this post was submitted on 24 Feb 2025
1443 points (99.5% liked)

Privacy

34192 readers
1926 users here now

A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.

Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.

Some Rules

Related communities

much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 

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.

(page 3) 30 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] hddsx@lemmy.ca 8 points 17 hours ago (8 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

[–] skribe@aussie.zone 6 points 17 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.

[–] glitchead@programming.dev 5 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 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.

[–] hddsx@lemmy.ca 1 points 12 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

[–] glitchead@programming.dev 1 points 12 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.

load more comments (6 replies)
[–] ddash@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

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

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] leisesprecher@feddit.org 2 points 19 hours ago (5 children)

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

[–] brucethemoose@lemmy.world 6 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 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.

[–] EngineerGaming@feddit.nl 6 points 18 hours ago (2 children)

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

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] scytale@lemm.ee 4 points 17 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.

load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments
view more: ‹ prev next ›