Technology Alternative Social Media and Tech

[Husky_Khan]

A new article about MeWe, the Culver City based social media network that is seen as a rival to Facebook.

The social media platform says it does not control your newsfeed, or fill your feed with third-party ads or content, and has grown almost 18 million members.

The platform has raised over $23 million from high-net-worth investors including Kelly Slater (top surfer), Rick Smith (former NFL executive), Verdine White (Grammy Award winner, Earth Wind and Fire bassist), Mark Britto (founder of Boku), Marci Shimoff (NYT author), Rachel Roy (fashion designer), and Jack Canfield (founder of Chicken Soup for the Soul).

MeWe's membership grew by a whopping 36% in Q1 2021 and by an average of 173% per year for the last three years.

MeWe isn't crippled by ads or throttling by popular content creators like Facebook or Instagram and also is apparently the #1 downloaded social media app in Hong Kong, the app itself having over half of its user base apparently outside of North America. The platform so far has also declined on using its members as product to sell data on.

Anti-Facebook MeWe continues its user growth surge

It seems like more and more people are turning away from Facebook and joining platforms like MeWe.

www.zdnet.com

 

[Husky_Khan]

Google Chrome, once a nice sleek and simple lightweight browser that can be used as an alternative to large, cumbersome, power hogging legacy browsers... has allegedly become the beast it was once an alternative to.

Dumping Google Chrome resulted in one colossal benefit

I'm on the road for a few weeks, and switching from Google Chrome to the stock browsers on my laptops has resulted in a pleasant surprise.

www.zdnet.com

Poor lad actually went back to other Big Tech alternatives and using Apple's Safari and Microsoft Edge (a Chromium based browser).

 

[Zachowon]

Edge isnt that bad. It is like Chrome but not an energy hog, and Safaru sucks ass

 

[PsihoKekec]

Chrome has been known as RAM hog for quite some time. I used firefox for quite some time, but switched to Brave due to various issues.

 

[Husky_Khan]

GETTR another 'Conservative' Twitter alternative launched on July 4th. 777 character limit. Longer videos. Million subs in three days.

But still a rough launch.

Pro-Trump Social Media Platform GETTR Hacked Shortly After Launch

Pro-Trump social media platform GETTR was targeted by hackers shortly after launch — accounts were apparently compromised and tens of thousands of users had their data scraped and leaked online.

www.securityweek.com

 

[PsihoKekec]

And on whose infrastructure is this running? As far as I know only Gab is really independent from the big tech, but Conservative Inc. hates it because it actually supports free speech.

 

[Husky_Khan]

And on whose infrastructure is this running? As far as I know only Gab is really independent from the big tech, but Conservative Inc. hates it because it actually supports free speech.

I think the new Parler is on Epik Servers as well IIRC just like Gab.

There was also a story in the news that they had enough integrity to pass on a potential partnership with Trump because they supposedly wouldn't ban 'critics' of the former President.

Trump’s Parler deal reportedly fell through over app’s refusal to ban critics

Plans to let Donald Trump become an active user of Parler got scuttled when the social network refused to ban Trump’s critics, a report says.

nypost.com

 

[Husky_Khan]

I guess it was inevitable.

Hopefully it has better security software and design then some of the apps it will apparently come pre-loaded with.

Freedom Phone

Freedom Phone

freedomphone.com

Coming in August for a mere $499.99!

Apparently it's just using a paid version of a free, open sources Mobile OS though similar to Grapheneos. I'm sure more amusement may come out of this sooner rather then later.

 

[Marnuplee]

i won't trust freedom phone that much.

 

[Whitestrake Pelinal]

Looks like John Matze was terminated from being the Parler CEO by its board.

Parler co-owner Bongino pushes back on claims by ousted CEO John Matze: 'Time to correct the record'

Parler CEO John Matze was terminated by the company’s board of directors last week in a decision the social media platform hoped to keep private — until Fox News obtained on Wednesday a memo he sent to employees explaining why he was terminated.

www.foxnews.com

There was apparently a bit of a falling out between him and board members whom include popular Right Wing commentator Dan Bongino and Businesswoman and prolific Trump/Republican donor Rebekah Mercer who helped co-found Parler.

John Matze (on gab):

Easy to see why anyone outside of the neoclowns wouldn't want him around.

 

[Husky_Khan]

So Donald Trumps Social Media Platform TRUTH SOCIAL (I'm not sure if it's supposed to be in all caps or not) is in Beta. Apparently the approval list for getting in is tens of thousands of people long. But again, still in Beta. Still... it's making good copy for whimsical satire.

Trump Announces Only His Most Faithful 144,000 Followers Will Make It Onto Truth Social

U.S.—Millions of dreams were dashed overnight after former President Donald J. Trump announced that only his most faithful 144,000 followers will make it onto Truth Social. The new social media experiment spearheaded by the former president is said to be the "greatest, most incredible social...

babylonbee.com

Will you bear witness?

 

[Marnuplee]

Truth Social is shit, just get on Gab.

 

[Whitestrake Pelinal]

Truth Social is shit, just get on Gab.

Pretty much this. IF one has a desire to partake of a twitter-like ecosystem, THEN gab is the place to be. It has been operational for years, has endured the attentions of various leftist haxx0r groups, has its own physical infrastructure rather than piggybacking off left-tech cloud hosting, and unlike so many sites that started out open, Torba hasn't cucked. If anything he's become more firm in his resolve.

I don't use it because I don't like the format, but, I will admit that my stance on that is weakening. It could be a credible replacement for centralized mass media.

 

[Whitestrake Pelinal]

Sadly, it looks like duckduckgo has gone full cuck. Their CEO, Weinberg, bragged about downranking "misinformation". They have deteriorated in quality for a couple years, this is the nail in the coffin.

Searx is looking better and better though.