It seems absurd that Meta literally has them by the balls, and these people can’t do anything about it.
I don’t get this sentiment. If anything happens to WhatsApp, they’ll just switch to another IM. WhatsApp wasn’t the first to come along, and won’t be the last. How exactly does Meta have them by the balls?
And despite the fact that the vehicles that use it spend 90% of their time parked in one place, you can’t have it delivered to that place like you can with other utilities like water, electricity, and natural gas.
Thank god for that. Can you imagine how much polluted land and groundwater we’d have if we piped it around and it leaked like our water pipes do?
I know, I’m from those countries. Like I said, we used other IM apps before WhatsApp came along, and if something changes we can use a new app. WhatsApp currently leads the market due to the network effect, but it doesn’t have us ‘by the balls’.
(Though the most likely successor would be WeChat, which is arguably much much worse in many ways)
Yes, they currently have the market share, and network effect keeps them there. Nevertheless, my point was it’s not a monopoly, so how does Meta have everybody 'by the balls"?
Oh right. Not quite nowadays, they get subsidised from multiple companies, including Google (YouTube) and such. I hate to say this, but WeChat would probably be happy to jump in and grab some market share if Meta does something egregiously dumb
I suppose that depends on your definition of by the balls. Like I said, it’s not difficult for everybody to switch if they piss everyone off. On average people here have 2-3 IMs installed.
I was taking a look at the Naomi Wu situation (A Chinese DIY tech youtuber who went missing after being watched by the government) and in one part they mentioned that she was concerned about her privacy, so started using Signal, but had a default chinese keyboard that had a keylogger and the police had looked into what she was...
Not quite missing, but she said she had received strike 2 of 3, and the 3rd one is really bad. So she’s going quiet to avoid any potential stuff from happening.
B.C.’s Cortes Island is making housing history as the first community in the province to tax short-term holiday rentals and have the funds directed to affordable housing projects, said Mark Vonesch, the area’s Strathcona Regional District director.
I agreed with you before reading the article, but it turns out it’s on private property. So no transport infrastructure, and the property owners would have had to shell out a while bunch from their own pockets to do anything.
They also tried putting up signs and hoping visitors would self regulate, but that obviously didn’t work out. Hard to blame anybody except selfish assholes in this case.
A jet ski rider who has been detained since he washed up on South Korea’s coast is believed to be a Chinese dissident who feared for his safety and fled by crossing hundreds of miles of sea, trailing barrels of fuel behind him....
Less in fear for his life, and more in fear of jail time. Which he shouldn’t have had to fear, don’t get me wrong. But there’s still a big difference in scale between fleeing jail and fleeing death.
The Parasitology series by Mira Grant is about a future where GMO tapeworms exist in everybody, and are used to take care of all our medical issues. Really interesting concept and read
The base, ad supported version has all the features that the ad free version has. And the ad free version even has regional pricing now, making it reasonably priced for most people worldwide.
I partially know the answer to this question…You cannot host videos directly on Lemmy, but that is understandable, video hosting is pretty expensive, but Lemmy also doesn’t support video embeds(videos don’t play within Lemmy), which means that you will have to open the link in a new tab/window to watch it. Which is pretty...
The EU’s Digital Services Act goes into effect today: here’s what that means (www.theverge.com)
Trump’s Georgia arrest reduces Republican rivals to a sideshow (www.theguardian.com)
Alberta woman dies after being denied transplant for refusing to get COVID vaccine (nationalpost.com)
Friday Facts #373 - Factorio: Space Age (www.factorio.com)
A diversion! (lemm.ee)
How did people refer to clockwise movement before the invention of the clock?
Was there an alternative adjective to “clockwise” other than “the rotation you take around left hand”?...
What is an absurdity that has been normalized by society?
Dune Part Two Release Date Delayed to March 15th, 2024 (www.hollywoodreporter.com)
Keyboard spyware?
I was taking a look at the Naomi Wu situation (A Chinese DIY tech youtuber who went missing after being watched by the government) and in one part they mentioned that she was concerned about her privacy, so started using Signal, but had a default chinese keyboard that had a keylogger and the police had looked into what she was...
A remote Canadian island makes history in fight for affordable housing (www.nationalobserver.com)
B.C.’s Cortes Island is making housing history as the first community in the province to tax short-term holiday rentals and have the funds directed to affordable housing projects, said Mark Vonesch, the area’s Strathcona Regional District director.
Boston.com: Visitors blocked a Vermont road just to see this wooden troll. Now no one can view it. (www.boston.com)
The Community Pushing AI-Generated Porn To 'the Edge of Knowledge' (www.slashdot.org)
Man flees China by riding jet ski hundreds of miles to South Korea (www.nbcnews.com)
A jet ski rider who has been detained since he washed up on South Korea’s coast is believed to be a Chinese dissident who feared for his safety and fled by crossing hundreds of miles of sea, trailing barrels of fuel behind him....
And now the terror has become unbalanced (startrek.website)
Alberta logic (lemmy.world)
Hookworms successfully prevent type 2 diabetes in human trial (newatlas.com)
Reddit users who switched to Lemmy, what is the most annoying thing you have seen about Lemmy users?
Why is there a lack of gifs/videos on Lemmy?
I partially know the answer to this question…You cannot host videos directly on Lemmy, but that is understandable, video hosting is pretty expensive, but Lemmy also doesn’t support video embeds(videos don’t play within Lemmy), which means that you will have to open the link in a new tab/window to watch it. Which is pretty...
Inside the AI Porn Marketplace Where Everything and Everyone Is for Sale (www.404media.co)
Each of these reads like an extremely horny and angry man yelling their basest desires at Pornhub’s search function.
"I didn't lie, I just didn't tell you the entire truth" (ttrpg.network)
Top tier medical advice. (feddit.uk)
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What mildly infuriates me is the lack of content control in this sub
No, antivaxxers, anti-worker propaganda, climate change and fucking antisemitism aren’t “mildly infuriating”, this shit is fucking enraging.