Facebook al­ter­na­tives 2022 - an overview

The social media platform Minds takes a modern approach. Instead of being stored on the company’s own servers, all in­for­ma­tion is stored de­cen­tral­ized in a blockchain. In addition, Minds is all about trans­paren­cy; its code is open source and can be viewed by any expert.

On Facebook, good content tends to be rewarded through “likes”. Minds takes a different approach. Users collect tokens exchanged to expand their profile, for example, to increase their reach. In addition, users can opt to be paid in US dollars, bitcoin, or Ether. By linking content and cryp­tocur­ren­cies, Minds is pursuing an idea that the art world is exploring with NFTs. Minds is monetized in part through paid sub­scrip­tions which unlock ad­di­tion­al options.

Besides trans­paren­cy and de­cen­tral­iza­tion, freedom of ex­pres­sion is at the forefront of Minds. The platform’s de­vel­op­ers claim they hardly ever moderate content. Posts deemed illegal are removed. As such, Minds attracts users with extreme opinions whose hate messages would be blocked on other networks.

While there are dif­fer­ences, Minds social media features are similar to those of com­peti­tors. Users exchange in­for­ma­tion on their personal wall or in groups. Hashtags are used to explore relevant content. The Facebook al­ter­na­tive can be operated from a browser and via the iOS or Android app.

Mastodon is based on the mi­croblog­ging platform Twitter. Instead of tweets, Mastodon publishes Toots of 500 char­ac­ters or below in the standard version. Images, videos, and links can be shared in a Toot. However, Mastodon pursues a de­cen­tral­ized approach. Not all servers are operated by its de­vel­op­ers. Instead, users can provide their own nodes. The admins of these servers (called: instances) can set up their own rules and decide whether they want to connect to the rest of the Mastodon network or use the server privately.

Much like Minds, Mastodon is open source. Anyone can view the software code and check out how their data is used. Mastodon uses the Ac­tiv­i­ty­Pub protocol managed by the World Wide Web Con­sor­tium (W3C). There is no algorithm to select content for users. Messages are displayed chrono­log­i­cal­ly.

In addition to the web ap­pli­ca­tion for the browser, an iOS app is available. Thanks to the open API, users can explore numerous un­of­fi­cial clients to use the network.

Diaspora is a social world online that puts your data back in your own hands, according to its own slogan. Its range of functions is similar to those of Facebook. Users can publish status updates, share posts and images, and comment on other people’s posts. And just like on Facebook, you can control who gets to see your own posts as well. Diaspora uses hashtags to order posts, meaning that you can use these to find like-minded people who share your interests. Linking Diaspora to your Facebook profile is also possible, and the software has its own chat function. Diaspora is also an open-source project.

One of the main features that Diaspora prides itself on is its de­cen­tral­iza­tion. This is to do with its technical back­ground: the platform consists of many different networks, known as pods. User data isn’t collected and stored centrally by the provider, instead the in­fra­struc­ture is dis­trib­uted by users them­selves, with data carried by these so-called pods. If you have good technical know-how, you can actually operate your own pod, which es­sen­tial­ly functions as a server. This means that you can be certain that your private data remains private and in your own hands. Less tech­ni­cal­ly gifted users can use ‘open pods’ in the network instead.

With an estimated 800,000 reg­is­tered users, Diaspora is certainly only a very small drop in the ocean compared to Facebook. But its de­cen­tral­ized system and the control over your own data that comes with it makes Diaspora a definite option for users concerned about data pro­tec­tion. Lastly, Diaspora is com­plete­ly ad-free.

An exciting Facebook al­ter­na­tive that was released in 2015, but has only recently seen a huge influx of new users, is the social network Vero. At the beginning of March 2018, for example, CEO Ayman Harari, worth billions of euros, announced an increase of more than three million users, after Vero had pre­vi­ous­ly been a rel­a­tive­ly niche app with around 200,000 active members. Not only effective in­flu­encer campaigns played an important role, but also the current offer of free lifetime mem­ber­ship won users over. The app, which is available for iOS, and Android, might only be available with a paid annual sub­scrip­tion in the future. However, the offer has been initially extended until further notice.

The annual fee, however, is intended to help out the de­vel­op­ing company, Vero Labs, by being its main source of income. The idea is for the platform to remain free of ad­ver­tis­ing in the long run and not to share any user in­for­ma­tion to make a profit. In addition, the company generates revenue through trans­ac­tion fees that merchants have to pay when selling products through Vero and im­ple­ment­ing the “buy now” button.

Although Vero is similar in many respects to com­peti­tors such as Facebook and Instagram (profile, structure, timeline, news feed), the platform offers some in­ter­est­ing unique selling points: The messages in the timeline are not pre-filtered by an algorithm, but appear in chrono­log­i­cal order. Contacts can also be divided into four cat­e­gories: “followers”, “ac­quain­tances”, “friends”, and “close friends”. These groups can then be selected or de­s­e­lect­ed as the target group when a post is published, so that only the desired audience is informed. The app can now be used to make video calls too.

To create and verify a Vero account, a private telephone number has to be entered.

The so-called social news ag­gre­ga­tor  Reddit is an es­tab­lished al­ter­na­tive to Facebook, without ripping off some other heavy­weights. The way it works is simple: users share content which can be up-voted or down-voted by others. This promotes in­ter­est­ing content while boring pieces quickly disappear. One incentive for this are Karma points. Users with a higher number of these virtual points are more respected across the platform.

The website is divided into sub-forums – so-called Sub­red­dits. In terms of cat­e­gories, Sub­red­dits can be found for almost any topic of interest. From memes to popular culture to business to politics – users can exchange views on anything. Typical social media features like adding friends are not a feature of Reddit. Users do not have to join using their real names. They can sign up with any username of their choice; adding an email address is optional. The network has already enjoyed huge pop­u­lar­i­ty in the US.