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Meta under fire for auto-following Trump & Vance, Blocking Democrat hashtags
(techissuestoday.com)
this post was submitted on 21 Jan 2025
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Do it, quit. Even if no one else does it. Stop relying on these tools.
Stop justifying using their services. Businesses should have multiple avenues to get the information you need. If they're solely dependent on Meta, they won't change unless people leave.
I completely understand the theory and moral argument; but in practice, how does this take effect?
If I delete my account, I'm not longer able to see events and sales, etc at local businesses.
My favorite local grocery store has 32,000 Instagram followers. How many of them have to leave to convince that business owner to start using a federated platform? A local bar I go to maybe six times a year doesn't even have a website - only an IG account with 5k followers. It's only because of their IG account that I know they have a chili cookout coming up that I want to enter.
So logistically, how do we, those who want to jump ship, make these businesses jump with us?
The best I've got is some avatar change to bring awareness but I don't post enough that anyone would see it anyway. Or maybe actually post something on IG and leave it pinned there. I don't have any posts on my account so maybe leaving an inspiring post would help. This would require not deleting my account.
Moreover, for small businesses, I know a lot of them are spending a few hundred or thousand dollars here and there to promote events and sales. This is one of the weaknesses of the fediverse. I don't think it's unfair that a business or person has the ability to spend money to ensure their announcement is noticed. Another fed weakness / powerful feature of corporate-social media is the lack of tools for businesses to conduct business. It's just a lot easier to use these platforms that have ten years of updates to make things work best for the most people.
You can just leave. You don't need to be concerned with businesses. They naturally chase money and will come up with alternative means of communicating if the tools they have now aren't working as effectively as they need. They probably have a mailing list, or community bulletin board at the physical store that's been woefully neglected by the social media users. And if they don't, you can actively recommend it to your favorite businesses and the good ones will do it, or take the idea and make it better.
You don't need to tell anyone you left. You don't need to make a special profile pic and leave that up so everyone knows you left. Just leave. Stop caring about social media. I've been off of Facebook and Twitter for damn near two decades now, because even back then I saw how horrible it was for my focus, and mental health I still manage to keep up on events I care about, and in touch with the people that matter to me. It's 100% possible but you gotta be the one to disengage. Even if no one else leaves, like I had in my case, the people who care will still reach out to you in the ways they can.
Granted I make throwaway accounts on federated social networks, but this scratches that itch for current info in the things I'm interested in.
Jesus you guys are fuckin addicted bad. Can't leave Instagram lest you lose out on that oh so crucial dopamine hit from being in the know. People used to organize. You've given away the ability to do that when you don't even know how to live without Facebook.
You haven't addressed the issue I've raised.
I am and will continue to be concerned with businesses because I'm a human being who needs to eat and has a life outside my home.
I am telling you that most businesses only use Instagram in place of any other means of notifications.
It's currently not possible to keep up with events without having an Instagram account. I already miss out on most events because the instagram algorithm usually shows me posts that are days past the event and I'm not on there for more than an hour in a whole month.
Your solution, to abstain from life, is not feasible. Maybe it is for you but for most people it's not.
You are also missing the point of the matter where these businesses are going to continue to use a platform that is now explicitly censoring information and seemingly pushing fascist agendas. If you were a business and wanted to maintain a relationship with your customers, what option do you have? As I've said, the tools to use social media to run a business have been refined for years. There's nothing close to comparable either in the fediverse, with websites, newsletters, rss feeds, calendars, etc.
I'm not abstaining from life for refusing to have an Instagram account, you dunce. And I'm done talking to you about it.
There are at least 5 places around me that have only FB account for news lol. No physical bulletin, no mails. And it's kinda normal for small, local buisnesses like bars, milk bars, fast-food, activity parks etc.