Meta admits it removed links to Instagram’s Pixelfed competition

Meta seems to be blocking links PixelfedThe photo sharing platform, on Facebook, according to both Bluesky users and 404 Media. A subset of articles related to “pixelfed.social” was removed, with Facebook’s “Community Standards on spam” being used as the reason.

Asked for comment, a Meta spokesperson said the removal of the posts was a mistake and would be returned.

Pixelfed runs on the ActivityPub protocol and is part of the “fediverse” of social media platforms. It works like Instagram in being able to let you share, like, and comment on photos, but because it’s on ActivityPub, your posts can appear in other apps or be edited to share photos if you want. Meta is gradually converting ActivityPub sessions into Threads, making it possible to export to Threads and Mastodon. at the same timeFor example.

The timing of this removal is enough to make anyone suspicious. Meta just announced amazing change how it plans to improve voice on its platforms. The company decided to end its third-party review program and update its Hateful Conduct policy last week. The company’s liberal standards now allow hate speech in any context, based on what Wired he managed to dig.

It’s not unreasonable to think that users would consider jumping ship to another channel like Pixelfed in response, and the platform did. sharing on Saturday that “I’m seeing a lot of people who have never been to pixelfed.social.” It’s also not unreasonable to think that the right-leaning Meta can hold back its competitors, as X did and links to Mastodon and Substack.