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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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[-] Novocirab@feddit.org 1 points 4 days 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.

[-] Routhinator@startrek.website 4 points 6 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

[-] Mangoholic@lemmy.ml 4 points 6 days ago

Correct me if wrong, but isn't there a law in the us that says, all us companies have to give the government access to all data without disclosing this information? That would rule out any us based companies for privacy concerns as alternatives atm.

[-] ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 7 points 6 days ago

You should expect any data hosted on a server to be accessible by the given government…and thanks to NSA you should expect any data that travels through the US to be accessible by their government

Privacy in this case is around the selling to advertisers

[-] SomeAmateur@sh.itjust.works 136 points 1 week ago

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

[-] whydudothatdrcrane@lemmy.ml 35 points 1 week ago

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

Just hurting Meta's bottom is good enough for me

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[-] brucethemoose@lemmy.world 26 points 1 week ago

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

[-] androidul@lemmy.ml 24 points 1 week ago

one can always delete their accounts

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[-] Greg@lemmy.ca 77 points 1 week ago

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

[-] Scrollone@feddit.it 60 points 1 week ago

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

[-] Lumidaub@feddit.org 27 points 1 week 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).

[-] jagged_circle@feddit.nl 22 points 1 week ago

Nobody left MySpace because of enshitification

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[-] lord_ryvan@ttrpg.network 72 points 1 week ago

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?

[-] fushuan@lemm.ee 24 points 1 week ago

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.

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[-] perishthethought@lemm.ee 69 points 1 week ago

Why don't stories like this EVER mention Lemmy?

[-] OneTwoThree@mander.xyz 87 points 1 week ago

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

[-] jagermo@feddit.org 40 points 1 week ago

you can't follow people

Challenge accepted

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[-] DMCMNFIBFFF@lemmy.world 20 points 1 week ago

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

[-] HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 19 points 1 week ago

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

[-] Zagorath@lemm.ee 1 points 6 days ago

Eh, Lemmy is way more mature as a platform than PixelFed is, and he mentioned that.

I think the explanation being in relation to what it's intended to replace is more likely. He doesn't care as much about getting people off Reddit as he cares about getting people off Zuck and Musk's platforms.

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[-] breadcat@sh.itjust.works 18 points 1 week ago

it's not an alternative to any meta platform

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[-] Sunny@slrpnk.net 51 points 1 week ago

John Oliver for president ✊

[-] Oni_eyes@sh.itjust.works 38 points 1 week ago

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.

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[-] Corgana@startrek.website 48 points 1 week ago

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

[-] grid11@lemy.nl 47 points 1 week ago
[-] morgunkorn@discuss.tchncs.de 47 points 1 week ago

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

[-] honeybadger1417@lemmy.world 95 points 1 week ago

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.

[-] whydudothatdrcrane@lemmy.ml 25 points 1 week ago

sentence I never thought I’d write

🤣 🤣

[-] morgunkorn@discuss.tchncs.de 20 points 1 week 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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[-] FooBarrington@lemmy.world 23 points 1 week ago

Oh, he just had that lying around

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this post was submitted on 24 Feb 2025
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