Reddit is going to have their IPO. Anybody can buy shares. With enough shares, a shareholder resolution could be proposed and passed. Similar shareholder activism has forced Fortune 500 companies to divest from fossil fuels. We could replace corporate execs at will and have major site changes be put to a site-wide vote. This is something that could stop eshitification dead in its tracks. What’s more, the improved user experience would make Reddit the #1 place for social media period, which means more user engagement, which means more ability to sell ads and keep the platform afloat.
Federation is great, and there should be many Lemmy instances, but it does not solve problems of funding and management. We need user-managed, user-owned platforms, or they will all suffer the same fates.
What am I missing here?
At the rate spez is devaluing the company, we ought to be able to buy a controlling stake for peanuts before they even go public.
But the bigger question is why we’d want to.