this post was submitted on 16 Jun 2023
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Defederate Meta

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This is a space on the Fediverse for organizing a widespread block of #Meta. Follow along on your favourite app from mastodon etc. Better yet, come and join in the conversation!

Please also see https://fedia.io/m/DefederateMeta/t/13712 for ideas on how to help out, and https://fedia.io/m/DefederateMeta/t/13685 for an explanation of why we want to #DefederateMeta

Rules

Rules:

We have zero tolerance for intolerance.

Absolutely no racism, sexism, transphobia, homophobia, ableism, xenophobia, or any other form of bigotry is permitted.

No spam, NSFW images, trolling, etc.

Keep it (mostly) on topic please. Fun is permitted :)

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Why /m/DefederateMeta ? (fedia.io)
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by smallpatatas@fedia.io to c/DefederateMeta@fedia.io
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Meta's upcoming 'P92' app is reported to have ActivityPub compatibility (link)

Many users and admins are opposed to federating with Meta, due to concerns including, but not limited to:

  • user tracking, privacy violations, and data collection (link 1, 2, 3, 4)

  • embrace-extend-extinguish behaviour (link)

  • poor moderation

  • corporate influence over the ActivityPub protocol

  • centralization of the userbase around a single server

  • psychological manipulation (link) of users via algorithm

  • monopolistic behaviour (link)

  • intentionally allowing (and profiting from!) anti-Black racism (link 1, 2)

  • poor treatment of workers (link)

  • facilitation of genocide on Facebook (link)

  • failing to mitigate the distribution of CSAM on its platforms (link)

  • New, June 16th allowing scams to proliferate on their platforms despite user attempts to file reports (link)

  • New, June 16th rolling back COVID misinformation rules (link)

  • New, July 1st putting the onus on parents/guardians to protect kids from online predators (link)

  • a long history of breaching user trust (link)

In order to continue to build a new kind of social media, which prioritizes users over profits, and openness over walled gardens, we need to stand together in opposition to Meta's digital colonization effort.

What's making it difficult to form a consensus is that most admins haven't been communicating with users about what they plan to do (let alone asking the users what they want).

So, one very easy thing we can do is ask our admins if they're planning to block Meta, and if they aren't, ask them to reconsider.

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[–] fancysandwiches@fedia.io 1 points 1 year ago

I recently had to help a family friend deal with a scam that originated on Facebook, and I learned quite a lot more about how bad Meta really is as a company. They really truly do not care about their users at all.

A family friend hadn't been using their Facebook account, and recently discovered that a hacker took over their account. We don't know how exactly this happened, or even when exactly it happened. She did a google search to find the support number for Facebook, but of course Facebook doesn't actually have a support number you can call. In fact, they essentially have no way to contact them. Scammers however, have realized that they can SEO their way to the top of search rankings when you search for a Facebook support number. Long story short, the scammers shared the shit out of her, and spooked her into handing over $400 in order to verify her identity (they said it would be refunded), as well as copies of her drivers license, and other sensitive personal information.

After helping her clean up the mess from that scam we also tried to help her gain access to her hacked account, but in her case it's effectively impossible. The hackers changed the email and phone number on the account, so there is no way to recover the account. They have several different sets of instructions for recovering an account, but for her nothing worked. One of the instructions implies that a friend or family member can initiate the recovery of your account, but all it does is take you to a special menu on their profile that takes you to a support page, which tells you a bunch of stuff that doesn't help (like using a phone number to recover your account). Basically all she can do at this point is have her husband contact Facebook and claim that she is unable to use her account anymore due to medical reasons, and they'll delete the account, however they may not even honor this request.