R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe calls for Facebook and Instagram blackout in protest against advance of American far right

nme.com:

R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe has encouraged people to boycott Facebook and Instagram over their role in “helping advance the far right in America”.The singer has called for people to log out from all platforms owned by Meta – which also includes Threads, Whatsapp, Messenger, Giphy, Metaquest and Rayban Meta – between January 19 and 26.“I’ll be logged off for the week,” he captioned his post. “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 we can’t log off even for one week?” he added.A post shared by Michael Stipe (@michaelstipe)Stipe also commented that he feels the actions of Meta are “so gross”, adding: “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.”Meta rebranded to its current name in 2021 to “reflect its focus on building the metaverse”, having previously been the parent company of Facebook.