Anything related to big tech (Amazon, Discord, Facebook, Instagram etc) is just a front for the US Government. It's how such things stay in business. Don't fall for their excuse of making money from advertising. They make money from Government funding and the Five Eyes spying ring.
I could write novels about how they herded everyone into this new crap like reddit. Learn about the history of Google Adsense and how every independent webmaster that sold out to it watched all their users leave in favor of these large big tech social media websites. The money was good for a few years. $10k+ a month just for running google ads. But they all met the same fate: kicked from the ad program and left with a dead forum.
Even a place like this one still running a forum can't escape the spying ring now. Cloudflare exists solely to spy on end users. It makes the encryption (hah!) between yourself and the web server useless. Just try and run a website now without it. You'll get ddos'ed into oblivion as soon as you have more than 10 users. Ever notice how the big tech companies never get ddos'ed anymore? Yeah. Guess who has the means and reasons to take small websites offline. Hint: It isn't some teenager in his mother's basement or some spooky hacker in Russia. It's the same Government that's currently taking away the last of your rights.
A few years ago I tried to fight back again. It gets harder every year. For my trouble I've been harassed and threatened with a free trip to Gitmo. I'm done. There is no way to fight back until the people control the network again. This centralized abomination they call the modern internet will never have freedom on it again until those in power are removed.
Most people involved in the tech industry don't even understand how it works or is supposed to work anymore. They shit out horrible javascript "apps" for $100k+ a year. They claim to be geeks and nerds. But ask them how the CPU in their company issued laptop works and watch their eyes glaze over. They don't even care to know how it works. As long as the cell phone keeps dinging with those sweet dopamine hits of attention they're content.
The sub-culture I grew up in doesn't even exist anymore. I can't remember the last time I met a real hacker in the wild. It's just an endless line of know-nothings that managed to get hired by a big tech company because their github and linkedin profiles have the right stats. I met a chick last year that got hired to work on kernels. She doesn't know C. She doesn't even know Python or perl or any of the easy scripting languages. But she's got over 1,000 contributes to the Linux kernel under her belt. Every last one of them is just an edit to "problematic" comments in the source code. Shit no one should ever care about and 99% of the population will never see. She's living the easy life bringing down $150k+ a year and pretending.
Everyone I know that put in work in the late 90s and early 2000s has abandoned the tech industry. Our types are not wanted anymore. We know too much. We won't break our code of ethics in the name of profits. We're sick of watching everyone being taken advantage of and spied on. We're a dying breed. In a few more decades we'll all be gone and no one will understand how any of this shit works. Which is exactly what those in power want. Because they don't want to risk someone doing the right thing and tearing it all down from the inside.
Data, like speech, should be free. Yet we live in a world where a string of 1s and 0s can land you in prison for the rest of your life. Don't piss off the powers that be. Otherwise they'll take your devices, claim they found the wrong string of 1s and 0s on it and no one will believe you when you try to defend yourself. I've seen so many people thrown in prison over trumped up charges. Usually, it's child porn that's planted on their devices. Once you're labeled as a kiddy diddler your life is over. No one will help you or even believe you. They'll throw you in a cell with bubba and claim you killed yourself after he rapes and murders you. Or you get the free vacation to Gitmo never to be seen again.
We live under the most oppressive Government in history and most people think it's fine and dandy. As long as the food stamps are re-filled every month, the programming keeps being shown on the screens, and the booze and smoke keeps being stocked most people will give no fucks. I've spent the last 10 years of my life trying to change the state of things and despite things getting worse every year no one believes me or cares.
Just go to the nearest tourist trap. Observe the herds of people. Watch them line up to get that selfie photo and walk away without even viewing the natural or man-made wonder they just traveled 100s of miles to see. They don't even bother to look at it with their own eyes. Most of them take a quick video or snap some pictures and run off to post it to social media for that sweet dopamine. Most are terrified of human interaction now. Last week I spent 6 hours walking around a large state park and city. I was looking for anyone to share a joint with. They all crossed the street when they saw me coming. When I could get within earshot of someone they buried their nose in their cell phone and pretended I didn't exist. After 6 hours I gave up and smoked it myself. They say we're more connected to each other than ever before but it's a lie. We're all more lonely than at any point in the history of man. Most of those likes you're getting aren't even from real people. Most of the crap "trending" on social media isn't even real. But people love to believe the bullshit. The herd will go along with whatever they think is popular because they want to fit-in.
I've worked around people and cattle all my life. You'd be shocked how similar they really are. The rich treat us like cattle for a reason because that's exactly what we are. Society and culture is changing for the worse rapidly. Soon there won't even be pockets of different cultures anymore. Just one world-wide mundane boring culture of crap filled with mindless zombies eager to report any real human that might happen by. If you want to see the world now is a good time to do it. Soon there will be nothing worth seeing.
You lost the ability to be a real anon on the internet decades ago by the way. No amount of tor, VPN, proxy servers, or whatever else will help you. They control all the infrastructure. They pick through every bit of meta data. They store it all forever in massive datacenters. They predict what you might do based on how you interact with it. They know more about you than you know about yourself. They're always listening. They're always watching. 1984 is nothing compared to what we're already living with. Winston had it easy compared to us. Most people just have not woken up to it. Of those that know most do not care. Nothing short of a revolution is going to change it. Your vote doesn't matter. In fact, they don't even bother to count it anymore. Not that there is anyone worth voting for.
Never forget that they control comms. Yes they. The people that have controlled every aspect of your life since you were birthed into whatever this hellscape is. No amount of blockchain fairy tales or attempts to escape into the darknets (tor is a Government project btw) will allow you to escape their watch. There is only one way forward to change. But don't even think about attempting it. You'll be eaten by your own. All they have to do is send some agents into the crowd to point out the differences between you and the next person. Next thing you know instead of protesting the banks the herd of people are marching for bullshit while being sponsored by the banks. This one can't talk because he's white. This other one can't talk because he's got a penis. That one gets to talk first because he's purple and on the 9th level of queer even thought he doesn't know shit or why we're even here in the first place. This pride march is sponsored by Chase bank and your friends on Wallstreet. The same people you showed up to protest against 10 years ago. Don't forget to post about it on social media so you can pretend you're doing something positive while everyone you know is slowly starving to death and slowly drying from big pharma drugs. It's all good. The new superhero movie comes out next week and so do the new personal spying devices with 8k ULTRA HD resolution. You can even talk to it and it'll show you propaganda straight from the source. I bet the VR porn is going to be amazing.