Threads – to federate or not to federate, that IS the question!

Last updated on April 4, 2024

With the news about Meta Threads having Beta access to ActivityPub and how a lot of instances are blocking them, I started a poll on Mastodon. Currently after a couple of days it is neck and neck with those that will block Threads and those that will federate. It’s pretty obvious that opinions are polarised on this but whilst my poll shows it’s a tie right now, the undercurrent appears to be more in the block Threads argument, even if people are not shouting out about it right now. So why is this important? Well history hasn’t been kind to Meta if we are honest here, they have bought their way into most people lives either by just buying a product, see Instagram and What’s App, or by selling peoples souls and having such a large user base that more users swell the ranks because of the sheer numbers involved. I think this might be the first time that Meta can’t buy their way into this though, as ActivityPub is a standard, and the platforms, well they aren’t ad funded or data harvesting and if Meta tried to change them, and lets be clear if they could they 100% would, then the users would just leave meaning it is pointless. My take on this is simple – I would urge most people to be open to Meta, but assume that at some point they will attempt to hijack everything for themselves (history shows they have done just that every single time). I mean they have even had the brass to bring along a logo that they have made for their version of the fediverse. SO in the meanwhile, expect that some instances will federate, but over time I believe most will defederate leaving threads as a singular platform in all but idea! Is this right, well maybe not but when a company comes in steaming like Meta has, it certainly stirs up extra hatred for them, and let’s be honest they already have enough of that…