How Privacy Centered Social Media Fails to be Safe
A story of MeWe and the bad actors who now call it home.
Social media is a cranky teenager — after all, it’s only been around for a handful of years. If we set the clock rolling with MySpace, which broke ground in 2003, we’re looking at a system of global communication that’s still an adolescent. And, like any late-teen looking to figure out life, social media is encountering some unpleasant truths about the world.
MeWe is considered one of the “newcomers” to the social media sphere, founded in 2012 as “Sgrouples” (a name they did right in abandoning).
MeWe is a privacy-focused social networking and messaging service, ostensibly trying to provide the same (or better) features as Facebook, but without the tracking, advertising, algorithmic post sorting, and massive data-security holes of its far bigger brother. These are all good goals, and have long been on my list of reasons why Facebook is a dangerous entity in our digital times.
But the road to Hell is paved with good intentions, and MeWe’s road has rails.
