CEO of Meta, which recently joined the newly founded #SocialWebFoundation, suggests that there is "no causal connection" between social media and teen mental health.
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wendinoakland for Kamalareplied to Evan Prodromou last edited by
@evan @stefan Yes, I do, and I’m honestly concerned. I fear that meta, with its extremely lenient moderation, tolerant of thinly veiled racism, sexism, otherism of the most profound kind, and tuned to magnifying algorithms, will potentially harm some of the people most precious to me in this noncommercial fediverse. Please try to understand my reservations…
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Stefan Bohacekreplied to wendinoakland for Kamala last edited by
@wendinoakland @evan "honestly concerned"
We shouldn't be.
When Threads was announced and people started to panic about Meta taking over, I wasn't too concerned. I thought, they're scared, they see the future, and they're not in it, so they must act.
I did start to get concerned after this new effort was announced and Meta was listed as a partner. It's one thing to have Meta start using technology that's free for everyone. It's a whole other story when they attempt to influence it.
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Stefan Bohacekreplied to Stefan Bohacek last edited by
But really, we don't know yet what this new group will be able to do and achieve. ActivityPub is still overseen by W3C, as far as I know.
And when they can infiltrate that?
Well, the fediverse is vast. There'll always be servers and platforms free from the influence of corporate social media companies. We'll keep moving to stay ahead of it.
We'll be fine.
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Stefan Bohacekreplied to Chris Alemany🇺🇦🇨🇦🇪🇸 last edited by
@chris @evan From https://socialwebfoundation.org? I still see it there.
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Evan Prodromoureplied to Stefan Bohacek last edited by [email protected]
@stefan @wendinoakland so, I think this is really important. I think everyone on the Fediverse should have the choice between connecting to their friends, family, colleagues and neighbours on commercial social networks from the platform they prefer, or staying isolated from those commercial providers and the people who use them. That autonomy is fundamental; nobody can force you to connect with anyone you don't want to.
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Evan Prodromoureplied to Evan Prodromou last edited by
@stefan @wendinoakland I also disagree that Meta can be a part of this network without influencing it. I don't think that's how social systems work. But I hope that we can take good things from Meta and leave the bad things.
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Evan Prodromoureplied to Evan Prodromou last edited by
@stefan @wendinoakland one example is reply control. Users on Threads can say who can reply to their posts; users on Mastodon can't. There have been some proposals in this area over the years, and they haven't stuck yet. I think this is a great feature for user safety, if it can be balanced with freedom of expression (I like UIs that emphasize approved replies, but still allow access to other replies).
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Evan Prodromoureplied to Evan Prodromou last edited by
@stefan @wendinoakland In terms of people with high vulnerability, I absolutely recommend using the defederation feature and blocking early. It's better to play it safe. fedipact.online is a good resource for finding servers that block Threads.
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wendinoakland for Kamalareplied to Evan Prodromou last edited by
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Evan Prodromoureplied to Evan Prodromou last edited by
@stefan @wendinoakland I also think that lowering the social cost of moving to a Free Software service is key to increasing usage. If you move to a Mastodon server and you have zero connections to your existing friends and family, you are probably going to churn out. Starting a whole new set of social connections from zero is a skill that only a minority of humans have.
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Evan Prodromoureplied to wendinoakland for Kamala last edited by
@wendinoakland @stefan are you sure? I don't think Threads has features to do that yet.
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Evan Prodromoureplied to Evan Prodromou last edited by
@stefan @wendinoakland I want people who have Franklin Street Statement servers to be able to keep them for the long term.
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Stefan Bohacekreplied to Evan Prodromou last edited by
"disagree that Meta can be a part of this network without influencing it"
Right, to a certain degree, sure.
But, at least from my perspective, I can't help but wonder, how are the other companies and organizations comfortable with their logos and names appearing right next to Meta's, given their history.
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Stefan Bohacekreplied to Stefan Bohacek last edited by
@evan @wendinoakland But that's all I have to say on this topic. I've said on a few occasions that my single-user server is the last social media website I'll sign up for, and I'll stand by that.
Meta trying to co-opt it and subvert it was to be expected. I still believe we as a community can resist that. It's just disappointing to see so many not willing to even try.
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Evan Prodromoureplied to Stefan Bohacek last edited by
@stefan @wendinoakland Stefan, I wonder for you what signals you might see a year from now, in terms of processes and programs, that would make you feel more or less concerned about the SWF?
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Stefan Bohacekreplied to Evan Prodromou last edited by
@evan @wendinoakland SWF has its problems covered in other threads discussing it, and to be honest, I'm less concerned about those.
My problem is specifically with Meta being welcome to directly influence the fediverse.
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Stefan Bohacekreplied to Stefan Bohacek last edited by [email protected]
@evan @wendinoakland I fully expect to see ad support on a protocol level, at some point, and perhaps that's even fine, depending on the implementation. If done right, this can help some servers keep up with the costs.
My concern is that that will not be where Meta's influence will end, and that's something that will take more than a year to fully reveal itself.
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@[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] I'm more concerned about the triplet Meta, Automattic and Medium.
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Evan Prodromoureplied to Stefan Bohacek last edited by
@stefan @wendinoakland you and I agree, mostly. I'm part of a cooperative instance, and I want our collective to thrive.
I also think it's great that companies have to engage with the Fediverse now. We have a powerful model and a powerful movement and they can't ignore us any more.
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Evan Prodromoureplied to Evan Prodromou last edited by
@stefan @wendinoakland also, I really hope this is *not* your last word on the topic. You have a valuable perspective that I really appreciate, and skill with communicating it. In particular, I think your writings on how new implementers should engage with the Fediverse are important.