As some, or many, may know, a lot, or maybe even just a few instances across the activitypub fediverse have pacted to block federation with the corporate giant Meta, or to be more specific, Threads. Threads is a new take on the Twitter experience, meant to be a kinder, less hostile place to post. All-in-all, after about six or seven months, I might call it only really marginally better. Or, just about as good as 2015 Twitter was. The idea of a monied corporate social network connecting to the open source activitypub protocol is a wild one, something I’m sure not many would have ever imagined–but it’s happening.
A lot of the reasons some instances are blocking Threads.net, are because it opens the door for ads to spill over into the federated timeline. It opens the door for bad actors, and hate accounts, and trolls. And, at the very worst, data collection. These things are troubling for sure, but I’m writing this post today, because I want to give reasons as to why my instance will not be blocking or suspending Threads.
Before the people who call me an online friend grab their pitchforks and decide I’m their enemy at the drop of a dime, without a second thought, and a complete lack of empathy (this is an extremely specific jest, and related to many experiences I’ve had on the fediverse itself), hear me out!
Have you been on Threads?
It’s definitely not Twitter-hell-hole-zone, in fact, it’s mostly influencers, and creators, and sex workers. There, I said it. Yes, there are brands, and there are bad accounts that slip through the cracks until enough people have reported them, but that’s just it, these bad things exist in many places, including the activitypub protocol. And what have most instances done when these things happen? Or, most people? Oh, you’ve used your block and suspend button?
Imagine that.
I’m leaving the door open for Threads because it is a place where many creators, and self-employed people post. And I intend to be one of those people, whether bitter and angry Twitter-to-Mastodon converts like it or not. You’re not the boss of me! (now, you’re not the boss of me now, and you’re not so big!) And it’s not just that. I have mutuals on Threads, some of them are really cool people. Some of them might have interest in Mastodon, and just haven’t ever had any real exposure to it. And dangit, Bobby, I want to support the work of other creators without being constantly drowned out by the usual Mastodon spillage of endless foss-posting.
But Nova, you some-of-a-beach, there’s still the ads! And data collection!
Hold up. You can just block the brand accounts, and if you think there aren’t bots collecting your data all over Mastodon right now, as I type this, you’re more naive than me. And yeah, maybe I am naive.
But there is one thing I do know: I trust myself, and my own judgment, more than people who whip out pitchforks at any given chance they have to latch onto an idea that someone else told them to have.
Full stop.
If you’re interested in checking out the fediverse from the Mastodon side of the pool, feel free to navigate to the link to my instance further up in this post, and give it a look!
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