It's a reminder that VPNs have their own risks, beyond technical ones if operated incompetently -- namely, that you have to trust the VPN company itself.
UPDATED to reflect which users were being spied on.
Meta is downranking/hiding political content on Threads. The company says Threads will “not recommend any content/accounts that post about politics.”
Here’s the issue: what counts as “politics” is often any news abt people who have had their whole existence politicized, such as news about Black people, LGBTQ people, disabled ppl, women, etc. Climate scientists, public health experts etc also considered “political” https://www.axios.com/2024/02/09/meta-political-content-moderation-threads
Meta wants you to keep Facebook Link History on, here’s why you shouldn’t:
“Meta injects special “keylogging” JavaScript onto the website you’re visiting that allows the company to monitor everything you type and tap on, including passwords.”
My wife is looking forward to deleting her Instagram account once she can connect with the same folks from her Mastodon account. Being able to remain in touch with over 100M people who still use Meta products out of the comfort of an ad-free, privacy-friendly platform like Mastodon is a game changer.
I really wish my friends and family would leave Facebook, so I could. It's become nothing but a fucking list of "suggested for you" posts from shitty click-bait right-wing groups, ads for "christian", "patriot”, "gun rights" and other shitty right-wing causes, with the occasional post from someone or some group that I actually care about sprinkled in.
Journalists who rush to participate in Threads are signaling their willingness to be used as pawns in the global propaganda wars. Mark Zuckerberg is no friend of journalism and it’s gross that they’re bowing and scraping to him again.
Okay, I'll probably stop being angry and just mute the folks giving Meta "the benefit of the doubt" and all that shit, and accept the fact the reason they're being ignorant is because they're not anti-capitalists. That's the only explanation. My fault for assuming folks are into decentralisation because they're anti-capitalists when that's just a fantasy I use to reassure myself. #FediPact#Fediverse#Threads#Meta#FuckMeta#FuckFacebook#FuckZuck
It's funny how #Threads doesn't provide any form of signup through the app. They just presume you have an #Instagram account. As if it's like a Social Security Number, assigned to you at birth. 🙄
Do I lower myself to create an Instagram account just to have yet another#socialMedia account that I only use to make fun of the people who use it?
First they wouldn't let me register schizanon saying it was taken (it's not) then they demand my phone number and they say my phone number isn't valid (probably because it's a google voice number, no way I'm giving these assholes my real number)
'...Goes after plenty, including location, personal information that may include "Name, Email address, User IDs, Address, Phone number, Political or religious beliefs, Sexual orientation and Other info."
The fascist facebook tech bros have already achieved part of their directive. Sowing division. Let's all make a pact to lock them out on their first false move. That's where I am. #FuckZuck
Last boost, WAY too many people seem to be freaking out about Meta's move, in a way that seems counter to why I like the Fedisphere.
Even if it was a Microsoft style, Embrace, Expand, Exterminate tactic, that would involve US moving to their servers, which... sorry ain’t happening.
Yes, we should look at what Meta is doing skeptically, but we should let them do it because damn it, if they implement correctly, it would also mean moving OUT of their environment is easier.
Open Data is a two way street, in AND out of a system.
what is protecting those users from the numerous unknown instances that are already here from doing whatever it is Meta is going to do?
Batshit. Insane. Gobs. Of. Wealth.
Facebook is scale at scales the mind simply boggles at.
3 billion monthly average users (MAU).
5 billion items posted per day. That's about 60,000 per second.
A market capitalisation (after a couple of bad years, I'll add), of three quarters of a trillion dollars.
Compared to its home state of California, that's a wealth of $19,000 per person in the state which Facebook can leverage to do its bidding. Facebook bought WhatsApp, then making a loss on $10m in sales, for $19 billion, largely cash. Keep in mind that the typical US household would struggle to meet an unexpected $400 expense. Facebook's price was more than $400 per resident of California, which is to say, Facebook's buying power is comparable to that of the wealthiest state in the United States.
Yes, there are threats that small instances may pose to the Fediverse. Yes, there are privacy and surveillance issues I've long been aware of and have warned against, as have others (see @alex particularly, who ... has greater pedigree than I do in this space). But those instances don't have access to Facebook's resources, combined with Facebook's nearly-twenty-year record of abusing its dumb fucks, excuse me, users, and violating condition after condition after condition regulators have imposed upon it.
Meta is not gonna buy Mastodon or any server, this is based on absolutely nothing and untrue.
Yes, some of us indeed got contacted by Meta/Insta because they are working on a new social platform (this was in the news) and they are looking into joining the Fediverse (Mark Zuckerberg also told this in the recent podcast)
SO.
This contact was about a "heads-up" for a potential big platform to join the network and not for a "take over".
@stuxIf US and EU antitrust / competitiveness authorities cannot secure compliance from Facebook and Zuckerberg for existing and longstanding orders, what makes you think a rag-tag bunch of Fediverse admins will fare better?
Facebook are manifestly bad-faith and untrustworthy actors. Preblock, now.
Facebook is a repeat violator at the FTC. There was a consent decree that goes back close to a decade, which the FTC in 2019 found that they violated. The recent news suggests that they may have also been in violation of this latest consent order. And that is really prompting a step back and a close look at: What does it take to make sure that firms across the board are actually complying with the law? ... I think when you have companies that are repeatedly before a law-enforcement agency, you need to ask serious questions about whether these companies are recidivist and whether they have a challenge in abiding by existing laws.
-- Lina Khan, Chair of the US Federal Trade Commission, interviewed by Kara Swischer,15 May 2023
At the very least, a precondition for any cooperation would be full compliance with existing antitrust actions, sanctions, consent orders, and the like, for a period at least as long as noncompliance (so, four years in the case of the 2019 order).
Many people have been asking me over the last few months to share my Twitter threads regarding lawsuits threatening Google, Facebook and others over here. I'll try to be better as developments play out but here is one relevant to today. Thanks. https://mstdn.social/@jasonkint/110073102431369061
@HistoPol@jasonkint You can't delete fb, you can't even delete permanently your own data from their platform. Deleting the account it is only a disabling for the user and other fb users. But it still remain/exists on their clusters. So, this picture don't have any common sense. #FuckZuck