The world's most popular social media platforms routinely hand over user data to police & advertising companies for profit & political repression. The links below explore these companies' methods of social control on more detail; at the end, some tools for mitigating surveillance (beyond abstaining from social media entirely, an equally legitimate option) are introduced.
Fedbook & Instagram (owned by meta; self-reports on police cooperation here)
- Meta’s Israel Policy Chief Tried to Suppress Pro-Palestinian Instagram Posts, October 2024.
- Inside Meta’s Palestine Censorship).), October 2024 (Invidious link).
- Facebook deactivated [Korryn Gaines]’s account during her fatal standoff with police, August 2016.
- Facebook's Name Policy Strikes Again, This Time at Native Americans, February 2015.
Telegram
- Telegram will now hand over your phone number and IP if you’re a criminal suspect, September 2024.
- Resistance News Network (RNN) Telegram channel banned in EU, August 2024.
- Governments have been able to hack Telegram accounts for years, according to the section "Alexander Lukashenko’s Technocratic Regime" in “When We Rise” – A Critical Analysis of the 2020 Revolt against the Dictatorship (Русский, Я выхожу — критический анализ восстания против диктатуры).
Reddit (self-reports on police cooperation here)
TikTok (self-reports on police cooperation here)
- Censorship by TikTok Wikipedia1 page.
- Welcome to TikTok’s endless cycle of censorship and mistakes, July 2021.
Twitch (owned by amazon)
Alternative ways to browse social media
- List: 🔐🌐 Privacy-respecting web frontends for popular services
- List: Overview of alternative open source front-ends for popular internet platforms (e.g. YouTube, Twitter, etc.)
- Browser extension: Privacy Redirect
- Browser extension: LibRedirect
- Android app: UntrackMe
Related
- Sada Social Center: tracking digital censorship & harassment of Palestinians since 2017.
- Proton Mail et Wire : collabos comme les autres, mai 2024.
- About CSM shadowbans (Archived version)
- Snitches & Sleuths: An Update From Puget Sound Prisoner Support (Tor/onion link)