Why one obscure app could help crumble Meta’s empire

If the question, "Who is Meta's biggest rival?" were connected a Family Feud survey, TikTok would apt beryllium the winning answer. In the Federal Trade Commission's antitrust lawsuit against the Facebook and Instagram owner, the government's effect astir apt wouldn't adjacent marque the apical 10: a tiny blockchain-based level called MeWe.

MeWe looks a just magnitude similar Facebook astatine archetypal glance, but that you marque an relationship utilizing the Frequency blockchain - which the institution explains is simply a decentralized protocol that lets you determination your societal connections to different (mostly hypothetical astatine this point) apps that enactment Frequency. The institution says 20 cardinal users person joined, but erstwhile I marque a MeWe relationship and log in, I scroll done my autopopulated provender and think, "Who are these people?" I hunt for a fewer of my Verge colleagues, figuring if anyone has tried this obscure app, it mightiness beryllium 1 of them, but I travel up short. I effort immoderate nationalist figures: Tim Cook? Jeff Bezos? Mark Zuckerberg? There are immoderate accounts with these names, but it seems unlikely they're the ones I person successful mind.

The assertion that MeWe is simply a person rival to Facebook and Instagram than TikTok mightiness beryllium baffling if you're not st …

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