I followed the link as you suggested. I found a slight correction on the way it works.

A “shadow account” was some layperson’s attempt to describe what happened. That seemed clear to me immediately. It also seems that Threads and Instagram are much more intertwined than users expect.

I understand why this would upset people! I was furious when I tapped one screen wrong and connected my Facebook and Instagram accounts. It can’t be undone. It changed a profile picture. I didn’t quite become angry enough to delete both, but I stopped using them.

If you used your real info, you can get it deleted by pretending to live in California. I think that Meta’s compliance page is hard to find.

I’m not sure. Normally, most users would come back as you describe. But if the lack of mods gets too serious, then most users will begin to get bored or annoyed. If other platforms scale up well, boredom translates into “I heard about…”

It’s similar on android. Most apps that use it legitimately relate to health or fitness. I suspect that your headphone example would apply to Pixel headphones, also.

Meta probably wants it mostly for advertising purposes. They aren’t exactly cautious when selling data, though, so who knows?

Yes, this is the reason Meta keeps fighting Apple and Google when the app stores add marginal transparency.

I wonder how many people will even consider the possibility that they need to check those permissions carefully lest the social media app collect health data?

They are collecting health information and a category called “sensitive information.”

Fighting to keep apps from gathering my location is old news. Many also want my photos, and I don’t trust them enough. Meta’s policy is a whole different level of creepy.

It seems to me that ‘any news is good news’ is the X Corp strategy. Approximately once a week, Musk does something dumb that reaches multiple news outlets. Approximately once a month, that dumb thing manages to surprise me (and, apparently, the press).

Yep. It also has phrases to convince laypeople otherwise. This letter wasn’t written for the client. It was written for the news.

This fits my observations. It seems to be easier for some very small, tight-knit communities. I can see why migration would be more feasible for those.

The larger trend will probably be much slower. Lemmy and other solutions need to grow, develop, and do some search optimization. I suspect that the number of mods on Reddit will slowly go down over the next year or two. Hopefully, most will find a new landing place.

Yes. Mods form a very important minority.

I’ve seen statistics showing that most of the traffic returned. I wonder, how long will that last without good mods?

I live where the laws are less helpful. EU and California have the helpful ones. But as a non-resident, my understanding is that the law allows full removal of personal info. Deleting posts would be selective removal and doesn’t have the “and I live in the right place” question.

That sounds like a server error.

Don’t get me wrong. I have no doubt that Reddit has decided to go to war with any unhappy users. I have zero respect left.

Out of self-respect, I will still try to understand whether something is a bug or deliberate.