this post was submitted on 06 Jul 2023
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[–] OldFartPhil 90 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Good, let Zuck and Musk fight. If we're lucky they'll knock each other out.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago

Can you imagine if only the Fediverse remains standing? Oh how I wish we could live in such a world.

[–] [email protected] 59 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Aha. This may be why Threads is based on ActivityPub - a way to prevent accusations of it being a Twitter clone. It's just an innocent member of the Fediverse. ;)

[–] OldFartPhil 48 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Yep. Being a part of the fediverse gives Meta a defensible argument that (1) they are not stealing Twitter's intellectual property as Mastodon already exists and (2) they are not monopolizing the Twitter-like social media environment as any of their users could move to Mastodon if they wanted to.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (3 children)

The second point may actually be very true. This way they are a smaller target for anti-trust investigations in case Twitter is completely obsoleted by Threads.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Who'da thunk the fediverse was just going to be used as a shield in a petty big tech feud?!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Keep in mind that Meta's Threads doesn't have ActivityPub integrated yet. Doubt they are going to get any protection from the fediverse.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

There's also the regulation angle. The Digital Markets Act is likely why they're federating: https://commission.europa.eu/strategy-and-policy/priorities-2019-2024/europe-fit-digital-age/digital-markets-act-ensuring-fair-and-open-digital-markets_en

Examples of the “do’s” - Gatekeeper platforms will have to:

  • allow third parties to inter-operate with the gatekeeper’s own services in certain specific situations
  • allow their business users to access the data that they generate in their use of the gatekeeper’s platform
  • provide companies advertising on their platform with the tools and information necessary for advertisers and publishers to carry out their own independent verification of their advertisements hosted by the gatekeeper
  • allow their business users to promote their offer and conclude contracts with their customers outside the gatekeeper’s platform

The interoperability is the big one. Being federated means that Threads isn't considered a "gatekeeper platform". I wouldn't be surprised if Instagram and maybe even Facebook itself start to federate as well. Since Threads isn't currently connected to the wider fediverse, that's probably why they're not in the EU yet.

This also means that fears of "Embrace, Extend, Extinguish" are likely overblown. Breaking fediverse interoperability means that they'd be a gatekeeper again and subject to EU regulations against gatekeepers. Interestingly, both Twitter and Reddit are now likely subject to being considered gatekeepers due to making their APIs effectively inaccessible.

[–] OldFartPhil 5 points 1 year ago

Very good point! I don't think the threat from Meta is technological, they also seem to be good citizens on the the open source projects they collaborate on.

I am far more concerned about how Threads is going to change the community. Not the vapid influencer crap, but the toxicity, divisiveness, bigotry and disinformation coming out of Facebook.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

@OldFartPhil Anyway... maybe with "intellectual property" they mean another thing? I mean... if Meta is a Twitter clone, Twitter was a identi.ca clone too.

@Pips @Very_Bad_Janet

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago

identi.ca now thats a url i haven't heard in a long time

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

An innocent member of the Fediverse that doesn't federate with anybody.

[–] DeepThought42 22 points 1 year ago (1 children)

In a letter to CEO Mark Zuckerberg published by Semafor, a lawyer for Twitter said the company “has serious concerns that Meta Platforms (Meta) has engaged in systematic, willful and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property”.

Makes you wonder what, if any tech they could have appropriated.

[–] billiam0202 26 points 1 year ago

misappropriation of Twitter’s (...) intellectual property

Translation: all the intellect left Twitter after Musk took over and they're now working at Meta 🤣

[–] eating3645 14 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I know nothing about law, but if Twitter took Facebook to court, wouldn't they have to reveal the trade secrets they allege were stolen, no longer making them secret? Or is revealing then in court perceived as an open secret?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Courts can have closed source code audited. It’s literally done in a locked room on a device that doesn’t have the ability to export, and people that enter the room are monitored.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

oh L oh L at this! Maybe that boxing match can settle this.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Yes, let's set up a Thunderdome and they can fight it out. Two nerds enter. One nerd leaves.

[–] xts 5 points 1 year ago

Jeez every day Musk does something else to help prove what a giant baby he is. Maybe if you didn’t run Twitter into the ground this wouldn’t be happening??

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

On what grounds exactly? Their incompetence is what gave Meta the opening to launch a competitor to begin with.

[–] Mereo 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

This is what they alleged:

Twitter claims in the cease-and-desist that Meta has poached dozens of former employees in the past year, some of whom “had and continue to have access to Twitter’s trade secrets and other highly confidential information” and “many” of whom have “improperly” kept Twitter documents or electronic devices.

“With that knowledge, Meta deliberately assigned these employees to develop, in a matter of months, Meta’s copycat “Threads” app with the specific intent that they use Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property in order to accelerate the development of Meta’s competing app, in violation of both state and federal law as well as those employees’ ongoing obligations to Twitter,” the letter reads.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I wonder whether Meta has hired some Twitter employees recently - because I can't quite see how Meta would be getting trade secrets otherwise.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I wonder if this is why there is no home feed yet. Just the stupid god damn firehose.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I assume it means musk as only he would be that stupid

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Let them fight! 🤣🤣🤣

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)
[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I have a feeling Twitter is about to regret not going after Truth Social, it being a near direct rip-off of Twitter.

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