Social media thread (aka Twitter's meltdown + other stuff)

[Haighus]

Mar 16, 2023 6:45:25 GMT -5 Least censored on the planet! said:

Mar 16, 2023 6:05:52 GMT -5 pacific said:

Quite often the intentions come from a good place - pacificism, not wanting to kill people in war, not wanting to risk WW3 and the end of civilisation.

Yeah no sorry those don't come into play unless you add a whole fucking lot of ethnocentrism that makes you not look up the context of a war of aggression. They would never react the same if it was their own country being invaded by genocidal maniacs. Or even just a country close, geographically and culturally, to theirs.
No good intentions in "I'm willing to sacrifice those pesky Ukrainians for my own conscience". Just plain disregard for foreigners' lives.

I can see why people have the gut reaction of "stop the violence now whatever the result on political control" because they don't like violence. What they miss is that this appeasement will lead to greater violence through bad actors pushing further next time and also committing atrocities in captured areas.

So I think usually this is a short-sighted emotional response rather than a thought-through position.

[easye]

Got a question for Twitter's press team? The answer will be a poop emoji

www.npr.org/2023/03/20/1164654551/twitter-poop-emoji-elon-musk

Twitter's communications team has been effectively silent since November, when it was reportedly decimated in the layoffs that CEO Elon Musk implemented after buying the company.

That means it hasn't responded to journalists' questions about any of the developments that have happened since — from the layoffs and mass resignations themselves to major changes to the user experience to a series of controversies involving Musk and his announcement that he will eventually step down.

Going forward it will automatically reply to journalists' inquiries with a single poop emoji, Musk announced — via tweet, of course — on Sunday.

That seems productive. /S

[Disciple of Fate]

You couldn't even get better stuff from The Onion, we asked how things are going at Twitter: "Shit".

[bobtheinquisitor]

Did something happen with Facebook? It looks completely different and is damn near unnavigable for me. I just wanted to laugh at more SVB memes, and now it’s a whole thing.

[herzlos]

Mar 20, 2023 14:35:21 GMT -5 bobtheinquisitor said:

Did something happen with Facebook? It looks completely different and is damn near unnavigable for me. I just wanted to laugh at more SVB memes, and now it’s a whole thing.

It's definitely changed. On the desktop now if you try to view comments it opens up a mini window instead of just expanding the comments under the post, meaning you need to click on the X to get back to your feed, which is a PITA.

[easye]

The Tik Tok CEO is appearing before Congress today.

If it gets banned in the US, that is a pretty big shake up!

[Disciple of Fate]

Hard to say what would be fair, most of the accusations you can level at TikTok are not much different for other social media apps. You could say that the access of the CCP is worrying, but FB and the others allow things that are roughly as bad or worse because it makes money.

[easye]

To me it feels like a flex, to basically put a line in the sand and say that the US "owns" the internet to some degree. Irrational and stupid? Probably.

[easye]

Utah's new social media law means children will need approval from parents

www.npr.org/2023/03/24/1165764450/utahs-new-social-media-law-means-children-will-need-approval-from-parents

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah became the first state to enact laws limiting how children can use social media after Republican Gov. Spencer Cox signed a pair of measures Thursday that require parental consent before kids can sign up for sites like TikTok and Instagram.

The two bills Cox signed into law also prohibit kids under 18 from using social media between the hours of 10:30 p.m. and 6:30 a.m., require age verification for anyone who wants to use social media in the state and seek to prevent tech companies from luring kids to their apps using addictive features.

The laws passed through Utah's Republican-supermajority Legislature are the latest reflection of how politicians' perceptions of technology companies are changing — and that includes pro-business Republicans.

This brings three points to mind:

1. The Internet is following the historical path of new communications tech such as TV and Radio, first wily entrepreneurs, then big corporate control, followed by Government regulation.
2. This continues the "Children as Property/Parent's Rights" narrative popular in the GOP.
3. The Republicans continuing the war on "Big Tech", and moving to no longer be the party of Corporate power anymore.

[adurot]

How do they define Social Media?

[skyth]

Mar 24, 2023 12:39:58 GMT -5 adurot said:

How do they define Social Media?

(9) "Social media company" means a person or entity that:

156 (a) provides a social media platform that has at least 5,000,000 account holders

157 worldwide; and

158 (b) is an interactive computer service.

159 (10) (a) "Social media platform" means an online forum that a social media company

160 makes available for an account holder to:

161 (i) create a profile;

162 (ii) upload posts;

163 (iii) view the posts of other account holders; and

164 (iv) interact with other account holders or users.

165 (b) "Social media platform" does not include an online service, website, or application:

166 (i) where the predominant or exclusive function is:

167 (A) electronic mail;

168 (B) direct messaging consisting of text, photos, or videos that are sent between devices

169 by electronic means, where messages are:

170 (I) shared between the sender and the recipient;

171 (II) only visible to the sender and the recipient; and

172 (III) are not posted publicly;

173 (C) a streaming service that:

174 (I) provides only licensed media in a continuous flow from the service, website, or

175 application to the end user; and

176 (II) does not obtain a license to the media from a user or account holder by agreement

177 to its terms of service;

178 (D) news, sports, entertainment, or other content that is preselected by the provider and

179 not user generated, and any chat, comment, or interactive functionality that is provided

180 incidental to, directly related to, or dependent upon provision of the content;

181 (E) online shopping or e-commerce, if the interaction with other users or account

182 holders is generally limited to:

183 (I) the ability to upload a post and comment on reviews;

184 (II) the ability to display lists or collections of goods for sale or wish lists; and

185 (III) other functions that are focused on online shopping or e-commerce rather than

186 interaction between users or account holders;

187 (F) interactive gaming, virtual gaming, or an online service, that allows the creation

188 and uploading of content for the purpose of interactive gaming, edutainment, or associated

189 entertainment, and the communication related to that content;

190 (G) photo editing that has an associated photo hosting service, if the interaction with

191 other users or account holders is generally limited to liking or commenting;

192 (H) a professional creative network for showcasing and discovering artistic content, if

193 the content is required to be non-pornographic;

194 (I) single-purpose community groups for public safety if:

195 (I) the interaction with other users or account holders is generally limited to that single

196 purpose; and

197 (II) the community group has guidelines or policies against illegal content;

198 (J) providing career development opportunities, including professional networking, job

199 skills, learning certifications, and job posting and application services;

200 (K) business to business software;

201 (L) a teleconferencing or videoconferencing service that allows reception and

202 transmission of audio and video signals for real time communication;

203 (M) cloud storage;

204 (N) shared document collaboration;

205 (O) cloud computing services, which may include cloud storage and shared document

206 collaboration;

207 (P) providing access to or interacting with data visualization platforms, libraries, or

208 hubs;

209 (Q) to permit comments on a digital news website, if the news content is posted only

210 by the provider of the digital news website;

211 (R) providing or obtaining technical support for a platform, product, or service;

212 (S) academic or scholarly research; or

213 (T) genealogical research; or

214 (ii) where:

215 (A) the majority of the content that is posted or created is posted or created by the

216 provider of the online service, website, or application; and

217 (B) the ability to chat, comment, or interact with other users is directly related to the

218 provider's content;

219 (iii) that is a classified ad service that only permits the sale of goods and prohibits the

220 solicitation of personal services; or

221 (iv) that is used by and under the direction of an educational entity, including:

222 (A) a learning management system;

223 (B) a student engagement program; and

224 (C) a subject or skill-specific program.

[easye]

Then the OT Wasteland is safe!

[skyth]

Unless they say it would apply to proboards as a whole - They might have enough accounts to qualify.

[Haighus]

How many users does Dakka have?

Edit: 131,999 at time of edit. So not even close.

[herzlos]

Mar 23, 2023 12:28:37 GMT -5 Disciple of Fate said:

Hard to say what would be fair, most of the accusations you can level at TikTok are not much different for other social media apps. You could say that the access of the CCP is worrying, but FB and the others allow things that are roughly as bad or worse because it makes money.

So the CCP link is apparently because TikTok is headquartered in Singapore (not China), and a board member of the parent company is claimed to be a member of the CCP despite that not actually being true. There's no actual evidence that China has any more access to TikTok than the US does.

The rest of the hearing I've seen has just been an endless series of old people making it clear they don't understand how technology works, like asking if TikTok "accesses the wifi". I *think* they are trying to ask if it's snooping on the rest of the network, but it's not, it's literally just using the wifi as an internet connection to download cat videos.