The world’s largest social network has more than 2 billion daily users, and is expanding rapidly around the world. Led by CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook undergirds much of the world’s communication online, both through its flagship app and its subsidiaries Instagram, WhatsApp, and Oculus. Despite huge financial success, Facebook is also confronted with questions about data privacy, hate speech on the platform, and concerns that frequent social media use can lead to unhappiness. The Verge publishes a nightly newsletter about Facebook and democracy, subscribe here.
We’ve been running a steadily growing list of alternatives for that formerly bird-associated social network, and now that TikTok has added a text-only option, it’s become part of our inventory of 15 social networks vying for your attention. If you’re wondering where to go next, these are some interesting choices.
Enjoyed this Bloomberg story about the possibility that we are all old and tired, sick of seeing each other’s bad posts, and hoping to touch grass:
In 2022, according to GWI’s latest report, daily time spent [online] fell by 13 minutes. It’s now six hours and 43 minutes a day, slightly lower than it was in 2017. The drop was the biggest since the company started tracking the topic and suggested, as GWI’s report put it, “that we’ve reached a kind of internet saturation point.”
I guess I’m not the only one who’s been seasoning their cast iron!
Broderick didn’t follow anyone and bathed in the algorithm instead:
My verdict: Threads sucks shit. It has no purpose. It is for no one. It launched as a content graveyard and will assuredly only become more of one over time. It’s iFunny for people who miss The Ellen Show. It has a distinct celebrities-making-videos-during-COVID-lockdown vibe. It feels like a 90s-themed office party organized by a human resources department. And my theory, after staring into its dark heart for several days, is that it was never meant to “beat” Twitter — regardless of what Zuckerberg has been tweeting. Threads’ true purpose was to act as a fresh coat of paint for Instagram’s code in the hopes it might make the network relevant again.
[www.garbageday.email]
Responding to Meta blocking news on its platforms there over a new law requiring platform owners to negotiate with and pay news publishers for content, Minister of Canadian Heritage Pablo Rodriguez announced the country will no longer buy ads on Facebook:
We cannot continue paying advertising dollars to Meta while they refuse to pay their fair share to Canadian news organizations.
Two major Canadian firms, Quebecor and Cogeco Communications, also announced they and their subsidiaries are suspending advertising on Meta’s platforms.
A new batch of parental supervision features have been created to protect minors on Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger.
The new tools allow parents to view how much time their child spends on Messenger, and who can interact with their account. Minors will also be encouraged to log off from scrolling Instagram Reels at night, and after spending 20 minutes on Facebook... which is adorable,
Over the last hour or so, the Facebook page failed to load, attempts to upload Instagram Stories failed with an error message, while some reported they couldn’t send or receive messages on WhatsApp and Messenger, and Downdetector showed spikes for all of Meta’s services.
Reached for comment, Meta comms director Andy Stone told The Verge:
We’re aware that some people are having trouble accessing our products. We’re working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible, and we apologize for any inconvenience.
Things seem to be mostly back to normal, but we’ll keep an eye out. In the meantime, we also have some fresh advice about the supposedly wonderful opportunities available to people who log off.
A dedicated Watch app for Facebook Messenger was important enough for Apple to highlight it in 2015, but it’s going away soon.
A Meta spokesperson confirmed the plan in a statement to Review Geek. While Watch wearers can see messages from notifications, they won’t be able to respond from their wrists anymore. It’s odd timing — yesterday, Meta announced a WhatsApp app for Wear OS 4 that will send messages and receive incoming calls.
The tech industry is abuzz about a new standard for social networking that is more open, more user-centric, and potentially more powerful than Twitter and Facebook. But we’ve been here before.
After seven years at Snapchat, I finally learned the truth about why our most important apps seem destined to disappoint us.
Post offers a chance to share and comment on new items from a variety of sources, including those behind firewalls, while Substack Notes now lets you write Twitter-like short entries (which may be one of the reasons Elon Musk is so pissed at it).
We’ve added them to our list of Twitter alternatives, which includes others such as Mastodon, Tumblr, and, yes, Facebook.
Facebook famously provided new employees with a Little Red Book full of propaganda, designed to help establish a productive and secretive culture at the company. Among other things, it contained an email from Mark himself asking a leaker to fall on their own sword.
Now, you no longer have to be an employee to read the “Please Resign” email for yourself.
Two-factor authentication can keep your social media, connected home, shopping, and other services a lot safer than if you just depend on simple passwords. We’ve got the directions for adding 2FA to many of the more popular apps, and the best part? You don’t have to do it via SMS.
Unlike SMS, security keys are still a free way to lock down your Twitter (or Gmail, Facebook, Windows, and Apple ID) account. I’ve found they’re also easier to use than less-secure options (passkeys will help too, once they have more support).
Google security expert Mark Risher explains here why keys are better at resisting phishing attacks:
With Security Keys, instead of the *user* needing to verify the site, the *site* has to prove itself to the key.
