I agree. The .world admins have been very down to Earth and reasonable thus far. I'm hoping they see reason here and do not make a decision in opposition to the majority of their userbase, which also threatens the safety of their users.
I see many people purporting that users blocking Threads on an individual basis as a solution, but it's not... Blocking Threads will not prevent Threads users' comments in federated instances from showing up.
Even if you block Threads, you will still see hateful, harassing, and extremist content and misinformation.
Furthermore, even if it did block Threads engagement entirely on an individual blocking basis, it is still a failure on the instance admins to adequately protect their users and cultivate a healthy community.
.world admins defederated with exploding heads due to hate, harassment, and extremism/misinformation. Why would they then federate with Threads which harbors the same toxic users?
It's a move to bring more users into the Fediverse, but it comes with costs and risks that do not justify the short-sighted gain of more users and inching towards becoming mainstream.
Threads has been subject to mass amounts of radicalizing, extremist content, and there have also been instances of users having personal information doxxed on Threads due to Meta's information-harvesting practices. [1]
Threads was marketed to be open to 'free speech' (read: hate speech and misinformation) and encouraged the Far-Right movement to join, who have spread extremism, hate, and harassment on Threads already. [2] Threads has been a hotbed of Israel-Palestine misinformation/propaganda. [3]
They fired fact-checkers just prior to Threads' launch [1], however they claim they will have 3rd party fact-checkers next year. [4]
Meta/FB/Instagram has a rampant history of illegal and unethical practices, including running experiments on their users which affected their moods and induced depression in many uninformed, non-consenting subjects. [5] Such unethical experiments could affect federated users as well.
(Edit: As @massive_bereavement reminded me, Meta also assisted in genocide! [6])
Meta/FB/Instagram also have a strong history of facilitating the spread of misinformation and extremism, which contributed to the January 6th insurrection attempt. [7]
If exploding heads was defederated with because of this sort of toxic extremism, why would they want to federate with a platform plagued by that same content? One known for shortcomings moderating it? And one which comes from a company with a long history of unethical and illegal practices regarding users?
Due to these issues and Meta's rampant history of unethical and illegal business practices, there should be no federation with Threads for the well-being of the users in this instance.
I have donated to the .world instance since my first week here, but should they continue with federating with Threads, I will be cancelling my donations and finding an instance that won't undermine the safety and well-being of their users for a boost of (largely toxic) new users and an inch towards being mainstream.
The gains are immediate but minimal, and come at great costs which do not warrant federating with Threads (IMO).
Blocking Threads on the instance user level does not block Threads users from commenting and spreading radicalism/misinformation throughout federated instances. It's a half-measure. To actually block Threads, it requires the instance to defederate.
I'm ethically opposed to federation because it is with a platform plagued by hate, radicalism, and misinformation. [1] Including being a hotbed for Israel-Palestine misinformation. [2]
I think it's hypocritical to defederate from exploding heads and to then federate with Threads which harbors the same harmful content and toxic userbase.
If lemmy.world goes through with federating with Threads, I'm out of here and my donations to the instance are too.
Man, I can't believe the hot stove burned me, again!
Maybe next time will be different..
This does not stop user comments from Threads. They will still be visible throughout .world/federated instances, where they can spread more misinformation and radicalism.
If anyone is interested in the very long list of unethical and illegal practices of Meta, here's some of their rampant inexcusable and repeated shitty practices!
The thing is, you could make a profile on Threads as well. You could create your own instance that is federated. It's not like .world refraining from federating would mean you can't view Threads in general. Just like you can still experience FB content even tho they are not federated. No one is stopping you.
But this isn't a matter of right and left discourse; it's a matter of people being manipulated into extreme and dangerous beliefs and actions without realizing it.
I think it is blatantly wrong to enable and promote such platforms and social disease, just like it would be wrong for supermarkets to sell dangerous/defective products.
Someone may be interested in trying some special kind of water, but it shouldn't be sold in stores if it's poisoning people. The shop can't stop someone from doing dangerous things, but they can refrain from enabling harm to come to their shoppers by refraining from peddling dangerous products.
It's like a Medicare insurance firm knowingly hiring a con-artist who has already defrauded countless elderly individuals...
I don't think it's right for large instances to allow dangerous misinformation to affect their users. FB/Instagram have culpability in the real-world violence. The massive amount of unnecessary deaths from covid misinformation. Anti-masking. Overdosing on horse de-wormer...
The admins of these large instances have an ethical decision to make which will have real-world consequences. They will have culpability in spreading radicalism and exposing their users to potential unethical influence by Meta/Threads.
If they federate and it leads to users losing their self-identity to identity fusion to a radical group, that victim is on them. That fractured family is on them. They will share responsibility for radical users trying to foment insurrection or executing their families due to delusional extremism. [1] [2]
They have to decide whether they want to protect and cultivate a healthy community or not. By federated with Threads, they will be doing the opposite.
I'm going to be jumping ship should .world federate with Threads. I'll find a different instance.
I know we will be able block Threads individually, but I don't agree with federating with them on ethical principles.
I feel like it's a failure to insulate the users from extremism and a company that deserves absolutely no trust or endorsement.
Edit: Blocking Threads on an individual basis does not prevent Threads users' comments from being displayed on federated instances. Even if users Block Threads, they will still be exposed to the rampant hate, harassment, and extremism on the platform.
Ha, fair enough. The random other lines definitely give me AI visual depiction of text vibes. I totally see what you mean.
It's like some results Craiyon produced for me when I would tell it to create a sign saying something.
So do you feel the same way for exploding heads? I don't think platforms should be given exposure when they're going to lead to more radicalization.
And I was intending to create some more communities here, but I'm reluctant to do that with potential Threads integration.
For instance, I was thinking about making a community for my city, but I wouldn't want Threads integration to be incorporated into the community. Would I have a way of the community itself blocking Threads?
But what it ultimately boils down to is the danger that the far-right poses, especially with trump's dictator remarks and threats against political opponents as well as the justice department.
These platforms and the way they are managed have real-world consequences. January 6th is an example. The_Donald and incels on reddit lead to real-world violence and murders. 8chan users have a history of encouraging mass shooters.
This is such a tumultuous time with dangerous and fascist rhetoric becoming normalized, and there is a danger of real-world violence. There's also plenty of examples already. Far-right extremism has been on the rise around the world and is a global concern.
I think the ethical decision is not to enable such platforms that enable hatespeech, harassment, and radicalization. But I understand that you disagree with me.
I already acknowledged how that does not protect the community itself. Including from potential unethical practices/non-consenting experiments by Threads against users, seeing as how that is an established practice of the parent company.
If Threads is federated with Lemmy.World, could they not carry out actions that would in-turn affect users from this instance?
For example, say they manipulate the hot posts on Threads to be depressing content to experiment on moods (again). Would that manipulated feed not affect users of this instance with the federated content?
Or what about how FB and Instagram promoted misinformation many times over, and which is a current problem on Threads? How is this different than defederating from Exploding Heads?
It seems wild to me to federate with a notorious bad actor like Meta/Threads. It's so clearly in opposition to cultivating a healthy fediverse IMO. The immediate payoff is more users in the Fediverse, but I think it will be a mistake in the long run.
People advocating for trusting Meta/Threads this time after their history is like believing that touching a hot stove won't burn me this time.
Thanks for sharing. I'll be voicing my opposition in hopes that it contributes to changing that status.