this post was submitted on 24 Feb 2025
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Privacy

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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.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

The site doesn't suggest any alternatives though or am I not seeing that?

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 21 hours ago (7 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 6 points 20 hours ago

I love the instance I'm on and it's fairly quiet. Come on in!

https://pixtagram.social/

[–] [email protected] 3 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

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?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 16 hours ago

Yeah, that’s why I’m considering hosting my own, unfederated instance

[–] [email protected] 5 points 20 hours ago

Try one of the existing instances. Pixelfed.social is probably a bad choice right now, as it's getting overloaded with new members and so importing from Instagram has been curtailed. The others at https://pixelfed.org/servers should be fine. If you later choose to host your own instance you can always move the data from your old one.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago) (1 children)

I use https://metapixl.com as mine. Its active and reliable. Also, not having influencers polluting the timeline makes all of Pixelfed a really nice experience.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

Are you able to stop your account from federating but subscribe to people who do federate? In other words, is there a way to create a private account

[–] [email protected] 1 points 15 hours ago

Honestly, I don't know. I'd suggest reaching out an admin of one of the instances that has the community guidelines that jive best with you. Their contact info is usually on the instance's home page. They would definitely know.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 22 hours ago (5 children)

Why not just recommend adblockers? No ads, no revenue, no matter how much tracking.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago) (1 children)
  • Not easy for most users on app-based mobile/tablet devices.

  • (Puts on tinfoil hat) His parent company, Discovery-Warner Bros, probably wouldn't like that? And John Oliver makes his living through ad revenue.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 21 hours ago (2 children)

Not easy for mobile devices? Firefox-based browsers on mobile can have Ublock Origin :/

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 20 hours ago

It looks like they got that list of tips from the EFF, who created Privacy Badger. So it’s not surprising they only recommended theirs. I agree though that they should include uBO in the list.

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