😮
Wait. People are saying Meta's decentralized app will be powered by #ActivityPub, and will interoperate with Mastodon.
On top of it, it will be Instagram-branded.
Surprising. But again, I'll believe it when I see it.
Wow. We're really going to see a Fediverse dogpile soon.
It doesn't matter if Meta never does this decentralized social network and integrates ActivityPub.
The point is enough developers will *think* Meta will do this -- and this is going to cause an avalanche of development.
Not all these developers will believe in decentralization. They'll be opportunists through and through.
What all these Johnny-Come-Latelys will need to understand:
* The Fediverse isn't a client
* The Fediverse isn't Mastodon
* The Fediverse isn't ActivityPub
The Fediverse is an entire ecosystem that is as revolutionary as the web itself.
While the web connects servers, the Fediverse does something more drastic: it connects people!
This will change the Internet forever, and if Meta goes through with this, it spells their doom.
@atomicpoet By running a large ActivityPub instance Meta can know about the people who use the instance, and also the people they follow. Building network maps will enable them to make educated guesses about what will eventually be a sizeable portion of the Fediverse. This is true of any large instance, but Meta will eventually be one of if not the largest. They will find a way to monetise that.
@gr0k I can always block them -- and I probably will!
Any person who runs an instance and joined the Fediverse will be wise enough to block/defederate with whatever they’re coming up with. Their motive is clear - harvest data from the Fediverse as it’s too tempting to lose out. They’ll prolly come up with:
some ‘lawful in court’ T&C clause where ‘you’ will not own the data. In the long run you will see, “We’ve made changes to our Terms of Use. Please look.”, which you probably won’t bother to look but would have to give in anyway.
ways where they seem attractive at first. In the long run, your instance would have come far enough that you just won’t be able to defederate.
Will surely won’t federate and will block it.
@atomicpoet Is our best response simply discouraging its use and promoting alternatives? Or could we be more proactive? Maybe documenting and and blocking their spiders for instance?