Skimming Stones | Sula's Blog | Sula1968 A South African poet, potter and mother
I’m not leaving Whatsapp due to security issues (apparently they’ve already violated my privacy). I’m leaving because I can.
In 2020 mindsets shifted dramatically. Fear motivated the world to surrender freedom. Never in history have so many been so powerless. I’ve had enough of being treated like a delinquent child. I’m a responsible adult. Governments have controlled and tried to break the spirit of citizens, with many mindless and senseless rules. Despite mask wearing, sanitizing to the point of developing eczema and following the guidelines; I still probably had a mild case of Covid19 (untested as I don’t buy into the testing hysteria, I did self isolate regardless). The loss of personal freedom and freedom of speech has me excited to leave Facebook owned Whatsapp. I’m really the zig with big tech. We are controlled by about 5 iffy guys who have more power than any politician, and our choices are next to nothing.
I have no skin in the American political game but it’s terrifying that Donald Trump has been so completely silenced by Facebook, Twitter (I loved that platform but have deactivated my account), YouTube and co. If the most powerful leader in the world is at their mercy, we can be squashed like bugs. Big Tech control access to all the info that we draw on to form opinions. Facebook controls what I see, they choose which posts are at the top of a feed. Last year I joined a page which encouraged the boycott of products made in China, it had over 20K members. I shared a few posts. Then the page vanished and at exactly the same time I noticed that when I posted anything, there were absolutely no likes or comments. It was blatantly clear that Facebook did something which then rendered me completely invisible. Getting off there is going to take a while, it was like a diary and I need to save all the pictures and milestones before leaving completely. Staying with Facebook, Whatsapp or Instagram would be like an abused woman staying with a man because he buys her jewellery.
Thankfully the Ts & Cs Whatsapp media storm reminded me that Facebook owns the platform, and the fuss has drawn friends and family to Signal and Telegram (for now I’m on both), more users makes a better experience. Even our school has set up alternative channels of communication.
The video below is one of the most disturbing things I’ve watched. Parler was an alternative to Twitter where free speech was a cornerstone. They were taken down when they were the no 1 downloaded app. If we don’t fight for our freedoms now, Covid will be the least of our worries in the future.
Duck Duck Go is a search engine which offers privacy and I have also moved my e-mail from Gmail (Google) to Protonmail
I certainly will miss aspects of Whatsapp and some people who I only interact with there but it’s time to take a stand
I hear you and feel the same about Covid – so over it – from the denialists to the advocates I am over it. I have a Facebook account only to access a Business Page and my advertising account has been restricted due to suspicious activity on my personal profile. I cannot run adverts anymore since 11 January. I could say screw Facebook but 80% of our business comes from Facebook advertising. I deactivated my Twitter account but back on it and am seriously thinking of deleting it for good. I have also read that Telegram has horrific porn sites that are easily accessible to children if settings are open to “people nearby me” – don’t know if it is true though. Times like this make me long for the days when all we had was a landline and the worst was when the Technicians messed around and listened in on calls because they were bored or made calls using your line. Google and Facebook have us all chained to them and have so much power of business.
Lovely to hear from you Dianne. Yup the business side of FB will be a hard one to loose, I also loved some very useful pages such as nearby nature reserves, and those dedicated to things that I’m interested in like Carnivorous plants, Insects etc. Loved Instagram and could spend hours scrolling through searches like #pottersofinstagram. I’m going to do another post tomorrow because my closest friend attacked me regarding this post and Telegram safety is one thing that came up. My children don’t have cell phones yet and I would not let them use Telegram, “People Nearby” is a double edged sword, very useful to contact groups which may have similar interests or community groups but certainly a place which could be abused by sexual predators. I too miss the days of land lines and letters
I also gave up on Instagram and turned my blog into a PDF booklet to keep for who knows who. Even though it was not published out of respect for my son I deleted it. Over here, or in our region at least, you have to have your business on Facebook, or shut it down. Websites are not popular. Whatsapp is not popular either, only really people with overseas contacts use it. It’s either normal text or FB messenger, that I refuse to use. Twitter virtually unknown. You are fortunate, your children don’t have phones yet.
Looking forward to reading your next post. I am so undecided about whatsapp. I hate the control they have on us
Good grief, I would be so uncomfortable with the rule about FB and business that’s kind of creepy. Not getting to write much today, the blasted govt forced private schools to close again from today (we were notified in the afternoon) home schooling leaves pretty much no time to achieve anything constructive
Oh no, didn’t explain myself properly. Not a rule, the problem with typing not talking 😏.
It’s not a rule, just that everyone is on Facebook, so to get Clients, your business needs to be on Facebook, no one bothers with websites.
I saw that about private schools. It’s all such a mess, am happy that we are back to relatively normal life