Hacker Remix

Facebook blocks links to Pixelfed, a federated Instagram alternative

178 points by boramalper 7 days ago | 66 comments

JohnMakin 5 days ago

I have used facebook probably daily since 2007 - until a few weeks ago a recent phone update moved some icons around and offloaded the facebook app. Where facebook used to be on my home screen was replaced by LI for some reason, and I found that I was for a few days reflexively clicking "linkedin" notifications when I clearly was absent mindedly trying to reach facebook. When I realized what had happened, I decided not to re-install facebook to see if I actually missed it or if it was just a dumb, idle compulsion. Haven't missed it at all! I wouldn't have believed this if I hadn't accidentally gone through this. It had somehow wormed itself into my habits in a really compulsive way that was also not even providing me value, clearly, because now that I think about it more and more, I cannot think of a single reason why I would log into facebook. Even when I occasionally use messenger app, that's entirely separate from the facebook app now and has been for a while, plus whatsapp/telegram/discord is better anyway, so what is my incentive as a user to even log in to facebook? Who is that site even for anymore?

I used to get value out of some private groups, support groups - but those have slowly become infested by bots/trolls in a weird way that I can't really prove but the experience for me at least has been increasingly poor over the last few years.

All this is to say it does not surprise me that facebook aggressively protects its moat - someone over there realizes the power of habit/compulsion, it's clearly baked into their app and UI and everything about that ecosystem. Long gone are the before-times where app growth was focused on making a compelling user experience, we're in pure extraction mode now that pretty much anyone that will ever make a facebook account already has made one.

malinens 5 days ago

I have similar story. Recently facebook forced me to enable 2-factor auth but adding SMS did not work for me for a whole week and I just deleted the app. Later I opened facebook from mobile browser and added SMS as 2nd factor and now I have opened Facebook from mobile browser only once in more than a week and I don't miss it much. It was the only "social" network I used besides reddit and hacker news

dang 5 days ago

Related ongoing thread:

Meta admits it deleted links to decentralized Instagram competitor Pixelfed - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42694547 - Jan 2025 (3 comments)

(apparently they've fixed it now)

zug_zug 6 days ago

I'm not sure why this isn't considered anti-competitive behavior. Once a communication company has 1-billion users perhaps we need to classify them as a more of a utility and hold them to stricter standards of openness.

coldpie 6 days ago

> why this isn't considered anti-competitive behavior

Considered by who? Setting aside the 2021-2024 Lina Khan anomaly, the US Federal government has not enforced anti-trust law for decades, and the States do not have enough power to create their own anti-trust laws. We also just elected an extremely big-tech-friendly government, so that won't be changing for the foreseeable future.

throwaway48476 6 days ago

States are governments too and a lot of them are suing big tech.

SllX 6 days ago

It remains to be seen how big-tech friendly the incoming Trump administration will be, but friendlier than Biden’s would be a low bar to clear.

HumblyTossed 6 days ago

Probably why Zuck is getting all cozy with the incoming administration - to see to it that something like this won't happen.

ein0p 6 days ago

He has three hundred million reasons to "cozy up" to it. Trump believes (and not without evidence) that he lost in 2020 because of $300M+ Zuckerberg spent on electing Biden. Really difficult times could be ahead for Meta - Trump is extremely vindictive. I strongly suspect Musk will be "cozying up" to the next administration similarly in 2028, or outbidding everyone else again. Neither Zuck bucks, nor Musk bucks bode well for democracy, IMO.

JumpCrisscross 6 days ago

> Trump is extremely vindictive

He’s cultivated an aura of vindictiveness. I’m not recalling any great examples of him being unpragmatically vindictive.

afinlayson 6 days ago

Isn't Facebook's investors the same as the VP? I suspect FB & Whitehouse are closer in ties in 2024 than 2020 or 2016 based on that and less about the red vs blue theatrics of politics.

greenchair 5 days ago

yep, he could have done a number on hillary but didn't.

ein0p 6 days ago

Not against businesses, but he did destroy several political dynasties by now: Romneys, Clintons, Bushes, some argue even Obama's minions are dead in the water. In Zuck's case there are plenty of 100% legitimate issues the Trump administration could (and IMO should) legitimately bring up against Meta. Indeed, they could bring up the exact same issues that the Biden administration was already bringing up, but ratchet things up a notch or two. If Zuck insufficiently bends the knee, that's what's going to happen. So far I see his efforts as half-hearted, and I'm not even Trump. Trump would see them as laughable at best, or even insulting.

JumpCrisscross 6 days ago

> he did destroy several political dynasties by now: Romneys, Clintons, Bushes, some argue even Obama's minions are dead in the water

This isn’t vindictive, though. In some cases it was straight-up competition.

> If Zuck insufficiently bends the knee, that's what's going to happen

This is transactional, possibly corruptly so. But it’s not really revenge as much as exerting control. If there were nothing Zuckerberg could reasonably do to avoid Trump’s wrath on account of what Zuck did in 2020, that would be vindictiveness.

pempem 6 days ago

Those dynasties - problematic as they inherently are - have survived presidencies in both parties over the decades. I would argue its destruction and I'm pretty sure folks like Ted Cruz, Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham when they think no one is listening, would agree. They've bent so far and so deeply to stay afloat.

bdangubic 6 days ago

Cruz and Graham know all too well that they will politically outlive Trump and whoever comes next. They look at each occupant of the White House like it is a future ex-wife, get good prenups, milk it for the good times and wait out for the next one. They could generally care less who is there and they know it, suck up a bit and ride it out :)

ein0p 6 days ago

Cruz might. Graham won't take the wind-down of the "forever wars" well, and will therefore be ostracized.

pempem 4 days ago

One can hope @ein0p!!

bdangubic 4 days ago

the forever wars are not winding down :)

and if graham is pissed all he has to do is wait for 2028 :)

ein0p 4 days ago

We'll see I guess. Trump at least got us out of Afghanistan. There are early signs that he managed some kind of a (temporary) settlement in Gaza also, even before inauguration. Will he wind down everything? Probably not. But by god, someone should at least try. We can't keep spending trillions we don't have on killing millions of people halfway across globe for no good reason.

bdangubic 2 days ago

you mean Biden got us out of Afghanistan, right? :)

seanmcdirmid 2 days ago

Trump negotiated getting out of Afghanistan, withdrew most of the troops but left Biden with getting the last presence out without any manpower for an orderly exit, which was a very stable genius move on his part. Biden was in a lose lose situation: he could either bring back troops to cover the exit and get everything out (unpopular), or just leave in a messy uncovered exit (also unpopular). It was pretty much lose-lose for him at that point.

pempem 5 days ago

Absolutely. Wild, isn't it?

monetus 6 days ago

Michael Cohen has a story about the DOJ -

on July 9, 2020, was taken back into federal custody after refusing to agree to conditions of home confinement that included a prohibition on communicating with the media. Cohen filed suit complaining that his re-arrest was an attempt to prevent him from releasing a tell-all book about Trump titled Disloyal: A Memoir. On July 23, a judge found in his favor and ordered that he be returned to home confinement.

bhouston 6 days ago

I have never heard of Pixelfed before. Seems to support ActivityPub, which is nice.

More details here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixelfed

mystified5016 6 days ago

Yup, it's cross-compatible with mastodon for the most part. It's pretty neat how they inter-operate