Meta’s entry to the Fediverse via Threads has predictably ruffled a few feathers. It’s not what Meta is doing with Threads in the Fediverse that’s the problem per se, it’s more to do with the fact that people know what Meta does when you give it an inch; it takes a mile and then gobbles up everything in sight after that.
As one of the biggest personal data hoarders on the planet, Meta is often embroiled in some kind of controversy or lawsuit. Whether it’s propagandizing government messaging (confirmed by Zuckerberg) or helping to skew elections (Cambridge Analytica), most are now aware of what truly motivates the suits at Meta, and it has next to nothing to do with connecting people or bringing them together.
In Star Wars Parlance, The Fediverse Would Be The Resistance, While Meta Would Be The Empire
Big Tech companies like Meta are often referred to as surveillance capitalists, and the reason for this is that they make YOU the product. They harvest YOUR personal data and profit it from it, either through ads or other, more nefarious activities.
The Fediverse is designed as the antidote to this type of thing; user privacy, both in terms of what’s collected and what is done with the data, is of the utmost importance. No one OWNS the Fediverse, it’s a collective, powered by its users. It’s open source in the truest sense of the phrase.
If you’re not au fait with the way Meta and other Big Tech companies play ball, here’s a quick recap:
Why Meta Has No Place Inside The Fediverse…
Embrace, Extend, Extinguish (EEE).
Microsoft invented the playbook on this one back in the day. But Meta has pedigree too, and its move into the Fediverse reeks of EEE.
How it works is simple: a big tech company, Meta, in this context, adopts an open standard (ActivityPub), starts expanding it by adding in its own protocols and features, then it begins to scale things up, using its mountain of cash reserves, and then, once it has control, it starts to dictate the terms and standards.
If others don’t play ball, adhere to its decrees, they’re crushed or marginalized.
Meta Likes To Harvest Data, The Fediverse Is Against This
Meta makes all of its money from your data. You’re the product, and your likes and personal data are its lifeblood. It needs you actively consuming content and sharing content inside its ecosystem so that it can mine data about you and sell more adverts.
This type of business model, affectionately known as surveillance capitalism, has no place inside the Fediverse which is why plenty of Fediverse users have already confirmed they will defederate from any instance that federates with Meta.
It has its own code of ethics and governance driven by its users, not some corporate entity, while traditional, for-profit social media has no ethics, is owned in a very real capitalist sense, and is used to control, suppress and/or propagate specific ideas or politics.
Why should anyone expect them to respect Mastodon’s privacy norms or honor robots.txt files? It is literally currently involved in lawsuits about NOT doing this right now.
If Threads federates with your instance, your public posts—intended for people, not algorithms—suddenly become part of Meta’s data pool. This isn’t just a hypothetical concern. This is how Meta makes money. And they will do it, even if you ask them not to.
Everybody In The Fediverse Hates What Meta Stands For
Meta represents the sharp end of the Big Tech stick. It’s a huge, sprawling company that makes its money through data-harvesting, surveillance, and addicting teens and children to its products via vampiric algorithms.
And that’s just how it operates on the day-to-day. Anyone with any sense of what the Fediverse represents knows that you cannot inject a corporation built on ad revenue into a space that actively resists ad-driven ecosystems and expect anything less than a backlash.
Meta does not fit in the Fediverse. Never will.
More Reach! Will Somebody PLEASE Think About The Reach Meta Will Bring!?
Advocates of Meta’s move into the Fediverse argue that platforms like Threads will allow current Fediverse users to reach lots more people than before. Potentially millions and millions of new people. Sounds good, right?
For corporate entities, yes: reach is always a good thing. More eyeballs on your content means more sales, more ad impressions, more revenue.
But, again, this misses the point of the Fediverse entirely. Now that Google’s ruined search and most social media platforms are cesspits for the worst aspects of humanity, the Fediverse operates as an alternative for the way things COULD BE without overbearing corporate interest.
The entire point of the Fediverse, the way it has been designed to function, is the antithesis of how traditional social media networks function. On X or Instagram, you’re forcefully guided to look at specific, curated things.
On Fediverse platforms, you decide what you see and what you look at and who you’re interacting with.
And the big thing? You cannot buy your way to popularity or visibility on Fediverse platforms.
You have to earn it.
You have to be there, be present, and share worthwhile content to earn followers and build-out a following. There’s no shortcuts with ads or paid promotions (yet).
Meta is The Reason Decentralized Social Media Exists (And Not In A Good Way)
The entire MO behind the Fediverse is to offer people an alternative to Big Tech’s way of doing social media. The only reason it exists is because companies like Meta have more or less completely co-opted the internet.
Upwards of 90% of people that are using the web right now are doing it either inside Google or Meta’s walled gardens.
That’s not the way the internet was meant to work.
Things like AI Overviews and never-ending algorithm updates designed to extract more and more attention and money from people have turned the open web into a dystopian nightmare. It sucks. It’s impossible to find anything new and novel these days. Everything is dominated by the same big brands or creators.
The Fediverse offers an alternative to this madness. You can explore again, connect with people, share ideas, and start using the web as it was meant to be used: collectively, without surveillance, and with complete control over what you do and who you interact with.
Meta has no place in an ecosystem like this.
