John Oliver launches "Make yourself less valuable to Meta" website, suggests Signal, Mastodon, Pixelfed, and BlueSky as Meta alternatives
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John Oliver cited a 5000% rise in search queries related to leaving Meta and deleting accounts. Among the topics mentioned in the analysis, attention was drawn to early Facebook's naivete with regard to moderation requirements, the constitutional framework, and a history of governmental interference.
Oliver debunks common right-wing "cry censorship" talking points, as well as the objective difficulty of moderation endeavors, and how direct threats by Trump may have influenced Zuckerberg's turnaround.
Oliver went on to suggest Signal, Mastodon, Bluesky, and Pixelfed as alternatives that "do not seem as desperate to fall in line with Trump". For those reluctant to completely ditch Meta, Oliver revealed a new site with step-by-step instructions to "make yourself less valuable to them".
The guide was a collaboration with the EFF, and includes settings' tweaks for Facebook and Meta, whose 98% of revenue comes from micro-targeting ads, the host previously cited, to increase privacy, and recommends Firefox, Privacy Badger, as "other measures" to take in order "to block advertisers and other third parties from tracking you".
The segment culminated in a mock advert, in which the new Meta's approach to moderation is coined as "Fuck it", and hints to racism, internet scams, and calls to genocide running rampant on Meta's platforms.
The clip reminds the origins of Facebook as a site to "rank college girls by hotness", and its implication in genocide in Myanmar, which was more thoroughly discussed in an Oliver's previous special on Facebook in 2018.
John Oliver's show is doing amazing things, including the Drumpfinator addon.
What is that URL, though?
I'm guessing I'm know it if I (happily) watch the episode? -
my country they literally helped elect one
Huh? Source? What country?
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I’ve been wanting to try pixelfed but I haven’t figured out what to do: start my own for friends or join an existing one.
I heard there were some issues with a dev or something so I haven’t signed up for the original instance yet
I’ve also been intrigued, but it seems like a harder jump to make than mastodon or lemmy. Like with twitter or Reddit I’m mostly interacting with strangers anyway, but I don’t really want my instagram to be photos of people I don’t know.
Would you try to get your friends to make the switch with you?
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So much of Facebook is just automated accounts responding to automated accounts in order to milk gullible advertisers. If everyone logged off tomorrow, I don't know if Zuckerberg would notice.
Seems like a win tbh. Meta stops influencing people and collecting their data, while dumbass corps waste money on ads nobody will see.
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Because Lemmy is nowhere near as ready for primetime as other platforms.
I reckon Lemmy is actually pretty good. I wouldn't know if the mobile apps are good, because I don't use those - but for me the core functionality of Lemmy on my computer is smooth and functional. I don't see any obvious low-hanging-fruit.
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Let's hear your different perspectives
"People who disagree" saying "things you don't like" energy
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I've been gone from FB for about 3 months but for me it was the groups. You could find groups for anything, but personally, I miss my local groups. Particularly the No-Buy and vegan and political activist groups. Finding an equivalent outside of FB is sub par, if it even exists at all.
Yeah that does actually sound pretty decent.
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my country they literally helped elect one
Huh? Source? What country?
wrote on last edited by [email protected].
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I reckon Lemmy is actually pretty good. I wouldn't know if the mobile apps are good, because I don't use those - but for me the core functionality of Lemmy on my computer is smooth and functional. I don't see any obvious low-hanging-fruit.
Lemmy is good for the size. It took a while for Lemmy to adjust to its current scale, with major instances having uptime issues.
If we keep the servers up, there is still issues with spam and moderation. We don't have the tools that Reddit built and I expect further pushes towards defederation as the standard for users hasn't been developed.
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Why don't stories like this EVER mention Lemmy?
Lemmy lacks a bit of polish
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He can't because he wasn't born here, but we could totally elect his wife and let him do the whole first husband thing while still advising if she needs it.
Yep after all that's how musk did it by using trump as the symbolic figurehead
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I reckon Lemmy is actually pretty good. I wouldn't know if the mobile apps are good, because I don't use those - but for me the core functionality of Lemmy on my computer is smooth and functional. I don't see any obvious low-hanging-fruit.
I ditched reddit for Lemmy during the whole API crackdown bs. I've only used Voyager, but it seems quite comparable to RIF, which is the only way I ever viewed reddit.
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He can't because he wasn't born here, but we could totally elect his wife and let him do the whole first husband thing while still advising if she needs it.
First Gentleman John Oliver.
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Why don't stories like this EVER mention Lemmy?
I guess the hate for Reddit isn't as great as for Shitter and Fakebook. (yet)
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I don't find Lemmy very palatable. I'm still here because I like to hear different perspectives. Lemmy as a whole seems to hate different perspectives, it's like many go out of their way to keep it closer to a hive mind. 80% of the world's people would not fit in here. I don't either, but I don't give a shit.
Agree. I am not an open socialist and my top 5 issues probably don't align with the usual stuff I see at the top of Lemmy communities. Still, it is a worthwhile source for some tech/privacy info and some other niche content.
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I’ve also been intrigued, but it seems like a harder jump to make than mastodon or lemmy. Like with twitter or Reddit I’m mostly interacting with strangers anyway, but I don’t really want my instagram to be photos of people I don’t know.
Would you try to get your friends to make the switch with you?
Yeah, that’s why I’m considering hosting my own, unfederated instance
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Not a very large userbase.
This is literally the answer lmao why are you getting downvoted.
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Seems like a win tbh. Meta stops influencing people and collecting their data, while dumbass corps waste money on ads nobody will see.
Meta will still influence people, because a lot of the influence is through news aggregators automatically ingesting what Facebook shows as "Trending" and regurgitates it elsewhere.
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John Oliver cited a 5000% rise in search queries related to leaving Meta and deleting accounts. Among the topics mentioned in the analysis, attention was drawn to early Facebook's naivete with regard to moderation requirements, the constitutional framework, and a history of governmental interference.
Oliver debunks common right-wing "cry censorship" talking points, as well as the objective difficulty of moderation endeavors, and how direct threats by Trump may have influenced Zuckerberg's turnaround.
Oliver went on to suggest Signal, Mastodon, Bluesky, and Pixelfed as alternatives that "do not seem as desperate to fall in line with Trump". For those reluctant to completely ditch Meta, Oliver revealed a new site with step-by-step instructions to "make yourself less valuable to them".
The guide was a collaboration with the EFF, and includes settings' tweaks for Facebook and Meta, whose 98% of revenue comes from micro-targeting ads, the host previously cited, to increase privacy, and recommends Firefox, Privacy Badger, as "other measures" to take in order "to block advertisers and other third parties from tracking you".
The segment culminated in a mock advert, in which the new Meta's approach to moderation is coined as "Fuck it", and hints to racism, internet scams, and calls to genocide running rampant on Meta's platforms.
The clip reminds the origins of Facebook as a site to "rank college girls by hotness", and its implication in genocide in Myanmar, which was more thoroughly discussed in an Oliver's previous special on Facebook in 2018.
Took a long time, but nice to see this topic getting mainstream attention.
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John Oliver's show is doing amazing things, including the Drumpfinator addon.
What is that URL, though?
I'm guessing I'm know it if I (happily) watch the episode?it's an inside joke of the show where he presents himself as a """secret""" furry that loves rat erotica. The content of the link is legit though.
