Wait and See

So for not getting this out to you sooner, we were rushed by the sudden uptick in the countdown for the Threads service going live. Our priority was to get our Opt-Out for threads federation at a user-level button out as quickly as possible. If you are not aware, it is done at https://synthboi.cyberfurz.social/blockthreads which will prompt you to allow our API to modify your block list and opt you out of federation with Threads (as long as they honor the ActivityPub Protocol). That is one of our stipulations; if they choose not to honor the protocol’s features for letting users opt out of things, that is a quick way to get on the block list.

With that quick disclaimer out of the way, we value the input of our community and their response to our request for comment on the Threads situation. We know at times that things can seem one way when they are. Most people are not as on board with what looks like the popular opinion. What we mean by that is that you often think something is the internet’s opinion. Still, because tons of loud people about a small thing are just a small group, most people don’t chime up and say their opinion because they don’t care or fear that their viewpoint might lead to controversy.

We have read through and reviewed the feedback you and the community have left us, and we feel the same way. We are very skeptical of what Meta/Facebook might do here. Tons of you who voted Wait and See said you have the same sort of worry as us with the Embrace, Extend, Extinguish. You also all voiced the same concerns around moderation and how you want us to be able to kill federation at the first sign that they are not taking it seriously. We fully understand and agree with these viewpoints.

I also want to say to those who said they wanted us to defederate head of the Threads launch. I get it, and I understand the feedback you all provided as well. We know the increased moderation workload this can and most likely will bring and the concerns about data sovereignty. This is one of the big reasons Cyberfurz only collects your email address. Because we don’t want to know anything else about you, it is also why our focus, instead of getting this detailed response out to you, came second to us getting the user opt-out system pushed out ASAP. We may disagree on this issue, and you might not believe me, Timothy Rogers, also known as Hack. We care deeply about your rights over your data.

We will prioritize assisting any users with migrating their data to other servers and purging our systems of your data faster than the regular seven days. We respect your right not to have your data where you don’t want it when you are trusting it with us.