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.
Where’s the “promoted” or “sponsored” tag on that post?Seems fishy to me.I should apparently be more realistic in my approach to the amount of hateful idiots just getting platformed for outrage clicks. I apologize.
It’s not an ad in and of itself, but you can see the little “open Threads” button that tells you that this is a threads post being shown on Instagram to try to get Instagram users to sign up for Threads.
That happens whenever you’re viewing a post for threads while not using the app though.They could have literally just navigated to that post and then made this post for the outrage food.I was wrong, I misunderstood how content is promoted within the app they are using, this is indeed disgusting and unacceptable.
The fucked up nature of the algorithm aside, Threads suspended that account. So they are at least trying to keep the place cleaner than most.
I’m glad that account seems to have gone, but I’m sure that’ll have been the result of it being reported.
The concerning thing for me is that before it got nuked, it was used as promotional material to try and get Insta users to use Threads. Meta is engagement driven - the more engagement something gets, the more money Meta make (eventually) and clearly their algorithm thinks the best way to drive engagement is propagate and suggest hate.
I know this phrase is used so much it’s almost a cliché, but it feel so accurate for Meta: When someone shows you who they are, believe them.