this post was submitted on 04 Feb 2025
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Black box feed shaping is sneaky propaganda, making undesirable messages effectively unseen. We shouldn't submit to it, or give credence to it.

European citizens' media feeds in the control of a hostile country enables the slow, strategic destruction of Europe by trillions of unnoticeable manipulations.

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[–] [email protected] 36 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

this is just wrong. Where is Bluesky, where is the offical mastodon instance (https://ec.social-network.europa.eu)?

[–] [email protected] 20 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

Bluesky isn't open source but I agree on the Mastodon link

[–] [email protected] 15 points 4 weeks ago

sure it's not open source, but atleast its one alternative to the known cesspool that is twitter.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 weeks ago

And it's not European, either - just another service owned by american capitalists.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

When I was at a presentation from an online shop platform I asked what kind of use these share buttons see. I was wondering because I've never used one. Unfortunately, they didn't want to answer concretely. But it seems they're worth.

[–] vxx 13 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

The use it to create shadow profiles of you, without you ever clicking on it.

https://www.diw.de/documents/publikationen/73/diw_01.c.834959.de/dp1998.pdf

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

I know that for the Facebook like button.

But how is that the case for these share buttons? They're not hosted by Facebook, right?

[–] vxx 3 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Facebook’s engagement buttons are an important example. Using cookies, Facebook can track users across all websites on which a Facebook “Like” or “Share” button appears, even if users never actively click on them (Roosendaal 2012). This, in turn, allows Facebook to build shadow profiles (Garcia 2017), regardless of whether an individual ever signed up for a Facebook account. Shadow profiles allow Facebook to connect individual browsing behavior to existing and future Facebook accounts.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/358488485_Facebook_Shadow_Profiles

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Alright. I went to that website (OP), and disabled my adblock.

The facebook icon is an inline svg. The website makes no requests to external domains.

So no, they're not using like or share buttons like what you're quoting.

And that's what I suggested.

[–] vxx 1 points 3 weeks ago

Sorry I misunderstood and didnt realise you were talking about that specific page.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (1 children)

? I'm saying I wonder how many people make use of them.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 weeks ago

Sorry, I misread. I thought you asked what their use is (as in what are they for). English is my third language.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 weeks ago

I messaged Margrethe Vestager's team years ago after she did an interview on reddit to inform her on the many violations reddit had had and whether she realized that by participating in the social network they were in some way condoning it. They did not care, it's all a public show. If they had cared long ago, they would have been at the forefront of technologies like the fediverse and their adoption and development. They are great at suing corporations from foreign nations for money, not so much on understanding the why of their own legislation that allows them to do that.