The Ohio prison department says it allowed one unillustrated version of Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” into a prison because it didn’t show symbols associated with any white supremacist groups.
Flawless logic
From everyone I’ve come across addicted to something like that it’s always been life circumstances spiraling out of control that pushed them to it. The study itself acknowledges that “Nearly one quarter (24%) noted that substance use currently them health, legal, or financial problems.”
The 31% number specifically is in the following context: “Many participants reported using drugs and alcohol to help them cope with the circumstances of homelessness.”
It’s likely a mix, but life circumstances are almost certainly going to be the cause for most. Living on the streets is hellish, of course people are going to look for some temporary escape
While the number of files is important for the scale of the operation, keep in mind that what makes it illegal is deliberately withholding the documents and lying about returning them all that he is being charged with. The crime is trying to keep them when asked to return them and deceiving federal agencies, not just taking the files themselves
Advertising to people currently on the Fediverse probably isn’t their goal. Neither is just joining the Fediverse. Their goal is to become the Fediverse to swallow it whole.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace,_extend,_and_extinguish
They also have no incentive to share anti-spam tech. They would be giving up a massive sellin g point of their instance if they did.
Additionally, Threads is already stripping its implementation of ActivityPub of some features like alt text and CWs. Worse though is that they’re removing the option for a chronological timeline, forcing their algorithm as the only option for its users. This would be fine, except it would also effect content on all instances (to an extent). Given that Threads will no doubt have a userbase larger than that of most instances, and that posts which play into its algorithm will show up for significantly more people, posts which engage with Threads’ algorithm will be boosted more often, thus showing up for more people who aren’t using Threads.
Say Threads’ algorithm really likes posts that get lots of replies. Someone writes a controversial post on mastodon.social and lots of people on Threads immediately get in arguments in the replies. This post is then promoted by Threads’ algorithm, causing it to be seen by more people on Threads. More eyes on a post means more likelihood of getting a higher number of boosts. Lots of accounts on Threads boost the post, which causes it to be seen by more people in federated instances. Again, more eyes means more likelihood of getting boosted. At this point the post is popular not just in Threads, but also in instances federated with Threads. Which means it’ll pop up more often on other instances that do not federate with Threads. Threads’ algorithm, only being implemented on Threads, extends its toxic influence out even to servers which refuse to federate with Threads.