Post ASHOGF3of6BEWiMicC by lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org
(DIR) More posts by lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org
(DIR) Post #ASHLU26pJPVAYAerT6 by lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org
2023-02-02T19:32:03Z
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How much would you pay Elon for access to #Twitter APIs, that Twitter has announced will no longer be free?
(DIR) Post #ASHLhFfYCuugN2CenY by chipchristian@infosec.exchange
2023-02-02T19:33:41Z
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@lauren 🤡​
(DIR) Post #ASHLpDOcXgtfda56zg by shuttersparks@qoto.org
2023-02-02T19:35:45Z
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@lauren What's to stop someone from setting up a service that gives access to the API for free or a tiny fee?
(DIR) Post #ASHLwMz7I4JTP3Z0sq by lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org
2023-02-02T19:37:11Z
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@shuttersparks Probably it would be theft of service, since the terms of use likely make such "reselling" illegal.
(DIR) Post #ASHM7PCvMnmLTxHhMu by admin@mastodon.slightlycyberpunk.com
2023-02-02T19:38:56Z
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@lauren I refused to use them when they WERE free. I have a couple bots on here reposting from Twitter feeds and they all screen-scrape (from Nitter now because Twitter's markup is atrocious and inconsistent)
(DIR) Post #ASHM9AcuY6Kcq7HUVU by psetnik@mstdn.social
2023-02-02T19:38:58Z
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@lauren Even without looking up the meaning, it's a hard "no" from me.
(DIR) Post #ASHMDiZ6JAqLFxfQie by admin@mastodon.slightlycyberpunk.com
2023-02-02T19:40:18Z
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@lauren @shuttersparks apparently Nitter does not use the API at all, so you could probably build an alternative API based on their code, and therefore not have to agree to Twitter's API terms...
(DIR) Post #ASHMJWwGRpHGw3H0nw by lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org
2023-02-02T19:41:20Z
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@admin @shuttersparks I would expect them to get around to defining such workarounds to be outside acceptable use and to be illicit circumvention.
(DIR) Post #ASHMmErsiHPtHuue6C by wndlb@mas.to
2023-02-02T19:46:32Z
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@lauren The were reasons I didn't buy a Tesla. These are the same reasons, just clearer now.
(DIR) Post #ASHMuXyPZ1dyrIvdHE by admin@mastodon.slightlycyberpunk.com
2023-02-02T19:47:59Z
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@lauren @shuttersparks Possibly...but I think that would be a difficult argument to make. The limitation would be that it's read-only...but if that's all you need, you can set up that code without ever seeing the Twitter ToS or any link to it, and you aren't accessing anything that's restricted behind a login prompt or other access controls...they could block it and turn it into a game of whack-a-mole but I think claiming "unauthorized access" in a legal sense would be questionable...
(DIR) Post #ASHNB8xxnFhQDtdIwK by lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org
2023-02-02T19:51:04Z
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@admin @shuttersparks There are already major court cases involving "scraping" of data, it is quite possible that courts will rule against the scrapers in at least some of these cases.
(DIR) Post #ASHNdWqiadfIP5mMzo by ShibaBotJason@social.linux.pizza
2023-02-02T19:56:10Z
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@lauren I'm guessing the api endpoints will still be there but unless the client is THE official Twitter app it won't be accessible? Open apis encourage collaboration, experimentation, etc, but seems that's not what Elon's wants. #Twitter
(DIR) Post #ASHNhXGUzBe0qrkSbw by lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org
2023-02-02T19:57:01Z
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@ShibaBotJason What Elon wants from the APIs is the money.
(DIR) Post #ASHOBWB7agvcAWWup6 by admin@mastodon.slightlycyberpunk.com
2023-02-02T20:02:18Z
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@lauren @shuttersparks So far the 9th circuit at least seems to have ruled multiple times that scraping is legal, and that prohibiting it could be deemed anticompetitive business practices. After multiple appeals there was a partial ruling against the company that was scraping, but that was in part because they were using registered accounts to do so. The initial rulings all seem to have said that scraping is legal even if it violates the terms and even if you're scraping password-protected data...so using logged in accounts the legality is a bit questionable...but there's definitely precedent in your favor if you're only pulling from public pages. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/HiQ_Labs_v._LinkedIn
(DIR) Post #ASHOGF3of6BEWiMicC by lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org
2023-02-02T20:03:10Z
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@admin @shuttersparks There's another big case currently.
(DIR) Post #ASHORGAUsqLp9DkCLw by lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org
2023-02-02T20:05:09Z
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@admin @shuttersparks Frankly, I view most scraping (as generally defined) to be stealing, whether or not you're pulling from public or private pages.
(DIR) Post #ASHPUA9DpAJzIY602K by admin@mastodon.slightlycyberpunk.com
2023-02-02T20:16:53Z
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@lauren @shuttersparks I think it can be stealing if you are presenting that information as your own...same goes for API access...but otherwise it's just how the internet works. You choose to send me some data, I choose how to display it. Is ad block stealing? Are greasemonkey scripts stealing? Is manually editing the DOM stealing? Is changing the text color in your browser settings stealing? These are all functionally the same as scraping, it's just choosing which elements to display and which to discard. And it shouldn't matter if that's done locally or on the cloud or as a service.
(DIR) Post #ASHPYrtj6XQa935kQK by ultranurd@tacobelllabs.net
2023-02-02T20:17:39Z
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@lauren I had hopes Blue would give me a key I could pass to my favorite client but that is obviously never going to happen now.
(DIR) Post #ASHPeddp1TQHfOP6Ku by lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org
2023-02-02T20:18:52Z
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@admin @shuttersparks No, these are not all the same at all. And for the record, I consider most ad blocking, as it is generally practiced by most users, to be stealing. Yes.
(DIR) Post #ASHRx19EZ2OlgxzKIC by admin@mastodon.slightlycyberpunk.com
2023-02-02T20:44:24Z
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@lauren @shuttersparks As far as I'm concerned, it's my PC, and I will decide what code gets to run on it. I generally don't block ads exactly because I block entire companies/domains instead...but most ads these days you don't know where they're coming from or what code they're running or anything, it's just website pointing at some random other website and expecting you to run whatever it gives you...even if you trust the site your visiting even they don't necessarily know who exactly is serving you ads...if you want me to see your ads, you can serve them yourself, you can embed them directly in your video, and then I will see them. If you want to tell me "go over there and get an ad", I feel no qualms about saying "no thanks"
(DIR) Post #ASHUelwQf9FRBCzSr2 by admin@mastodon.slightlycyberpunk.com
2023-02-02T20:56:10Z
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@lauren @shuttersparks Besides, ad blocking has always been a thing too, that's the nature of the business. You can rip pages out of newspapers and magazines; you can get up and use the restroom during a TV or radio ad break, or change the channel...I used to just turn the radio off in my car when an ad break came on and make a game of trying to guess when the ads would be over!A lot of fascists like to pretend that the right to free speech is equivalent to a right to an audience, and I see arguments against ad block to be the same thing. You have a right to play your ads, but you do not have a right to force me to watch or listen to them. The job of the advertiser (or perhaps of the content they are advertising on) is to make me want to.And if you want to say that I can't view your content until after I've seen the ad, then you can find a way to verify that I've seen the ad before giving me your content. Some sites already do that -- I've seen places that embed certain key words or phrases into ads that you then have to provide in order to access the content.
(DIR) Post #ASHUemOmxhvubAG73g by lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org
2023-02-02T21:14:50Z
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@admin @shuttersparks Most users of ad blockers don't differentiate. They just want to block anything and everything that may be an ad, with the most expansive interpretations possible. They aren't interested in only blocking badly behaving ads that spew video and audio and drag the page to a halt. Rather, they feel that they deserve it all for free. They don't care how the sites they view -- even the small ones with ads as their only revenue source to keep going -- will fair as a result, they just feel they deserve it all for free. They don't want to pay with money. They don't want to pay with time. They spout "WE ARE THE PRODUCT!" at every opportunity. They are entitgled and selfish and as far as I am concerned, stealing in a ethical sense. Q.E.D.
(DIR) Post #ASHVIAG2BnvLtAwbRo by shuttersparks@qoto.org
2023-02-02T21:21:58Z
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@lauren @admin I don't block ads, I block trackers. So I see lots of ads, probably 99 percent of ads get through, minus their trackers. Once in a while there will be a tracker, usually Facebook, where the ad and tracker cannot be separated and then I see a notice telling me why the ad was blocked.
(DIR) Post #ASHVQt3JWkCZ8O9aEK by samhkennedy@aus.social
2023-02-02T21:23:27Z
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@lauren what’s Twitter
(DIR) Post #ASHVSagcmZ2GkiLxa4 by lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org
2023-02-02T21:23:34Z
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@shuttersparks @admin You are not characteristic. The entire raison d'etre for most people using ad blockers is to block all ads. Period. FREE FREE FREE!
(DIR) Post #ASHVUNZ0XltgdEdwcS by admin@mastodon.slightlycyberpunk.com
2023-02-02T21:24:13Z
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@lauren @shuttersparks If it's their computer, it's their right to choose what it does. I didn't spend a thousand bucks on a laptop for Twitter, Google, et al to leverage it as a remote node in their network. People have blocked ads for as long as ads have existed, and they will continue to do so for as long as our society is free. Advertisers know that when they pay for the ads. That is a natural part of the transaction. And the more aggressive advertisers become, the greater the number of people who block them, and most of them know that too and try to strike a certain balance.Legally, there's nothing wrong with ad block. Morally, there's reasonable arguments on both sides. Practically, it's not worth fighting.
(DIR) Post #ASHVanLdahgeL1Rt2G by lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org
2023-02-02T21:25:21Z
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@shuttersparks @admin You know how much I care about ad trackers? Not a bit. Zero. I care about right wing fascists and far left wackos trying to wreck the Internet. That's what I worry about here.
(DIR) Post #ASHVcan7FQcZyO9tmC by admin@mastodon.slightlycyberpunk.com
2023-02-02T21:25:24Z
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@lauren @shuttersparks If your so insistent that your content should not be free, you don't have to give it away for free. There's many streaming services that I pay for, largely because I just don't want to use YouTube. You can't block ads on those, because there are no ads. You just can't get the content for free. You have to pay and login.
(DIR) Post #ASHVjb2MjQh8lMdCng by lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org
2023-02-02T21:26:57Z
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@admin @shuttersparks Absent a broad micropayment system for the Web, which doesn't exist for a whole bunch of reasons, there is no practical way for most sites to do this. Smaller sites in particular are the most dependent on ad revenue, and ad blockers hurt them disproportionately.
(DIR) Post #ASHVnA6wmgfqPZTU7k by shuttersparks@qoto.org
2023-02-02T21:27:20Z
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@lauren @admin Yeah. I don't mind ads. Ads are inescapable on a commercial Internet. What I don't like is being creeped out by ads for work gloves appearing everywhere I go because last night I bought a pair of work gloves on Amazon.
(DIR) Post #ASHVxZWn8jaw8VWjSK by lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org
2023-02-02T21:29:28Z
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@shuttersparks @admin So what? They annoy me too. Whenever I buy stuff that happens a lot. So what? Worry about the fascists and both parties attempting to destroy Section 230 and force government identification regimes for web site access, using complaints about ads and such as part of their excuse. The anti-ad anti-tracking people are playing right into the hands of the politicians who want to bend this all to their will, and both the Left and Right are complicit.
(DIR) Post #ASHVzPkCUE3cN6g3BQ by admin@mastodon.slightlycyberpunk.com
2023-02-02T21:29:47Z
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@lauren @shuttersparks Such a system does not exist because nobody has felt the need for it because ad blocking isn't really a problem because it has always happened, it always will happen, and that's accounted for in the advertising payments.If everyone suddenly decided to start blocking ads, that kind of system would be created. It's not difficult in theory, it's just kinda useless today in practice. But if society at large decides that's how we want to do things because we really can't stand freeloaders, we can certainly do that.
(DIR) Post #ASHW1bjWskKU8PPR1E by admin@mastodon.slightlycyberpunk.com
2023-02-02T21:30:16Z
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@lauren @shuttersparks so we shouldn't ever complain about actual problems if "the other team" happens to also be complaining about the same problems...??
(DIR) Post #ASHWLsE7Gn5b4zNb4S by admin@mastodon.slightlycyberpunk.com
2023-02-02T21:30:37Z
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@lauren @shuttersparks This is how politicians divide and conquer....
(DIR) Post #ASHWLssArr8F5E7aVc by lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org
2023-02-02T21:33:49Z
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@admin @shuttersparks Most people don't have a clue how much of the Internet they depend upon is so very close to being utterly destroyed, and UGC being decimated. Cases before the Supreme Court right now could accomplish this in the very near future. And efforts based on "protect the children" could very easily force ID regimes on most sites. It's already happening overseas, and there's a push from both parties for it to happen here.
(DIR) Post #ASHWNcxuyvtkKJdhSK by shuttersparks@qoto.org
2023-02-02T21:33:55Z
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@lauren @admin Well, the two concerns are not mutually exclusive.
(DIR) Post #ASHWREgdBxAQBZH3bs by lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org
2023-02-02T21:34:54Z
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@shuttersparks @admin Politicians are using "Big Tech Hate" to push their agendas for total control of Internet content. They are playing many of the activists like violins.
(DIR) Post #ASHXCqELQGZEEgk9MO by admin@mastodon.slightlycyberpunk.com
2023-02-02T21:42:51Z
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@lauren @shuttersparks I absolutely agree that this is a problem, but telling me that I don't have a right to decide what I do with my own property is not the solution. In fact, it's another manifestation of the *exact same problem*. I do not accept that I must choose between letting the politicians tell me how to use my computer or letting the advertisers tell me how to use my computer. I don't accept the manufacturers telling me how I can use my computer either...that battle was mostly lost years ago but some of us are still trying to fight it...Besides, the Internet has been dying for years, and advertising is a large part of the problem. You used to do a search and end up on a page created by someone willing to put in some work to get that information out into the world. Now you do a search and end up on a page created to copy information from somewhere else and drown it in ads in order to make a quick buck...
(DIR) Post #ASHXKW38L2Qjxl9uyG by lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org
2023-02-02T21:44:47Z
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@admin @shuttersparks I see activists all the time bitching about search not working for them now. I don't know what planet they're on. Google Search works great for me. I ignore the ads -- and all the ads are marked as such. Bitch bitch bitch.
(DIR) Post #ASHXWUUlwVQEcLnT4C by admin@mastodon.slightlycyberpunk.com
2023-02-02T21:46:59Z
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@lauren @shuttersparks Seriously? I just called to check up on my car that's in the shop, so I did a quick search for the shop. The top result is their official website, yes...but the entire rest of the page are various websites that take the content off their official site and pad it with ads...
(DIR) Post #ASHXbQLomM4zDBxdaq by lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org
2023-02-02T21:47:49Z
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@admin @shuttersparks Top result was what you wanted? Right? So what do you care about the rest? What's the problem?
(DIR) Post #ASHXzmKygYcgLrBHvM by admin@mastodon.slightlycyberpunk.com
2023-02-02T21:52:19Z
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@lauren @shuttersparks Ah, so now you have no problem with people scraping information from other websites as long as they aren't the top result on Google...?There's a reason the search engine returns more than one result. People do click on those. And yeah, sites like 'hoursguide.com' may not look like the scammiest thing in the world, but it's just repacking someone else's information and surrounding it with...five advertisements before I even scrolled...but I'm sure people who are just looking for the shop's hours see 'hoursguide.com' and click that instead. It costs money to run these servers; people wouldn't do it so much if it wasn't profitable, and if nobody was clicking on it then it wouldn't be profitable.
(DIR) Post #ASHY1U2XgYrMBNN3uC by shuttersparks@qoto.org
2023-02-02T21:52:22Z
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@lauren @admin Akshually, it's rarely the top result, but it's on the first page. ;-) No complaints and ads are okay with me.
(DIR) Post #ASHYBCve9wdU0bmZNI by lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org
2023-02-02T21:54:19Z
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@admin @shuttersparks Google abides by robots.txt. It will not spider or index data that the site administrator has indicated they do not wish to be so indexed. But I assume you already know that.
(DIR) Post #ASHYIyEkfQigl9Q7Qu by admin@mastodon.slightlycyberpunk.com
2023-02-02T21:55:33Z
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@lauren @shuttersparks How is that relevant? Google isn't the one scraping the data, the scammy ad sites are.
(DIR) Post #ASHYSZMS0fPuVKbAXY by lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org
2023-02-02T21:57:29Z
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@admin @shuttersparks You suggested that Google listing sites like that was somehow wrong. My definition of illicit scraping is the taking in bulk of data from another site to display on your own site when the origin site has specifically indicated (via robots.txt) that they do not want this done.
(DIR) Post #ASHYjkjeyPmohieF4i by shuttersparks@qoto.org
2023-02-02T22:00:32Z
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@lauren @admin Yeah, there's a difference between search engines displaying snippets and making all of the scraped data available.
(DIR) Post #ASHYlUCPQTMPzrvDF2 by admin@mastodon.slightlycyberpunk.com
2023-02-02T22:00:39Z
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@lauren @shuttersparks Ah, I see. No, that's not what I was suggesting. I was suggesting that the web being flooded by these kinds of scammy ad sites is a problem. The fact that they fill Google results is merely one data point into how ubiquitous they are.
(DIR) Post #ASHYugAKIwNXiTKb8C by lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org
2023-02-02T22:02:32Z
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@admin @shuttersparks They're an annoyance but in the noise as far as I'm concerned compared with the big existential issues facing the Net now.
(DIR) Post #ASHa8lbiy63MbPQaDg by admin@mastodon.slightlycyberpunk.com
2023-02-02T22:16:16Z
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@lauren @shuttersparks The way I see it, the internet is being destroyed by the same corporate behemoths that are destroying...well...*everything else* too. Social media is a dumpster fire because outrage brings clicks and clicks bring profits. Journalism is dying for pretty much the same reason, they get more and more extreme to put eyeballs on ads. Search is polluted with fake listings to serve ads, shopping is all just ads for Amazon these days, so many email accounts are ad-filled cesspools, video services are full of clickbait to put eyeballs on ads...The internet is being destroyed because it is profitable to destroy it, and most of those profits are coming from ads.
(DIR) Post #ASHaPxPAMJPG79kbdw by lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org
2023-02-02T22:19:24Z
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@admin @shuttersparks No, the Internet is being destroyed by governments and politicians, who are using people saying things (like you just did) as patsies to achieve their own political ends to microcontrol Internet content and users. They are channeling Big Tech hate to their own insidious political ends. No doubt about it.
(DIR) Post #ASHbHinsrWaYSzwuPI by admin@mastodon.slightlycyberpunk.com
2023-02-02T22:29:06Z
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@lauren @shuttersparks So the billions of dollars these politicians are getting from corporations has no influence at all, it's all about what some random dude posts on social media? lmfao...
(DIR) Post #ASHbVyfGgixDiGiVhw by lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org
2023-02-02T22:31:42Z
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@admin @shuttersparks My sense is that politicians on both the right and left have determined that Big Tech Hate is good for them politically, and no, I don't think the influence of those firms on those politicians is anything like it used to be. Past history now. The actions being taken to change Section 230 are proof of this in my view. The conflicting Florida, Texas, and California approaches are clear evidence of this (with Florida/Texas before the Supreme Court right now).
(DIR) Post #ASHcCj2yd6VDjCBrZg by admin@mastodon.slightlycyberpunk.com
2023-02-02T22:39:23Z
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@lauren @shuttersparks There are two things driving the politics. One is profit, the other is division. Making things harder for "big tech" isn't always a problem for big tech. Who is gonna find it easier to implement age verification, Facebook.com or Mastodon.social? Who is more likely to get a SWAT raid if they fuck up vs a letter to their legal team? Now that they're at the top, these companies don't mind restrictions that make things harder for upstart competitors. Meanwhile they keep us fighting each other, worrying about "the other team"...one party screws us, we vote them out. Other party screws us too, we vote them out. First party comes back, screws us some more, so we vote them out...and everyone stays so focused on beating the other guy that we aren't looking at the ways the whole damn system was rigged from the start and getting worse every year...
(DIR) Post #ASHcVR9pMnEZkMJiIi by lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org
2023-02-02T22:42:45Z
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@admin @shuttersparks That the largest firms will likely find ways to survive even in a Fascist Internet isn't the point. The point is that users are being manipulated by politicians who have purely political motives and are using Big Tech Hate as a cudgel to accomplish them, and most users are oblivious.
(DIR) Post #ASHdbKHpvPYS83R2dk by admin@mastodon.slightlycyberpunk.com
2023-02-02T22:55:08Z
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@lauren @shuttersparks No politician is getting very far in this country without millions from corporate donors. Probably doesn't help that many journalists are afraid to call a scumbag a scumbag because that is not advertiser friendly content. And of course, the public has these views because they are fed outrage all day because outrage gets clicks which gets ad dollars...Follow the money...Also...WE HAD A DAMN CORPORATE MASCOT AS PRESIDENT! :)
(DIR) Post #ASHdneHvNza3dZLtqa by lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org
2023-02-02T22:57:18Z
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@admin @shuttersparks Well, you'll notice that the politicos talk about Big Tech all the time, but not FOX News (largest cable audience of all!) and even worse.
(DIR) Post #ASHhBB9xdVEe6qXTXM by admin@mastodon.slightlycyberpunk.com
2023-02-02T23:34:10Z
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@lauren @shuttersparks Some politicians may get donations from competing industries :)It's also possible the ones selling outrage didn't think this through and eventually ended up the target themselves. Or didn't have a choice -- to some extent it's the nature of capitalism: if you aren't maximizing profits, someone else will, and they'll buy you, and then you *will* maximize profits.*But another tactic they'll use is to exploit genuine outrage to cement their control. All the solutions with any support tend to be something only corporations with significant resources -- like the ones making big donations to the politicians supporting them -- would be able to accomplish.*And yes, to some degree people choose what to buy, which drives profits..."vote with your wallet" (although there's problems with that concept too)...but online ads are a bit different when they start targeting users rather than content. All the way back to the birth of the pop-up ad, which was created to separate the ad from the page that displayed it... they advertiser doesn't want to know or be associated with the content they are sponsoring. All they care about is how many clicks you can get them. And that creates bad incentives for the content.
(DIR) Post #ASHhYeGJbFqz1thawi by lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org
2023-02-02T23:38:51Z
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@admin @shuttersparks Keep in mind that some of that separation between content and advertisers is mandated by the laudable goal of not providing advertisers with the PII of people looking at those ads. There is, for example, still a widespread belief that Google sells individuals' personal data to advertisers, when of course they don't and never have. Google has not been great about explaining this publicly, and I've pushed them to explain this much better -- I've done this both publicly and internally when I've worked inside.
(DIR) Post #ASHiQRog5ZwI4EQd1M by admin@mastodon.slightlycyberpunk.com
2023-02-02T23:48:43Z
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@lauren @shuttersparks That's only a concern if you insist an serving the ad from a remote server. When a YouTuber goes "And now I want to talk about Skillshare..." or a company emails you a png file to place on your website, the advertiser isn't getting any PII. And that doesn't mean every tiny website needs to ink their own ad deal, you can have a modernized Angelfire or Geocities that negotiates the ad deals for sites they can moderate...although I think that's basically just Facebook.And yeah of course Google doesn't sell PII; that data is their competitive advantage! Their profits depend on it...They don't sell it; they just exploit it. And use it to finance outrage factories.
(DIR) Post #ASHiXFHz40X3F2NTeK by lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org
2023-02-02T23:50:00Z
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@admin @shuttersparks OK, I think we're done here for now given your last two sentences. Have a good rest of the day or night or whatever.
(DIR) Post #ASHjXzhKcIB5889eE4 by admin@mastodon.slightlycyberpunk.com
2023-02-03T00:00:09Z
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@lauren @shuttersparks ok, yeah I might be getting a bit carried away here, apologies if I caused any offense...last two sentences were only intended to keep hammering on the whole "outrage drives clicks" thing... :(I do find your views insightful, that's part of the reason I try to argue the points I disagree with. So again, sorry if I was bein an ass here.
(DIR) Post #ASHjY0AkqtiIbNv95U by lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org
2023-02-03T00:01:41Z
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@admin @shuttersparks We can carry this conversation forward another time. It *is* easy to get riled up on all sides of these issues. Of course that's part of what makes them so exploitable by bad actors!
(DIR) Post #ASHjrCU3IsE8Hq6MNc by ajbobo@twit.social
2023-02-02T23:58:13Z
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@shuttersparks @lauren Twitter has always had pretty strict restrictions on the number of API calls you can make in a given time period. Splitting your own rate limits across your own customers wouldn't be practical.
(DIR) Post #ASHjrD6L0WqsCa0w3U by shuttersparks@qoto.org
2023-02-03T00:01:12Z
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@ajbobo @lauren One of the things discussed in this long thread was scraping everything without using Twitter's API at all. Although that could be detected and rate-limited too.
(DIR) Post #ASHjrDXzLiyBaKx19c by ajbobo@twit.social
2023-02-03T00:04:39Z
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@shuttersparks @lauren Putting aside the ethical issues of scraping, it's way too easy for Twitter to make minor changes that break scrapers.My last job involved both working with APIs, including Twitter's, and attempting to scrape. Scraping just wasn't practical a vast majority of the time.
(DIR) Post #ASHjrE27Xh4Z5n357Y by lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org
2023-02-03T00:05:09Z
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@ajbobo @shuttersparks Yep.
(DIR) Post #ASIvU3PuF02I77qra4 by ryaninteractive@mastodon.social
2023-02-03T13:50:08Z
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@lauren negative 12 billion