I feel broken today.

I had to make a new #WhatsApp account. I did not want to make a new account there, even with a different phone number, but I had to.

I was told by my father's spouse that my choice to delete my WhatsApp account was insane. She argued plenty about how it's an important tool in today's life in my country.

But what really broke me is that she compared me to my far more paranoid brother as a result.

My brother doesn't have a smartphone. He uses Linux instead of Windows or Mac. He has done far more than just not having WhatsApp to the point where everyone and me finds him really annoying to deal with.

And yet, the sole decision to delete WhatsApp merited her to put me at the same insanity level as him.

Not only was I personally hurt, but I came to realize how astonishingly deep #Meta's claws have been dug in my country.

I knew I couldn't argue with them. I tried to argue about using RCS instead of WhatsApp before. They didn't budge. Not even with the convenience that makes RCS popular in the U.S.

It even leads me to believe that Google's Trends statistics for searches on how to "delete #facebook", "delete #instagram" and "delete whatsapp" for my region are not but a lie, even when they're at a consistent 60% to 70% of searches from people in that region.

I feel extremely hurt and sad, because it means that common sense has failed against the convenience of Meta as a mainstay.

I'm extremely pained because it weakens my stance against Meta and their new community guidelines, and how they allow discriminating women and the LGBTQ+.

And for that, with all my heart, I want to say:

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry to all of you I know on Mastodon, Bluesky and the fediverse at large.

I'm sorry to all of you women and trans people that I know and I'm friends with.

I failed you all.

#Meta to lay off 5% of workforce, about 3000 people.

Side note: Please don’t believe a company when it cites “low performers” when it’s laying off hundreds or thousands of people. These companies start with a target head count, then work backward to figure out who to lay off. When a department gets notice about their new head count target, they *have* to lay off some number of people, many of whom are *not* poor performers. Citing “low performance” is a way to shift responsibility from poor management (or often, simple greed) to the workers, who are often victims.

#layoffs #techLayoffs

Remember Aaron♥️

Fuck #Meta :fuck_face:

#meme #memes #funny #memesdaily #lol #humor #memesoffediverse #memesofmastodon #memesofpixelfed #luigi #meta #x #amazon #luigimangione #berniesanders

Meta warns that it will fire leakers in leaked memo

https://www.theverge.com/meta/603812/meta-warns-leakers-leaked-memo

'Everything I Say Leaks,' Zuckerberg Says in Leaked Meeting Audio

https://www.404media.co/zuckerberg-says-everything-i-say-leaks-in-leaked-meeting-audio/

Social media. Cartoon for Trouw.

Threads is officially getting ads

"Meta is doing a ‘small test’ of ads in the US and Japan, Instagram boss Adam Mosseri says."

https://www.theverge.com/2025/1/24/24351141/meta-threads-ads-test

@GossiTheDog Good riddance! Defederation is totally justified 👍, we don't need to open the floodgates for bigotry.

It's not even that they are permissive about speech. It's that they EXPLICITLY single out marginalized groups as a special case where discrimination is allowed.

This policy is ITSELF discrimination because it applies a double standard.👎

But it's not like the #Meta empire has ever been ethical before, so this is perfectly on-brand for them. 🤡

@Gargron How anyone can say this, watch #Meta behave in the poisonous way it always has, and not advocate blocking #Threads altogether mystifies me.

I mean, if Twitter were federated would that also be ok?

How vile do these corporations have to be before we stand up and say that's enough?

With this current Fedi exodus from Meta platforms and X, I'd like to ask: Could we PLEASE remove the file size limit for posting photos and other images to Mastodon and Pixelfed? They get compressed anyway, so why should the user also have to their own compressing before uploading?
@Gargron @dansup @pixelfed

A reminder for people who want to limit their #Meta intake:

#WhatsApp > #Signal (https://signal.org)
#Instagram > #Pixelfed (https://pixelfed.org)
#Threads > #Mastodon (https://joinmastodon.org)
#Facebook > #Friendica (https://friendi.ca), #Hubzilla (https://hubzilla.org)

#ThoughtProvoker :blobhyperthink:

The #Fediverse where #Meta and other #BigTech have prominent seats at the table is the innovation lab for future #dystopia.

@Nux @Gargron @mosseri

for everyone who appreciates that #meta #threads #facebook is the enemy, go into your settings:

Mastodon partners with Meta to form Social Web Foundation: a short story.

https://socialwebfoundation.org

Google and Microsoft recently admitted their emissions are soaring as they build out data centers to power the AI boom.

But new analysis from The Guardian suggests the data center emissions of Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Apple are 662% higher than the companies reporting.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/sep/15/data-center-gas-emissions-tech

Seriously though, take a minute trying to grasp how rich a company like Facebook (Meta) really is. Think, truly think, about how much money it makes every year.

Now, think about HOW it makes this money:
Does it sell a lot of expensive cars? No.
Does it sell computers around the world? No.
Does it sell oil? Nope.

It. Sells. YOU.

And how much do YOU get in exchange for producing these billions of dollars for it each year?

Warning: If you use the #Ghostery browser extension, you should know it has changed. It now has a staggering list of "trusted" advertisers that include #Meta, ClickTracks, Baidu, and BehaviorEngine, to name a few. You have to block each one individually. I doubt there's an advertiser out there that is not on the list. RIP Ghostery.