Given the situation with TikTok—marked by censorship and the app’s recent control by MAGA-aligned interests—I checked Reddit to see what TikTok users are saying. It turns out many are asking for alternatives. Most replies suggest other proprietary apps, and I haven’t seen any recommendations for decentralized platforms like LOOPS and others from the Fediverse.
In my opinion, we now have a small but critical window of opportunity to introduce people to the Fediverse. We need to go where young people are—Reddit, Instagram, or whatever platforms they use—and explain the basics of decentralization and why choosing another proprietary app will only lead to the same outcome. LOOPS is easy to join and feels exactly like Tiktok.
I had the chance to discuss this topic with my college students just last semester. Young people are not the “imbeciles” mainstream media often portrays them to be. They see what’s happening and want to participate in change. I am firmly convinced that they are a key component of the social revolution we need, and that with their help, we could dismantle the GAFAM economy in just a few weeks.
So I believe we have to seize this moment: share, explain, and promote the Fediverse wherever you can—especially in the coming days—because every invitation is a step toward a truly free and user-owned internet.
Why isn’t the fediverse more popular? At futurology.today we have the benefit of also moderating r/futurology on reddit, which has 21.6 million subscribers. Out of the tens of thousands of people who’ve read our posts about the fediverse site, only a few hundred have signed up. Most of our subscribers are from elsewhere in the fediverse.
Regarding the Threadiverse in general, it seems that (1) many people find having to choose an instance first to be very confusing (not applicable to your situation I guess), (2) upon arrival these primarily Western people immediately see content proposing the murder of Westerners and demolition of the entire Western culture, whereupon they nope right back out (can you blame them?) and then complain bitterly about their toxic experiences here on other platforms, including Reddit and Bluesky and X.
Most of us forget how extensive our blocklists here have grown to be over time, and how much effort we put into Linux levels of tinkering to discover communities we like while blocking content we do not.
If I am wrong then please ignore me, but it’s a thought to consider.
Of course mostly it’s a network effect, so I am speaking about issues that we might actually be able to do something about.
I follow communities and have no blocklist. I just read hot of subscribed.
It almost seems like the majority of content injects news and politics into itself - e.g. memes, comics, and the like - or at least it does happen super frequently.
One of the most active posts this week, in !Technology@lemmy.world, is https://futurology.today/post/10493000 - and just look at how little moderation it has received, with one of its higher comments (10 upvotes, zero downvotes that I saw) being:
And here’s one with 81 upvotes that I won’t even repeat here but just offer a link to, as it calls for murder (Luigi-ing): https://lemmy.world/comment/24053139, among many many others with tens of upvotes that call for the guillotine.
Or another post is https://futurology.today/post/10503178, ostensibly about memes and from a science-oriented instance, with comments such as:
This one about the sitting USA president.
But I, like you, am here. We must have thick skins, or else we block content that we do not want to see - which someone browsing in guest mode won’t be able to do, at least not until AFTER they’ve made an account, and then learned how to do so. You would have to go to Reddit to ask them why “Out of the tens of thousands of people who’ve read our posts about the fediverse site, only a few hundred have signed up.” Surely it won’t be a singular easy to understand reason, but a plethora of them. Among which is how much of a turn-off this place may be specifically to an American centrist or right-wing, possibly even Trump supporting person.