How to Change Your Meta Settings | Make yourself less valuable to Meta. Brought to you by Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.
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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.

    • OneTwoThree@mander.xyzEnglish
      81·
      17 hours ago

      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

      • blind3rdeye@lemm.ee
        7·
        15 hours ago

        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.

        • MumboJumbo@lemmy.world
          13·
          14 hours ago

          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.

          • Frostbeard@lemmy.world
            2·
            13 hours ago

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

        • HobbitFoot @thelemmy.clubEnglish
          6·
          14 hours 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.

      • doingthestuff@lemy.lolEnglish
        164·
        17 hours ago

        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.

        • mctoasterson@reddthat.com
          5·
          14 hours 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.

        • gamer@lemm.ee
          134·
          17 hours ago

          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.

          • CMonster@discuss.onlineEnglish
            161·
            17 hours ago

            Idk, to me the comments on lemmy are generally less toxic and I feel like I see way more nuanced discussion than on reddit.

          • sunzu2@thebrainbin.org
            71·
            17 hours ago

            I am not sure quite sure what point you’re trying to make.

            If you people don’t care for social media, opt out

            However if you want social media there are two choices

            1. psyop bot farms running social media opinion shaping and other propaganda campaigns
            2. uncle Sunzu and tankies going on unhinged rants about capitalism and ruling class abuses.

            I think you are saying that most people prefer 1 despite saying they prefer freedom of expression.

            If you prefer freedom of expression, you gonna need to hear people duke it out online. That’s what’s a proper discussion means.

            If everyone just following what current psyop is, then sure everyone there agree on the talking points and if they don’t get they get censored out.

    • auraithx@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      6·
      17 hours ago

      Not as many grassroots advocates. Even on the Reddit alternative sub the consensus isn’t lemmy somehow.