Microsoft is at this point made up entirely of technically inept people running fraudulent mechanical Turks.

Microsoft is such a horrid company.

So, here's what I would do. I would comply (you should be able to delete the local instance of that account). But I'd also reply pointing out that it's a mirror of the real account hosted at lea.pet and their real beef is with them, and should that user interact with or generate content pushed to you, the local copy would be re-created.

Keep a copy of the email you send (because it's highly likely a human doesn't monitor that mailbox) and then move on with your life. If a real person then wants to complain you can just forward the email you sent and tell them the same still applies.

It's automated and the email indicates as such.

this is why niche stuff on fedi is so funny sometimes. especially when a corporate entity tried to approach it, in the most corporate way lol.

They don't really understand their user base either

The instance rules state;

3 . No impersonation of a person or a brand. Even parodies.

6 . Each username on here should be a person, not a brand or corporation - and that person must be you, no impersonation.

Now I'm not coming to the defense of a corporation because fuck corps but wouldn't this account violate those rules? Microsoft is a (shitty) brand and this is a parody of that.

I might be wrong but thats how I would interpret those two rules.

And again fuck microsoft, even if it does violate the instance rules it should be left alone just to piss of a shitty corp.

Edit: As TherapyGary pointed out, the instance they are on has no rule pertaining to parody accounts, My bad.

let them sue, parody is fair use. get that bag king

Streisand effect in full swing too. I'm now following @Microsoft@lea.pet :)

:D

Not that I have any sympathy for them but technically speaking, can we say "Microsoft does X" when it was just a "brand protection LLM"?
For sure they chose it to be an outward connection but are we really now stating that an LLM can represent a company? I feel like that's both "you are stupid for using LLMs that way" and empowering LLMs at the same time

Does Microsoft understand anything? At all? They suck at making software, they suck at making operating systems, they suck at making genAI, they suck at making game consoles, they're starting to suck at owning github, what don't they suck at? What part of their business is done better than anyone else? What end user experience is better on an MS product than anywhere else? They have a shittier alternative to literally everything and nothing truly good.

I feel like this is going to become a problem with federation in the future. A Mastodon instance is hosting content outside of its control that may or may not comply with its internal policies or local law. Is that instance protected legally? Likely not.

It would likely be treated the same way as auto forwarding an email would be treated.

thanks microsoft! i just followed the account!

If anybody is wondering, Tracer.ai is legit and operating at the instruction of Microsoft.
They’re an AI brand protection service which has been systematically harming Microsoft’s brand for a while. An example - getting YouTube videos about Minecraft removed, which has hindered Minecraft’s visibility online (which is a huge part of Xbox revenue)

Oh my fucking god! Please, M$, do continue!!

Look ma, my instance is being threatened! Proud to be on the instance of Mastodon CEO 🥹

Ok but fr, MS please don't shut down cyberplace.social I just switched to there like a few months ago.

Let's save this post for the next follow friday...