BBC Launches A Mastodon Instance ( social.bbc )

csolisr , 11 months ago

And believe it or not, there are now people rallying for the BBC to be defederated. Sure I understand that the current British government is pushing some of their newscasters into less than reputable positions, but to ban the entire domain preemptively?

awkwardparticle , 11 months ago

I guess people don't want the Fediverse to gain any popularity. If people consider BBC to be quintessentially evil, what news outlet would even be considered welcome?

HipPriest , 11 months ago

Maybe some people actually don't want the fedi to become popular because they're into gatekeeping and despite saying 'it's the future' etc, actually just want it to stay small and underground?

And yeah, the BBC having a 6 month R&D experiment isn't exactly the same as a Fox News takeover (not that that would even be possible)

HipPriest , 11 months ago

I saw one arts instance has defederated on the grounds that the BBC is a transphobic organisation. I would personally dispute that.

I think those people need to realise this is a massive step up for the fediverse. The BBC literally has global reach.

darq , 10 months ago

Eh, the BBC has definitely been involved in spreading transphobia.

I still think their joining the Fediverse is a good thing for the adoption of decentralised social media.

Both of those things can be true.

shepherd , 10 months ago

I supported a pre-emptive Threads defederation, because I expect them to Embrace-Extend-Extinguish the fediverse for the sake of profit.

For the BBC, I don't feel as overtly opposed. They don't really have the user base to overextend us with, even if they tried to get their audience on mastodon lol. They haven't seemed blatantly profit driven in the past. And they're starting their own instance, using fediverse tech.

Does anyone think this is the BBC's Embrace step? It's not sparking any alarm bells for me, but can I get a sanity check?