Saturday Hashtag: #SocialMediaMonopoly

Listen To This Story

In January, Anne Zeiter launched W, a European alternative to X (formerly Twitter), aiming to disrupt US social media dominance, promising a bot-free network by verifying users and offering diverse fact-based content.  

This initiative reflects growing concerns over the tech-bro control of US tech giants like Elon Musk’s X, Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, Peter Thiel’s Palantir and Larry Ellison, who owns Oracle and has significant influence over TikTok, further amplified by his deep ties to the CIA and US intelligence.

These companies fuel digital surveillance, data manipulation, and harmful content amplification and are facing rising scrutiny for their government complicity, privacy violations, and data exploitation.

ICE is accessing data from Meta, X, TikTok, Reddit, LinkedIn, and WhatsApp, scraping even the information of people with legal immigration status. They use AI tools like Zignal Labs to monitor billions of posts, targeting activists and critics. 

Platforms like Pandora, Spotify, Meta, TikTok, YouTube, and X have also run ICE recruitment ads.

As disillusionment grows, Americans are leaving these platforms. TikTok deletions surged by 150 percent in January after the new USDS joint venture. Users are also reacting to ad-driven algorithms, shadow banning, and the amplification of far-right content that define US social media.

X, Meta, and Palantir are known for data exploitation and algorithmic manipulation, advancing political agendas while profiting off user data. Musk is also under investigation in France for enabling harmful content, including deepfakes and child sex imagery.

Meanwhile, LinkedIn, once a professional networking site, has become a clickbait-driven platform, undermining its original purpose and frustrating many users.

With Amazon, Google, and Microsoft controlling nearly 70 percent of Europe’s internet infrastructure, the continent’s digital sovereignty is at risk. 

Europe’s push for alternatives stems from their sovereignty concerns and a growing dissatisfaction with US-dominated social media. 

We hope these alternatives don’t replicate the flaws of US platforms, or create further fragmentation of the already siloed communities within the digital ecosphere.

Here are some social media and other digital platform alternatives:

• W — Verified users and diverse content; aims to avoid echo chambers.
• UpScrolled — Microblogging, focusing on user-curated content and privacy.
• Vero — Ad-free, chronological social media for authentic connections.
• Mastodon — Decentralized, open-source network; users control servers.
• Peertube — Decentralized video hosting; users can host their own servers.
• Diaspora — Privacy-focused, decentralized network with user-controlled data.
• BeReal — Photo-sharing apps emphasizing authenticity and creativity.
• Element / Session — Secure, privacy-first messaging platforms.
• Organic Maps / Magic Earth — Open-source, privacy-focused navigation tools.
• Tuta / ProtonMail — Encrypted email services for privacy-conscious users.
• Audius — Music-streaming platforms, offering blockchain-based alternatives.

Hashtag Picks 

Washington Post Guts Silicon Valley Bureau in Sweeping Cuts

From The Tech Buzz: “The Washington Post just dismantled its tech coverage at the worst possible moment. The Jeff Bezos-owned newspaper axed more than 300 staffers this week, cutting its tech, science, health and business team from 80 to 33 people. The tech desk alone lost 14 reporters, gutting its San Francisco bureau to a skeleton crew. Among the casualties: journalists covering Amazon, artificial intelligence, and Blue Origin — Bezos’ own spaceflight company that depends on federal contracts.”

ICE Is Spending Millions To Use Influencers as Recruitment Tools

The author writes, “Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is spending millions to turn the chronically online into deportation agents, according to internal communications reviewed exclusively by the Washington Post. The agency’s $100 million marketing strategy, detailed in a 30-page document distributed to ICE officials this summer, includes a massive push to flood the digital market with geo-targeted and content-based advertising. The plan even names specific platforms, like Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Substack, and Rumble, a popular ‘alt-tech’ video platform frequented by conservatives.”

The 200+ Sites an ICE Surveillance Contractor Is Monitoring

From 404 Media: “404 Media has obtained the list of sites and services that ICE contractor ShadowDragon pulls data from. ShadowDragon sources data from all over the web and lets government analysts easily search it and draw connections between people.”

From AI to TikTok to TV, This Pro-Israel Billionaire Is Expanding Power in US

From Truthout: “Larry Ellison’s name isn’t always mentioned alongside more public-facing megabillionaires like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, or Mark Zuckerberg. But as he vaults to the top of the U.S. power elite after a string of high-profile corporate deals, that’s about to change. Ellison, the founder of the tech giant Oracle, is quickly emerging as the new face of oligarchic power in the U.S. Oracle has become an AI powerhouse at the same time Ellison and his son David have acquired Paramount and its vast media empire. With Donald Trump’s recent executive order, Ellison and Oracle will also now oversee TikTok’s algorithms, shaping a platform that reaches 150 million U.S. users.”

Always Watching: How ICE’s Plan To Monitor Social Media 24/7 Threatens Privacy and Civic Participation

The author writes, “When most people think about immigration enforcement, they picture border crossings and airport checkpoints. But the new front line may be your social media feed. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has published a request for information for private-sector contractors to launch a round-the-clock social media monitoring program. The request states that private contractors will be paid to comb through ‘Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Tumblr, Instagram, VK, Flickr, Myspace, X (formerly Twitter), TikTok, Reddit, WhatsApp, YouTube, etc.,’ turning public posts into enforcement leads that feed directly into ICE’s databases.”

Politics, Social Media, and the Curse of Allostatic Overload

The author writes, “Social media is a chronic stressor. Scrolling through endless feeds of bile and misinformation is not harmless entertainment. Each toxic post, each divisive argument, each political absurdity adds to the stress. The brain, designed for predictive regulation, is constantly on alert, anticipating threats that never resolve. This can lead to what is known as allostatic overload.”