[HN Gopher] Tell HN: WhatsApp appears to be censoring references...
___________________________________________________________________
Tell HN: WhatsApp appears to be censoring references to Signal
I don't usually go in for conspiracy theories, but this one seems
pretty clear-cut and I can't see anyone else discussing it online:
WhatsApp appears to be selectively censoring references to Signal.
Specifically, I had changed my profile picture on WhatsApp to the
Signal logo and my 'About' text to 'Message me on Signal -
https://signal.org/download/'. However, I noticed recently (after
someone happened to open their WhatsApp in front of me and I saw
their chat with me) that my WhatsApp contacts are seeing my profile
picture and my 'About' text as blank. I've checked and this seems
to be the case for all of my WhatsApp contacts. See screenshots
from me and my friend's phones here: https://imgur.com/a/qvEsswW
On the bright side, this serves as an ideal demo for convincing
anyone who doesn't understand why I am trying to migrate them over
to Signal. So, I guess, _thanks_ Meta?
Author : DicIfTEx
Score : 99 points
Date : 2022-10-30 19:52 UTC (3 hours ago)
| ayhanfuat wrote:
| They've been doing something similar for Telegram for a long
| time: https://twitter.com/durov/status/671357796730834945
| nonasktell wrote:
| Have you checked your privacy settings?
|
| They may also automatically shadowblock famous companies logos to
| prevent phishing/scamming
| c7b wrote:
| Have you tried a few other images / descriptions to confirm that
| it is indeed only Signal that's not being shown?
| arran-nz wrote:
| Okay, this is interesting.
|
| My WhatsApp profile has been dormant for almost 2 years. Before
| uninstalling the app, like you, I changed my profile picture to
| the Signal logo and wrote a similar about section.
|
| My friend just checked my profile, the profile photo was shown
| briefly before being removed - The about section is also blank.
| [deleted]
| rvz wrote:
| > I don't usually go in for conspiracy theories
|
| I thought HN didn't like 'conspiracy theories'? Or is it that
| they are only acceptable if its for either things that most HNers
| use, or there is a villain to scream at like Meta, Big Tech, Elon
| Musk, etc I guess?
|
| Either way, seems like an interesting one, if true that is.
| spoils19 wrote:
| It's not a conspiracy if it's true. HN has enlightened me to
| many independent thinkers who have shown me the truth of things
| such as Microsoft's extermination strategy, the 2020 election,
| "COVID-19" and Jan 6.
| Pabloski80 wrote:
| As for text, be creative with leetspeak and diacritics or Unicode
| and other funny characters.
|
| As for image it shall be easier. Try out a few filters after
| which the Meth RoboCop will give up. This one is roughly
| comparable to uncrackable so far caotcha problem.
| Calvin02 wrote:
| Seems to be working for me.
|
| My profile photo is set to "My Contacts" and I was able to view
| the Signal logo on my wife's WA account.
|
| Both of us are on the latest iOS version.
| yieldcrv wrote:
| In your screenshots its not clear what the expected behavior is
| supposed to be
|
| There are different OS' from mine and different views
|
| Can you label and also show the expected behavior?
| Spare_account wrote:
| My 'Status' message on WhatsApp has been "Let's switch to Signal:
| https://signal.org/install" since January 2021 and I've checked
| periodically (including just now) and it is visible on other
| people's devices.
|
| My profile picture is my own face, though. Perhaps, as other
| people have said, the restriction being applied by WhatsApp is
| related to your choice of image more than the text?
|
| Screenshot: https://imgur.com/5c1rQyM
| Yoric wrote:
| My theory: in the past, malicious actors have created WhatsApp
| users who pretended to be Microsoft tech support (or similar) for
| phishing purposes and used official logos and URLs as their
| profile pictures to make the impersonation (slightly) more
| believable. WhatsApp T&S team now detects what you're doing as a
| likely phishing attempt and deactivates it silently.
| dheera wrote:
| It's Meta. They censor stuff. If I post Youtube videos on
| Facebook they usually get covertly censored (i.e. I can see it bu
| my friends can't see it on their feeds). It doesn't happen if I
| post the video directly to Facebook.
|
| Though once when I posted a video of me playing Beethoven on
| Facebook they censored out the audio because their idiot ML
| thought it was copyrighted music.
|
| I posted a link of a charity donation page after a disaster once
| and it was also similarly censored. I deleted it and reposted a
| text-only status asking people to google certain words to find
| the page and only then could my friends see the post.
|
| They do similar things on Instagram as well, most of my followers
| can't see most of my posts anymore. Because I don't do this Reel
| bullshit, Instagram has decided to mostly censor my content from
| my own friends.
|
| Not surprised they do it on WhatsApp at all.
| jeromegv wrote:
| Not really censorship but more like the algo. Algo promotes
| Facebook videos over YouTube. For a while also promoted text
| posts over external links, so that you don't go outside
| Facebook. And now promote reels over video on IG
|
| This is the beauty of algos!
| dheera wrote:
| I prefer to call it what it is. Using "algo" as an excuse to
| make friend-to-friend communications not get seen is
| tantamount to censorship.
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2022-10-30 23:01 UTC)