A private Instagram alternative you can host yourself

Before it turned into a social media "cesspool" of censorship, relentless tracking of users, algorithm-mandated downranking or promotion of content, and a place ruled by influencers - Instagram was quite an exciting app that people enjoyed for photo sharing and as a social platform.

The idea is clearly sound, but now that Facebook's execution of it is as bad as it has become, no wonder both users and developers are looking for alternatives.

There have been some attempts, but mostly mimicking not only Instagram's user experience but also its technical model. Now, over the last year, development has picked up on a different alternative: Pixelfed is ad-free and privacy-friendly, open source and decentralized, and provides chronological feeds without algorithmic manipulation.

…