!memes
there is no "sway" when everyone can start their own instance
people use social media to see posts and talk to people. they are gonna go wherever they can see the most posts and talk to the most people. federation is what keeps this gravitational pull from creating a monopoly as everyone flocks to the largest site with the most content.
thankfully beehaw is not the largest site with the most content — lemmy.world is bigger. otherwise, beehaw's aggressive blocking of other instances might start causing users of those instances to jump ship to beehaw, killing off the competition and making beehaw a monopoly.
