Why isn’t anyone talking about this? It looks like Meta wants to compete with Twitter with a new Instagram microblogging app which will probably be compatible with Mastodon

Key Point of the article:

*“Soon, our app will be compatible with certain other apps like Mastodon,” Instagram’s slide says. “Users on these other apps will be able to search for, follow and interact with your profile and content if you’re public, or if you’re private and approve them as followers.” *

The Verge - This is Instagram’s new Twitter competitor

I don’t see this as a good thing. I see it as a logical step after the success of the fediverse. But I am afraid of how it will develop, with more commercial participants in fedi.

super_user_do
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41Y

The only issues I can think of is that a mass adoption of the ActivityPub protocol would also bring plenty of spam accounts

PropaGandalf
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11Y

@super_user_do
@sexy_peach
As it comes naturally with every growing platform

Instagram was the last one I expected to join the fediverse. They actually actively blocked 3rd party clients before and even shut them down.

My guess is that meta sees another one of their social media sites go down the drain and this time they want to try something to stop it.

My guess is that they want to use the already established userbase of Mastodon as a starting point. There’s going to be more content from the start and also more users. If they would make a new app with no users they would need to start from scratch which is more risky.

super_user_do
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They said it is going to work with Mastodon but we don’t know if they are going to federate it. They are most likely to do so since they are actively talking about “decentralization” but who knows

In the article it says that people from Mastodon are able to interact with this. So it kinda seams like they are just making a new frontend based and their own instance of Mastodon. We just don’t know if we are able to access their instance without their app.

super_user_do
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31Y

Fair point! We just don’t know the extent of the federation

It’s not instagram itself, but a new app made by instagram

super_user_do
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61Y

Why does that even have the same name if the app is different lmao

It doesn’t have any official name yet, but from what is known it would indeed be a separate app

@testman@lemmy.ml
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by instagram

Isn’t Instagram owned by Facebook / Meta?> test

I don’t trust anything that comes from proprietary platforms. Anything they do is for their benefits

Anyone remembers Embrace - Extend - Extinguish? I don’t expect this to be anything but an effort to crush a potential competitor

super_user_do
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21Y

That might be an issue but I don’t know how something like this might be appliable in such a platform

Quoting from the article:

The strategy’s three phases are:

  • Embrace: Development of software substantially compatible with a competing product, or implementing a public standard.
  • Extend: Addition and promotion of features not supported by the competing product or part of the standard, creating interoperability problems for customers who try to use the “simple” standard.
  • Extinguish: When extensions become a de facto standard because of their dominant market share, they marginalize competitors that do not or cannot support the new extensions.

This has been done for open protocols by other companies before, many, MANY times. They’re likely going to “joyfully embrace” the Fediverse, add some “improvements” that will be proprietary and only run on their software, then when people become addicted to “Meta Fediverse”, close things down dramatically so that people only run their stuff. We must prevent that bullshit.

super_user_do
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11Y

Unfortunately the Fediverse might suffer a lot because of this

Time to break out the block cannon. Ain’t no way that I let anything Zuck touches touch my stuff.

PixelFed!

@super_user_do

I would love to be able to follow my friends on Instagram via ActivityPub, without getting swamped with other stuff and/or ads.

@fediverse

Sleepless One
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51Y

Can people create their own instances of this app? Even if it can interoperate with other fediverse software, if this ends up being yet another big tech platform where your only choice is to use the one hosted by Meta it defeats the point.

super_user_do
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31Y

As far as I’ve understood, it’s a matter of embracing a new technological “trend” and lowering the management and maintenance costs so it’s almost certain that some kind of self-hosting option will be available. I just hope it’s not going to work like Bluesky which is not actually decentralized and always relies to the Bluesky infrastructure

@CannotSleep420 @super_user_do I can’t see your point. The point of fedi is to not be locked to a single implementation. If one software is proprietary and does not allow you to host your own, you can just use another you like. Since all actors interoperate regardless of software they use, then it does not matter if you cannot host your own Instagram.

Sleepless One
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I can’t see your point. The point of fedi is to not be locked to a single implementation. If one software is proprietary and does not allow you to host your own, you can just use another you like.

That’s basically what I’m getting at. Part of the point of the fediverse is being able to choose both the software you use and the instances you use. I presume that the fediverse compatible instagram app will only be hosted by Meta. If someone is interested in getting into the fediverse for the freedom and choice, why would they use the new instagram as opposed to another fedi software with a similar feature set, such as Pixelfed like you pointed out?

@CannotSleep420 @super_user_do we can use for example @pixelfed instead since it has the same feature set.

super_user_do
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11Y

You’re right

@super_user_do

I blocked Twitter RTs on here and will happily block Instagram rubbish as well.

bob
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41Y

So when’s it releasing?

super_user_do
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21Y

Probably in june

It’s talking about a new app made by Meta. Key point from article:

“Soon, our app will be compatible with certain other apps like Mastodon,” Instagram’s slide says. “Users on these other apps will be able to search for, follow and interact with your profile and content if you’re public, or if you’re private and approve them as followers.”

super_user_do
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41Y

Yes we just don’t know the extent of the federation. We’ll see

@super_user_do @raucao “Users on these other apps will be able to search for […]“ written by someone who never spent a minute on Mastodon

super_user_do
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21Y

I just cited the article

@super_user_do I know. And I’m sure the article cited an internal slide, made by someone who hasn’t heard about the Mastodon community’s attitude towards search

Out of the loop, what’s this attitude? New at the Fediverse and haven’t heard of this before

@jherazob @lars Generally Fediverse users don’t want their posts globally searchable

Why is that? I feel like i’m missing something obvious here but wouldn’t that be a positive?

@me @jherazob maybe wrong to generalize, but everyone who tried so far (including many indie makers) were met with harsh pushback

I can sort of see that for mastodon as it’s meant to be ephemeral but is the Lemmy community also resistant to indexing?

Mastodon servers as a whole should defederate with and block mentions of Instagram’s instance URLs.

Honestly that would be a bad idea. This might actually push Mastodon into mainstream and makes it more accessible for non technical people. That also of cause means more content and I’m all for that. The only reason I haven’t started to actively use Mastodon or Lemmy is because there just isn’t enough content.

So do you want organic growth, or growth at the cost of terrible content flooding Mastodon? You realise more than half of Instagram is ads (yes, all that influencer content is ads too) and most of the content there is equivalent of softcore porn (that includes cleavage baring influencer ads) and cancerous memes?

BTW I forgot to tell this. Since you now know from me that their FB Messenger, Instagram DMs, WhatsApp and other chat infrastructure is basically defederated XMPP, they will do the same with Mastodon and kill Mastodon, because some people want “more content”.

Hey! I look at the memes and also girls will try to get you to follow them on there lol. Idk this seems cool

Well, the "lol’ part will cost Fediverse a lot, if anyone desires to have that crap. There are multiple reasons why Instagram is toxic for mental health.

I want hyperspecific niech content that just isn’t on any smaller platform. I rarely use Instagram and mainly use reddit and sometimes use Twitter.

I want that kind of content on other platforms that I get on reddit. Certainly people from reddit aren’t going to migrate to an Instagram made alternative for Twitter but I want more content like more shitposting and guides I could only find on reddit and 4chan (and I fucking hate 4chan)

Not just circlejerk about how good the fediverse is and how bad Twitter and big tech is. Certainly the only people who currently use these alternatives are people who care about federation and people who are sceptical to big tech. That’s also my problem with Hive/Steemit because the only thing they’re talking about is how great the blockchain is.

Whenever I find someone who does something I’m interested in I can be sure that he either has a Twitter and/or Instagram account. If that person has a Mastodon account they probably aren’t as active as on other platforms

Will Instagram users change this? I don’t know. Might they make it worse? I also don’t know. The only thing I know is that you need more users to have a more diverse kind of content. And I know how easy it is to hate on Instagram but there’s also a large amount of relevant content.

I want that kind of content on other platforms that I get on reddit

You want all those imperialist bootlickers, celebrity/paparazzi brainrot, softcore porn, OnlyFans promoters, hentai groups, racists, shills of X/Y/Z products, and all of that shit on Mastodon? Because that makes up more or less all of this “that kind of content”.

I want more content like more shitposting and guides

You cannot have shitposting without making a place crappy. As for guides, you better prepare yourself for reality, because all kinds of people make guides. They are often the worst and/or anti-social elements of society, or people.who just want to keep distance from turbulent society. You cannot cherry pick how society organises.

Will Instagram users change this? I don’t know. Might they make it worse? I also don’t know. The only thing I know is that you need more users to have a more diverse kind of content

You can go to those “diverse” platforms for that garbage content. Inorganic growth is always cancerous. Instagram users will absolutely make it worse. I do not want people worshipping the next US President or UK Queen/king or whatever toxic idpol exists there to migrate onto Fediverse.

@zekiz@lemmy.ml
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You want all those imperialist bootlickers, celebrity/paparazzi brainrot, softcore porn, OnlyFans promoters, hentai groups, racists, shills of X/Y/Z products, and all of that shit on Mastodon?

No I want r/ComedyNecrophilia r/AnarchyChess r/Feedthememes r/okbuddybaka r/mechanicalkeyboards r/linuxmemes and all the subs from certain games.

You overread the part were I said “hyperspecific nieches”

You cannot have shitposting without making a place crappy

That’s like not true at all. Just have a look into r/ComedyNecrophilia or r/OkBuddyChicanery

They are filled with shitposting but still very civilized. I’m not talking about r/shitposting because that place is trash.

It’s a different kind of humour that most are used to but that doesn’t make it bad. It’s juts different and more absurd.

They are often the worst and/or anti-social elements of society, or people. Who just want to keep distance from turbulent society. You cannot cherry pick how society organises.

How is that bad? I’m left on the political spectrum so I dont think we should exclude them.

With guides I mean places like r/FreeMediaHeckYeah and theindex.moe which are both made by reddit users.

You can go to those “diverse” platforms for that garbage content. Inorganic growth is always cancerous. Instagram users will absolutely make it worse. I do not want people worshipping the next US President or UK Queen/king or whatever toxic idpol exists there to migrate onto Fediverse.

You’re oversimplifying. A lot of new people also means a lot of new people who are against this type of stuff. It means that there are new people who hate the next US President or the next UK Queen/King. What You’re saying are just stereotyps which aren’t even true most of the time.

The whole time you’re using stereotypes that are wrong.

r/okbuddybaka r/mechanicalkeyboards

Baka is Japanese word for R word. MK brings *masterrace crowd with it. You want those things?

That’s like not true at all. Just have a look into r/ComedyNecrophilia or r/OkBuddyChicanery They are filled with shitposting but still very civilized. I’m not talking about r/shitposting because that place is trash.

The baby comes with the bathwater. As I said, you cannot cherrypick how people organise, internet or IRL. Everything is a package.

With guides I mean places like r/FreeMediaHeckYeah and theindex.moe which are both made by reddit users.

You think the average redditor is the same as the more polarised internet anarchist/communist? There is a difference between the mindset of a Cheetos chugging Discord mod teenager in front of their RGB gaming PC, and someone who is a nerd sitting around either managing hoarded data or reencoding media or studying. c/piracy does exist here and shares mod with r/piracy already.

It so happens you are just trying to justify your thirst for NICHE content consumption by all means. Not very helpful unless you want Lemmy to become another Reddit.

I will tell you this, a lot of reddit is made up of many elements, like TwoXXChromosomes, FDR (now this femcel sub is purged), once even JB used to exist, now you can go look at all the “russian=orc” Nazism that western users love to circlejerk about. That crap will seep in. I am sure all the Sinophobia and Russophobia is abundant in those niche subs you think are worth their value in comedy. When that seeps in, you will just dust off hands saying it is not a big issue or even an issue at all. I have seen plenty chatrooms and platforms spiral to death like this.

I actually can’t tell if you’re serious or not. But since it’s actually pretty fun to argue here are my points:

Baka is Japanese word for R word

No its not. Are you thinking that because of r/OkBuddyRetard? Baka is a way to say “idiot” and in this context it’s there to make fun of a pretty common character type in anime called the “tsundere”.

MK brings *masterrace crowd with it.

It absolutely doesn’t. It’s one of the most accepting and beginner friendly subs I know (maybe besides the 3D printing subs). Nobody is gatekeeping and when somebody does, they get downvoted into oblivion.

You want those things?

You’re asking me if I want an anime shitposting sub making self councous fun of Anime while loving it that allinges pretty much perfectly with my ideological and political views and one of the kindes and most helpful communities I know? ABSOLUTELY!

You think the average redditor is the same as the more polarised internet anarchist/communist? There is a difference between the mindset of a Cheetos chugging Discord mod teenager in front of their RGB gaming PC, and someone who is a nerd sitting around either managing hoarded data or reencoding media or studying.

I never said something different. Yes a lot of people will also mean a lot of people I don’t want to interact with but that’s just the necessary evil for it not to become a shitty unironical circlejerk like r/GamingCirclejerk where I have the feeling that they unironically hate gamers and games. It’s a sub purely for shitting on other people. Same thing with r/facepalm

A lot of people also means a lot of good content. Some subs collapse and go to shit when they are growing but others will be better.

Not very helpful unless you want Lemmy to become another Reddit.

That’s what I’m saying. I want it to be like reddit but better. I want it to be a reddit with actual free speech.

I will tell you this, a lot of reddit is made up of many elements, like TwoXXChromosomes, FDR (now this femcel sub is purged), once even JB used to exist, now you can go look at all the “russian=orc” Nazism that western users love to circlejerk about.

I know about this. You could just… not browse them. They are on the startpage but that doesn’t mean they’re good or what I want.

That crap will seep in. I am sure all the Sinophobia and Russophobia is abundant in those niche subs you think are worth their value in comedy.

Yeah no, absolutely not. These subs are against this kind of content and are actively making fun of it.

Are you thinking that because of r/OkBuddyRetard? Baka is a way to say “idiot”

Baka is a coverup word for all the people who know this word from anime. Alternate subreddits are always formed this way. I watch enough anime to know weaboos like the back of my hand.

You’re asking me if I want

You ignored the one zillion things I mentioned about what majority of content is, and that everything is a package. Society cannot be restructured in a cherry picking manner. People talk shit and they will always talk shit.

I want it to be like reddit but better. I want it to be a reddit with actual free speech.

There is no free speech. Mastodon instances have openly stated this for years. Same goes for Lemmy. Also, watch this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNdACDcDkTI

twoxx FDR

I know about this. You could just… not browse them. They are on the startpage but that doesn’t mean they’re good or what I want.

Humans are social animals. They love the social drama. They love negativity even more. These are simple dynamics based on how social media in general works today, and also based upon hundreds of years of observations. Default and popular content takes over everything, no matter how good something else may be. And often the default content happens to be vicious or dramatic or negative vortex of some kind.

I have seen reddit for many years, as well as internet platforms and forums. Utopia is enticing to imagine but is not possible. And striving for it comes with inherent risks that are sometimes not worth it. Internet is like a village, and tinier groups migrate together anywhere, not individually.

Baka is a coverup word for all the people who know this word from anime. Alternate subreddits are always formed this way.

Yeah basically.

You ignored the one zillion things I mentioned about what majority of content is, and that everything is a package. Society cannot be restructured in a cherry picking manner

That isn’t my goal. I don’t want to “rebuild society”. But I can cerry pick what I want to see. I can cherry pick with which people I want to argue and with which people I want to hang out and chat. That’s not only the case online but in person too.

You’re right. I cannot rebuild society. But I can cherry pick my local community. I can choose my friends.

There is no free speech. Mastodon instances have openly stated this for years. Same goes for Lemmy. Also, watch this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNdACDcDkTI

I worded it poorly by not defining free speech. Sure there have to be certain boundaries but most of the time these boundaries are arbitrary. That’s also what’s mentioned in the video you linked. I want that you can choose what you want and what not. Reddit is pretty liberal in most cases and only occasionally banns users but in recent times I have the feeling that they ban more and more users for more trivial reasons. Probably because they want to sell.

I also don’t think that saying words like the N-Word or the R-Word is always bad. What if I’m just citing someone or saying a title or sing lyrics. In these case I think it’s OK. But otherwise… eh there isn’t really another case where that would be acceptable. Even when you were “just joking around”

I admit I was temporarily banned from reddit because of a critical joke I made (not offensive just not something you should say, even as a joke and even when it is pretty obvious that it was sarcasm/satire). It’s pretty ironic considering I ironically mocked someone who hides their true intentions behind irony. Yeah that’s pretty confusing so I understand that somebody might not get it.

Since I soon can no longer use reddit because of their API changes I search for an alternative or maybe even a better platform.

Also while popular content might be what is adapted, what’s popular is constantly evolving and changing.

We obviously think completely different about social media. You think more about the impact on the whole society and I think more about the individual aspect.

super_user_do
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41Y

This is something I haven’t considered. The Fediverse represents one of the few relatively safe spaces of the internet (excluding pixelfed which is FULL of fully fledged porn), a place where most people are willing to have an actual conversation rather than just wanting to fight and scream at each other. We’ll see

narF
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31Y

There’s a ton of content. What are you interested in?

super_user_do
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I’m not a Mastodon instance host, but as far as I know the host of the instance can obscure a single instance so that you can still search and follow people from that instance without seeing their posts in the federated timeline (ofc if you follow them you are still going to be able to see their posts in your timeline)

We did this with mastodon.social since we’ve been basically under attack by cryptospammers from that instance. We can still follow people from that instance but they don’t appear in our Feed if we don’t follow them

But Instagram is part of Meta. It’s just as bad as Facebook, Whatsapp or any other Meta product when it comes to privacy and it will never be FOSS, so very much unlike Mastodon

super_user_do
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11Y

Yup, but people are going to try it because “bro the new Instagram thingy”, after that we can tell them "bro did you know you can access the same content without being spied?

If there’s a thing I’ve learnt in the past year is that people don’t want to talk about privacy and FOSS software, mainly because the word “privacy” has been so overused in the past 10/15 years that most people think it’s bullshit which doesn’t exist anymore. It’s a preconcept but unfortunately that’s how people think and if you want them to consider free software juust tell them it’s cool before everything else

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