REM’s Michael Stipe is encouraging people to boycott Facebook and Instagram for their role in “helping promote the far right in America.”

The singer asked people to log out of all platforms owned by Meta – which also includes Threads, Whatsapp, Messenger, Giphy, Metaquest and Rayban Meta from January 19 to 26.

“I’m going offline this week,” the singer of the American rock group wrote in the caption of his post. “Consider doing the same so that companies like Meta imagine there might be consequences for promoting the far right in America and globally.”

“Or are we too addicted to disconnect for even a week?” he added.

Stipe also commented that he felt Meta’s actions were “so blatant” and noted, “I’m more than 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.”

Check out this Instagram post.

This post was shared by Michael Stipe (@michaelstipe)

Facebook’s parent company renamed itself Meta in 2021 to “reflect its focus on building the metaverse.” The president and CEO is Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg. Earlier this month, the company announced it was phasing out independent fact-checkers on Facebook and Instagram, replacing them with X-style community “notes” where it’s up to users to comment on the accuracy of posts.

After the decision, the Guardian reported that experts were worried it would lead to “rapid radicalisation” with “middle-aged Facebook users” at risk of being “exposed to extremist content” that would make it “even harder to discern the truth”. .

The move is seen as an attempt to get closer to incoming US President Trump, who recently said he was impressed by Zuckerberg’s decision and added that Meta “has come a long way”.

Michael Stipe has been outspoken about his political views early in his career and recently appeared at rallies for US Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris.