diff --git a/Code/Lib/Activity.php b/Code/Lib/Activity.php
index 0be40cf66..5c9a0063a 100644
--- a/Code/Lib/Activity.php
+++ b/Code/Lib/Activity.php
@@ -3014,7 +3014,7 @@ class Activity
             in_array($act->type, ['Follow', 'Accept', 'Reject', 'Create', 'Update'])
                 && ($act->objprop('type') === 'Follow' || ActivityStreams::is_an_actor($act->objprop('type')))
         ) {
-            return false;
+            return [];
         }
 
         // Within our family of projects, Follow/Unfollow of a thread is an internal activity which should not be transmitted,
@@ -3022,14 +3022,14 @@ class Activity
         // This may have to be revisited if AP projects start using Follow for objects other than actors.
 
         if (in_array($act->type, [ACTIVITY_FOLLOW, ACTIVITY_IGNORE])) {
-            return false;
+            return [];
         }
 
         // Do not proceed further if there is no actor.
 
         if (!isset($act->actor['id'])) {
             logger('No actor!');
-            return false;
+            return [];
         }
 
         $item['owner_xchan'] = $act->actor['id'];
@@ -3043,7 +3043,7 @@ class Activity
         // Do not continue without a message-id.
 
         if (!$item['mid']) {
-            return false;
+            return [];
         }
 
         // Translate event urls to internal items.
@@ -3088,7 +3088,7 @@ class Activity
         // scrobblers and seem to only put noise into your stream and then vanish abruptly.
         if ($item['expires'] > NULL_DATE && $item['expires'] < Time::convert(datetime: 'now + 15 minutes')) {
             // We shouldn't even be seeing this activity.
-            return false;
+            return [];
         }
 
 
@@ -3139,7 +3139,7 @@ class Activity
             // Seen in the wild with a post from jasonrobinson.me being liked by a Friendica account.
 
             if (! is_string($item['parent_mid'])) {
-                return false;
+                return [];
             }
 
             $item['parent_mid'] = reverse_activity_mid($item['parent_mid']);
@@ -3171,7 +3171,7 @@ class Activity
                 $obj_actor = Activity::fetch($obj_actor);
             }
             if (! is_array($obj_actor)) {
-                return false;
+                return [];
             }
 
             // We already check for admin blocks of third-party objects when fetching them explicitly.
@@ -3181,11 +3181,11 @@ class Activity
                 $parsed = parse_url($obj_actor['id']);
                 if ($parsed && $parsed['scheme'] && $parsed['host']) {
                     if (!check_siteallowed($parsed['scheme'] . '://' . $parsed['host'])) {
-                        return false;
+                        return [];
                     }
                 }
                 if (!check_channelallowed($obj_actor['id'])) {
-                    return false;
+                    return [];
                 }
             }
 
diff --git a/Code/Lib/Libzot.php b/Code/Lib/Libzot.php
index fc6501b98..c782c36e7 100644
--- a/Code/Lib/Libzot.php
+++ b/Code/Lib/Libzot.php
@@ -2234,6 +2234,9 @@ class Libzot
                 continue;
             }
             $arr = Activity::decode_note($AS);
+            if (!$arr) {
+                continue;
+            }
 
             $r = hubloc_id_query($AS->actor['id'], 1);
 
diff --git a/include/photo_factory.php b/include/photo_factory.php
index 421d910ea..306484498 100644
--- a/include/photo_factory.php
+++ b/include/photo_factory.php
@@ -41,15 +41,6 @@ function photo_factory($data, $type = null)
 
     if (class_exists('Imagick') && !$ignore_imagick) {
         $ph = new PhotoImagick($data, $type);
-
-        // As of August 2020, webp support is still poor in both imagick and gd. Both claim to support it,
-        // but both may require additional configuration. If it's a webp and the imagick driver failed,
-        // we'll try again with GD just in case that one handles it. If not, you may need to install libwebp
-        // which should make imagick work and/or re-compile php-gd with the option to include that library.
-
-        if (! $ph->is_valid() && $type === 'image/webp') {
-            $ph = null;
-        }
     }
 
     if (! $ph) {