Suck it, Zuck!

As you have probably all heard by now, Facebook and Instagram are about to become way more hostile to certain individuals and I can only image how much more toxic the platform will become.

Screenshot of Meta's updated policies that indicate they do allow for content arguing for gender-based limitations of military, law enforcement, and teaching jobs as well as arguing of sexual orientation, when the content is based on religious beliefs. So, Religious beliefs are more protected than gender identify or sexual orientation.

Meta also has their hands in many other pots, including how they track your data. Log into Facebook once on your device, and you'll get tracking cookies that interact with far too many other websites for anyone to be comfortable with. I'll post some source links below related to tracking cookies in general and how most/all of the biggest tech companies are using these tracking cookies to gather as much data about you, personally, to maximize their ad revenue.

I cannot and will not remain on a platform like that.

To be clear, if you use Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok, Red Note, etc, YOU ARE THE PRODUCT and you get absolutely zero compensation. They are selling you and you are allowing it to happen for free.

Now that we have that out of the way, maybe you are asking yourself what you can do about it. Or maybe you're just there like "Eh, whatever. I don't care". Well if you actually DO want to do something, you can stop letting these companies profit off of your data. Believe it or not, there is an entire internet ecosystem out there that does not revolve around the handful of social media giants that hoover up all our data and track our every move online. As mentioned with the tracking cookies, it is getting harder and harder to avoid this, but there are ways to mitigate.

Enter the Fediverse!

Proposed Logo for the Fediverse that shows five multi-color dots, interconnected by colorful lines, indicating the interoperability of the various fediverse services

You know how you can have a gmail account and communicate with users who have a hotmail account, or yahoo, or proton mail? Yeah, there are ways to communicate with pretty much anyone online, without having to flock to a single platform together to do it. The various Fediverse services are mostly interoperable in this way, via the ActivtyPub protocol. Zuck knows all about it, having enabled his Threads platform to federate with ActivityPub to other Fediverse services. This means Mastodon users can technically "follow" users on Threads.

But aside from that bastardization of Corporate Interloping into the Fediverse, there are tons of great options out there that work well together.

Below is a list of some common, tech-giant social media platforms and their Fediverse alternatives. Keep in mind that Fediverse services are generally hosted by smaller-scale groups or even individuals. There are generally zero ads, data tracking, or algorithms involved in these services. They are generally FOSS (Free Opens Source Software) meaning that anyone with the knowledge can dig into the code that makes up the services and whistle-blow any shenanigans. And if you're the tech-savvy type, you can self-host your own instances and be the only user, or allow others to register to your instance as well. And remember, just because you're the only user on your instance, that does not mean you don't get to interact with all the other users on all those other instances!

Facebook Alternative: Friendi.ca offers a similar layout to Facebook, maybe more close to their classic layout from years ago, but that's not a bad thing. Users who are familiar with Facebook should be comfortable with the layout and functionality of Friendica.

Twitter Alternative: Mastodon is designed to emulate the Twitter/X format. So if you are into that style of timeline and like to follow trending or specific hash tags, Mastodon is probably for you! Want a feed that is just cats? Cool, just search the hashtag #caturday and click the Follow Hashtag button. Of course, if you're on Mastodon, you can find and follow content creators over on Friendica or other platforms, too!

Instagram Alternative: Pixelfed offers an image-centric platform like Instagram (short videos are also included, just like Instagram). So if you are the photographer type, or just like looking at pretty things, and don't want the distractions of ads or paid influences clogging up your feed, maybe this is the place for you.

TikTok Alternative: Loops Ok, this is a super-relevant one right now. With the potential ban of TikTok on the horizon here in the US, there could be a lot of people looking to alternatives. And rather than flock to the likes of Meta's Or Musk's offerings, maybe consider Loops. It was created by the same creator of Pixelfed, and is a feed of random video shorts, like TikTok. You can follow specific creators, and there is a feed for trending creators. This is one of the newer platforms on the list, but it seems to be growing pretty steadily.

YouTube Alternative: PeerTube Now let me start by saying YMMV with this one. There is a lot of content on PeerTube across all the instances out there, but there is no real Open-Source option that comes close to the content available on YouTube. This is just an unfortunate truth at this point. But there are PeerTube instances that are tailored to specific interests, and the link above will take to you a handy page that lets you find instances that might be right for you. When it comes to YouTube, I will just also mention a couple tools like yt-dlp and NewPipe as well as the myriad of other tools out there that allow you to partake in YouTube content, without the ads and tracking.

Bonus: Algorithms? What algorithms? Most services discussed here (and others) do not use any sort of Algorithm to determine what you see in your feed. In fact, when you sign up, your feed will be empty. That's because it is up to YOU what you want included in your feed. So start looking for content that interests you. Personally, I like to search hashtags of interest and then check out profiles of people who are posting on those topics. Follow a few people you find interesting and you will also see content they re-share from others. Then you can branch out and, before you know it, you have a timeline full of only content that interests you. Also, most of these services use a chronological timeline. So no more futile scrolling back through dozens of pages to find that interesting post you just saw a second ago.

Whew! This was a lot. I know. There is a great resource out there at https://fedi.tips/ if you really want to get a leg up on all that the Fediverse has to offer. Hopefully, there is something out there for everyone that gives them the option of giving the finger to corporate media giants and actually enjoying the internet again. I will say I have been on Mastodon and other services for a few years now and I have much more frequent engagement and generally more genuine and better quality interactions there than I have in recent years on Facebook or Instagram.

Sources:

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