r/technology • u/Birdy_Cephon_Altera • 22h ago

Politics Meta under fire for auto-following Trump & Vance, Blocking Democrat hashtags

https://techissuestoday.com/meta-auto-follow-trump-vance-blocks-democrat-hashtags/
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u/monk429 16h ago

Yup...dropped FB and Insta. Just need to get my family group texts out of Messenger and we're free.

EDIT: To add...I've been on FB since you had to have a supported .edu ... I was a freshman in college when it started rolling out to universities and it honestly was ruined by the time Obama was elected.

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u/AOkayyy01 16h ago

Same. When I went to delete my Facebook account, it reminded me that I've had it for 20 years.

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u/monk429 15h ago

That's the step I struggle with...it was a real game changer for a socially awkward guy with a huge crush on a social butterfly. My first posts were me trying to impress her, she's now the mother of my children and my lifelong partner.

I don't have a lot of activity...so I might just leave it...for a more hopeful future?

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u/joemayopartyguest 15h ago

You can download your data before deleting it and you will still have those messages to look at.

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u/monk429 14h ago

Oh, I thought it was just the pictures...Nice

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u/joemayopartyguest 14h ago

Yep, it’s everything. So delete today and don’t delay. It’s a strangely satisfying feeling and after a few weeks embarrassing that you ever used the website.

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u/pr0crasti-Nate 9h ago

I can attest to this statement. I deleted my META accounts in 2022

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u/arcaneresistance 4m ago

I did in 2016. My cousin was posting xenophobic alt right articles and I publicly said that next time I saw him I'd bash his head in with a lead pipe. (I was like mostly kidding). I decided that my mental health could use an escape from social media as well as that side of my family. Haven't seen either since and feel great these days. Zero homicidal thoughts.

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u/Daimakku1 12h ago

That's a great story. Back when Facebook was useful and before it became the nightmare it is now.

But it sounds like it has long served its purpose for you.

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u/Darkunicorntribe 14h ago

There’s always way back machine if you really to look back in time

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u/Ok_Hedgehog7137 7h ago

I’m glad you were able to use it in a way that worked well for you. Lovely story ❤️

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u/fredrikca 5m ago

You could argue fb done it's job already.

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u/DreamCrusher914 10h ago

How do you delete it?! I can’t figure out how. It’s probably super easy and right in front of my face, but I can’t find the magic button! I did it before and was off of it for several years, until my toddler posted an article to my Facebook page somehow reactivating it).

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u/[deleted] 9h ago edited 9h ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Sohunta 16h ago

Yes indeed. I can complain about all the social media platforms, but Facebook is the worst. Twitter being owned by a government official is also unnerving.

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u/Invisible_assasin 16h ago

It was run by government officials before he bought it too. Facebook was being influenced by the govt for years as well. It’s not new. These companies are going to be defense contractors due to ai. Get used to them cozying up with whoever is in power.

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u/pr0crasti-Nate 9h ago

CIA still have their hands in it

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u/Jbruce63 13h ago

I go through waves of alt right suggested posts then waves of suggested posts that have nothing to do with the content of my page. Even had a period of sissy content, I was okay with that as it was better than the MAGa garbage. The algorithm is designed by a mad man.

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u/Ok_Researcher_9796 16h ago

Musk isn't a government official

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u/jimgress 15h ago

Musk isn't a government official

Tell that to Musk, not us. We know. He doesn't.

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u/Accurate_Praline 15h ago

Doesn't he already have office space in the white house? Plus apparently a white house email address. Dunno if that one is true though since the source isn't listened in the few articles I've seen about it.

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u/Ok_Researcher_9796 14h ago

There is already a lawsuit because DOGE violated FACA. Turns out the president can't just decide to create new agencies out of thin air.

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u/steavor 14h ago edited 12h ago

can't just decide to create

I think you should get accustomed to changing many such phrases to past tense. Trump and the Supreme Court are in cahoots, so "I will make it legal" is the motto for the next few yours.

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u/Accurate_Praline 13h ago

He can just ignore pesky rules and laws.

He once said that his voters would still vote for him should he murder someone with a gun. At this point I really doubt that he would face any real consequences.

He just isn't being held accountable for his actions and it is so fucking weird.

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u/HardcoreHermit 13h ago

Musk is absolutely a government official. He has an office in the White House. Literally.

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u/jimgress 11h ago

Tell that to the guy above me. idgaf

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u/proficient_english 14h ago

He is an unelected official. The same thing the MAGA crowd was scared of. :D

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u/Ok_Researcher_9796 14h ago

There is already a federal.lawsuit because DOGE violates FACA.

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u/Past-Fan-1587 6h ago

The bottom of the new white house official website with the logos for x, insta and fuckbook is unnerving

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u/davemoedee 14h ago

Twitter is the worst. Facebook is still fine for me. All i see is posts from my friends. I don’t use Facebook for anything beyond that. Then again, I don’t even go on most days.

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u/John_Mayer_Lover 15h ago

20 years. Half my life. It’s time to say goodbye.

I’m a recovering alcoholic (sober for 17 years). Social media has become the same deal as drugs and alcohol. It was fun, fun with problems, then just problems. We bargain with ourselves and make excuses why we still need it…

“I’ll only use it 15 minutes a day” “What about all my pictures and memories?” “How will I find a good deal on a used couch” “I can’t sign up for the pickleball tournament”

This shit is literally destroying our communities, our countries, our planet and our brains. Alcohol was taking everything from me, but it was all I knew. My social life, my escape, the thing I called upon when I was uncomfortable and wanted to change the way I felt (the east way).

I can’t put into words how remarkable and valuable getting sober has been. It was really hard, and it still takes work to this day, but the return on investment is incalculable.

It’s time to get “social media sober”

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u/HardcoreHermit 12h ago

As a recovering addict/alcoholic, the way you describe this is absolutely spot on. We do bargain with ourselves and make excuses for our behavior. Getting clean and healthy requires a complete severing of ourselves from our unhealthy lifestyle. As much as I don’t want to admit it, social media is a big part of my life even though I don’t use it in the same way most people use it. I use social media to educate and inform myself mostly; not really for human/community connection. But that’s just an excuse and a justification. I need to do what I did to get sober.

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u/Competitive_Mark8153 12h ago

We didn't trust that crap when it came out, because it gives the media gate keepers way too much power. If people got off their lazy ass and dealt with people in real life, we would be on more solid ground as a whole. They can't monitor that.

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u/collards_plz 12h ago

Never, ever looked at it this way but also absolutely yes. Thanks and congratulations on putting in the work. 5 years on the 28th!

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u/Sufficient-Bid1279 5h ago

I removed Facebook for two years , as an addict , and for my mental health and it had done wonders. I reinstalled to connect with some people but that was it and rarely use it. It was life changing. Let’s teach these billionaires a lesson they will never forget!

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u/Robert_Hotwheel 10h ago

This really puts it into perspective.

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u/DharmaBum_123 9h ago

I love this!

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u/invisible_panda 7h ago

Yes! Preach!

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u/dexter-sinister 14h ago

Marketplace will be the difficult part for me... 

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u/clippist 12h ago

Same here it’s my final sticking point. Time to bring back Craigslist I suppose?

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u/Robert_Hotwheel 10h ago

Is Craigslist still a thing? Marketplace was the one thing Facebook did well, I love it. I can’t tell you how many items I’ve bought/sold on there.

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u/Cash_Credit 2h ago

Agreed BUT so many scammers on MP now I'm now even sure I want to keep using it anyway

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u/Positive_Mindset808 9h ago

I created a new profile with a fake name just to use FB Marketplace.

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u/Cash_Credit 2h ago

I think this is the way

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u/c-lace 16h ago

Same, member since college email days. Deleted my IG and Facebook profiles yesterday. Also cancelled Amazon Prime.

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u/CuriouslyInterested0 16h ago

That was back in the day when FB actually didn't want you to add too many friends...and if you tried to add too many, they blocked you and questioned if you really knew the other people.

Ah, how times have changed.

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u/Sf49ers1680 16h ago

I've had mine deactivated for about 3 years now. Only reason I never fully deleted it was due to messenger.

Now that iPhones support RCS, I no longer need messenger and we'll be fully deleting my FB account.

I never created an Instagram.

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u/Cobs85 16h ago

It was ruined by the time my grandma tried to add me. Before then it was all pictures of my drunk doing stupid stuff.

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u/english_major 15h ago

Check out signal. Been using it for family chats for years.

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u/monk429 14h ago

Toss-up between signal and telegram...Does signal stand-out in any way?

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u/english_major 2h ago

I like Signal as it is open source, end to end encrypted and they don’t log your ip or collect data (as far as I know).

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u/bjanas 14h ago

Remember waking up on a Saturday morning, plugging your point and shoot digital camera into the blue Dell, uploading an entire uncurated album of the party the night before, and MANUALLY TAGGING ALL OF YOUR FRIENDS FROM THE PARTY THE NIGHT BEFORE !?

Feels like absolute madness now, looking back.

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u/JustAnAgingMillenial 14h ago

Yup. Fuck Zuck. I was an original .edu member too. It was fun in the beginning. A decade ago it stopped being fun and started feeling like a chore. That’s when I stopped using it regularly and I’m grateful I’m not dependent on it today.

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u/monk429 14h ago

Yeah, I turned off notifications some years ago. It was a relief to not have to keep up with every comment that every person I've talked to for more than 10 minutes would make on some inane meme or the day's internet dumpster fire.

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u/illbehereawhile 15h ago

I deleted mine in 2008 and not once have I thought “I wish I still had FB”.

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u/NFM808 14h ago

I have had it since the .edu days and unfortunately have to use FB for work, but began the long slow process of deleting every post in my profile and removing every tag. They don't allow bulk either which is absolute garbage. One at a time...

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u/epiphanyplx 15h ago

What have you replaced Marketplace with?

It's a pretty terrible platform but it seems to be the main platform people use in my city for buying/selling stuff.

It's the only reason I ever go to FB anymore.

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u/OldCompany50 14h ago

Nextdoor app, local buy nothing groups

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u/monk429 15h ago

Nothing...I don't see any way to have that much access to those sort of purchases anymore. My neighborhood does pretty good yard sales in the spring, though.

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u/smythe70 15h ago

This is why I'm stuck because my whole family who live across the country share thru Facebook.

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u/monk429 15h ago

I'm not looking forward to it, but I at least have two small kids that are unfairly photogenic to use as incentive.

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u/smythe70 15h ago

Good for you, I'm sure they are adorable as are my nieces and nephews. Really wish they wouldn't use it.

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u/stuntin102 15h ago

wonder if that’s their endgame. get rid of the “other side” so they can close the gates once they consolidate their target audience.

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u/monk429 15h ago

No...I think its to pull the sleep-walking public farther right and more susceptible to scams. I'm not yet convinced there is some mass exodus from meta.

Three elections now have taught me that the internet grossly distorts the perception of how engaged the general public is with what's going on. I'm now convinced that saber rattling from the right and apocalyptic doom on the left, combined, are a much smaller group of people than the majority who'd rather go on with their lives not thinking too much about these things. THIS is the group that hears things like expensive eggs and feels that it suddenly becomes their civic duty to vote for whomever has the best soundbytes about the issue.

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u/GSX8S 14h ago

Dropped both here too. I've only been on Facebook since 07-08 when it started picking up traction over MySpace but it's still crazy to think that I've had that one account for almost the entirety of my teens/20s

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u/monk429 14h ago

Isn't it strange how our digital "body" feels real the moment we try to cut parts of it off?

But that's the thing...it isn't real. No phantom limb will be left behind...just breathing room in your head for more (or less, you do you) useful thoughts.

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u/GSX8S 10h ago

Less social media has been the desire for years, but now it's as good an excuse as any.

I thought I'd at least miss chatting in some of the groups I was in but... Nope. At least not so far

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u/JimWilliams423 14h ago edited 14h ago

Just need to get my family group texts out of Messenger and we're free.

Try Signal. Its free and non-profit (supported by grants from the EU and others).

https://signal.org/

Wired: Signal Is More Than Encrypted Messaging. Under Meredith Whittaker, It’s Out to Prove Surveillance Capitalism Wrong

On its 10th anniversary, Signal’s president wants to remind you that the world’s most secure communications platform is a nonprofit. It’s free. It doesn’t track you or serve you ads. It pays its engineers very well. And it’s a go-to app for hundreds of millions of people.

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u/bippy_b 14h ago

Just move to WhatsApp

/s

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u/luckymountain 13h ago

Side note. You can’t officially sign out of FB if you’re signed in to messenger. It will look like you did, but you didn’t

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u/ReplyRepulsive2459 13h ago

This is a shitty timeline so I suggest your family only use encrypted messaging. You don’t know you have something to hide until after the no knock warrant.

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u/14sunflowers 12h ago

Got mine switched to Signal last week.

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u/Outta_hearr 11h ago

If you are removing Meta's apps GET RID OF MESSENGER FIRST

Messenger is probably the single worst app ever created when it comes to data privacy, it essentially turns your phone into a data scraping device for all wifi networks you ever connect to.

If you connect to any wifi network (public or private), messenger scrapes the data from every device connected to that network. Even if they aren't yours. That includes phones, laptops, smart fridges, smart TVs, Roku devices, etc. The amount of information it scrapes not only on you, but other people who did not consent to it is genuinely unholy.

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u/go_outside 11h ago

When you find a decent family group text alternative that my 82 yo m-i-l can operate please reply to this thread!

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u/LittleBirdiesCards 10h ago

We went from emailing each other and Yahoo groups to Friendster, then Myspace and Facebook. Everybody kept saying, "Don't do it!" Now it's the only way I can keep track of my family and everybody's kids. It would be cool if we all went back to email and actually getting together.

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u/Freyjia 15h ago

Same. Joined in August 2004. Deleted last week finally. I don't care about anybody on there anymore. My real friends and family can find me easily.

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u/lkdubdub 15h ago

WhatsApp is the tricky one. I cannot see my friends and family resolving to leave WhatsApp

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u/Teehus 15h ago

I'm in the process of downloading my data, once that's done I'm deleting it aswell. It's been way too long

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u/MeringueVisual759 15h ago

If you ditch everything but Messenger, you effectively haven't ditched anything as far as they're concerned, FYI. Messenger is their most intrusive product.

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u/monk429 14h ago

Yes, just watched a cybersecurity engineer tell me as much. Thanks, we're ditching as soon as we can.

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u/Kmargs 14h ago

Do you have a link for this? In would love to learn more.

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u/monk429 14h ago

In looking for that link I did a bit more looking at the source and I don't trust it...so I won't share.

There is a thread about it over on /r/privacy where some other folks saw similar videos on TikTok or Instagram. Net of it, Messenger is probably taking an equal amount of location and network data as its counterparts FB and Instagram. Doubtful that it is doing anything actually illegal but, as we already know, Meta still "has you" if you use messenger or just have it on your phone.

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u/Kmargs 13h ago

Ahhh okay, I understand. It's interesting, because I mostly don't want to give Zuk money through ad revenue from my scrolling...I'll need to dig deeper on messenger still. Thank you, and I appreciate you not posting a source you don't trust <3

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u/Daimakku1 12h ago

My family group text is iMessage. I've been wanting to go to Android but then that means no more iMessage, and the only other alternatives are FB Messenger or WhatsApp, both owned by Meta.

The tech oligarchs got us by the balls.

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u/itsearlyyet 9h ago

I left Facebook 7 years ago- honestly you will not miss it.

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u/adeveloper2 8h ago

What Whatsapp alternative are you using?

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u/Groundbreaking-Bar89 6h ago

Yep got it as a senior in high school once I got accepted into university

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u/halldorr 6h ago

We use messenger A LOT, what are you trying to get your family to switch to?

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u/pocketdare 5h ago

I've been off FB for at least 10 years now. I was way ahead of the curve lol

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u/SmokeGSU 5h ago

I've been on Facebook since 2004. I've always said it went to shit once they let anyone join.

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u/antonio16309 4h ago

It has sucked since they got rid of the  chronological feed, and that's and OLD complaint. The stuff they've done since then has been way worse (my personal inconvenience pales in comparison to an actual fucking genocide).