this post was submitted on 25 Jul 2024
218 points (99.1% liked)

News

22803 readers
4578 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

Budget-conscious buyers hunting for rock-bottom prices at Temu may be getting more than they bargained for, a recent U.K. news program has found.

In “The Truth About Temu: Dispatches,” Channel 4 reporter Ellie Flynn found dangerous levels of toxic heavy metals in items from a $4 “silver effect” necklace to a $14 children’s jacket.

Operated by PDD Holding under the auspices of WhaleCo, the Chinese-founded marketplace has gained a massive following over the past two years, with one-quarter of the British population downloading the app and some half a million users worldwide.

Temu’s explosive rise has everything to do with the impossibly cheap prices it offers on everything from swimsuits to electric scooters, which can cost 10-40 percent less than on Shein, even for identical goods. That and the gamification of commerce—think discount roulette wheels and countdown timers—that once led GlobalData Retail analyst Neil Saunders to describe it as “addictive as sugar.”

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 40 points 1 month ago (2 children)

It's also a Temu problem as they're the sellers of said products and should be verifying that those products are not made of toxic materials.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Then I am quite certain it is also an Amazon problem, and an eBay problem, and an AliExpress problem. Singling out Temu is disingenuous.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Yes, it is also all those seller's problem as well. And I'm not sure shy you seem to think that's an issue. It's not.

[–] Soleos 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Because the headline frames it as a purely Temu problem and with Temu-exclusive products, when all these other marketplaces should be included as they sell the same things. They should have compared them with other marketplaces as well to show whether or not it's a broader "online marketplace" problem.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Your phrasing is technically correct but it omits that perhaps the scale of the problem is different among different marketplaces. Perhaps this is evident in the predominant selection of items and their prices. Thus you're trying to make it sound that you're gonna get the same amount of poison when you buy a jacket on Amazon and Temu, when you have a pretty good chance to buy a western brand on Amazon and you have zero chance to do that on Temu.

[–] Soleos 1 points 1 month ago

That's a fair point on item selection. You get the major brands that are better about getting their supply chains. So the overall proportion is different, though still a significant problem.

My point was more about buying the same cheap jacket on Amazon as you'd find on Temu or AliExpress, which is what I see most of on Amazon.