With about a quarter of the world population using it. Facebook is undoubtedly the biggest social media platform on the Planet. Billions of Photos, Videos, and other files are uploaded on the platform daily. Facebook, to operate, has to be given access to internal storage, contact list, location, Mic, Camera, and other users’ general access. The amount of information that Facebook has of its users is extraordinary.
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With this much information about a user, Social media platforms make billions. For this to happen, Facebook shares user data with third parties. Which is the main reason why many people are moving out of Facebook and looking for alternatives. Facebook has also been a lot in the news for user data related topics, and trust us, the reasons are not pretty.
People are now getting serious about their privacy and data. Many have learned about Facebook’s hidden terms and conditions that are causing concerns about their data being kept safe. News like Cambridge Analytica gaining access to Facebook servers and manipulating millions of users’ user data to affect the US elections has caused panic in the user base.
More and more users are ditching Facebook because of privacy-related issues and seeking safer alternatives. If you’re one of them, then you’re at the right place. Were going to list some of the best Facebook alternatives that you can use to socialize without compromising with your data.
More Alternative Guides:
List of 9+ Best Facebook Alternatives In 2021:
So let’s dive into details.
1. MeWe
MeWe is a California based social media platform that runs with the slogan ‘#not4sale’. They believe that the Privacy revolution is nothing but common sense getting acknowledged. It has no advertisements, and the user feed is also not manipulated. A user has complete freedom to customize his own feed and enjoy only the content that he/she wishes to see.
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When it comes to the features, You can use MeWe to make posts, share them with others, and interact with your posts, vice versa. You can chat with users using the MeWe messenger, which is safer than the Facebook messenger as it uses double ratchet encryption. You can make audio & video calls and even send GIfs in the chat.
MeWe has almost all the features that Facebook has to offer, but with a safer approach. As of 2018, MeWe had around 90k active groups, and among those, 60k were publicly open. MeWe has loose moderation. You can post things that would possibly be banned on other social media platforms. This gives the user the freedom to post and express themselves.
MeWe has become so popular that it has the most downloads on the Apple play store in the Social media section, YES! Even more than Facebook. MeWe is an ideal alternative for Facebook, and we recommend you give it a try.
- Platform availability: Web, Android, iOS.
- Pricing: MeWe is free to use.
Pros
- Encrypted chats in MeWe messenger.
- Loose moderation.
- No advertisements.
Cons
- Fewer users (as of now)
2. Diaspora
Diaspora is a decentralized social network. It means that all users’ user data is not kept at a single place with huge servers. Instead, what it does is that it allows users to create and host their own server or join an existing server and socialize within it. There are servers of all types like music-related community, anime-related community. People of similar taste join a specific server and interact with each other.
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Diaspora does not own your data. Whatever you post on it is totally under your ownership, and they cannot use the data in any way whatsoever. As it doesn’t access your data, it is completely advertising free too.
You can also control who gets to view your posts. One more interesting thing about Diaspora is that it allows its users to use pseudonyms, which is great for privacy. You can be anonymous and socialize at the same time. Facebook doesn’t allow this. Overall, the platform is very secure and interesting. We recommend you give it a shot.
- Platform availability: Web.
- Pricing: Diaspora is free to use.
Pros
- Very secured as compared to Facebook because of Decentralized system
- Full ownership of your data.
- No advertisements.
- Allows the use of pseudonyms.
Cons
- Relatively low user base (as of now)
- Bit of technical knowledge required to set up servers.
3. Vero
Launched back in 2015, Vero is a Lebanese based Social Media platform. Their tagline goes as ‘Optimized for Connections and not addiction,’ and it truly lives up to it. There is no algorithm in Vero that suggests anything to you. Your feed is purely based on what you like. There are no advertisements and bots to ruin your experience. Vero gained popularity when the data breach news about Cambridge Analytica & Facebook broke. Vero has around 3 million users as of now, and they are only growing. Unlike Facebook, Vero doesn’t share your data with third parties.
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If you’re tired of the same user interface on all socials, then the interface that Vero has to offer will be of your liking, it’s different from others and easy to use as well. With their 2.0 update, they’ve totally refreshed the app, and it’s more stylish than ever. With Vero, you can make audio and video calls to your connections. Share images, videos, and stickers in the chat.
The feature we loved most about Vero is that it has useful info on their dashboard. It shows information like the time you spend on the app, your average visits, etc. This helps you balance out your usage and be aware of the valuable time you are spending on the app.
- Platform Availability: Android, iOS.
- Pricing: Vero is free to use.
Pros
- No advertisements & bots.
- Unique user interface.
- No customized feed. You have full control over the feed.
- Usage info column in the dashboard.
Cons
- Cannot log in from Web, can only be accessed from within the applications.
4. Minds
Launched in 2015, Minds is an anti-Facebook social media platform that pays you for the valuable time you spend on it. It’s an open-source platform that ends to end encrypts your chats and keeps your data safe. You can post videos, images, and statuses on the feed and give them hashtags just like Facebook. You can earn tokens with your contribution to the platform, and you can use these tokens to upgrade your profile or even exchange it for real currency. In 2015, the famous hacktivist group Anonymous encouraged people to use Minds over Facebook due to its security features.
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Be ready to see many advertisements though. People monetize their content on Minds, and it’s pretty common to see advertisements when you visit a blog or post. Although the advertisements are not annoying in a sense but their being there is a con in our view. Leaving that aside, Minds is a great social media platform to use if you’re ditching Facebook and want to earn money while you socialize too.
- Platform availability: Web, Android, iOS.
- Pricing: Minds is free to use.
Pros
- End to end encrypted chats.
- User can earn money while using the platform
- Open-source format.
Cons
- Presence of advertisements
- The comparatively low user base
Frequently Asked Questions:
#1. Is Facebook messenger safe?
Ans: Facebook messenger claims to be safe, but if you look at their terms and conditions, it’s not privacy-oriented at all. Many loopholes are cleverly marketed by Facebook to trick users into thinking that it’s a safer place to socialize. Our answer to this is a clear NO.
#2 What can I replace Facebook with?
Ans: Our top 5 picks are Mewe, Diaspora, Vero, Minds, Ello. We’ve explained all about them in the above article. However, there are few honorable mentions that we’d like to add (Reddit, Mastodon, Google+).
#3 Can I delete my Facebook completely? What happens after that?
Ans: Yes, Facebook allows you to delete your account permanently. After you’ve deleted your account, Facebook claims that it deletes your personal data from their servers but keeps the log data, which remains in the server for approx 3 months after deleting the account. There is a catch in this too. Facebook says that the content posted about you by others is not part of your account, and thus that information about you stays on Facebook as long as the parent poster remains on the server.
Conclusion:
All the social media we’ve mentioned are safer as compared to Facebook. The only drawback is that all of them have a relatively low user base. People are only starting to realize that shifting from Facebook to other safer alternatives is a great decision for privacy.
The user base of these alternatives, which is very low right now, will grow exponentially when the great migration of Facebook users happens in the future. Make sure you choose the alternative that suits you the best and start a new journey that is private in its sense.
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