Post #2296645

2023-06-21 19:27 UTC

@trekman10@union.place @simplenomad@rigor-mortis.nmrc.org @joshbressers@infosec.exchange There are many things they could do. Most of them would immediately out them as trying to kill or seriously twist the Fediverse but I'm always suspicious of large companies entering environments where there doesn't seem to be a market for them. After all, how does Meta plan to profit from entering the Fediverse? Until I know the answer to that question, I'm suspicious by default. They're developing their own application, not just a Meta-branded Mastodon instance. They can inject all sorts of garbage into the federated timeline. They can decide not to allow federation for posts they don't like, or repeatedly boost posts they *do* like. They could use any username on their instance or create new ones on the fly to circumvent user-level blocking. They could send out ads disguised as posts from users you follow. A lot of the way Fediverse servers behave is based on trust in admins and an agreement to not abuse the system. I don't *trust* Meta.

Replies (2)

@simplenomad@rigor-mortis.nmrc.org 2023-06-21 19:41

@emberquill@tech.lgbt @trekman10@union.place @joshbressers@infosec.exchange Grabbing everything from your profile and everything from your post and creating a “digital imprint”. Taking this imprint and matching it up with everything else they have. Selling the information to a data broker who will do the same. You not having a “say” in the matter since it is a public posting. That’s the first concern. Then the next concern which is even bigger, is the “embrace, extend, extinguish” method that Microsoft is known for. Large corporations do this for increasing “market share” which means they do it for money.

Open ##2296646
@trekman10@union.place 2023-06-21 22:09

@emberquill@tech.lgbt @simplenomad@rigor-mortis.nmrc.org @joshbressers@infosec.exchange since it's their own fediverse-enabled client with #ActivityPub, anything they add to their version wouldn't get transferred to non-#Project92 platforms. Any such ad or spam accounts can be blocked. Also, the same holds true for many instances. I'm not saying it'll be fine, but I'm also thinking that there will be people who'll first use the fediverse through this and can be swayed away from Meta when they follow non-Meta accounts

Open ##2296648