In the few short hours since I started using #Threads, #DuckDuckGo has already blocked over 200 data tracking attempts. These include things like "headphone status" and "screen density."
You say that, but if he went out on stage in a pink sequins suit with assless chaps because it would somehow "own the libs", a tragically high number of people would be all over that.
Honestly that would make me sorta like him a bit. Especially if he did Eddie Murphy and wore a purple leather skintight outfit. Stupid sexy trump. Feels like I'm wearing nothing at all. nothing at all.
"Okay so it's basically Twitter, but with like... Facebook features..." Is literally a joke I have made about annoying app ideas people have when you tell them you're a software developer.
I have made this joke a few times, because it killed every time.
I'd guess you have to like Twitter in the first place to understand the appeal. Some people like it, some don't, but the Twitter format has been pretty popular over the years, and this comes at at time when Elron has been making twitter dramatically worse for anyone who doesn't share his political views. Meta gives the appeal as "having a platform that is sanely run, that they believe that they can trust and rely upon for distribution". At this point, even if I thought Elron was a great guy I sure wouldn't invest much in building my twitter account as the future of the site seems shaky. Also though, on the other hand, who knows if this will be a success for Meta and whether they'll still support it 3 years from now.
I deleted my twitter account from 2009 once it was apparent what a clusterfuck Elron was going to make it. I never really used it that much until a few years ago, but I started in 2020 as it was the platform with the most recent and close to real-time news on what was going on with the riots and stuff (I was in downtown Portland when the Floyd protests started). I found a few niche communities I enjoyed and liked some of the humor accounts, like Roz Chast or NYT Pitchbot. I thought it was cool to see posts from people like Sandra Boynton. Buy yeah, no way I'm being on there in the Musk era.
I don't have high hopes for Threads either, of course, considering I don't like or use IG or FB and have very little respect for Meta as a company, and their weird-ass founder. The privacy concerns are horrifying - I will never install the app on my phone, so if there isn't web access I will literally never even try it.
I did have an account, until the API changes made Twitteriffic unusable and all the people I follow left. Then I started using Reddit.
Now I use Mastodon and Lemmy. I will not go back to using a Social network that does not have;
A) an open API which allows my choice of third party apps.
B) a way to migrate my data and content.
The exceptions are Apple Messages (for family and close friends), SMS (for family and close friends who do t have iPhones) and Facebook under a fake name, sandboxed in FireFox Focus.
Even if you don't have Threads app installed. Meta is still a privacy threat for fediverse users. If there are fediverse instances that remain federated with Meta. And there are already millions of people who joined Threads in just a day.
Ross Schulman, senior fellow for decentralization at digital rights nonprofit the Electronic Frontier Foundation, notes that if Threads emerges as a massive player in the fediverse, there could be concerns about what he calls “social graph slurping." Meta will know who all of its users interact with and follow within Threads, and it will also be able to see who its users follow in the broader fediverse. And if Threads builds up anywhere near the reach of other Meta platforms, just this little slice of life would give the company a fairly expansive view of interactions beyond its borders.