Docx's LoveNest

Leaving Meta: Why and How?

This article has been translated by Le Spieman. The original is in French.

Why?

If you are on this page, you probably already know some of the reasons in this non-exhaustive list as to why you should leave Meta; but most likely not all of them. We already knew that Meta (parent company of Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp and Threads, among others) was not our friend. Now, it is clear that it stands against various basic human and social ideals. So be it, let's bid it farewell!

People sometimes use sex- or gender-exclusive language when discussing access to spaces often limited by sex or gender, such as access to bathrooms, specific schools, specific military, law enforcement, or teaching roles, and health or support groups. Other times, they call for exclusion or use insulting language in the context of discussing political or religious topics, such as when discussing transgender rights, immigration, or homosexuality. Finally, sometimes people curse at a gender in the context of a romantic break-up. Our policies are designed to allow room for these types of speech.

Mental characteristics, including but not limited to allegations of stupidity, intellectual capacity, and mental illness, and unsupported comparisons between PC groups on the basis of inherent intellectual capacity. We do allow allegations of mental illness or abnormality when based on gender or sexual orientation, given political and religious discourse about transgenderism and homosexuality and common non-serious usage of words like “weird.” It is good to point out that Meta makes it even clearer for its moderators:

Meta makes it even clearer for their moderators: In an answer to the question “Do insults about mental illness and abnormality violate when targeting people on the basis of gender or sexual orientation?” Meta now answers “no.” It gave the following examples of posts that do not violate its policies: Non-violating: "Boys are weird." Non-violating: "Trans people aren't real. They're mentally ill." Non-violating: "Gays are not normal." Non-violating: "Women are crazy." Non-violating: "Trans people are freaks." And in a follow-up questions about whether denying that a protected class violates the hateful content policy, Meta also answers no. It gave these as examples of posts that are now allowed on Facebook and Instagram: "There's no such thing as trans children." "God created two genders, 'transgender' people are not a real thing." "This whole nonbinary thing is made up. Those people don't exist, they're just in need of some therapy." "A trans woman isn't a woman, it's a pathetic confused man." "A trans person isn't a he or she, it's an it."

6/ Work with President Trump to push back against foreign governments going after American companies to censor more. The US has the strongest constitutional protections for free expression in the world and the best way to defend against the trend of government overreach on censorship is with the support of the US government.

Picture of the IA user's profile "himamaliv"

Two ads picturing the user (made with IA)

If you want to know more, I recommend reading the long Wikipedia page "Criticism of Facebook" or the excellent video from Tantacrul (where you can learn, for example, how Facebook practically imposed itself as the only internet in Myanmar and participated in the genocide of the Rohingya people):

How?

Normally, after reading this first part, you would want to leave every Meta platform. And it's here that I, your faithful cyber-damsel, will offer you some recommendations meant to be easy and usable daily without as much as breaking a sweat.

And don't worry, the hardest part with a platform change is to allow yourself to change mentally (this and the fact that your relatives would not be on the new platform yet; try and convince them to change once and for all for something better, you'd be surprised how easy it is to bring relatives when you really have left the old platform).

Quit Meta

1) (Optional) Save your data

2) Delete your accounts

Replace Facebook/Instagram/Threads

What we're replacing here is to be able to post about yourself or what you're doing and see what the others are up to.

Bluesky is a free X clone. It is easy to use and more inclusive than X. Thanks to the exodus of many Twitter users, it is likely that those you know are already there! (Quickstart)

With Mastodon

Mastodon is a free and decentralized social network resembling Twitter. The biggest difference is that it is made of a group of servers hosted by anyone who wants to, which is called "the Fediverse". (But don't worry, you only need one account on one server to see all content.)

With Pixelfed

Pixelfed is a free and decentralized social network resembling a fusion between Twitter and Instagram. It is made of a group of servers hosted by anyone who wants to, which is called "the Fediverse". (But don't worry, you only need one account on one server to see all content.)

With your own blog/site

There's so much to say about how to create your site/blog. I personally use Bear Blog (the website you're currently on) but you could use MMM.page or even Neocities (for this one you must be able to do HTML. I recommend HTML for the people if you wish to learn).

Replace Instagram reels

Here we replace reels to watch other videos (in a more ethical manner).

With Youtube / Invidious

Sometimes the most obvious answers are the simplest. You want videos? You might as well go on Youtube. I wish I could suggest a free platform (like PeerTube) but there's sadly just not enough content. However, it is possible to upgrade your experience, either using Invidious (a third-party front to Youtube which increases personal data safety and removes ads) or installing a few extensions like uBlock Origin (to block ads), SponsorBlock (to skip sponsors in videos) or DeArrow (to reduce titles and thumbnails sensationalism).

With NewPipe / Tubular

This is for watching Youtube but on your Android phone. NewPipe is an app that allows to watch Youtube while locking your screen, to download videos, and it removes ads. Tubular does the same but also skips sponsors in videos thanks to SponsorBlock.

Replace Messenger and WhatsApp

With Signal

Signal is a free and open source messaging app. It replaces Messenger and WhatsApp while being extremely secure and easy to use. Most investigative journalists use it to communicate with their sources, if that is not a teller!

Why not Telegram?

#adieu