this post was submitted on 24 Feb 2025
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Privacy

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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.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

Love it, thanks! Just did it. The chosen domain may be a bit unfortunate though, I think, because it could be punished by many algorithms.

[–] [email protected] 141 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Good, glad it's getting some main stream attention. If more people start taking advantage of these settings and alternatives it's going to hurt Meta's bottom line eventually

[–] [email protected] 36 points 4 days ago (1 children)

it’s going to hurt Meta’s bottom ~~line~~ eventually

Just hurting Meta's bottom is good enough for me

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 4 days ago (2 children)

They'll just bury the settings, or remove them. Who's going to stop them now?

[–] [email protected] 25 points 4 days ago (1 children)

one can always delete their accounts

[–] [email protected] 15 points 4 days ago (1 children)

As if Meta actually deletes anything

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[–] [email protected] 73 points 3 days ago (1 children)

John Oliver's show is doing amazing things, including the Drumpfinator addon.

What is that URL, though? I'm guessing I'm know it if I (happily) watch the episode?

[–] [email protected] 24 points 3 days ago (2 children)

it's an inside joke of the show where he presents himself as a """secret""" furry that loves rat erotica. The content of the link is legit though.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 3 days ago (2 children)

with the sometimes quite insider-y references, there absolutely is at least one furry on the writing team

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 days ago (4 children)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 days ago

Just imagine being a artist, doing furry because you love it or maybe just because it pays your bills. And then someone from HBO contacts you about commissioning a picture of John Oliver as a horny otter in skintight jorts.

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[–] [email protected] 70 points 4 days ago (12 children)

Why don't stories like this EVER mention Lemmy?

[–] [email protected] 88 points 4 days ago (4 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 41 points 4 days ago (1 children)

you can't follow people

Challenge accepted

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 3 days ago

it's not an alternative to any meta platform

[–] [email protected] 21 points 3 days ago

I guess the hate for Reddit isn't as great as for Shitter and Fakebook. (yet)

[–] [email protected] 17 points 3 days ago (8 children)

Because Lemmy is nowhere near as ready for primetime as other platforms.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 4 days ago (9 children)

Clean cut kids do not find Lemmy very palatable.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 4 days ago (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Let's hear your different perspectives

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 days ago

I think we're too weird and niche.

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[–] [email protected] 79 points 4 days ago (16 children)

I don’t want to get my hopes up but is this Facebook’s MySpace moment?

[–] [email protected] 62 points 4 days ago

My personal MySpace moment for Facebook was 10 years ago. Best choice ever made.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 4 days ago

MySpace was way smaller than Facebook, it wasn't even available where I am for most of its (meaningful) existence (I never had a MySpace despite being the exact target age range).

[–] [email protected] 22 points 4 days ago

Nobody left MySpace because of enshitification

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[–] [email protected] 49 points 3 days ago

Took a long time, but nice to see this topic getting mainstream attention.

[–] [email protected] 47 points 4 days ago (1 children)

John Oliver for president ✊

[–] [email protected] 37 points 3 days ago (7 children)

He can't because he wasn't born here, but we could totally elect his wife and let him do the whole first husband thing while still advising if she needs it.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Yep after all that's how musk did it by using trump as the symbolic figurehead

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[–] [email protected] 46 points 4 days ago
[–] [email protected] 48 points 4 days ago (6 children)

good initiative but uh what's up with that domain name?

[–] [email protected] 96 points 4 days ago (5 children)

There was a whole saga of him buying expensive rat erotica artwork at one point, which is a sentence I never thought I'd write.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 4 days ago

sentence I never thought I’d write

🤣 🤣

[–] [email protected] 20 points 4 days ago

rat erotica

aah thank you! now I can make sense of those last jumbled letters, quite the unusual word combination for sure ^^

Newsweek - The True Story Behind 'Last Week Tonight's' Rat Erotica Painting (archive link)

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 4 days ago

Oh, he just had that lying around

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Use Magic Earth or Organic Maps instead of Google Maps too. Neither will track you.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago

The problem I see with this is that a Meta employee literally came out on Mastodon recently and revealed that non of these settings do anything and are false flags.

https://misskey.de/notes/a3ax4tqomg

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