My Thoughts on The Current State of Social Media
Do you know why I stay away from social media as I described on my Wikipedia user page?
Well, I used to have social media accounts but do not have anymore after I quit Cohost, a centralized indie social media platform that was eventually shutdown. Let's talk about the current state of social media.
What Happened to Centralized Indie Social Media Platforms?
For me, Vlare and Cohost emerged as these only ways to escape from the existing social media space. These fundamentally changed the ways I interact with the ever-changing online world.
Vlare was a video hosting website with social media features while Cohost was a non-profit centralized indie social media platform. I got into Vlare when I was aware of YouTube's "flawed" implementation of family friendly settings for each video and/or channel when the site was fined by FTC for COPPA violations. I joined Cohost after finding out the platform had no users who were the fans of The Loud House at all as that animated show was already on decline.
But today, both now are defunct; the former being plagued by staff infighting while the latter because of funding issues. Most of indie social media networks and platforms (including Bluesky and Mastodon) rely on the model of decentralization. The decentralized model, however, this leads to rampant CSAM issue. As a result, Mastodon was declared a cesspool of CSAM content, according to a investigation conducted by Secjuice. There currently no active centralized indie social media networks and platforms in the same manner as how Vlare and Cohost did. Social media networks and platforms can have the possibility of getting failed. We need least one successful centralized indie social media platform to migrate such an issue posed by the decentralized model.
Every Social Media Platform is Nowadays Flawed
Every existing social media platform have a set of flaws and weaknesses. For example, YouTube evolved from a free-spirited and creator-driven space to a more structured and corporate-influenced platform.
I quit Twitter before the platform was acquired by a American oligarch Elon Musk in 2022, who changed that platform into the alt-tech superapp named X. I don't use X anyways but I can view anonymously thanks to Sotwe, after Nitter and Buhitter were terminated and restricted respectively because the platform was ending any free access to its API. As result of these events, Bluesky gradually absorbed the all of the Twitter art community as a carry over, not creating new ones and that's why I cannot join that social media platform based on the decentralized model.
The premiere of The Loud House caused the end of an era for DeviantArt; the animated show's fandom grew on the art community site was being acquired by Wix from Israel, which engages in a never-ending conflict against Palestine in violation of international law. Since then, Wix implemented changes to DeviantArt, including the "Eclipse" layout which caused longtime artists to leave that site. Later, DeviantArt became dominated by Zoomer artists along with underage users and as such, the site is now not compliant with COPPA.
Facebook and Instagram, which both owned by Meta, have political and privacy issues. TikTok has potential but poses cybersecurity risks. Half of Toyhouse's userbase are furries while Fur Affinity is mostly full of furries as the site was mainly made for furry fandom. Discord is now sucks after its "bad" mobile UI update and because of its username system transition. Newgrounds have seen resurgence since the release of Friday Night Funkin' and Tumblr have seen a increase in usage by Zoomers but both also carries over from other existing social media platforms. We against joining these platforms as we recommend having least one active centralized indie social media platform.
Conclusion
This blog post is a wake up call for social media in general but also internet privacy.
We will return to social media if has least one active centralized indie social media platform as the way to decrease all of risks posed by existing ones.