There is a strong rumour going round that some Fediverse developers and admins have held secret discussions with Meta/Facebook under NDAs.
The Fediverse is supposed to be an alliance of open projects built by a broad grassroots base. Its devs/admins are not supposed to hold secret backroom discussions with people who have a horrific track record (https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/dec/06/rohingya-sue-facebook-myanmar-genocide-us-uk-legal-action-social-media-violence).
Facebook/Meta is in effect a sociopathic corporation (https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanmac/growth-at-any-cost-top-facebook-executive-defended-data). Nothing good will come of talking to them.
it’s an extraordinary claim, but i don’t disbelieve it. has anyone else heard anything about this?
I think meta will genuinely cannibalize the rest of the fediverse if they decide to pursue this matter further. Even with the best of intentions, meta being attached to the Fediverse in any way will cause it to consume the overall connotation and understanding to the layman of what the Fediverse is and - by extension - allow meta to reshape the concept however they’d like.
I realize the above is apocalyptic and hyperbolic language for sure, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they pursue the concept of an instance/server for it to balloon in size with registrations from people and lead to their server becoming the defacto one, which is what I’d personally be afraid of.
there’s a pact going around that has admins promise to defederate from any Meta-affiliated instances. the Fediverse will survive even if Meta tries to cannibalize it
I think meta will genuinely cannibalize the rest of the fediverse if they decide to pursue this matter further. Even with the best of intentions, meta being attached to the Fediverse in any way will cause it to consume the overall connotation and understanding to the layman of what the Fediverse is and - by extension - allow meta to reshape the concept however they’d like.
I realize the above is apocalyptic and hyperbolic language for sure, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they pursue the concept of an instance/server for it to balloon in size with registrations from people and lead to their server becoming the defacto one, which is what I’d personally be afraid of.
there’s a pact going around that has admins promise to defederate from any Meta-affiliated instances. the Fediverse will survive even if Meta tries to cannibalize it