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Showing posts from January, 2016

Ello: The Exodus That Facebook Cannot Ignore

Yes, "exodus" is the right word here. If Facebook is the Pharoah's Egypt then Ello is the new promised land. And what exactly is being promised there? Anonymity, no ads, no commoditisation and many others claims Facebook cannot make anymore. Ello, a social networking site that started last year, is gaining momentum. The nitro-boost it needed came in the form of Facebook's rigid "real name only" stance. San Francisco, which has a large LGBTIQ community, did not welcome this move. Many drag queens and trans people took offense to the fact that their Facebook accounts were blocked because they were not using their legal names — something many people in the LGBTIQ community avoid, either for fear of being outed or because most of them do not identify with the gender and the name they were assigned at birth. Ello, on the other hand, was started by seven programmers and artists, who collectively believe that Facebook is not a social network anymore. It is mor