Meta is deleting links to Pixelfed, a decentralized Instagram competitor. On Facebook, the company is labeling links to Pixelfed.social as “spam” and deleting them immediately.

Bluesky user AJ Sadauskas originally posted that links to Pixelfed were being deleted by Meta; 404 Media then also tried to post a link to Pixelfed on Facebook. It was immediately deleted.

Pixelfed is experiencing a surge in user signups in recent days, after Meta announced that it would loosen its rules to allow users to call LGBTQ+ people “mentally ill” amid a host of other changes that shift the company overtly to the right. Meta and Instagram have also leaned heavily into AI-generated content. Pixelfed announced earlier Monday that it is launching an iOS app later this week.

Pixelfed said Sunday it is “seeing unprecedented levels of traffic to pixelfed.social.”

    • Brewchin
      link
      English
      310 hours ago

      Isn’t free market economics essentially about stripping government restrictions and regulations, specifically enabling this kind of commercial foul play by removing the legal tools to prevent it?

      Basically the opposite of how everyone expects it to work.