Only way: don’t use their products. Fuck what everyone else does, if they are your friend they will text you or get on signal, end of story. People are fucking idiots

I’m gonna be super for real with you. If your friends won’t download an extra app to message you on then they’re not really that good of a friend. It’s such a small inconvenience. Omg I have to hit this other button on my touchscreen instead and spend 5 minutes setting it up?

This is how I’d do it. You send a message to your friends on instagram and whatsapp with your signal info and say, “Hey, not gonna be checking [this app] often and won’t have notifs on. Trying to be more responsible about my data, and social media use. If you need me or want to chat hit me up on Signal.”

If their response to that is “Okay well I don’t want to so I won’t talk to you anymore.” Then they’re not a friend worth keeping around anyway. Real friends are the people who will wake up at 3am and come pick you up from the airport when your coming home. Because they actually care about you, and when you actually care about someone you do inconvenient things for them.

Now, if by “friend” you mean some person you’ve never met that you chat with online sometimes and send funny videos to or whatever? That’s not really what I’d call a friend to begin with, and you’ll just have to accept that relationship isn’t very deep and it’s totally normal for them not to want to do something just to talk to you. And in that case you have to decide if you’d rather stop talking to them, or stay on the other apps. That’s entirely a you decision at that point.

Instagram👉Pixelfed

I was listening to an interview with Meredith Whitaker (Signal’s CEO) yesterday on the Futurology Podcast. Her response to the “I have nothing to hide” comment was to imagine being sat down in a room and given access to a database of every text you’ve ever sent. Imagine that searchable database is not just at your disposal. Every bad day you’ve ever had complaining about your boss to a coworker, people, especially lawyers, love to take things out of context.

If you are really serious about this, then you need to rank whatever you should stop using (meta, google and other shit) by a grade of necessity then act upon that grade ranking.

Below are some examples of what i mean,

• Your loved one, mother, father and family use an app, then i would shelf it to be ditched as a last resort (S tier)
• your cacual crew and gym friends use instagram, then delete immediately since you check on them whenever you see them.
• your work collegues relies on WhatsApp then fuck it and delete immediately, when asked for a reason say i stopped using it, if they need something urgent “just call or reach out via matrix or text”
• your girlfriend uses facebook to share stories, tell her that you are deleting your account and she can share her stories on matrix or directly show you on her phone.
• your close friends use some shitty Zionist app, tell them clearly that you will not use that anymore and they should also follow your footsteps, but make sure that they can still text you via an alternative tech when needed.

Its a journey that you need to take.

I made such changes when i saw an official UN report clearly stating how most of those tech companies are actively killing children and helping Israel with genocide, tbh from that point i have probably set my priorities right.

I mean if jon from the gym is mad that he can’t send me reels anymore, that is not something i really wieght against being an ad feeder to a company that is helping killing children.

I deleted my Meta accounts when Zuck became openly sycophantic towards Trump.

If my friends want to talk to me, they text me. Some even got Signal because I told them it was my preferred messaging app.

If they want to send a social media post/reel to me, they can text me with the link to it and I can view it in browser.

You can’t force your friends to care about surveillance, but you can choose to do what you believe is right, and your real friends will accommodate you, even if they don’t understand.

Only Criminals Will Try To Hide Their Conversation

Jokes on them, pretty soon everything will be a crime.

Any Recommended Stratergy To make them ditch Meta ?

I would say just quit facebook yourself if you want to quit (and you should). Trying to get other people to do things they don’t want to do is obnoxious, short of staging an intervention if it’s serious self-harm. They can quit when they’re ready to.

You don’t need Meta products to stay in touch with, especially Whatsapp. If they refuse to use Signal, just use RCS/SMS. Or if you live in European Union, you can use Balsio/Haiket/Arnacon, they are interoperable with Whatsapp. The disadvantage is that Balsio and Haiket work ONLY if downloaded from Google Play, while Arnacon works anyway.

If they haven’t come to the conclusion that it matters after being presented with information, then they aren’t going to change their minds. And you are wasting your breath trying.

Even in our home I’m a privacy advocate (selfhost immich, pihole, Linux machines, GrapheneOS) my wife knows the larger consequence of engaging on platoforms that glean your info, but she lives on Facebook, Instagram, google services etc.

Even a friend who is highly intelligent, doesn’t care about privacy; Because he believes he’s done nothing wrong so why would he care if the government agencies could gather all info without proper warrants. I had the conversation about the larger issue being that a government is then able to use the info to silence protest against its own actions. He assumes I’m just paranoid.

So I just don’t bother further

You can’t. Accept that statement. Acknowledge that you’re only in control of your body. You can influence others, but you cannot control them. Align yourself with your beliefs without forcing your beliefs onto others.

I know users would like to interject, probably with something like “these aren’t beliefs; they’re objectively bad.” I would agree with that criticism. Beliefs are sometimes aligned with reality and other times they’re not. I believe proprietary-software is evil and I agree with a lot of things Richard Stallman has written.

From the outside I know a lot of people don’t understand and I’m fine with that–I’m not in control of others nor do I want to be (that would be a tremendous burden). I do what I want to do, which is a reflection of my beliefs. When your body aligns with your desires (which stem from your beliefs) you’ll be most content.

I don’t want a Google account. I think creating a Google account is actively causing harm. If someone suggest Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp, et al as a way of communicating I refuse. If they inquire I’ll explain my reasoning if I perceive their curiosity to be genuine and offer an alternative solution, but the thing I want to impress upon you here is that I’m doing what I want to do.

People have written and said particulars to me that I know others see my behaviour as a type of “self-restraint” or to phrase it another way: of forgoing convenience in favour of something. They perceive the action of adhering to libre-software as a burden. It’s not. It’s what I want to do. It’s what I like to do. (It’s what excites and brings me pleasure.)

I’d probably like it if other people also shared my preferences and I know some do. I also know some don’t. I think they should, but I don’t want to shoulder that burden. It’s an impossible load. I can’t force people to do what I think is the correct thing to do. It is impossible. It’s also probably wrong–most definitely wrong.

Do what you want to do and accept that others are doing what they want to do. If there’s conflict try to resolve it. If it can not be resolved to the satisfaction of both parties part ways amicably.

If you think you can coerce someone with enough persistence–and if you’re using this thread to gain motivation to continue–you’re in the wrong. Do not do it.

I haven’t deleted my accounts yet, but I just don’t use anything Facebook. No apps in my phone and don’t login on computer. I’ve lost touch with some and missed out on a lot of news about loved ones. But I can’t have it both ways, so I’ve grieved my loss and moved on. Even if their business practices weren’t so vile, I can’t handle the content not being chronological.

I have contemplated setting up a server for photo sharing, but I doubt anyone will participate. So now I just send text messages or use shared albums with iOS users.