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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[–] 72 points 2 years ago (38 children)

Why don't stories like this EVER mention Lemmy?

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  • [–] 92 points 2 years ago (5 children)

    Well, I get that Lemmy is an alternative social media, but it's not really an alternative to Facebook. Anonymous usernames, text-based posts, you can't follow people, Fediverse is somewhat confusing.. I'd recommend it as an alternative to Reddit, but probably not the website where boomers want to check up on their neighbors and friends

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  • [–] 8 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    you can’t follow people

    He said "Lemmy" but probably meant "Threadiverse", and mbin does support both the Twitter-style following user model and the Reddit-style forum model.

    To use fedia.io as an example:

    https://fedia.io/people

    I dunno about piefed, haven't used it.

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  • [–] 18 points 2 years ago (9 children)

    Because Lemmy is nowhere near as ready for primetime as other platforms.

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  • [–] 11 points 2 years ago (7 children)

    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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  • [–] 14 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    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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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    I used RIF, but ended up using Jerboa for some random reason I can't remember. Will check out Voyager.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago

    I think Jerboa was being pitched as the best RiF alternative super early on in the exodus. I also found myself on it but it never clicked for me.

    I was on Connect for a while but there were some things that were a bit harder than they needed to be with different account/instance/filter management. Moved to Voyager and I'm quite happy with it, very smooth experience.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago

    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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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago

    Eh, Lemmy is way more mature as a platform than PixelFed is, and he mentioned that.

    I think the explanation being in relation to what it's intended to replace is more likely. He doesn't care as much about getting people off Reddit as he cares about getting people off Zuck and Musk's platforms.

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  • [–] [S] 16 points 2 years ago (12 children)

    Clean cut kids do not find Lemmy very palatable.

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  • [–] 15 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago

    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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  • [+] 7 points 2 years ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (7 children)
  • [–] 11 points 2 years ago (6 children)

    It's not just the tankie stuff. Tbf this place at times feels like the far left version of 4chan, and I say that as a very left person. Reddit's upvote system has always had an issue with brigading/dog piling leading to hostile discussions and echo chambers. In Lemmy, the issue is worse because it feels like most of the people who were drawn here are deeply tied to that culture from Reddit. By contrast, Reddit has a lot more young and innocent people to soften things.

    I quit/deleted my Reddit account many years ago, before Lemmy's rise in popularity. I just come here every once in a while because I like decentralized/fediverse stuff, but the Reddit formula really does turn me off. I can't imagine the average person having the stomach for this brand of internet discussions, regardless of political leaning. It's quite hostile and combative.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    You can join an instance that has downvotes disabled like Hexbear, or votes disabled entirely, or disable your ability to view them if that makes you more comfortable.

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  • [–] 0 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    That doesn't fix anything due to federation. Dog piling discourages people from critical discussion or from asking questions from fear of having the angry mob turn on them too. It leads to shallow and one sided discussions, especially in posts with a lot of participation. The only productive discussions I've ever had either on Lemmy or on Reddit have been one-on-one comment threads in small subs/buried posts.

    But Lemmy knows what it wants to be, and I'm not saying it should change. It just isn't really for me.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago

    I think a large part of that is magnified by being on Lemm.ee, rather than a specialized instancd, like Hexbear or slrpnk or dbzer0. The most productive conversations generally tend to be between people who mostly agree but have alternative viewpoints, otherwise it becomes a shouting match.

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