The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently released a report featured in The Guardian titled, "Social media and online video firms are conducting 'vast surveillance' on users, FTC finds. <"https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/sep/19/social-media-companies-surveillance-ftc">" While this revelation isn't entirely new, it serves as another reason to reconsider our reliance on these services.
Among the culprits are Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, and ex-Twitter. These platforms have been found to be collecting and tracking users' data for profit. The surge in the popularity of large language models (LLMs) has further worsened this issue, as the same data is used to train these models.
The FTC's report highlights the companies' data-minimization practices as "woefully inadequate." It reveals that some companies fail to delete user data even after requests, while others only delete a portion of the collected data.
In response to this concern, two alternative platforms have emerged, each based on a different protocol. ActivityPub and ATProto provide a non-centralized alternative to the centralized data collection practices of Big Tech. While each platform has its strengths and weaknesses, I'm currently focusing on the ATProto-based BlueSky.
Contrary to popular belief, BlueSky is not owned or controlled by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey. While BlueSky shares some historical ties with Twitter, it operates as a separate entity. While Dorsey has had a connection to BlueSky, it's essential to assess the extent of his involvement. For more information, refer to this article: https://techcrunch.com/2024/09/10/what-is-bluesky-everything-to-know-about-the-app-trying-to-replace-twitter/
BlueSky, learning from Twitter's shortcomings, designed the ATProto for a more non-centralized approach. While some argue it's still centralized (with only one instance, BlueSky), it now supports federation.
BlueSky has opened registration to the public and now boasts over ten million users. Its experience is similar to Twitter but without the toxicity of ex-Twitter, making it an attractive alternative. This is likely why ex-Twitter users from Brazil flocked to BlueSky when their government banned ex-Twitter.
Personally, I prefer BlueSky for its simplicity and customization options. I can create my own feed, in addition to the Following feed. Currently, I have two feeds: PH and UAAP. PH feed shows everything about the Philippines, while UAAP, as the name suggests, focuses on UAAP games. (Incidentally, UAAP has a BlueSky account and regularly cross-posts.)
In essence, BlueSky is like the old Twitter without the toxicity of ex-Twitter. Companies should consider adding BlueSky to their social media strategy to avoid being left behind. As of now, a Philippine newspaper, The Manila Times, is active on BlueSky, making it one of my sources of Philippine news. (Manila Bulletin has an inactive BlueSky account.)
So, what are you waiting for? If you decide to join BlueSky, feel free to ping me so I can add you to the People From the Philippines BlueSky list.