time.

#threads #fedipact #fediverse

Fedi.Tips 🎄

@thenexusofprivacy

Just to add, this is not a "you do you" situation.

The danger from #Meta is they allow hatred to spread, and that puts people in danger who don't even use Meta's networks. The hatred radicalises people who then do nasty stuff in real life against innocent victims. Radicalised people don't block Meta, they keep being fed more hate.

This cycle leads to real life violence of the worst kind:

Facebook accused by survivors of letting activists incite ethnic…

Fact checkers and civil society organisations describe company's virtually 'non-existent' support for their work tackling misinformation

TBIJ (www.thebureauinvestigates.com)

This is not an isolated case.

Please defederate #Threads