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      Why you shouldn't switch to MeWe

      Archer Ships · Monday, 1 March, 2021 - 23:03 edit · 2 minutes

    A lot of my friends have accounts on MeWe because they got tired of the authoritarian paternalism and censorship on Twitter and Facebook.

    However, I'm not going to participate much on MeWe because MeWe has many of the same policies that Facebook has, and has already started to censor in a similar fashion. (Even though they may only be doing it so that they stay in the good graces of Google, Apple, and Amazon, so they don't get canceled the same way Parler has been canceled.)

    Like Facebook, MeWe's Terms of Service allow them to arbitrarily delete ban anyone, for any reason, at any time.

    "At MeWe our focus is creating a positive and helpful experience for our users. We want MeWe to be convenient, safe, and fun for you and your communities. This means there are a few rules. You may NOT:"
    ...
    "Stalk, harass, bully, intimidate, or harm another user.
    Post unlawful, harmful, obscene, or pornographic content.
    Impersonate someone.
    Post content that is hateful, threatening, harmful, incites violence; or contains graphic or gratuitous violence.
    Use MeWe to do anything unlawful, misleading, malicious, or discriminatory."
    ...
    At its discretion, MeWe may permanently cancel accounts of users who violate the Terms of Service. "

    Harm is so broad it can encompass almost any behavior. Some people think they're harmed if you don't use the right pronouns.

    Same goes for "misleading", "discriminatory", and "hateful".

    And what's wrong with hating some things? Don't commies, Nazis, and the guinea worm deserve hate?

    This is not merely theoretical. MeWe tweeted several times that they are deleting groups that, for example, question the 2020 election results. (See screenshots in comments below.)

    Of course, MeWe got plenty of backlash for admitting to censoring conservative groups. So they deleted the tweets, and CEO Jason Hardy claimed that they were "an incorrect message":

    https://mewe.com/group/55f9dd29e4b050c69e693558/profile/538d3b4ae4b03a2ad43f4a94

    This might not be so bad if MeWe weren't also trying to lockin its users the same way that Facebook does. Here are ten criteria to look for if you want to prevent being locked into an online social network:

    https://mov.im/?blog/archerships%40movim.eu/checklist-for-preventing-lockin-to-social-networks-wxIo1M

    MeWe meets three of ten of those criteria:

    1. MeWe does allow you to download your posts/images.
    2. I haven't tried to delete my account yet, but I've not heard that MeWe makes it hard.
    3. As far as I know, MeWe hasn't gone after anyone for patent and copyright law violations.

    However, on rest of the criteria, MeWe doesn't score well.

    MeWe doesn't even allow you to publicly share your posts unless you have a paid account. And even then, you're only allowed to share a snippet, not the whole post--there's no RSS feed.

    MeWe also does not offer a public api. So people on other social networks can't easily communicate with people on MeWe. No app developers other than MeWe can develop for MeWe.

    And MeWe is closed source. So if you don't like how MeWe is running things, or the direction development is taking, tough: it's MeWe's way or the highway. And I don't want to travel down that highway again.

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