With today's news that Meta is getting rid of fact checkers and changing its policies to allow more hate speech directed at trans and queer people, seems like a good time to resurface these detailed instructions on how to block Threads.

https://privacy.thenexus.today/how-to-block-threads-on-mastodon/

If you want even more protection, your best bet is to move to an instance that's blocking threads -- see https://fedipact.veganism.social to check the status of your instance. And I agree with @kissane's recommendation in the excellent Untangling Threads

"I think the nearest thing to reasonably sturdy protection for people on fedi who have good reason to worry about the risk surface Threads federation opens up is probably to either…

• block Threads and post followers-only or or local-only, for fedi services that support it, or
• operate from a server that federates only with servers that also refuse to federate with Threads—which is a system already controversial within the fediverse because allowlists are less technically open than denylists."

#FediPact #meta #threads

It's worth highlighting how much organizing there's been here in the 18+ months since Meta first announced their plans to embrace, extend, and exploit the Fediverse.

@jat23's Closing the Door to Remain Open: The Politics of Openness and the Practices of Strategic Closure in the Fediverse is a great overview.

And from June 2023, the "Why the Anti-Meta Fedi Pact is good strategy for people who want the fediverse to be an alternative to surveillance capitalism" section of Should the Fediverse welcome its new surveillance-capitalism overlords? Opinions differ! talks about the importance of the #FediPact.

Also, the changes Meta is making to Facebook's feed algorithm "will make it more likely to recommend extreme and polarizing content".

Here's an excellent Bluesky thread on that from Laura Edelson (Chief Technologist at the Civil Rights Division in the Department of Justice):

https://bsky.app/profile/whiskeyocelot.bsky.social/post/3lfd3ohs7vk2v

An excerpt:

"The return to an algorithm that drives more politics and more extreme rabbit holes is a return the Facebook of 2016-2020. This has some business upsides, by both cutting costs and juicing user engagement (aka, ad revenues). But it has very, very serious downsides for users and for communities.

Because the hate speech policies and the algorithmic changes that were rolled back this week were developed in response to very real offline violence, including genocide in Myanmar, that were fomented on Facebook. This is a plan to go back to that algorithm and those policies."

#threads #meta #FediPact

And from @juliaangwin.com's newsletter:

"This week, Mark Zuckerberg revealed his true colors in what can only be described as a pledge of allegiance to incoming president Donald Trump. In a video message, he declared that Meta was abandoning fact-checking and dialing back on content moderation — a clear capitulation to right wing demands for less “censorship” of their speech that was often found to be in violation of Meta’s prohibitions against hate speech and incitement to violence.

As I wrote in my latest New York Times Opinion piece (gift link), the billionaire Facebook founders’ actions show us what it looks like when a mature company stops innovating on its products and instead seeks to maintain its market power through political influence."

https://buttondown.com/JuliaAngwin/archive/heavy-lies-mark-zuckerbergs-crown/

And here's her gift link to the NYTimes article: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/08/opinion/mark-zuckerberg-trump-meta-lobbying.html?unlocked_article_code=1.nk4.bvEF.EXfKAyCs6FzR&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&utm_source=JuliaAngwin&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=heavy-lies-mark-zuckerbergs-crown

(Julia Angwin's also at @Julia, but is more active on Bluesky)

#meta #FediPact

And here's an excellent roudup of the changes by Ina Fried on @AxiosNews, including a good quote from @JenniOlsonSF

https://www.axios.com/2025/01/09/meta-moderation-transgender-women-hate

"Between the lines: Even the language of the new policy itself suggests animus against gay and trans people.

• The policy uses the words "homosexuality" and "transgenderism" — the former is an outdated term, and the latter is used nearly exclusively by opponents of transgender rights.

• "For a legitimate company to employ intentionally anti-LGBT dog whistle language in such a dehumanizing and overly bigoted way in its own hate speech policy is beyond comprehension," said Jenni Olson, senior director for social safety at GLAAD."

#meta #FediPact #lgbtq #lgbtqia

On @404mediaco , @jasonkoebler reports that "‘It’s Total Chaos Internally at Meta Right Now", with employees very upset about the changes -- and highlights that these didn't go through the usual processes of broud employee feedback.

https://www.404media.co/its-total-chaos-internally-at-meta-right-now-employees-protest-zuckerbergs-anti-lgbtq-changes/

The paywalled article also has a lot of quotes from internal discussions. Meta's clearly leaking like a seive right about now ....

#meta #threads #FediPact

And speaking of leaks @caseynewton on Platformer and Sam Biddle in the Intercept have details on the new Meta guidelines and the guidance they're giving moderators

CW: some really sickening examples of anti-trans hate speech now explicitly allowed by Meta

https://www.platformer.news/meta-new-trans-guidelines-hate-speech/ (partially paywalled, but the examples are visibile even without logging in)

https://theintercept.com/2025/01/09/facebook-instagram-meta-hate-speech-content-moderation/

#Meta #Threads #FediPact

@thenexusofprivacy @404mediaco @jasonkoebler Hopefully some absolute hero can do something to mortally damage the site from the inside.

Or at least, you know, unionize.

Yeah. Kudos to the employees who are talking to the media and leaking!

@AGTMADCAT

@caseynewton reports that Meta' is killing their Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs

https://www.platformer.news/meta-kills-dei-program-diversity-inclusion/

"As a result, the company said it would:

• Eliminate its DEI team. Maxine Williams, the company's chief diversity officer, will take on a new role "focused on accessibility and engagement."

• Ending use of the diverse slate approach to hiring, which required managers to source candidates from underrepresented backgrounds.

• Ending efforts to hire underrepresented minorities as vendors and suppliers.

• Instead of equity and inclusion programs, we will build programs that focus on how to apply fair and consistent practices that mitigate bias for all, no matter your background." (?????)"

#meta #FediPact

And @jasonkoebler reports that Meta is deleting trans and nonbinary Messenger themes

https://www.404media.co/meta-deletes-trans-and-nonbinary-messenger-themes/

#meta #threads

Members of Meta's Civil Rights Advisory Group have "grave concerns" with their recent content policy changes. No, ya think?

https://cdt.org/insights/letter-meta-civil-rights-advisory-group-members-grave-concerns-content-policy-changes/

"Meta’s failure to engage even its own advisory group of external civil rights experts shows a cynical disregard for its diverse user base and calls into question Meta’s commitment to the free speech principles to which it claims to want to “return.”

A bad process makes bad policy. In your announcement, you touted Meta’s commitment to free expression, but the changes will significantly harm free speech."

#meta #threads #FediPact

Mark Zuckerberg Agrees to Turn Meta [Back] into a Pogrom Machine -

An excellent post by @emptywheel , including this

"Most people — including Elizabeth Warren, in the WSJ story — are focusing on how this is effectively a bribe, a $22 million donation (on top of the earlier $1 million one) trading for regulatory favors. It is. Trump continues to engage in unprecedented corruption in plain sight.

But it is more than that. The concession of the settlement implies that Facebook should not have banned Trump for using their platform to incite an insurrection, though it admits no wrong-doing.This is not just about eliciting a bribe for regulatory favors. It is not just about winning an argument about actions taken four years ago to halt an insurrection in process.

The entire lawsuit is about an ongoing chilling effect. And Zuck’s capitulation is a capitulation to that chill, a soft commitment that the next time Trump uses social media to launch his mob against vulnerable targets like trans people or legal Haitian immigrants, against co-equal branches of government in Congress or the courts, or against his select targets like Milley, Meta will do nothing to slow the mob."

#fedipact #meta #uspol