Yeah, it's even invaded the more obscure subreddits. Some posters try to shoehorn in political commentary even when it doesn't have much to do with the topic. I doubt there are even real humans behind some posts.
> I doubt there are even real humans behind some posts.
The topic of Russian bots pushing all sort of propaganda designed to destabilize western countries is a well known problem. There are already multiple discussions on stunts like blatant sock puppet accounts and poorly-built LLM-powered bots dumping massive volumes of propaganda.
This problem is well established. Until now the answer to this problem was relying on social networks to moderate abusive content and actively fight state actors from totalitarian regimes engaged in what is ultimately warfare against democratic nations. What makes Twitter stand out is how one of these totalitarian regimes ended up compromising a major social network and is using it's leverage to attack other nations with free reign. This is what makes Twitter stand out.
I'd wager it is almost certainly real humans, just not engaging authentically i.e. paid trolls, at least until the cost of generative AI falls bellow troll farms.
If you bother to spend a couple of minutes looking for it, you'll quickly stumble upon a high volume of posts unmasking LLM-powered bots, which even respond to prompts to clear previous prompts, output their own prompts, and even generate content on-demand.
I distinctly remember the mindset of HN that the second comment linked describes, that Meta was doomed. Then many started cheering it on because they wanted Twitter to fail. Neither of which has happened so far.
I think HN users (myself included) have a blind spot for general social trends. We're technologists, not tastemakers.
Just because Facebook may potentially create their own app store doesn't mean others are going to use it. Even on Android, sideloading is fraught with warnings that the average older Facebook user might not figure it out.
Personally I'm looking forward to easier iOS sideloading, even if regulation was required to achieve it. Devices should be secure by design against malware, not by curation.
> Even on Android, sideloading is fraught with warnings that the average older Facebook user might not figure it out.
This is now also forbidden by the DMA.
> 3. The gatekeeper shall ensure that the obligations of Articles 5, 6 and 7 are fully and effectively complied with.
> 4. The gatekeeper shall not engage in any behaviour that undermines effective compliance with the obligations of Articles 5, 6 and 7 regardless of whether that behaviour is of a contractual, commercial or technical nature, or of any other nature, or consists in the use of behavioural techniques or interface design.
> 6. The gatekeeper shall not degrade the conditions or quality of any of the core platform services provided to business users or end users who avail themselves of the rights or choices laid down in Articles 5, 6 and 7, or make the exercise of those rights or choices unduly difficult, including by offering choices to the end-user in a non-neutral manner, or by subverting end users’ or business users' autonomy, decision-making, or free choice via the structure, design, function or manner of operation of a user interface or a part thereof.
> 7. Where the gatekeeper circumvents or attempts to circumvent any of the obligations in Article 5, 6, or 7 in a manner described in paragraphs 4, 5 and 6 of this Article, the Commission may open proceedings pursuant to Article 20 and adopt an implementing act referred to in Article 8(2) in order to specify the measures that the gatekeeper is to implement.
> There was a proposed change about six months or a year ago, but it was walked back after public criticism.
Was that change ever walked back? I recall that Whatsapp wanted to send metadata (not the messages themselves, but phone numbers, IP addresses, etc) to Facebook/Meta for advertising purposes. I know it was delayed, but I deleted my Whatsapp account before having to accept the new terms.
I share your sentiment. I use Twitter for business and Instagram (before I deleted it) for friends. I follow very different accounts on each. I'm not going to mix business and pleasure so to speak, especially with Meta's poor privacy reputation.
And for people who have strong negative opinions on Musk, most of them hate Zuckerberg too. For them, Threads might have a better chance if it was a non-Meta product.
> experience of working on a film or television series that is underbid, understaffed, subject to unreasonable, inflexible deadlines, and endless directorial nitpicking: "pixel fucked"
This feels like working for a video game company. People overworked, underpaid, and doing it for the love of the creative arts and working on a name brand project. Similar things have happened at Electronic Arts.
There's a lot in modern day life that seems to depend on an endless supply of naive young folk who don't yet realize they're being taken advantage of yet. They have that belief that their situation will be different.
It's one of those things you can't tell people either, they have to experience it unfortunately, so the cycle continues.
Not sure how you fix that beyond regulation / protection for those folks.
In the film industry everyone knows they're being taken advantage of, it's very explicitly discussed at the lowest ranks of production. It's just that it's the only entrance to the field if you aren't wealthy or heavily connected. You have to suffer until you build your network and credits enough to pull yourself up. There's little to no delusion, just embracing the suck.
People will always be willing to suffer (maybe even enough to skirt paternalistic regulations that were enacted to protect them) when there is such an imbalance of supply vs demand. “Everybody” wants to be a movie director or actor or make AAA games but few such positions are available. It’s not a delusion if it’s a known gamble. I admire them for it, tbh.
> “As we’ve seen in other industries, in the early years, companies will burn through 20-year-olds like fuel to grow whatever business they’re in,” said Andrew. “But after a certain point, you’re going to either run out of people, or those who have been in the industry for a decade and now have kids just won’t stand to be treated that way any more.”
Union movements are on the rise because the status quo is a result of a power imbalance, not from necessity. If there are less movies with better VFX made by healthy staff, then so be it.
And, of course, there is no way for everybody to pull themselves up. You have to hope that you are one of the lucky few, while the rest are ground up and spat out by the machine.
I don't know much about VFX but that's certainly true in much of the scuba diving industry. They find young people who love to dive and want to make it a career, and sucker them into paying for training to become dive masters and instructors. Then those people get stuck working long hours for miniscule wages, always under constant pressure to cut corners on safety while trying to sell more equipment and training courses to customers. There are good dive shops and instructors who don't play that game but they are a minority.
In general be cautious about getting into any industry where people are there more for love than for money. That tends to create exploitive situations.
Or they have an understanding that they're being hazed (for lack of a better term) but if they make partner/finish residency they have a not necessarily cushy life but are, as you say, going to be well-paid and have a decent professional life if they like the work.
Sounds like working on a software project of literally any kind, minus one's ego necessarily driving the burnout truck (I know that's probably about 50/50)
Intelligent enough to create a grift selling subscriptions to the "Real World" featuring rehashed low-quality dropshipping/crypto/copywriting content, sure. That's not even how he made his money but teaching how to launder money through casinos and adult webcam businesses probably wouldn't work out legally. I have younger friends who are into him so had to do research to see if they weren't getting fleeced.
I wouldn't put him in the same category as the other three men mentioned who deliver value for free.
