this post was submitted on 30 Jun 2023
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cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/513993

So today I clicked a twitter link because companies like to use it for official announcements, only to be greeted with a login page. Was annoyed then I remembered nitter exists. It just prompted me to install Privacy Redirect which I should have done ages ago.

Github: https://github.com/SimonBrazell/privacy-redirect

Chrome Web Store: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/privacy-redirect/pmcmeagblkinmogikoikkdjiligflglb/related

Firefox Browser Add-ons: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/privacy-redirect/

Looks like twitter waited for the reddit API changes to do push this change to try to do it under the radar.

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[–] [email protected] 80 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

And nothing of value was lost.

That's why the only social I used was reddit and now moved to lemmy. Because I would rather ideas rise and fall on their own merits than by the name recognition of who said them. I value ideas, not personas or brands.

Some idiot celebrity/politician/Capitalist Sociopath says something and it gets seen by millions, not because it was worth seeing, but because a famous person said it.

[–] [email protected] 51 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Plenty of value was lost, a lot of news on my singularity sub were posted on twitter because for some reason people thought it's a great decision to hold on to dying platform.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (4 children)

i enjoy art and because a lot of art is hosted on twitter a lot was lost to me. i never wanted an account.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

In the fire country of California it was a quick way to get updates on any wild fires that pop up or evacuations… it has its use cases, maybe not as a social media platform, but surely as a public service/news platform it has some merit.

[–] KairuByte 3 points 1 year ago

And now everyone would need to create an account and log in to see those updates. Kinda defeats the purpose.

Maybe move to some sort of RSS feed? I’m sure such a resource exists.

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[–] [email protected] 37 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Well, there go all my links to tweets on my singularity sub. Hopefully this finally pushes posters to switch to another platform to share news about stuff.

Edit: Same as paywalled articles, I won't be allowing links to tweets as their main focus from now on. It's time for this platform to die.

[–] [email protected] 43 points 1 year ago (2 children)

This is turning into a pretty decisive time in social media where we have the opportunity and momentum to move back to open systems. 🤞

[–] [email protected] 38 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Youtube also is starting to experiment with locking people from watching videos if they have adblock turned on. We live in a truly great times where those behemoths are deciding to kill off themselves at the same time and it makes me truly happy. Open source FTW.

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

It's honestly a crazy time this year alone, everything that has existed for basically 15 years is self-destructing, it may be something that is referenced in the future like the Dot/Com bubble.

It won't be the end of social media, but it will be a significant period of change and perhaps we will see the landscape change with new platforms etc. Obviously ActivityPub has a high liklihood of growing exponentially.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago

Also advancements in ai have been crazy too. This year is kinda insane with what's happening.

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[–] [email protected] 31 points 1 year ago (9 children)

Elon posted this on Twitter (quoted from an private blog since I currently have no way to access twitter):

Temporary emergency measure. We were getting data pillaged so much that it was degrading service for normal users! Several hundred organizations (maybe more) were scraping Twitter data extremely aggressively, to the point where it was affecting the real user experience.

Lets hope that they lift this ban soon.

[–] [email protected] 70 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I hope for the opposite, this platform should die IMO

[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I'm definitely not using this platform anymore, but Twitter being private also locks away a lot of valuable content (including government announcements, as someone mentioned).

[–] [email protected] 41 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yes, we should move away from the platform and this will definitely help with that.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago (4 children)

If the reason for the ban is massive server load due to content scraping for AI models, that could become an issue for the fediverse as well. Our infrastructure is funded by donations and has much less performance and resiliency than big tech companies.

We might reach a point where the negative impacts on the environment caused by AI outweigh the benefits, just like it already happened with blockchains.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

If the reason for the ban is massive server load due to content scraping for AI models

He's not genuine whatsoever. I'll believe this was the reason to lock Twitter when I see evidence of it. Remember how he wasn't going to [layoff 75% staff; block payments for utilities / rent; cancel bonuses; etc]? Troll troll troll.

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Reality: Musk has degraded Twitter's performance to the point they can't handle unauthorized access.

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

And that, Musky, is why sites generally provide an API and don't lock it behind prohibitive pricing. Because the alternative is to scrape your site, and that's more resource intensive for the site in question.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

OT but it amazes me at what point musk sounds like trump when posting lol, he really just is technotrump

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Please let #technotrump catch on.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

... data pillaged ...

Meaning ... people were using your publicly available website?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

If only there was some sort of reasonably-priced computer-readable service or platform that organisations could use to collect data without degrading the service of users...

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Exactly. API users migrated to using scrapers instead of paying what NuTwitter wants for shitty service. Who could have foreseen that?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

Pillaged… in Musk speak means a normal day of traffic.

[–] MsPenguinette 4 points 1 year ago

I'd bet $20 that it was actually just their platform just struggling to do normal traffic and elon wants to make it some sort of rallying cry for his sicophants

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[–] [email protected] 30 points 1 year ago (4 children)

What's up with all the social media platforms recently? Really trying their hardest to alienate every user they can...

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago (1 children)
  • Click on a link to Twitter on an app that isn't twitter
  • Link opens in an anonymous browsing window
  • Twitter redirects me to the login page
  • I click open in app
  • It opens the login page in the app

Great design everybody.

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[–] mrginger 14 points 1 year ago

I will never understand these platforms doing this. The whole reason they became popular was because you could see what everyone was saying on them. It drove traffic to them and in turn ad revenue and more users. Reddit closing their api is basically the same. Only Facebook gets away with that kind of crap because of the nature of what it is and how it's used.

Not that I'm complaining.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I'm still convinced musk was a psyop to make people stop using twitter and ultimately give back mental sanity to americans

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

I think he's just as dumb as a rock and high as a kite 24/7

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

M-musk was good all along? :o

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

🌎👨‍🚀🔫👨‍🚀

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

Elon Twitler

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (2 children)

While corporate greed has been a problem since the Reagan administration, we're seeing an unprecedented jump in greed these past couple of years by companies all suddenly trying to squeeze out every last drop from people. Netflix with it's disabling of user password sharing, Twitter and all it's checkmark BS (with this login wall being the latest example), Reddit and it's API changes, and YouTube experimenting with blocking people who use adblockers. All to name a few. It really is spiraling out of control and unchecked, but sadly we lack a proper government (at least in the US, though there may still be some hope in the EU) to stand up to them.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

@ColonelSanders

@Martineski

The era of easy VC money is over. All these companies that exploded with growth on low-interest-rate-investor-cash are having to show profitability to shareholders.

I've seen this before. Been involved in tech since the mid 90's. During the Dot Com boom of the late 90s it was NUTS what some of the companies would provide for employees. I worked for a place that basically provided free food for employees. I literally didn't shop for groceries for a few months, I'd just bring some of it home with me.

When the "Dot Bomb" exploded in the early 00's it was an abrupt shift and it happened so quickly I remember everyone being shocked and upset.

I remember feeling real lucky to have a job in '08 and '09 when the recession got bad. However, things got better and you began to see more perks from tech companies.

Now it's cycling back again. It's only a matter of time before someone from the government says "recession". In the meanwhile, a lot of these tech companies are acting like any other big business and they're squeezing what they can out of users to be more profitable in the short term.

While I definitely think there are issues with federation, it couldn't have become popular at a better time. IMO while most users will put up with what these companies are doing, you're going to see more tech orientated people migrating to federation in some flavor or another. Eventually, it or something akin to it will get more polished and the mainstream will follow. And the cycle repeats.

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

This is sort of the final stage of endless growth capitalism. Once you have reached the max saturation of your potential user base with an attractive product, you sell that product for a huge payout and the next CEO comes in with a mandate to squeeze the orange for all its juice.

Inevitably this leaves the market ripe for the next disruptor to come in with a more enticing offer and the cycle repeats. With market consolidation however this is becoming harder and harder to do with every second comapny owned by Disney or Microsoft or Haliburton etc.

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

Which begs the questions: What comes next? How does late stage capitalism "end"? Will it collapse in on itself? What will replace it? I don't know the answers to these, but it certainly feels like we're entering (or about to enter) the "find out" phase.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

how does it end
Seeing the environmental disruptions of the last decade, I'd say extinction of human life.

[–] KairuByte 6 points 1 year ago

Yeah, I haven’t opened a twitter post in a few weeks anyway, but this just cements the fact that I’ll never go to twitter again. I legitimately don’t care enough about what people are saying on there to login.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

2023 is being one heck of a fucking year! It's a wild ride

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

And I'm all in for it!

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