The link goes to this users Mastodon post on the subject. I’m going to copy part of the text of his post without having to post the Threads post they were shown. Click through if you want to see for yourself, avoid if such things are upsetting to you.

“This was a post promoted to me from within Instagram to try and get me to use threads. Ill say that again: this is the promotional content shown to non-threads users as an inducement to join threads.”

If you do click through to the Mastodon thread, you’ll see several other people confirming they’ve seen the same or similar posts promoting Threads.

I’ve said the same thing in comments to other Threads related posts in this community but I’m going to say it again; didn’t we create and use fediverse software like Mastodon, Lemmy, PixelFed etc in large part to escape the constant hate-baiting and algorithmic manipulation of companies like Meta? Why are so many in the fediverse prepared to throw their fellow fediverse users under the bus by exposing them to a company and a set of users who not only say these things and not only allow them to be said but actually use them as a promotional tool to encourage more people onto Threads?

If Threads was a fediverse instance, it would’ve been defederated from by just about everyone by now. Why are some people bending over backwards to give Meta a free pass?

‘Wait and see’ I hear people say. I can already see.

  • There’s replies to this post that I can’t see whilst logged in. No idea why, a foible of federation maybe.

    “We” created the Fedi to have interoperable systems and to give users autonomy over their accounts and their feeds. That’s why there’s an option for users to block other users and even entire servers.

    Not sure what the scare quotes round ‘we’ are for, but anyway, personal autonomy is a great thing, but when your autonomy negatively affects other people’s desire to remain on a platform, then its not so much autonomy as selfishness. I’m well aware users and instances can be blocked, but when Meta start truly ramping up Threads we’ll be talking hundreds of millions of users and god knows how many domains/instances. Trying to avoid hate is going to become the primary thing some people have to do. Or just leave the fediverse.

    No one is doing that.

    Yes, they are. There are whole instances out there dedicated to (so called) minority groups who some of the hate groups on Threads, both now and in the future, will come after. They already do this on Twitter, TikTok, etc etc - do you think they’ll just not do that on Threads? Or that Meta will moderate them appropriately?

    You see it as the Fediverse promoting Meta but we see the opposite.

    Is that a joke? You honestly think that by federating with Threads, your average Threads user is going to see the promised land of the fediverse and switch in significant numbers?

    I’ve literally never seen anyone say this except FediPacters as a strawman

    Then you’ve not been paying attention.