For reference, here’s a BB moderator’s response:
it’s a tricky question, one that rests in large part on the fact that Facebook enjoys semi-monopoly status in the social media/social marketing space and that the U.S. government seems uninterested in making any changes to its anti-trust approach that might reduce FB’s power to exploit its users/products and encourage its executives to be more responsible in policing the content that appears on its platform.
That’s not to say that’s the only solution. High-traffic and trusted media sites or outlets like CBC or BoingBoing are capable of setting up instances of decentralised and FOSS social media platforms like Mastadon or Diaspora or apps built on Tim Berners Lee’s Solid framework, and could potentially bring hundreds of thousands of motivated, tech-savvy users to them – users who are the typical “early adopters” for any new platform or app.
It would be more work for the IT staffs of those outlets, no doubt, and it wouldn’t instantly eliminate their dependence on FB and Twitter, and it would have to work in conjunctions with government anti-trust efforts, but I do agree that if media outlets are sincere in their desire to escape the clutches of these horrible, destructive and feckless platforms they have to start running and promoting decentralised alternatives sooner rather than later.
