Meta's Policy Changes: Reasons to Stay on the Platform and What You Can Do
You might have to stay on Meta's Platforms, but that doesn't mean you can't stick it to them...at least a little bit.
Meta has never been welcoming to diversity on their platforms. Sure, they tolerated minorities because advertisers wanted to be able to target them. But they made no effort to entice or incentivize those groups of people. Mark Zuckerberg's leadership has consistently demonstrated questionable ethical standards, with the company's pattern of dismissing serious concerns and maintaining insincere commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, content moderation, and codes of conduct. In D&D terms, he floats between Lawful Evil and Neutral Evil.
When Zuckerberg rolled back those programs, particularly trans and LGBT+ protections, back for dubious reasons, many people were disappointed, but not surprised. This fits the model that Meta has always operated in. So now that we are here, in this predictable yet disappointing place, what do you do? Your choices boil down to the same two options that you've always had - do you stay, or do you go?
Why are people leaving?
The short answer is that Facebook is becoming even less safe for minorities and it will be harder to determine truth from misinformation and disinformation. The new policies that Meta announced explicitly allow for hate speech under the sheep's skin of "freedom of expression." They instead target "hateful conduct" which allows for speech that is traditionally considered hate speech. In addition, they are discontinuing their fact-checking program in favor of "community notes".
This approach mirrors changes X implemented when Elon Musk took over. X has been on a rapid decline since - both in revenue and users. X has become a hostile, toxic environment with widespread discriminatory content targeting protected classes. Many people expect a similar deterioration on Facebook and Instagram and are leaving the platform.
Reasons to Considering Staying on the Platform
Light of these changes, why would anyone maintain a presence on Meta's platforms? There are a few common reasons:
Professional Necessity: Some people depend on Facebook or Instagram for their livelihood. It's not a question of "Do I want to leave Meta products?", it's a question of "Do I want to leave Meta products, or do I want a roof over my head and food to eat?"
Unique Connections: These platforms may be the only way to maintain some relationships.
Sparks Joy: It just makes you happy. Something about these platforms brings you joy you can't find anywhere else.
For those folks hanging around, here are a few things to keep in mind:
Fewer people: You should expect fewer people on Meta's platforms. Fewer people means less engagement. So if you are
Unique connections might bail.
The new content policy will increase your exposure to harmful and hateful content.
Recognize the challenge of distinguishing reliable information from misinformation.
Taking Action While Remaining on the Platform:
Meta makes money off of its advertising and enables targeted ads by looking at your behaviors across the web. You can continue to use Facebook and Instagram, but make your data less valuable to Meta.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation published steps you can take to make your data less valuable to Meta and hurt them in the dollar signs. Check out the link for specifics.
Disable the use of targeted advertising. There are several places you need to disable targeted advertising. Make sure you get all of them.
Modify Mobile App Usage: Meta generates mountains of data from you through their apps on your mobile devices. The best thing to do is to uninstall the apps. But if you aren't ready to commit to uninstalling the app, limit the app permissions like location for example.
Take a Stronger Privacy Stance: Meta tracks you everywhere across the web, whether you know it or not. To make this harder, use a privacy-focused browser like Firefox or Brave. You can also install free browser extensions, like Privacy Badger or uBlock Origins.
Following these guidelines and using these tools, you can significantly reduce their ability to monetize your data. Next week, I'll look at how to leave Facebook and Instagram.