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Potential of a Meta ActivityPub client (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by Whooping_Seal@sh.itjust.works to c/main@sh.itjust.works

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I am assuming many of you have heard about the potential of Meta creating an ActivityPub enabled client (TheVerge, PCMag etc. have made articles). I was just wondering what people's thoughts are on this, and if it came down to it should instances in the fediverse defederate from it considering it could be a case of Embrace, extend, extinguish.

There's a DefederateMeta magazine at !DefederateMeta@fedia.io if you're interested, which includes an anti-meta pact on cryptpad with the responses viewable on a seperate website if you care to see which instance admins have agreed.

I'm just curious what my fellow sh.it.heads think of this development in the fediverse, any input is appreciated!

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[–] spark947@lemm.ee 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm honestly not opposed to Facebook developing software that uses activity pub. It's an open standard after all. I get why you would want to de-federate it out of privacy concerns. I'm hoping that they make it open source, or that it introduces better federation navigation features that can get redeveloped in another client.

I'm not sure I would want to sign a pact that is anti this app, since I would think that encouraging ActivityPub adoption is a good thing. But de-federate from it for sure if it spies on users. I doubt facebook really cares about de-federation anyway, and will try to make their own ecosystem based around activity pub. I honestly doubt that they will federate to private instances anyway.

One pitfall: even if you de-federate, a market will probably emerge for content from federated servers and facebook might just start buying content from people who didn't make it, but are getting it by setting up instances that act as a middle man between facebook and other server. That is the only real risk I can think of, since it could have the potential to discourage widespread good faith federation.

[–] heavy@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I agree with you, a giant company pouring money and resources into the fediverse project in general can help it grow, at the same time there are folks that work in tech that want the time and money contribute to the federated model's success.

Ideally, if the federation model works, then we wouldn't have to worry so much about the community getting exterminated, its supposed to be pretty flexible to avoid centralization.

[–] spark947@lemm.ee 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

On the other hand, I think the concern about facebook spying on people through it's app is definitely warranted. Perhaps their should be some kind of licensing each instance maintains for what other federated instances do with the data? Someone is going to have to enforce privacy protections. Idk, the EFF should be all over this.

I guess I am not leftwing enough to atomically treat all for profit corporations as evil, but I definitely understand that they want to make profits and need to be given rules to play by so that they don't do bad stuff.

[–] heavy@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I can see that, big tech isn't usually altruistic at all, I'm with you there. I just welcome the investment and audience if it means the fediverse stays healthy.

I think the bigger problem we need to solve is privacy from a legal perspective (at least in the US). Companies that mess around with our data need to be held accountable with real consequences when they misuse or mishandle it.

[–] spark947@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago

Exactly! The EFF definitely needs to start thinking about ways for admins to license their instance so their data can't be sold or commercialized in some way after it is federated. And it needs teeth too. I think we are in a unique position where we can have a bit of leverage over these companies if we have control of our own data.