Amazon, Apple, Google, and Facebook should be broken up

[Mr. Sinister]

Saying don't use social media is basically akin to saying don't drink water, at this point (and that's the problem).

Its here to stay, for better or worse.

 

Gotta be about regulation now. Not dissolution 

[PokerPacker]

45 minutes ago, Mr. Sinister said:

Saying don't use social media is basically akin to saying don't drink water, at this point (and that's the problem).

Its here to stay, for better or worse.

 

Gotta be about regulation now. Not dissolution 

Poor analogy.  Without water, you will die.  Social Media, on the other hand, well I've been abstaining for a long time just fine.  Beer might be a better analogy.  It's something people like, there's peer pressure to consume, and it facilitates socializing, but you can live a fulfilling life without it.

[Mr. Sinister]

11 minutes ago, PokerPacker said:

Poor analogy.  Without water, you will die.

 

You should tell that to my cousins 😂

 

But agreed, for sure, for people of a certain age range. The more the technology expands, the more it becomes an integral part of the lives of ensuing generations.  Sure, they could live without it, but would they know how? Will society play out in a way that forces them to act/think in a world without it, even for a moment?

[skinfan2k]

I'd say Twitter would be hard for me if I would lose it. I use it for news, sports and stocks.  FB is nice just because I can keep a online phonebook/photo album of everything I do.  Everything else can kick rocks.

[Renegade7]

Millennials are probably last generation to remember making it work before social media was everywhere, so I know we can do it if we have to.

 

Can't speak for younger generations, but wife is from Nigeria, and in her community the technology gap didn't make depending on social media realistic.

 

For folks so used to it they don't know life without it, that's something the scientific community has noted concerns about. We had a thread on that.

[NoCalMike]

I am right on the GenX/Millennial border. (1980).   My childhood was absent of the internet. We got the internet when I was about 15.   I remember first coming over to FB from Myspace and the two takeaways I had at the time about FB were "Wow, this is a lot less messy looking than Myspace" and "This is going to put classmates.com out of business" 

 

Back then facebook was very much social media version 1.   To me what really changed everything were two factors.  Once the older generations started catching on and getting on the platform and then once Facebook decided they basically wanted to be like a Yahoo front page instead of just a social media website.   Once they decided they wanted to be a place where people could get a little bit of "everything" that laid the groundwork for the cesspool it has now become.  

 

Compare this with my kids (currently aged 8 & 5) who were saying the phrase "Like & Subscribe" out of habit from the moment they could talk.

Edited June 4, 2020 by NoCalMike

[China]

How to permanently delete a Facebook account

 

Here is the shortcut link to the official Facebook account deletion page:  https://facebook.com/help/delete_account

 

The Facebook account deletion process

Your account will be ‘deactivated’ for one month (it was two weeks). After this period it will be permanently deleted. You have plenty of time to change your mind.

Do not sign in to your account during this time unless you wish to cancel the deletion request.

 

Don't be fooled into a deactivation request. Deactivation is not deletion.

 

What happens to your data?
In theory, deleting your account removes all Facebook data related to you. In reality it's more complicated, taking about 90 days.

 

Allegations of complicity with National Security Agency surveillance and multiple data-privacy breaches suggest that your data may never truly be deleted.

Backup your data before deletion if you'd like a copy.

 

Click on the link for more

[Renegade7]

17 hours ago, Cooked Crack said:

 

 

It's hard to leave the Facebook sphere. Can't get on Instagram cause that's Facebook too. Can't use WhatsApp either. I still have WhatsApp installed cause with family and folks overseas.

 

Having this problem, too, missing a lot on Instagram since I removed it, but haven't removed WhatsApp yet.  

 

When Church opens back up, I'm going to bring up again moving their announcements and group chats to sms so folks don't have to use WhatsApp to see them.

 

Same time, I've told folks that really want to stay in touch with me that calling me is way to do it.

[Spaceman Spiff]

Deactivated facebook months ago, don't miss it at all.  I've got Instagram (owned by facebook, I know), only due to photography.  I have twitter, rarely post and when I log in, I'm usually sitting on the toilet and it messes up what's usually a good time and then I wonder when I'll learn.

 

I'd really like to be 100% off the grid.  But not having facebook is really awesome.

[Skinned Aussie]

I agree that not having FB is awesome.  I had more to do when I had a FB account.  With my photos, I found a site that would store them and I would send a link to people to view them.  I could also delete the photos as I saw fit rather than delete my account.

 

There is a thing called EMAIL if you want to contact friends/family.  If contacting in a hurry is required, you could always use SMS.  Better still, you could always ring them!  Skype is also a go-with, and it can be used on all operating systems.  Not sure who owns it but.  The last I heard it was 'owned' by MS.

 

Now I'm not saying I don't have access to FB/Twitter or Amazon, it's just that I don't WANT to use them as they are all take, take, take and give nothing in return.  I have used them but found others that were better and/or cheaper.  Hell, even eBay is often cheaper than Amazon (not that I use eBay, my missus does as it is linked to her PayPal account.).

Edited June 5, 2020 by Skinned Aussie

[China]

Civil rights groups call for 'pause' on Facebook ads

 

Several civil rights and other advocacy groups are calling on large advertisers to stop Facebook ad campaigns during July because they say the social network isn’t doing enough to curtail racist and violent content on its platform.

 

The groups in the “#StopHateforProfit” campaign, launched Wednesday, include Anti-Defamation League, the NAACP, Sleeping Giants, Color Of Change, Free Press and Common Sense.

 

“It is clear that Facebook and its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, are no longer simply negligent, but in fact, complacent in the spread of misinformation, despite the irreversible damage to our democracy. Such actions will upend the integrity of our elections as we head into 2020,” said NAACP CEO Derrick Johnson in a statement.

 

The groups say that Facebook amplifies white supremacists, allows posts that incite violence and contain political propaganda and misinformation, and doesn’t stop “bad actors using the platform to do harm.” They want to apply public pressure on Facebook to “stop generating ad revenue from hateful content, provide more support to people who are targets of racism and hate, and to increase safety for private groups on the platform.”

 

Facebook did not immediately return a request for comment.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Renegade7]

Wife and I finally sat down together and deleted our individual Facebook accounts same time. 

 

I'm still not buying they will do anything but remove the URL for our accounts from public view.

[China]

Activists Set Up Guillotine In Front Of Jeff Bezos’s D.C. Home, Call For Amazon To Be Abolished

 

Fringe activists set up a guillotine in front of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’s home in Washington, D.C., on Sunday where they reportedly demanded that Amazon be abolished.

 

One of the demonstrators said on a bullhorn in front of Bezos’s home, “it is still exploitation and when they become threatened, and we have no voice, the knives come out.”

 

The guillotine that was set up in front of Bezos’s home had a sign in front of it that stated, “Support our poor communities not our wealthy men.”

 

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Renegade7]

The resistance is growing...

 

 

[China]

Amazon driver quits, abandons truck with packages inside at Southfield gas station

 

SOUTHFIELD (WXYZ) — A man who claims he worked for Amazon said he quit on the job and abandoned his delivery truck at a metro Detroit gas station.

Derick Lancaster, 22, made the post on Twitter Monday that went viral overnight.

 

 

Lancaster told 7 Action News he was frustrated with the long hours, number of delivers, and pay. So, he apparently left the truck, keys, and packages at a Marathon near 12 Mile and Southfield Road.

 

"I'm not encouraging them to but if you fed up you fed up," Lancaster said. "It was immature and irresponsible on my end. At the same time enough is enough."

 

On Tuesday, his tweet had more than 25,000 shares and over 218,000 likes. Lancaster said he works nearly 12 hours shifts to deliver more than 100 packages for $15.50 an hour.

"It was days I had to deliver 158, 212, and it just kept going up and up," he said.

 

The tweet has caused some people to have a problem with Lancaster.

 

"I can't imagine how selfish someone has to be to abandon a van full of other people's property," one Twitter user wrote. "This is not OK."

 

Another user wrote, "She [her daughter] loves the pay, health insurance, and options for overtime."

 

Lancaster said he drew the line after missing his sister's birthday party.

 

"She was real upset with me," Lancaster said. "There is no set schedule."

 

Amazon has come under fire since the pandemic due to workload complaints and health and safety standards.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

I Have Cancer. Now My Facebook Feed Is Full of ‘Alternative Care’ Ads.

 

Being targeted by those who traffic in false promises feels like a “slap in the face” to patients like me.

 

Last week, I posted about my breast cancer diagnosis on Facebook. Since then, my Facebook feed has featured ads for “alternative cancer care.” The ads, which were new to my timeline, promote everything from cumin seeds to colloidal silver as cancer treatments. Some ads promise luxury clinics — or even “nontoxic cancer therapies” on a beach in Mexico.

 

There’s a reason I’ll never fall for these ads: I’m an advocate against pseudoscience. As a consultant for the watchdog group Bad Science Watch and the founder of the Campaign Against Phony Autism Cures, I’ve learned to recognize the hallmarks of pseudoscience marketing: unproven and sometimes dangerous treatments, promising simplistic solutions and support. Things like “bleach cures” that promise to treat everything from Covid-19 to autism.

 

When I saw the ads, I knew that Facebook had probably tagged me to receive them. Interestingly, I haven’t seen any legitimate cancer care ads in my newsfeed, just pseudoscience. This may be because pseudoscience companies rely on social media in a way that other forms of health care don’t. Pseudoscience companies leverage Facebook’s social and supportive environment to connect their products with identities and to build communities around their products. They use influencers and patient testimonials. Some companies also recruit members through Facebook “support groups” to sell their products in pyramid schemes.

 

Click on the link for more

[Mr. Sinister]

On 7/1/2020 at 4:52 PM, China said:

Amazon driver quits, abandons truck with packages inside at Southfield gas station

 

SOUTHFIELD (WXYZ) — A man who claims he worked for Amazon said he quit on the job and abandoned his delivery truck at a metro Detroit gas station.

Derick Lancaster, 22, made the post on Twitter Monday that went viral overnight.

 

 

Lancaster told 7 Action News he was frustrated with the long hours, number of delivers, and pay. So, he apparently left the truck, keys, and packages at a Marathon near 12 Mile and Southfield Road.

 

"I'm not encouraging them to but if you fed up you fed up," Lancaster said. "It was immature and irresponsible on my end. At the same time enough is enough."

 

On Tuesday, his tweet had more than 25,000 shares and over 218,000 likes. Lancaster said he works nearly 12 hours shifts to deliver more than 100 packages for $15.50 an hour.

"It was days I had to deliver 158, 212, and it just kept going up and up," he said.

 

The tweet has caused some people to have a problem with Lancaster.

 

"I can't imagine how selfish someone has to be to abandon a van full of other people's property," one Twitter user wrote. "This is not OK."

 

Another user wrote, "She [her daughter] loves the pay, health insurance, and options for overtime."

 

Lancaster said he drew the line after missing his sister's birthday party.

 

"She was real upset with me," Lancaster said. "There is no set schedule."

 

Amazon has come under fire since the pandemic due to workload complaints and health and safety standards.

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

I'm not ok with it.  I know a lot of people who get important stuff like medicine and other necessities through Amazon.

 

If you're gonna quit, quit on your own time.

[China]

Woah, I wonder how many publishers in Apple News+ realize that the new iOS14 and MacOS Big Sur are by default intercepting traffic to their sites and sending it to the Apple News app instead.

 

This traffic interception has two interesting consequences: 1) Any strategic rationale that Apple News+ represents a separate channel/audience is now gone. This directly cannibalizes a publishers’ core subscription audience.

2) Apple has been touting privacy as its core attribute, particularly blocking cross-site tracking. In this case, not only is Apple engaging in cross-site tracking, but is doing so as a default opt-in buried in the settings.

 

Click on the link for more

[China]

MacKenzie Scott Has Given $1.7 Billion Dollars To Non-Profits Since Her Divorce

 

Who hasn’t daydreamed about what they might do with the money if they came into billions of dollars?

 

A month after her divorce from the wealthiest man on the planet, MacKenzie Scott signed the Giving Pledge and promised to give away her billions “until the safe is empty.” A year on, she has revealed how she’s been acting on that declaration. 

 

When Scott officially split from the Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos in April 2019, ending a 25-year marriage, she received $38 billion as part of the settlement. Per Bloomberg’s latest estimate, her net worth now stands at $60.8 billion.

 

On July 28, she revealed in a blog post on Medium just what she’s been doing with some of her billions:

 

“Last fall, I asked a team of non-profit advisors with key representation from historically marginalized race, gender, and sexual identity groups to help me find and assess organizations having major impact on a variety of causes.”

 

Since then, 116 organizations around the world have received $1.7 billion in donations from Scott.

 

From Black Girls Code to the COVID-19 response effort, every one of the recipients, writes Scott, “is tackling complex challenges that will require sustained effort over many years, while simultaneously addressing consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Facebook failed to shut down page of Kenosha militia group, despite warning

 

Facebook failed to take action against a self-styled militia group that was using the social media platform to encourage armed citizens to take to the streets of Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Tuesday night — despite at least one Facebook user reporting the group to the company, Facebook confirmed to CNN on Wednesday.

 

The group "Kenosha Guard" promoted the event "Armed Citizens to Protect Our Lives and Property."

Facebook's failure to act was first reported by the technology news publication The Verge.

Multiple users had reported the account for inciting violence but were told it did not violate Facebook's rules, The Verge reported.

Seventeen-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse was arrested Wednesday following a fatal shooting in Kenosha on Tuesday night.

 

Facebook's failure to act raises serious questions about how the company moderates its platform.
 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Fortnite Fight: CEO Explains Why He Launched War Against Apple, Google

 

From his perch in Cary, N.C., Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney has launched a war against Silicon Valley powerhouses Apple and Google.

 

The billionaire maker of the video game phenomenon Fortnite dragged the tech giants to court last month over the 30% fee they charge on purchases made in their mobile app stores.

 

Since then, Sweeney, an iconoclastic executive who owns enormous farms and dabbles in fast cars, has not talked publicly about his decision. He broke his silence to NPR, insisting he had the backing of countless other app developers who also believe the tech titans are taking advantage of them.

 

"It's not just Epic being exploited by Apple, but it's every developer who goes along with that scheme colluding with Apple and Google to further their monopoly," Sweeney said in the interview. "These stores are making a lot more money from creative works than the creators."

 

In some ways, Sweeney said, being far away from the orbit of Silicon Valley, a culture he has long accused of "groupthink," has made his gamble easier.

 

He said many companies either rely too much on the tech giants to help them distribute their products and reach consumers, or dream of becoming the next Apple or Google themselves.

"Everybody doesn't have a great incentive to challenge Apple and Google's 30% because they want to be the next **** to charge 30%," Sweeney said.

 

To be clear, Apple and Google object to Sweeney's characterization. They have long charged the 30% fee for in-app purchases. The companies say the commission supports technical staff who make sure apps on iPhones and Androids are safe and secure.

 

In response, Sweeney, a veteran computer programmer, says that justification is offensive.

 

"Every Apple engineer who works on these services and ensures that iPhone is the most secure platform in the world has got to deeply resent the business guys for taking credit and claiming that their store monopoly is the reason why the platform is secure," Sweeney said. "It's just not true."

 

In its latest legal filing, Apple says Sweeney is positioning his company as a "modern corporate Robin Hood, in reality, it is a multi-billion-dollar enterprise that simply wants to pay nothing."

 

Click on the link for the full article

[DCSaints_fan]

The 30% fee is rather egregious.   Unreal Engine is only 5% for the license .  Steam is only 5%.   And I believe they only charge that after your game sells a certain amount (like $50k)

 

Back in the day, before everything went digital, 30% would been very high. Typical was more like 10-20%.  And, this is when publishers had ,legit marketing fees. 

[China]

The US government sues Google for alleged anticompetitive abuses in search

 

The Trump administration on Tuesday sued Google in what is the largest antitrust case against a tech company in more than two decades.

 

In its complaint, the Justice Department makes sweeping allegations that Google (GOOG) has stifled competition to maintain its powerful position in the marketplace for online search and search advertising.

Eleven states -- Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, South Carolina and Texas -- joined the suit, according to the complaint.

The complaint targets a series of interlocking actions by Google that, as a whole, allegedly harmed competition and prevented rivals from gaining a meaningful audience.

It alleges in part that Google pays billions of dollars a year to device manufacturers like Apple, LG, Motorola, and Samsung and browser developers like Mozilla and Opera to be their default search engine and in many cases to prohibit them from dealing with Google's competitors. As a result, "Google effectively owns or controls search distribution channels accounting for roughly 80 percent of the general search queries in the United States."

Justice Department officials did not rule out a breakup of Google on a call with reporters Tuesday.

"Nothing is off the table," said Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, who warned that if DOJ did not file suit now, "we could lose the next wave of innovation" and that "Americans may never get to see the next Google."

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

A Court Ruling in Austria Could Censor the Internet Worldwide

 

A little more than a year ago, I wrote with concern about the risk that a single EU court within single EU member state would become the censor for the world. That fear has now become reality. In a ruling Thursday, the Austrian Supreme Court ordered, pursuant to local defamation rules, that Facebook remove a post insulting a former Green Party leader, keep equivalent posts off its site, and do so on a global scale.

 

The case started with an April 2016 Facebook post, in which a user shared an article featuring a photo of Eva Glawischnig-Piesczek, then-chair of Austria’s Green Party, along with commentary labeling her a “lousy traitor,” “corrupt oaf,” and member of a “fascist party,” apparently in response to her immigration policies. This is core, protected speech in the United States. But it was deemed defamation under Austrian law. And in a series of rulings, Austrian courts ordered that Facebook take down and keep off any such post, and do so around the world.

 

Facebook complied, but only in part.  Employing what is known as geoblocking, it made the particular post that had been identified inaccessible to users within Austria. But it objected both to the global reach of the order and to the obligation to look for and keep other, equivalent posts off their site. And it argued that the order violated the applicable EU’s e-Commerce Directive, which prohibits EU member states from imposing general monitoring obligations on tech companies like Facebook.

 

In an October 2019 ruling, the European Court of Justice sided with Austria—concluding that the e-Commerce Directive did not stand in the Austrian court’s way (a ruling that is hard to reconcile with the text of the directive, for reasons I won’t rehash now). The CJEU ruling set two limits, albeit minimal, on EU member state courts. First, the obligation to look for and take down equivalent content must be issued with sufficient specificity to eliminate the need for independent provider assessment of that content—a criteria that, as I and others have argued previously is premised on a largely misguided assessment of the ability and precision of filtering tools. Second, any worldwide injunction must comport with “relevant international law.”

 

The consequences of the Austrian court ruling are far-reaching. Under current practice, global tech companies like Facebook and Google and Twitter set generally applicable community standards and terms of service—setting the rules for what is permitted on their platforms. These rules apply globally, across the platform, regardless of location of the user. But global tech companies are also bound by local laws that, at times, impose additional content-based restrictions on what users within their jurisdiction are allowed to say. Think Germany’s hate-speech laws. Or particular variants of the right to be forgotten. Or the Thai government’s prohibition on critique of the monarch. Or Singapore’s limitations on what is deemed “fake news,” defined as anything a minister deems both false and prejudicial to the Singaporean state.

 

Under the Austrian court precedent, courts in any such jurisdiction would be more or less free to apply their local laws to compel not just local, but global takedowns of posts or comments that violate the vagaries (and often highly speech-restrictive) of local law. And they could also require that copycat and equivalent posts be kept off—also on a global scale. This creates a classic risk of a race to the bottom, with the most censor-prone nation setting global speech rules.

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

Edited November 14, 2020 by China

[China]

Zuckerberg Flayed After Dem Asks ‘How Many Times Is Steve Bannon Allowed to Call for the Murder of Gov’t. Officials?’

 

Facebook co-founder, chairman, and CEO Mark Zuckerberg is being highly criticized on social media for his remarks during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday morning.

 

Senator Richard Blumenthal asked Zuckerberg about a recent controversy – one that led to massive outrage, and different responses, on multiple social media platforms.

 

“How many times is Steve Bannon allowed to call for the murder of government officials before Facebook suspends his account?” the Senator from Connecticut asked.

 

Bannon is the former Trump campaign CEO, former Trump White House chief strategist, and former Breitbart executive chairman who has held other right wing and extremist posts.

 

He recently called for the beheadings of FBI Director Chris Wray and Dr. Anthony Fauci, who is the longtime Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).

 

Twitter banned Bannon over his call to behead the two federal officials. Facebook did not.

 

Zuckerberg defended merely removing Bannon’s video, but not banning him, saying only terrorist or child exploitation content deserves immediate permanent user removal from the platform.

 

 

Click on the link for the full article