I prefer end to end encryption, like in Matrix, Signal, SimpleX, etc. So I don’t use Lemmy for PMs since they are not actually private, hell I went quite a while where I stopped using Lemmy because it is not meant for someone interested in their own privacy despite the irony of having multiple privacy focused communities. If someone doesn’t want to host instances dedicated to CSAM I could see them wanting to defederate, but so far I’ve seen defederation used as a temper tantrum. It’s always over some stupid drama. If you don’t want to host whatever then what is the point of opening your instance to other people? I fail to see why someone would bother going through this trouble and then say no you can’t view this community meant for modifying your nintendo switch. Even reddit does not care as much as the instance owners on Lemmy do. It’s just baffling. Also good luck deleting your posts and comments. Ugh this convo makes me hate Lemmy again.

I also would rather manage what I block or federate to. I hate that Lemmy enables instances to have too much control over its users, deciding what you can and cannot see and admins can see your PMs too. I got fed up with Lemmy.world because of their federation fuckups, why would communities that talk about piracy but don’t link to anything cause an admin to get sued? They won’t, reddit allows more piracy talk than Lemmy.world does lmao. Obviously Nintendo searches through the fediverse for anyone even saying they pirated stuff, right guys?! Nah I just don’t care for their admins. I usually dont agree with whatever their admins say, I even saw someone from world complain about Lemmy.world policies on their thread and the user got their account deleted by an admin with a nice smug response from them. I can’t have my own instance since I don’t have the money to spare, otherwise I would since it is BS that Lemmy doesn’t allow users to have the same control over their feed as an admin.

This has nothing to do with MFA. Reread the article.

To understand these questions, you have to know how the scam works. Here’s what typically happens: One of my social media accounts goes down. Suddenly — in a way that feels too quick to be a coincidence, though it’s unclear exactly how they might get an account down taken down — a stranger contacts me via Twitter DMs or email. They promise they’ll get my account back if I pay a price. Sometimes, they claim they have an inside man at Meta.

Performer Abigail Mac has received these messages after losing her account. “It’s people that work at Instagram,” Mac says she believes. “[They’re] extorting them and just stealing their money.”

In her most recent ordeal, Mac says, Meta took down her account then she received a message from a scammer, offering to retrieve the account for $15,000. They swore the account would disappear forever if she didn’t pay them in 24 hours. She replied that she would get her account back herself.

“Then they asked me what my budget was,” Mac says. “Every day [they] would knock some money off. It’s such a scam.”

The scarier scenario occurs when someone messages you are saying, “Hey, save my stuff in case you lose your account.” Then, whoopsie doodle, lo and beyond, your account’s gone. Now, when I receive these messages, my stomach drops.

The worst part is when I’ve paid these people, it’s often worked. They’ve retrieved my account. I’m thankful for that, but it raises questions about how these people operate and what they know, not just about sex workers’ Instagram accounts, but everyone’s. How do they get the accounts back? Where do they work when they’re not retrieving sex workers’ accounts? How do they communicate with Meta to fix the problem? And why does your account get deleted over and over again once you pay these people?

“Once you pay, they know you will pay and keep doing it,” Mac says.

Girls have paid up to $20,000 and have not gotten their accounts back. It’s plausible these scam artists message a girl, report her account, and then contact her via another avenue, such as Twitter or email. But there’s no way to know for sure. For all the talk about the dangers of social media, from teenage anorexia rates to smartphone addiction, the public pays little attention to the harms sex workers face on these sites. (Unless a porn star is fucking a president, you’re not going to see her on the cover of the Wall Street Journal.) We need Meta to investigate the problem and identify what has gone wrong before more people get scammed.