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": https://socialwebfoundation.org/mission/

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: https://web.archive.org/web/20240925094541/https://socialwebfoundation.org/mission/

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: https://socialwebfoundation.org/2025/01/12/content-policy-on-the-social-web/

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

#DefederateMeta #FediPact #Meta #Zuckerberg #Threads #Facebook #Instagram #SWICG #SocialWebFoundation