[HN Gopher] Mirror Links for "Unfollow Everything"
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Mirror Links for "Unfollow Everything"
Author : NabiDev
Score : 220 points
Date : 2021-10-09 07:55 UTC (15 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.reddit.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.reddit.com)
| dreamcompiler wrote:
| For some reason an image of Barbra Streisand just popped up in my
| head.
| Jugurtha wrote:
| Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect
|
| First paragraph:
|
| > _The Streisand effect is a phenomenon that occurs when an
| attempt to hide, remove, or censor information has the
| unintended consequence of increasing awareness of that
| information, often via the Internet. It is named after American
| entertainer Barbra Streisand, whose attempt to suppress the
| California Coastal Records Project photograph of her residence
| in Malibu, California, taken to document California coastal
| erosion, inadvertently drew greater attention to it in 2003._
| AshamedCaptain wrote:
| This is yet again the same thing as when youtube-dl was being
| "mirrored" not long ago. What is the point of mirroring this
| extension?
|
| Facebook only needs to change ONE SINGLE LETTER in their website
| and it will immediately make all the "mirrors" of this extension
| useless.
| ugjka wrote:
| I can see why FB took down this extension. I tried it and it
| basically starts unfollowing everything without my consent.
| thinkingemote wrote:
| Is this satire?
| jfk13 wrote:
| Sounds like it does just what it says. If you _don 't_ want
| to unfollow everything, why would you install an "Unfollow
| Everything" extension...?
| ugjka wrote:
| Shared machines, trolling, tricking someone to install
| this. At least ask on the first run what is going to happen
| robbedpeter wrote:
| Hold stick near centre of its length. Moisten pointed end
| in mouth. Insert in tooth space, blunt end next to gum.
| Use gentle in-out motion.
| teddyh wrote:
| Thank you, Wonko the Sane.
| Raed667 wrote:
| If this is a joke. It went over my head.
| 0xTJ wrote:
| That's the point. What you're saying is like complaining that
| your toaster made your bread crispier.
| ugjka wrote:
| Toaster won't do anything without your initiation
| LocalH wrote:
| The extension has one function - to unfollow everything
| on Facebook. You're mad that it did what it said it was
| going to do?
| ugjka wrote:
| From all software development I've done I know one thing
| - you ask for confirmation before doing something
| destructive, at least once. And no, installing it doesn't
| mean consent...
| klyrs wrote:
| Sounds like you need a "follow everything" extension to
| fix this.
| black_puppydog wrote:
| You mean you installed something that advertises to unfollow
| _everything_ on your behalf, you went through a whole
| checklist to unpack it and coax chrome into loading it from
| local, and then you somehow consider it to not have your
| consent?
|
| I mean, that's a pretty high bar to set for consent. But
| clearly yours wasn't quite enthusiastic _enough_...
| ugjka wrote:
| It was on a Chrome store before, it is just bad etiquette
| to do something without asking once
| ziml77 wrote:
| I can't understand why you're getting downvoted so hard
| that your first comment is dead now. I'm with you, I
| don't expect the act of installing an extension to
| perform destructive actions. At the very least I would
| have thought you would need to click the toolbar button.
|
| Optimally it would display the full list of everything
| it's about to unfollow and have you confirm you're okay
| with that.
| ugjka wrote:
| Flagged by freedom haters...
| black_puppydog wrote:
| Make a pull request ;)
| Out_of_Characte wrote:
| On chrome it asks you to install "Unfollow Everything"
| That's asking once.
| ugjka wrote:
| Do you understand the difference between installing
| software and executing software? Imagine a version of DD
| that wipes your disk just by installing it; that's
| borderline malware...
| cute_boi wrote:
| According to this:
|
| https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/unfollow-
| everyone-...
|
| It explicitly says: "
|
| Click "Add to chrome", Log in to your facebook account,
| click the extension and choose the unfollow option. Wait
| for a few minutes till the processing completes.
|
| Our key feature: 1. Instant removal of all friends, pages
| and groups with one click. "
|
| So where is the problem? What should people understand?
| Why is dd even here. And installing software always do
| many thing that are not intended by user so people
| shouldn't install software if they don't know.
| ugjka wrote:
| There was no one click
| freemint wrote:
| It is a form of public protest and backslash.
| bravetraveler wrote:
| I did some cursory research yesterday when I first learned
| about the events here...
|
| There are years-old, regularly updated gists/threads on GitHub
| with people doing this simply with the browser console
| testdrive5 wrote:
| Quoting a fellow HNer:
|
| I recommend avoiding all browser extensions unless they come from
| well-known developers (eg 1Password) and they're downloaded and
| installed through official channels. Browser extensions have a
| lot of access to your browsing activity and can phone home as
| well. One of the reasons this extension was sent a C&D was that
| it was sending some data home to the author's server. That might
| be what the install instructions above are hinting at with the
| warning to examine the JS and remove any phone-home code. The
| original author defended the data collection as just enough to
| make sure the plug-in was working, except for study participants
| who apparently submitted much more information through the plug-
| in. Either way, I wouldn't rush to install a plug-in that was
| caught sending any of my social media data to a 3rd-party server.
| I certainly would not install a browser extension from an unknown
| 3rd-party website just to spite Facebook, regardless the claimed
| origin of the code.
|
| Source: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28804308
| hetspookjee wrote:
| Thanks for the link as the thread is rather hilarious with the
| Dropbox v2 comment.
| leppr wrote:
| For this kind of simple use case, a userscript makes more sense
| than a full extension, which has the benefits of making the
| code easily auditable and forkable.
| andybak wrote:
| Harder for less technical people to use however.
| lelandfe wrote:
| > One of the reasons this extension was sent a C&D was that it
| was sending some data home to the author's server
|
| I think that this is incorrect.
|
| The C&D included that as an example of banned things - beneath
| the _actual_ list of what the extension had done wrong.
|
| Per the wording, what they had done wrong was automation of
| actions, and unlicensed use of trademarks.
|
| The letter: https://louisbarclay.notion.site/Unfollow-
| Everything-cease-a...
| PragmaticPulp wrote:
| "Accessing and/or collecting users content or information" is
| the first bullet point in the C&D. The Reddit install
| instructions even include a note to remove the phone-home
| code before running the plug-in.
|
| The plug-in author also explained his data collection in his
| interviews. He said they collected a lot of data for study
| participants and less data for normal users to confirm the
| plug-in was "working".
| lelandfe wrote:
| The first paragraph is the only one that includes a list of
| what their extension had been doing wrong. I haven't seen
| it typed up anywhere else, so here are the salient bits:
|
| > _Facebook has gathered evidence that your Chrome
| extension "Unfollow Everything for Facebook" facilitates
| unauthorized functionality on Facebook. Specifically, your
| extension automates actions on Facebook, including mass
| following and unfollowing of Friends, Pages, and Groups.
| Your extension also impermissibly makes use of Facebook's
| trademarks. These activities violate Facebook's terms._
|
| > _Facebook demands that you stop these activities
| immediately._
|
| The bullet point you've pointed out lives beneath that list
| of issues, under a title of, "Facebook's terms prohibit,
| among other things." Things that Facebook's terms prohibit
| [?] stuff the extension was doing.
|
| Otherwise it would be curious indeed that Facebook _isn 't_
| demanding they cease the collection of data :)
|
| > The plug-in author also explained his data collection in
| his interviews
|
| That could well be - I'm just saying that the C&D does not
| include it as a basis.
| [deleted]
| deepnet wrote:
| Louis Barclay the extension author felt that unfollowing
| everything improved his Facebook experience and helped him break
| his Facebook addiction. Louis wrote this extension so other
| people could try this and enlisted a Swiss University to conduct
| a study to see if this improved user satisfaction with Facebook.
|
| Facebook not only took down the extension but banned the personal
| Facebook account of Louis Barclay and ordered that he never make
| any tool that interacts with Facebook, which he felt was heavy
| handed but as a UK resident felt unable to seek legal redress as
| in the UK if one loses one is liable for the opponents court
| costs.
|
| Here is the Slate article by Louis Barclay.
|
| https://slate.com/technology/2021/10/facebook-unfollow-every...
|
| and an opinion by Cory Doctorow on the utility of Unfollow
| Everything, the study and heavy handedness as a tendency of
| Facebooks to squash research it doesn't like.
|
| https://pluralistic.net/2021/10/08/unfollow-everything/
| lostlogin wrote:
| > Louis Barclay the extension author felt that unfollowing
| everything improved his Facebook experience and helped him
| break his Facebook addiction.
|
| Addiction broken.
| matheusmoreira wrote:
| > helped him break his Facebook addiction
|
| Nice! It's awesome that he said this. I always comment on the
| addictive nature of these platforms and games. Really nice to
| see these concepts making their way to a wider audience.
|
| Facebook wants their platform to be addictive. That's what
| engagement means: the rat pressed all the right buttons when
| provided with the proper stimuli. They want people looking at
| and interacting with the feeds as long as possible so they can
| serve as many ads as possible.
|
| They need to be held accountable for deliberately causing
| damage to people's mental health.
| machiaweliczny wrote:
| Can't this be implemented as browser automation? Why FB can block
| it?
| [deleted]
| [deleted]
| cute_boi wrote:
| it can be implemented by FB is just saying they block extension
| for security and privacy thing. They are just being dictator
| and they can flow any amount of money to ban such extension or
| use legal powers.
|
| And if you read the story you will know why author of extension
| was helpless.
|
| https://slate.com/technology/2021/10/facebook-unfollow-every...
| mnd999 wrote:
| Honestly, just delete your Facebook. It's a better solution and
| it has the benefit of being officially supported.
| marcosscriven wrote:
| Sadly there's one thing I do need it for, and that's the Oculus
| Quest.
| [deleted]
| vorpalhex wrote:
| There are lots of weird edge cases where your theoretically-
| dead Facebook account gets resurrected..
|
| When I deleted mine the second go around I manually deleted and
| unfollowed everything just in case it comes back. Wish I had
| known about this extension.
| jasai_oluwa wrote:
| I'd like to understand your point of view. From the second
| sentence of your comment, it seems like you're being sincere
| and not trying to be hyperbolic. Surely you're intelligent
| enough to understand why it would be difficult for some people
| to _just_ delete their Facebook account and why that would be a
| point of contention. If you understand this, what exactly
| compels you to type out your comment and post it? However, if
| you don't, then my apologies! And yes, I am fully aware of how
| this reply comes off.
| neurocean wrote:
| This is a lot more difficult than you make it sound without
| browser extensions to help. Facebook saw to it.
| mediocregopher wrote:
| I deleted my FB probably 10 years ago and never looked back,
| but most people I know who still have it act like it's some
| vital part of life which can't be left behind. It's integrated
| into how people interact with the other people in their life so
| much they can't get rid of it.
|
| It's not so much an addiction as a lifestyle. Telling most
| people to quit their FB is like telling folks in the US to sell
| their car and never use a personal vehicle again... they're
| whole life is structured around that fundamental fact, they
| can't just leave it behind.
| javagram wrote:
| Depends on what you want. If you still want to use FB
| messenger, sign in with Facebook, view your family pics etc and
| just don't want the newsfeed, unfollow everything is what you
| want.
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(page generated 2021-10-09 23:02 UTC)