At a time when established social media platforms are facing criticism and turbulence — from TikTok's temporary shutdown to Meta's withdrawal from fact-checking and growing criticism over political content moderation — a new approach to social media is gaining some attention.

"Help us put control back into the hands of the people!" declares Canadian developer Daniel Supernault, whose open-source platforms aim to provide privacy-focused alternatives to mainstream social media.

Supernault's Kickstarter campaign, launched on Jan. 24, has already exceeded its initial CA$50,000 goal, TechCrunch reports, raising CA$93,022 (approximately US$64,839) as of 11:02 a.m. PT today. The funding will support the development of three platforms within the Fediverse — a decentralized network of interconnected social media services. These platforms include Pixelfed, Loops and Sup, designed as privacy-focused alternatives to Instagram, TikTok and WhatsApp, respectively. Each platform rejects traditional venture capital funding and ad-based revenue models in favor of community-driven development.

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[–] Fake4000@lemmy.world 10 points 2 days ago (2 children)

My only issue is having WhatsApp in my circle is a must.

Friends and families are more than happy to text or call. But the numerous contractors and engineers I work with and request their service, to them WhatsApp is a must to send photos of issues or videos of faults.

[–] Ulrich@feddit.org 35 points 2 days ago (5 children)

"Sorry, I don't have WhatsApp but you can send me those photos or videos on Signal, Matrix, SimpleX, Briar, Wire, Session, Jabber, Threema, or Line."

[–] ch00f@lemmy.world 14 points 2 days ago (1 children)

e…e-mail?

[–] Ulrich@feddit.org -2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I would never tell anyone to email me...

[–] Lumiluz@slrpnk.net 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Email alias?

[–] Ulrich@feddit.org 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

That's a last resort for me, personally.

[–] macroplastic@sh.itjust.works -4 points 2 days ago

Signal? Isn't that the app for drugs? /s

[–] GrammarPolice@lemmy.world -1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Good luck getting anyone to download any of those😂

[–] JubilantJaguar@lemmy.world 16 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Yeah but you see the point? They offer us one option. We offer them ten.

"You don't have any of them installed? Well, I don't have Whatsapp installed. So one of us is going to have to go out of our way. Why should you assume that's for me to do, just because everyone else including you behaved like an unthinking herd of sheep?" That's what I feel like saying, and occasionally do actually say.

It's a difficult conundrum. Speaking personally, but at this point resisting the Whatsapp fascism has become a stubborn article of faith for me. I won't do it.

[–] catloaf@lemm.ee 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Yeah... But to them, why should they deal with one difficult customer when they have a dozen more that are easier to work with?

[–] JubilantJaguar@lemmy.world 7 points 2 days ago

My point was about the social scenario, which is a genuine puzzle because most people want to have friends. I've lost some over this.

For the business context (this was the subject, true), I find that's much easier: "F*** off and send an email." Impossible? Well then that's one less customer for you. I have lots of experience of doing exactly this. Almost always the email suddenly becomes possible after all.

[–] solrize@lemmy.world 17 points 2 days ago (1 children)

They don't have email? It's like the 1980s when only nerds had email.

[–] Fake4000@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I know. But most of these engineers are on the job and on the road 99 percent of the time. And a quick WhatsApp message is all they want.

[–] solrize@lemmy.world 0 points 2 days ago (1 children)

MMS?

[–] M33@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

MMS are sent by mail protocol between operators 🤭

[–] solrize@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I don't understand how it's worse for the guy in the truck though. I've never used Snapchat so I'm likely missing something.

[–] M33@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 2 days ago

I don’t know, but for the context let’s say that MMS are as safe as a mail could be: « not so much or not at all » depending on one privacy needs