R.E.M.‘s Michael Stipe has urged his social media followers to join him in a temporary boycott of Meta and its associated products to protest their part in “helping advance the far right in America”.
Stipe shared his intentions via a post on Instagram on Sunday (Jan. 19), outlining the “Lights Out Meta” campaign which would take place from Jan. 19 – 26, and asked users to log out of all Meta platforms for the week. As Stipe added, this includes the likes of Facebook, Instagram, Threads, Messenger, WhatsApp, Giphy, Meta Quest, and Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses.
“I’ll be logged off for the week. Starting tomorrow,” Stipe wrote. “Please consider doing the same so corporations like Meta can imagine there might be consequences for helping advance the far right in America and world wide. Or are we too addicted [that] we can’t log off even for one week?”
“It’s so gross,” he continued in his post’s caption. “I’m really happy to step away for a week as some form of protest—and then I’ll come back and decide what to do from there.”
Stipe’s decision to take part in a boycott of Meta platforms comes just days after CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the company’s decision to drop their fact-checking program for Facebook and Instagram, noting it apparently made “too many mistakes and too much censorship” and is “too politically biased.”
Instead, Facebook and Instagram will rely on a method similar to the “community notes” model found on X. This, however, has been met with widespread criticism from commentators who have expressed fear it could lead to further misinformation on social media and strongly contribute to the further spread of far-right ideologies.
Stipe is not the only individual to announce their departure from social media this weekend, with the Cure‘s Robert Smith also telling his followers he is leaving X on Sunday (Jan. 19) in favor of accounts on Bluesky, Instagram, or Mastodon’s Universeodon. “Otherwise I will likely be outside,” added Smith.
