I’ve signed the pact to block any instances owned by Facebook and related organizations that join the fediverse.

At the start of this conversation I wanted to take a “wait and see” approach. I posted a poll asking Free Radical users whether we should block Facebook immediately, shared my thoughts, and opened the door for input. Wow, did I ever get it.

I’m a straight white middle class cis man. While I dislike Facebook, I don’t personally fear it. A lot of my friends are in different groups. They shared their worries, fears, and concerns that wouldn’t have occurred to me because I haven’t lived their experiences. After hearing them, my opinion shifted from “is there a reason we should block Facebook?” to “is there any reason we shouldn’t block Facebook?” I posted a second poll and the results were clear: Free Radical users overwhelmingly want to preemptively block them.

We’re blocking them.

I wasn’t initially going to sign the pact because I avoid making promises that don’t leave room for re-evaluation. In this case, it’s obvious that this is what we want at FRZ, and there’s also value in presenting solidarity with our neighbor instances.