With all the concerns people are having with online privacy today, people are looking for alternatives to Facebook to network socially in a fun and informative way that Facebook used to be. Recent breaches in Facebook security and the sometimes toxic and political environment have made people yearn for the “good old days” where you could just hook up with family, friends and old acquaintances and share interesting personal stories and photos.
It seems that Facebook is so powerful an entity that even Google could not compete and deciding to quit trying and shut down Google Plus. Twitter and Instagram can be used as a replacement, but they really have the same toxic environment and privacy issues as does Facebook. Ahead, I will suggest some new social networking sites that focus on privacy that may allow you to “Cut the ‘Book”.
Vero
Vero is an app that was launched in 2015 by a Lebanese billionaire who wanted to make the social experience better. It has exploded from 150,000 users to over 3 million because of Facebook privacy concerns. You can share text, photos, and videos and which will be displayed to whoever you choose to be close friends, acquaintances or followers in chronological order instead of being displayed in the manner that the algorithm decides. You need to sign up with a name email address and phone number. For now, it is ad-free but there is speculation it might become a paid subscription service.
Diaspora
Diaspora is a decentralized social media platform similar to cryptocurrency where all your information is owned by you and not stored on any one server. The servers you choose to join are called pods. You register with the pod of your choice and can sign up as anyone one you choose to be and then link to other pods around the world.
MeWe
MeWe is a mobile app that doubles as a text messenger and content sharing platform. There is no censorship and you set the privacy levels you desire. Your information is free from tracking, spying and scraping.
Mastodon
Mastodon has 2 million users where you can publish links, pictures, text and video on an open source, decentralized network. Thousands of communities come together to form a complete network. Posts are limited to 500 characters similar to an expanded Twitter. It comes with many ant-abuse tools such as an extensive amount of moderators who you can reach out to and a strict code of conduct.
Raftr
Raftr is the brainchild of a former Yahoo executive. It’s based on following developing news stories and sharing with friends and families in a communal manner. Users follow ongoing news stories, called “rafts” and can be commented on by like-minded people.