OC by @Flax_vert@feddit.uk
“Embrace, Extend, Extinguish” is when corporate pigs try to get ahead on open standards, make their client the main one used, then make their client drop the standard.
Email is at risk since most normies use Gmail or Outlook. Google and Microsoft could agree to drop support for all other providers and people probably won’t switch to the other providers.
The most Meta can do is add a load of more users to the fediverse then take them away again. For them to successfully EEE the fediverse, it would require convincing existing fediverse users to switch to threads. I cannot see that happening on here on any noticeable scale.
The worst that can happen, is a bunch of new users appear on the 'verse from threads, then disappear again.
If anything, Bluesky is the bigger threat as it touts itself as “decentralised” in order to gain users who would have otherwise gone to Mastodon, then easily pull the plug on that, and we have to wait another decade for a maniac to ruin the platform to cause people to reconsider the fediverse.
I think you’re thinking too short term.
If they went for 15yrs before they Extinguish, and they’re able to capture 99% of the newcomers to the space, a lot of the current users will have moved on for various other reasons. So the expectation that things would reset to how they are now is false.
Many, if not most, of the people who are here now likely won’t be in 15+ years just due to generalized attrition.
The term was used correctly. The idea is to use Threads as a way to capture people who wanted to onboard to Mastodon and those who wanted an alternate to Twitter.
Over time, Threads could demand that Meta’s app be used to access Threads, allowing Meta to control the algorithm. It could also start strategically defederating from other instances over time.
After a while, Meta would likely only allow government and major companies’ official accounts to federate with it. Meanwhile, Meta would control the customer base.
I cannot see that happening on here on any noticeable scale.
So the entire thing can be summed up as “I don’t think the people here like Facebook so it can’t happen.”
