Open Source Social Media sites for when you get sick of Facebook

These are open source websites specializing in social media that malfunct (ariza) and I have been checking out lately.  If you have any others please feel free to update us here.

Thanks


https://www.minds.com/

https://www.gnu.org/    https://www.gnu.org/software/social/

https://notabug.org/

https://mastodon.social/   https://www.reddit.com/r/Mastodon/

https://diasporafoundation.org/    https://sysad.org/

https://keybase.io/   a website based on cryptocurrency


and sites that tell you about other sites


https://buffer.com/    https://buffer.com/library/social-media-sites/

https://zapier.com/    https://zapier.com/blog/best-social-media-management-tools/

https://www.techradar.com/    https://www.techradar.com/best/best-social-media-management-tools

mastodon already has the tech community in, they have >4M people.

GNU Social looks nice but has to evolve. Diaspora has alt right idiocy.

Tbh I'm just going to start going camping. 

Facebook, Instagram Experiencing Worldwide Outage October 4, 2021




https://apnews.com/article/facebook-whatsapp-instagram-outage-8b9d3862ed957029e545182a595fdce1


The massive global outage that plunged Facebook, its Instagram and WhatsApp platforms and many people who rely heavily on these services — including Facebook’s own workforce — into chaos Monday is gradually dissipating.

Facebook said late Monday that it’s been working to restore access to its services and is “happy to report they are coming back online now.” The company apologized and thanked its users for bearing with it. But fixing it wasn’t as simple as flipping a proverbial switch. For some users, WhatsApp was working for a time, then not. For others, Instagram was working but not Facebook, and so on.

Facebook did not say what might have caused the outage, which began around 11:40 a.m. ET and was still not fixed more than six hours later.

“This is epic,” said Doug Madory, director of internet analysis for Kentik Inc, a network monitoring and intelligence company. The last major internet outage, which knocked many of the world’s top websites offline in June, lasted less than an hour. The stricken content-delivery company in that case, Fastly, blamed it on a software bug triggered by a customer who changed a setting.

For hours, Facebook’s only public comment was a tweet in which it acknowledged that “some people are having trouble accessing (the) Facebook app” and said it was working on restoring access. Regarding the internal failures, Instagram head Adam Mosseri tweeted that it feels like a “snow day.”

Mike Schroepfer, Facebook’s outgoing chief technology officer, later tweeted “sincere apologies” to everyone impacted by the outage. He blamed “networking issues” and said teams are “working as fast as possible to debug and restore as fast as possible.”

There was no evidence as of Monday afternoon that malicious activity was involved. Matthew Prince, CEO of the internet infrastructure provider Cloudflare, tweeted that “nothing we’re seeing related to the Facebook services outage suggests it was an attack.” Prince said the most likely explanation was that Facebook mistakenly knocked itself off the internet during maintenance.

Facebook did not respond to messages for comment about the attack or the possibility of malicious activity.

While much of Facebook’s workforce is still working remotely, there were reports that employees at work on the company’s Menlo Park, California, campus had trouble entering buildings because the outage had rendered their security badges useless.

But the impact was far worse for multitudes of Facebook’s nearly 3 billion users, showing just how much the world has come to rely on it and its properties — to run businesses, connect with online communities, log on to multiple other websites and even order food.

It also showed that despite the presence of Twitter, Telegram, Signal, TikTok, Snapchat and a bevy of other platforms, nothing can easily replace the social network that over the past 17 years has effectively evolved into critical infrastructure. The outage came the same day Facebook asked a federal judge that that a revised antitrust complaint against it by the Federal Trade Commission be dismissed because it faces vigorous competition from other services.

There are certainly other online services for posting selfies, connecting with fans or reaching out to elected officials, But those who rely on Facebook to run their business or communicate with friends and family in far-flung places saw this as little consolation.

Kendall Ross, owner of a knitwear brand called Knit That in Oklahoma City, said he has 32,000 followers on his Instagram business page @id.knit.that. Almost all of his website traffic comes directly from Instagram. He posted a product photo about an hour before Instagram went out. He said he tends to sell about two hand-knit pieces after posting a product photo for about $300 to $400.

“The outage today is frustrating financially,” he said. “It’s also a huge awakening that social media controls so much of my success in business.”

The cause of the outage remains unclear. Madory said Facebook appears to have deleted basic data that tells the rest of the internet how to communicate with its properties. Such data is part of the internet’s Domain Name System, a central component that directs its traffic. Without Facebook broadcasting its location on the public internet, apps and web addresses simple could not locate it.

London-based internet monitoring firm Netblocks noted that Facebook’s plans to merge its platforms — announced in 2019 — had raised concerns about the risks of such a move. While such centralization “gives the company a unified view of users’ internet usage habits,” it also makes the services vulnerable to single points of failure, Netblocks said.

So many people are reliant on Facebook, WhatsApp or Instagram as primary modes of communication that losing access for so long can make them vulnerable to criminals taking advantage of the outage, said Rachel Tobac, a hacker and CEO of SocialProof Security.

“They don’t know how to contact the people in their lives without it,” she said. “They’re more susceptible to social engineering because they’re so desperate to communicate.” Tobac said during previous outages, some people have received emails promising to restore their social media account by clicking on a malicious link that can expose their personal data.

Jake Williams, chief technical officer of the cybersecurity firm BreachQuest, said that while foul play cannot be completely ruled out, chances were good that the outage is “an operational issue” caused by human error.

“What it boils down to: running a LARGE, even by Internet standards, distributed system is very hard, even for the very best,” tweeted Columbia University computer scientist Steven Bellovin.

Facebook was already in the throes of a separate major crisis after whistleblower Frances Haugen, a former Facebook product manager, provided The Wall Street Journal with internal documents that exposed the company’s awareness of harms caused by its products and decisions. Haugen went public on CBS’s “60 Minutes” program Sunday and is scheduled to testify before a Senate subcommittee Tuesday.

Haugen had also anonymously filed complaints with federal law enforcement alleging Facebook’s own research shows how it magnifies hate and misinformation and leads to increased polarization. It also showed that the company was aware that Instagram can harm teenage girls’ mental health.

The Journal’s stories, called “The Facebook Files,” painted a picture of a company focused on growth and its own interests over the public good. Facebook has tried to play down the research. Nick Clegg, the company’s vice president of policy and public affairs, wrote to Facebook employees in a memo Friday that “social media has had a big impact on society in recent years, and Facebook is often a place where much of this debate plays out.”

Twitter, meanwhile, chimed in from the company’s main account on its service, posting “hello literally everyone” as jokes and memes about the Facebook outage flooded the platform. Later, as an unverified screenshot suggesting that the facebook.com address was for sale circulated, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey tweeted, “how much?”

Key things the Facebook whistleblower told a Senate panel, October 5, 2021

https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/05/tech/facebook-whistleblower-testify/index.html






(CNN Business)The Facebook whistleblower who released tens of thousands of pages of internal research and documents indicating the company was aware of various problems caused by its apps, including Instagram's potential "toxic" effect on teen girls, called on Congress to take action against the social media platform in testimony before a Senate subcommittee Tuesday.

Frances Haugen, a 37-year-old former Facebook product manager who worked on civic integrity issues at the company, faced questions from a Commerce subcommittee about what Facebook-owned Instagram knew about its effects on young users, among other issues.

"I am here today because I believe that Facebook's products harm children, stoke division, and weaken our democracy," she said during her opening remarks. "The company's leadership knows how to make Facebook and Instagram safer but won't make the necessary changes because they have put their astronomical profits before people. Congressional action is needed. They won't solve this crisis without your help."
She emphasized that she came forward "at great personal risk" because she believes "we still have time to act. But we must act now."

Urging Congress to take action

Haugen's identity as the Facebook whistleblower was revealed on "60 Minutes" Sunday night. She previously shared a series of documents with regulators and the Wall Street Journal, which published a multi-part investigation showing that Facebook was aware of problems with its apps, including the negative effects of misinformation and the harm caused by Instagram, especially to young girls.

"When we realized tobacco companies were hiding the harms it caused, the government took action," she said in her opening remarks. "When we figured out cars were safer with seat belts, the government took action. And today, the government is taking action against companies that hid evidence on opioids. I implore you to do the same here."

Following the hearing, Facebook issued a statement attempting to discredit Haugen. "Today, a Senate Commerce subcommittee held a hearing with a former product manager at Facebook who worked for the company for less than two years, had no direct reports, never attended a decision-point meeting with C-level executives — and testified more than six times to not working on the subject matter in question," the statement, tweeted by spokesperson Andy Stone, read. "We don't agree with her characterization of the many issues she testified about. Despite all this, we agree on one thing; it's time to begin to create standard rules for the internet."

Facebook is no stranger to scandals, and it's not the first time the company has been the subject of Congressional hearings. Nor is it the first time Facebook's public image has been shaken by a whistleblower. But Haugen's documents and upcoming testimony come amid broader scrutiny of Facebook's power and data privacy practices, and have already spurred bipartisan criticism of the company's influence on children. It remains to be seen, however, if it will create momentum for any meaningful regulation.

From outage to outrage

The testimony came after a tumultuous day for the company. Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram went down for about six hours on Monday.
In her testimony, Haugen said, "Yesterday, we saw Facebook get taken off the internet. I don't know why it went down, but I know that for more than 5 hours Facebook wasn't used to deepen divides, destabilize democracies, and make young girls and women feel bad about their bodies."

In her testimony, Haugen said, "Yesterday, we saw Facebook get taken off the internet. I don't know why it went down, but I know that for more than 5 hours Facebook wasn't used to deepen divides, destabilize democracies, and make young girls and women feel bad about their bodies."
She added: "It also means that millions of small businesses weren't able to reach potential customers and countless photos of new babies weren't joyously celebrated by family and friends around the world. I believe in the potential of Facebook. We can have social media we enjoy, that connects us, without tearing apart our democracy, putting our children in danger and sowing ethnic violence across the world. We can do better."

Beyond the documents, there's also the power of Haugen's personal backstory. She started at Facebook in 2019 after previously working for other prominent tech companies including Google (GOOG) and Pinterest (PINS). She spoke with the Wall Street Journal about losing a friendship due to online misinformation and how it impacted the way she thinks about social media. She also told the publication her goal in speaking out isn't to bring down Facebook but to "save it."

About a month ago, Haugen reportedly filed at least eight complaints with the Securities and Exchange Commission alleging that the company is hiding research about its shortcomings from investors and the public. She also shared the documents with regulators and the Journal, which published a multi-part investigation showing that Facebook was aware of problems with its apps, including the negative effects of misinformation and the harm caused by Instagram, especially to young girls.

Facebook issues will 'haunt a generation,' Senator says

Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal, who chairs the Senate Commerce subcommittee on consumer protection, expressed "heartfelt gratitude" to Haugen for "standing up to one of the most powerful, implacable corporate giants in the history of the world."
He added: "The damage to self-interest and self-worth inflicted by Facebook today will haunt a generation."

Antigone Davis, Facebook's global head of safety, was grilled by members of the same Senate subcommittee last week following the Journal report about the impact its apps have on younger users. Davis, who identified herself as a mother and former teacher, pushed back on the idea that the report was a "bombshell" and did not commit to publicly releasing a full research report, noting potential "privacy considerations." She said Facebook is "looking for ways to release more research."

The Journal report, and the renewed pressure from lawmakers in its aftermath, also appeared to force Instagram to rethink its plans to introduce a version of its service for kids under 13. Days before the hearing, Instagram said it would press pause on the project.

"Facebook's actions make clear that we cannot trust it to police itself," Blumenthal said in the statement Sunday. "We must consider stronger oversight, effective protections for children, and tools for parents, among the needed reforms."

National security concerns -- and future hearings

During her testimony, Haugen said,"Congress can change the rules Facebook plays by and stop the many harms it is now causing."

Haugen, whose last role at Facebook was as a product manager supporting the company's counter espionage team, was asked by one senator whether Facebook is used by "authoritarian or terrorist-based leaders" around the world. She said such use of the platforms is "definitely" happening, and that Facebook is "very aware" of it.

"My team directly worked on tracking Chinese participation on the platform, surveilling, say, Uyghur populations in places around the world. You could actually find the Chinese based on them doing these kinds of things," Haugen said. "We also saw active participation of, say, the Iran government doing espionage on other state actors."
She went on to call Facebook's "consistent understaffing" of counter-espionage and counter-terrorism teams a "national security issue."

"I have strong national security concerns about how Facebook operates today," Haugen said.
Her comments on national security hinted at what may be next for Congress' inquiry based on the internal document leaks. Haugen said she already has plans to speak with other parts of Congress about those concerns, and Blumenthal suggested that Facebook's impact on national security could be the subject of a future subcommittee hearing with Haugen.

What happened to Parler, tells you everything you need to know about social media. The internet revolution has been co-opted and is over. You're better off going offline now instead of fooling yourself we live in a free world with free speech and getting caught in the trap later. They are coming for anonymity next. Like I said on FB a month ago. This is the face of subjugation in our era.

Kill your phones and start building a bunker. Make sure you have a periscope so you can watch the world burn.

October 12, 2021|Updated October 12, 2021 at 7:04 a.m. EDT

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/10/12/leave-facebook-alternatives/

Every time there’s a Facebook scandal, you may have thought about quitting the social network, and this time for real. But you run into the same problem every time: Where exactly should you go?

After a rough month of revelations about Facebook’s business practices, culminating with a whistleblower testifying in front of lawmakers about the social network’s harmful impact on children, many are once again trying to figure out how to extricate themselves from the company.

But breaking up with Facebook means also cutting off Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp, which are all owned by the company. For some people in emerging markets, Facebook is also their low-cost connection to the Internet. Leaving means giving up on a number of online relationships that you may not be able to re-create elsewhere. It’s not easy to move entire online communities or extended families to other services like Twitter, Slack and TikTok.

The truth is, leaving Facebook isn’t possible for everyone. That’s by design. With nearly 3 billion users around the world, Facebook has a reach that’s closer to a public utility than a fun social app. It’s impractical and even unfair to ask that many people just quit. But for those who can and want to, here’s where they can go next.

The networks created within Facebook and Instagram are exclusive to those services. Our friend and follow lists are the product of years of people coming in and out of our lives, and of searching for old acquaintances or being found by them.

The closest we have to an open-source social network are our cellphone numbers or email addresses. But unless you have that contact information for everyone you know on Facebook down to your classmates from the fifth grade, you’ll be severing connections that are difficult to make again.

And because of Facebook’s dominance as a social network — according to Pew Research Center, nearly 70 percent of Americans are on Facebook — you can’t find all of its features and members on a single service. Are all of your older relatives on TikTok? Is your WhatsApp group on Snapchat? When you do find people elsewhere, it probably won’t be the same experience. A friend might be all about dog photos on Instagram but share nothing but angry rants on Twitter.

Know that if you leave, many others can’t or won’t be able to make the switch with you, especially in countries where Facebook’s Free Basics is the Internet for people, or where WhatsApp is the same as text messaging. Some apps are harder to leave than others. People may decide that they only want to quit Facebook and not WhatsApp because of their families, or they may just cut out Instagram for their own mental health and keep the rest.

Finally, remember that just because these companies aren’t Facebook doesn’t mean they don’t have the same issues you should be paying attention to. You might have security concerns about TikTok, which is owned by Chinese company ByteDance. And smaller companies may not have strong security or privacy infrastructure, as we saw with Parler’s massive scrape earlier this year.

This isn’t to discourage you from making the jump, but know what you’re jumping into.

One of the biggest things keeping people on Facebook is their groups. The feature lets anyone start a community on the service and connects millions of people to one another who aren’t friends or contacts in the real world. It can link people with rare medical conditions, those who are in the same neighborhoods or who have almost anything else in common. Two-thirds of Facebook users check a group at least once a month. Know that if you do leave, it will be nearly impossible to re-create larger groups in their entirety, especially if many members struggle to learn new apps.

If it’s a smaller, more intimate group, you can try moving to a group chat over text or one of the WhatsApp alternatives below. Sticking with texts future-proofs your group against other companies being problematic down the line and keeps you in ownership of your own contacts.

For larger groups, start by surveying members about what services they are already on. While it’s marketed as a workplace tool, Slack is a good option for complex groups that want to discuss various subtopics, share files and chat constantly. There are free options, but they don’t save past conversations forever. Reddit is a classic spot for online communities and is especially smart if you are interested in a public group and in attracting new members. You can also go where millions of younger people have already set up shop: Discord. The Slack-like app has rich audio-chat features for hanging out in real time.

For many, Facebook and Instagram aren’t so much places of deep personal connections as they are places to kill some time. If you enjoy memes and are just looking for the best way to scroll mindlessly without being stressed, make your way to TikTok. This is an especially great alternative for anyone enjoying Instagram Reels, because most seem to be reposted from TikTok anyway. The barrier to entry is low, and most people can figure out the app without following accounts. If you’re big on lifestyle content on Instagram and crave staring at someone’s spotless home, head back to Pinterest or even an app like Houzz, which is just other people’s nice houses. YouTube is a classic time killer, but it has struggled with some of the same issues around misinformation and its impact on children as Facebook.

It’s well known that many people get their news through Facebook, including a large amount of misinformation about subjects like vaccines. The first place to go for news is probably your most trusted news outlet. If you’re into getting the best of the day’s news from multiple outlets, try the Google News site or app on Android and iOS, or the Apple News app, both of which do a good job of sorting through information and selecting reliable sources.

If what you enjoy most about the news is lively conversation or the occasional argument, look no further than any comments section on individual articles or head over to Twitter. You can also follow news organizations on Snapchat.

This category is a great example of when the alternatives can have their own thorny ethical issues. Neighborhood groups can be rife with racial profiling, complaining, public shaming and surveillance. The spread of individual security cameras has even spawned its own social network, the Neighbors by Ring app, which is owned by Amazon. There’s Nextdoor, which relies on community moderators and has struggled with complaints about racism. On the darkest end of the spectrum is Citizen, which is a local crime app for viewing your neighborhood through the lens of the bad things that happen. Perhaps the safest place to re-create your neighborhood group is in person.

When choosing where to go, consider what features are most important to you, like fun stickers and interaction or end-to-end encryption. If you are primarily talking to family members, ask about what they’re already using and consider their ability to learn a new tool. If they’re in a different country, they might be on an app that’s hugely popular there but not in the United States, such as Line, WeChat or Viber. (They may be less secure, so weigh your reasons for switching.)

Signal is a no-frills secure encrypted messaging app that doesn’t upload your contacts, so you stay in control of that data. Telegram is another secure option. Snapchat is packed with fun features like filters, but only some of its communication options are encrypted. Microsoft makes GroupMe, and Google still has Hangouts; they both have some encryption but not end-to-end.

You can go back to group SMS texts or use an app like Apple’s Messages. However Apple’s app is still behind much of the world when it comes to integrated features, and the barrier between Android and iOS users won’t fly with most families spread out around the globe.

Moving to other apps doesn’t work unless you find some of the same people there. Before quitting Facebook, you’ll want to gather as much of your own data as possible. You can export your Facebook contacts, but you’ll find the vast majority will only include a name, while a few will include an email address and possibly a phone number. Facebook can only give you information your friends have made visible on their profiles. It’s harder to extract your Instagram and WhatsApp contacts.

Facebook: On the Web, go to Settings → Your Facebook Information → Download Your Information. Under date range, select All Time. Hit Deselect All, then scroll down and check the box by Friends and Followers. Hit the Create File button.

Instagram: In Instagram, go to Settings → Security → Download Data to get your synced contacts. You’ll be able to see a list of accounts you follow and which ones follow you back, though the information may not be as detailed as you need to find your Instagram network elsewhere.

WhatsApp: The messaging app typically starts by syncing with your existing contacts list on your phone, so you should have information for the majority of people already. You can go to Account → Settings → Request Account Info and export your WhatsApp information, but it will take about three days and only show phone numbers, not the names that go with them.

There is another way to move some of your network elsewhere. When you sign up for new apps, you can often choose to link your Facebook account to find your Facebook network in the new location. For example, if you are on TikTok, go to your profile, click on the Find Friends icon in the top left corner, then select Facebook Friends.

Discord: I can't be bothered with spending any time on this and I think it's full of kids and trolls using it to organize for other places that ban them.

Telegram: full of furries and nazis/trumpers banned elsewhere. Extremely easy to use for small local things. Terrible for groups over a few dozen members unless you like a firehose of filler. Furry emote stickers are awesome and the best reason to use any chat.

Twitter: The one most designed with casino mechanics for clout farming and rage dogpiles, avoid like the plague as a place for interaction, only use for following things like media channels.

NextDoor: If you want terrible opinions and inanity from the worst/dumbest of your neighbors.

Snapchat: Spam spam spam spam