And, of course, lots of crummy news from America-land yesterday. I suppose I wasn't overly shocked when my Instagram searches (yes, I use Instagram, but probably shouldn't
) are now blocking #Democrats hashtags, but freely allowing #republicans. For the Republicans tag, however, critical posts are still being included - which goes to show how arbitrary and capricious the "moderation" decisions of Meta are now.
I am under no illusions that federated communications services (#Fediverse/#Mastodon) or semi-federated ones (#Bluesky) will ever have the user base of Meta. However, I /do/ believe that these services will shine even brighter as beacons against the darkness of censorship and ideological obedience.
And, it's not just for national issues either - local news and independent opinions also get trampled. I may be tooting my own horn, but I am proud that theATL.social - and other servers with similar missions - can serve as lighthouses during times when the storms of our society (esp. in the 🇺🇸) are at their most brutal.
