‘Open Source And Ethical’ TikTok, WhatsApp And Instagram Alternatives Could Transform Social Media
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At a time when established social media platforms are facing criticism and turbulence — from TikTok's temporary shutdown to Meta's withdrawal from fact-checking and growing criticism over political content moderation — a new approach to social media is gaining some attention.
"Help us put control back into the hands of the people!" declares Canadian developer Daniel Supernault, whose open-source platforms aim to provide privacy-focused alternatives to mainstream social media.
Supernault's Kickstarter campaign, launched on Jan. 24, has already exceeded its initial CA$50,000 goal, TechCrunch reports, raising CA$93,022 (approximately US$64,839) as of 11:02 a.m. PT today. The funding will support the development of three platforms within the Fediverse — a decentralized network of interconnected social media services. These platforms include Pixelfed, Loops and Sup, designed as privacy-focused alternatives to Instagram, TikTok and WhatsApp, respectively. Each platform rejects traditional venture capital funding and ad-based revenue models in favor of community-driven development.
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F [email protected] shared this topic
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My only issue is having WhatsApp in my circle is a must.
Friends and families are more than happy to text or call. But the numerous contractors and engineers I work with and request their service, to them WhatsApp is a must to send photos of issues or videos of faults.
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[email protected]replied to [email protected] last edited by
"Mastadon"
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One thing we need to mention is funding.
While BlueSky may benefit from venture capital, free (as in beer) open source projects where user data is not commercially exploited for revenue do not have the same benefit. They rely a LOT on donations for running the infrastructure and for the hours and hard work that people are putting in.
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"Sorry, I don't have WhatsApp but you can send me those photos or videos on Signal, Matrix, SimpleX, Briar, Wire, Session, Jabber, Threema, or Line."
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The normies are trying
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They don't have email? It's like the 1980s when only nerds had email.
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Sorry, did you have a question?
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I know. But most of these engineers are on the job and on the road 99 percent of the time. And a quick WhatsApp message is all they want.
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I hopt that'll succeed. And those are the platforms in demand. While Mastodon is losing users, and we've been stagnating for quite some time already... Pixelfed is currently going off the charts. We'll have to see whare this leads to and if it's going to last.
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[email protected]replied to [email protected] last edited by
WhatsApp
Signal
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Good luck getting anyone to download any of those
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e…e-mail?
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Signal? Isn't that the app for drugs? /s
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[email protected]replied to [email protected] last edited by
While Masturdon was ripe for the picking
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Good point. Theoretically surmountable because Wikipedia.
But donors are going to have to be convinced that social media is a social good.
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[email protected]replied to [email protected] last edited by
That's my initial thought, but what do we know about who owns it?
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[email protected]replied to [email protected] last edited by
It's owned by Brian Acton. The original founder of WhatsApp before it was sold to Meta. I'm yet to hear of controversial stories about him. Unless him being a billionaire irks you, i think it's fine.
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[email protected]replied to [email protected] last edited by
Yeah but you see the point? They offer us one option. We offer them ten.
"You don't have any of them installed? Well, I don't have Whatsapp installed. So one of us is going to have to go out of our way. Why should you assume that's for me to do, just because everyone else including you behaved like an unthinking herd of sheep?" That's what I feel like saying, and occasionally do actually say.
It's a difficult conundrum. Speaking personally, but at this point resisting the Whatsapp fascism has become stubborn article of faith for me. I won't do it.
