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#defederatemeta

2 posts1 participant0 posts today
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ophiocephalic 🐍

Most Facebook executives didn't allow their own children on Facebook - according to Ms Wynn-Williams. "They had screen bans. They certainly wouldn't allow them to use the product."

And yet she says reports from 2017 - that the company had been using algorithms to target and categorise vulnerable teens - were true.

"The algorithm could infer that they were feeling worthless or unhappy," she alleges.

The company - which also owns Instagram and WhatsApp - could, she claims, identify when a teenage girl had deleted a selfie on its platforms, and then notify a beauty company that it would be a good moment to target the child with an advert.

Ms Wynn-Williams says she "felt sick" at the thought and tried to push back, "although I knew it was futile".

bbc.com/news/articles/cly820v9

Sarah Wynn-Williams - close up photo of an early-middle aged woman, who has long blond-light-brown hair. She is wearing make up and is looking directly at the camera.
www.bbc.comFacebook ‘worked hand in glove’ with China, claims ex-directorSocial media company considered letting Beijing control content for access to its lucrative market, BBC told.
#DefederateMeta#FediPact#Meta
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ophiocephalic 🐍

Ms Wynn-Williams claims that in the mid-2010s, as part of its negotiations with the Chinese government, Facebook considered allowing it future access to Chinese citizens' user data.

"He was working hand in glove with the Chinese Communist Party, building a censorship tool…"

'Ms Wynn-Williams says governments frequently asked for explanations of how aspects of Facebook's software worked, but were told it was proprietary information.

"But when it came to the Chinese, the curtain was pulled back," she says.

"Engineers were brought out. They were walked through every aspect, and Facebook was making sure these Chinese officials were upskilled enough that they could not only learn about these products, but then test Facebook on the censorship version of these products that they were building."

bbc.com/news/articles/cly820v9

Sarah Wynn-Williams - close up photo of an early-middle aged woman, who has long blond-light-brown hair. She is wearing make up and is looking directly at the camera.
www.bbc.comFacebook ‘worked hand in glove’ with China, claims ex-directorSocial media company considered letting Beijing control content for access to its lucrative market, BBC told.
#DefederateMeta#FediPact#Meta
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ophiocephalic 🐍

In this recent communication, SWICG leadership discuss forming a task force to "approach and facilitate [AI] Avatars and Agents" in ActivityPub, and discuss topics such as "using AI for content filtering" and "for algorithmic feed reading": lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/p

These are the people in charge of the ActivityPub specification, and this discourse is occurring in the
context of the chartering of a new working group to oversee the development of AP2. This is where the protocol is going next. Meta is right in the middle of it.

This is why it's critical to lend support and solidarity to protocol projects pointing beyond ActivityPub like @spritely and @VeilidNetwork , as well as the developers of emerging progressive fediverse services which refuse to align with the Social Web Foundation. And it's why we @FediPact advocates and agitators should continue to ring this bell - and zero in on those among us who are selling out the fediverse to a fascist intruder.

🧵 4/4 end

lists.w3.orgRe: SocialWeb CG Feb 7, 2025 call - possible agenda item from Evan Prodromou on 2025-02-07 (public-swicg@w3.org from February 2025)
#DefederateMeta#FediPact#Meta
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ophiocephalic 🐍

It is completely unacceptable, in this moment, for Meta to have the slightest presence in or influence on this network. @jat23 , in their paper on the FediPact movement ( journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/ ), refers to the praxis of "Strategic Closure". Fair and good, but this is a necessarily defensive response. We would argue that it is time for a complimentary offensive opposition. It may not be sufficient to merely batten down the hatches while a corporation with near-totalitarian reach and explicitly fascist intent insinuates itself into the development processes of the protocol underlying the fediverse.

The leadership of the W3C SWICG ActivityPub working group - and by extension, of the Social Web Foundation, their gambit to privatize and de-democratize the evolution of the protocol - have discredited themselves by colluding with the Zuckerberg entity and accepting its bribes. They do not deserve the trust of the communities and developers of the fedi. They have proven themselves incapable of responsibly wielding the power to shape the future of the fediverse they claim for themselves.

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#DefederateMeta#FediPact#Meta
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ophiocephalic 🐍

There is now a notable influx into the fedi of folks trying to escape the Meta networks, both occurring organically and due to the Pixelfed boom and efforts like #GlobalSwitchDay (and not at all, btw, because of the Threads bridge). But does this network really offer them that refuge?

Meta's own terms indicate that they are ingesting the profile data of every account behind every toot that crosses the bridge. That means that new users may be showing up here from FB or IG, setting up profiles with details that match those of their old Meta accounts, then replying to Threads posts unaware that they are still being surveilled by Meta, and that their presence and activities here could be compiled into their identity dossiers back there. The fedi is already serving as a surveillance vector.

Meta was always an abhorrent monstrosity; but with the recent turn, it has now directly telegraphed itself as a Trumpist organ. It is an explicitly fascist entity colluding with a fascist regime. And anyone who is collaborating with Meta in the fedi and enabling their ability to exercise power here needs also to be understood accordingly.

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#DefederateMeta#FediPact#Meta
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ophiocephalic 🐍

FediPact is now, unambiguously, an antifascist struggle.

To be sure, it's not the most most important front; not when we see, for example, the bureaucratic precursors to literal trans genocide. But it's not unimportant either.

There's been a lot of talk around here about the fediverse being a holdout and refuge in an age of fascist capture of capitalist social media. That can and should be true - but is actually not, so long as the Zuckerberg entity continues to be provided the power to manipulate the future of ActivityPub.

Don't assume that the current status quo will hold or that the threat is waning. Don't assume that Meta will not advance its fediverse integration beyond the current, bizarrely stunted joke of a bridge. Don't forget that they always unilaterally force the next step on us as a sudden surprise with no advance warning.

🧵 1/4

#DefederateMeta#FediPact#Meta
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ophiocephalic 🐍

f you're new to the fediverse and you're trying to escape Facebook or Instagram, you need to know the ugly truth: Certain power-concentrating figures have carried Meta's coat tails right into the fedi and are collaborating with the Zuckerberg entity to help it take over. But it won't work because everyone despises Meta and the @FediPact movement is standing in the way!

Article on how to block Meta by @thenexusofprivacy : privacy.thenexus.today/how-to-

Database of fediverse community servers that block Meta: fedipact.veganism.social/?v=2

The FediPact itself, where it all started, by @vantablack : fedipact.online/

The Free Fediverse wiki with tons of info on FediPact and Meta's crimes against humanity: freefediverse.org

The Nexus Of Privacy · How to block Threads on Mastodon - and a reminder that blocking on the fediverse only provides limited protectionsWith screenshots!
#GlobalSwitchDay#DefederateMeta#FediPact
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ophiocephalic 🐍

Meta is now flagging Linux-related topics as "cybersecurity threats" and blocking the accounts of users and groups who discuss FOSS.

If the Social Web Foundation and SWICG leadership can't be bothered to care about genocide instigation, privacy invasion, fascism promotion, disinformation, collusion with dictators, the censoring of marginalized communities, labor and child abuse, or nonconsensual behavior modification experiments, maybe NOW they will understand they're serving as the tools of an enemy?

tomshardware.com/software/linu

Tom's Hardware · Facebook flags Linux topics as 'cybersecurity threats' — posts and users being blockedBy Mark Tyson
#DefederateMeta#FediPact#Meta
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ophiocephalic 🐍

The inevitable news that Meta is beginning to deploy ads in Threads has traveled quickly. Less well-known is that the Social Web Foundation, which has self-assumed stewardship of the future of the fediverse, also sees the introduction of ads into the fedi as an aspect of its mission to commercialize the network.

That won't be evident if you visit the Mission page of SWF's website today. which displays the expected press-release happytalk about sustainability and "social infrastructure": socialwebfoundation.org/missio

However, an archive.org backup of the text copy on this page from September 2024, shortly following the organization's launch, reveals a passage that was then quickly removed: web.archive.org/web/2024092509

The passage reads: "The Fediverse cannot thrive without people building clients or running providers. And to do those things, they need money. Whether that’s advertising supported, or funded by charities and non-profits, or based on paid-for services, or affiliate revenue, we are working to find ways that companies can do well in the Fediverse."

The Research Director of SWF also leads the W3C ActivityPub working group and has provided Meta with several seats at the table around which ongoing development of the protocol is decided. And in a January 12 blog post following Meta's intensified embrace of fascism, SWF reaffirmed its partnership with them and rejected the validity of defederating Threads: socialwebfoundation.org/2025/0

We can presume that the Social Web Foundation sees the introduction of ads on Threads as just another step in the mission it shares with Meta - the normalization of surveillance capitalism on the fediverse

screenshot of Social Web Foundation mission statement, from September 2024, backed up at archive.org. The text copy reads: "The Fediverse cannot thrive without people building clients or running providers. And to do those things, they need money. Whether that’s advertising supported, or funded by charities and non-profits, or based on paid-for services, or affiliate revenue, we are working to find ways that companies can do well in the Fediverse."
#DefederateMeta#FediPact#Meta
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ophiocephalic 🐍

In the last few weeks Social Web Foundation partner Meta has:

💀 Donated $1 million to the inauguration fund of the new fascist dictator
💀 Fired its fact-checkers
💀 Changed its hate-speech rules to allow calling women "household objects", Mexicans "pieces of shit" and trans folk "mentally ill"
💀 Killed its DEI programs
💀 Made its workplaces more hostile to trans employees
💀 Hosted an "AI Hitler"
💀 Censored links to fellow Social Web Foundation partner Pixelfed
💀 Subjected users to force-follows of the rulers of the fascist regime
💀 Suppressed searches of Democrat-associated topics

Yet the Social Web Foundation continues to accept Meta as a partner in good standing, and more to the point, continues to accept Meta's money. And the SWICG - The WC3's ActivityPub working group - continues to offer Meta a seat at the table for discussions on the future of the fediverse. Why?

#DefederateMeta#FediPact#Meta
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ophiocephalic 🐍

The decision to federate with Threads and welcome Meta into the fediverse is aging extremely badly. Now would be a good time for admins of currently federating instances to reconsider. At the very least, a reminder that in two weeks the federating Threads "potus" account will belong to the world's most powerful fascist.

For everyone else, here's a guide on how to block Threads: privacy.thenexus.today/how-to-

And if there are still any doubts on who is really behind that bridge, check out the mind-boggling inventory of Meta's crimes against humanity at the Free Fediverse wiki: freefediverse.org/index.php/Ni

The Nexus Of Privacy · How to block Threads on Mastodon - and a reminder that blocking on the fediverse only provides limited protectionsWith screenshots!
#DefederateMeta#FediPact#zuckerberg
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ophiocephalic 🐍

To the extent to which communicating and building community online in unencrypted space is still useful or desirable, the fedi is well-positioned to function as a dissident network. Decentralization means it effectively can't be shut down, short of switching off the internet. It is unquestionably community-controlled, and it is achievable - if not exactly easy - for those of marginalized and targeted identities, activists, radicals and artists, to organize, self-platform and claim their own outpost in the federation.

However, a viable space for opposition to fascism can only be fostered if we finally dispense with the pipe-dream of a fediverse full of influencers and "content creators", Democrat politicians and mainstream journalists. This is exactly the kind of attention we *don't* want cast in our direction in this moment. Watch what happens over on Bluesky in the time to come to prove the point.

Among the consequences of the US election, one has been overlooked: It killed the universal network. Trump retook the empire while sequestered on his own private, defederated Mastodon instance. It is now time for this network to come to terms with what it is, is not and won't be; what is special about it, and how it can be useful for the communities it carries as we approach unfathomable waters. The fediverse won't be a profit center, it won't replace capitalist social media and it won't rule the world. It's time to embrace the niche.

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#ActivityPub#Decentralization#Bluesky
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