this post was submitted on 19 Aug 2023
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I don’t use instagram. The article touches on the privacy issues of Meta, but doesn’t really explain why Pixelfed is a better alternative or if it’s more privacy focused. Or even why I should use this platform other than “hey, it’s not Instagram”.
I’d trust some random people running an activity pub server just as much as I’d trust Meta with my personal photos: I won’t.
Coming from Wired, I’d hope the article would have a more technology focused approach, explaining to people they could host their own server so they take back control of their own data. Isn’t that the part of the point of the fediverse?
The article is about transitioning from Instagram to Pixelfed, i.e. it’s targeting people who already use Instagram. If an individual is an Instagram user already, then privacy clearly isn’t a consideration for them, and if it was, there are countless articles already regarding Meta’s approach to their data that don’t need to be recycled here.
If your concern is your data, then yes, don’t trust anyone but yourself. As has been said, there’s alternatives for that, including self-hosting.
Pixelfed’s advantages aren’t limited to potential privacy features though, which I agree would have been excellent items to raise in the article, such as a focus on photos and a complete lack of any algorithm forcing tailored content at you. But this is a how-to article, not a feature comparison. I’m sure we’ll see a prevalence of those in the future but it’s still early doors. I would argue that it literally does imply that Pixelfed is more privacy focused though - it’s right there in the title.