It's all that's needed. Social Media lives and dies by the network effect so as popular creators get forced off or choose to leave the platform the content consumers will also leave.
Beyond that very few users of any service or platform will expend the time and effort trying to install an app from alternate sources so as devices die or get reset those users will disappear. As an example back in 2013 Flappy Bird was stupid popular but once you couldn't install it directly from a regular app store anymore it died off.
TT is 12 months from death in the United States. I hope Bluesky is ready for them.
YouTube...that reminds of a conversation I had here on Lemmy a while back. The subject of right wing political content on YouTube came up and I had the same "I don't encounter that" comment that I just made in regards to Mastadon.
After a bit of back and forth I realized that I don't engage with political content of any type on YT so the algorithm doesn't push it at me. It seems that YT doesn't do a good job of classifying political content as to its lean. So once you start engaging with political content the algorithm starts suggesting all kinds of it.
It's the same with social justice and racial issues. I don't engage with that kind of content on YT or Mastadon, don't see it my feeds, and it's not being pushed at me by the algorithm.
I don't know if that explains it completely but there has to be some reason(s) why some of us don't see this stuff while other people see it all the time.
I apologize for misreading your post.
Like you I'm confused at the continual cries of racism on Mastadon. I've been on there for months and never seen it. That doesn't mean it doesn't exist but I'm confused as to how it is "full of racists/white supremacists" but I never bump into them or see it.
I don't want to doubt anyone's experience but I'm at a loss to explain why my feed is so different from other peoples.
but it would take a lot of effort, computers, money, energy, etc to constantly scan and store information for everyone, right?
You are describing PRISM and it's been running since 2007.
When they realized how much storage it was going to take the US Government built the UDC at Camp Williams in Utah.
On the internet you can just freely say what you really think even if you know it's unpopular.
This advice is SUPER dependent on where you live. People in the Middle East have been executed for saying the wrong thing on the Internet. People in the UK have been imprisoned for saying the wrong thing online. Criticize social policy or Government in China and its quite possible you'll be off to prison.
Even in the good Ol' USA there's limits to how free your speech can be online.
Like what would happen if a US Citizen were to send a threat to the leader of China? Or russia?
US law about threats make no distinction in regards to the target so if the threat is credible enough or made often enough you'll receive a visit from the FBI.
The modifier here is that it's pretty hard for your average person living in the United States to make a credible threat against a world leader in a far away country.
The reaction over that is heavily tempered by the fact that the North Koreans are staying inside Russia. If they were in Ukraine I'm pretty sure the reaction would be much different.
Shush, this post wasn't about U.S. politics.
I don't need a B580 but I'm considering buying one just to show support. It'd sure be nice to have a valid budget option.
It's the year my sister was born.