I’ve been hearing that Meta (Facebook) intends to join the fediverse. I have some very big concerns about that, as do apparently many others. There exists a group of instances called the fedipact which will not be federating with Meta, and I was wondering if this instance would be joining. So there is no ambiguity with this post: I have no desire to participate in any instance that is federated with Facebook, and will kindly pass on another Eternal September. Hope that doesn’t come off as aggressive, that’s just where I’m at.
With the financial resources at its disposal, Meta is an a position to dominate the rest of the Fediverse. It is technically true that an open source project allows people to set up their own instances and migrate, but there are a great many ways in which the rest of the Fediverse could become dependent on the single largest player, especially because Meta’s closed-source, for-profit, data-mining operation is inimical to everything the Fediverse stands for. Even if people are only on Mastodon and not on Facebook, if Facebook can connect to them, it increases Facebook’s value, and it decreases the incentive to break free. In addition, money corrupts. Do I want my friends on Facebook to be able to connect with the Fediverse? Of course. But am I interested in accomplishing it by allowing ourselves to become remoras on the belly of the Great White Meta Shark? Not really. Of course, the beauty of the Fediverse is that people can choose for themselves, but I vote to defederate. Those who ride the back of the tiger all too often end up inside. Mark Zuckerberg, please go ruin someone else’s day.