This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Is it that surprising that your average person in another country is easy to get on with? I've been to a fair few different countries and the everyday people you interact with are lovely (except France).
It's the fucking politicians you've got to look out for, and not just the foreign ones.
Lmao "except France"
Well I mean obviously.
Are they really that unwelcoming? I've heard a bunch about this, fortunately never got to experience it first hand.
I'm English, so I'm sure the feeling's mutual. ;-)
Youtube and Instagram tried for years to lure in Tiktok users, and they failed so badly that even with Tiktok potentially getting banned, people would rather switch to a different potentially sketchy Chinese app.
I can see the logic. If I used these apps I'd rather have a different sketchy government spying on my than my own.
That they specifically went to another sketchy app is what gets me the most.
I could name tons of social network alternatives that are decentralized, give users control but for some reason those are sidelined as everyone suddenly wants an account on app they never heard off a few weeks ago and its main selling feature is that is at least as insecure and censored as tiktok..
They're looking for a "fuck you" to the US government more than they're looking for a new social media. Maybe it will stick as a popular platform, but I suspect it was chosen more for its name and ties to the CCP than any actual features.
Supposedly they're doing it on purpose as a protest. Not just one sketchy Chinese app, but any sketchy Chinese app they can find. In the hopes that Meta and Google will miss them, and the federal government will capitulate to stop them using those apps.
Because apparently they haven't read the bill in question and think banning these apps too will somehow be "unsustainable".
It's still an act of protest. Even if it will only last a week.
However, XHS has gone through 3-4 major revisions in the past 4 days, they clearly are anticipating sticking around.
It would be so hilarious to me if they build a VPN directly into the app to sidestep the Great Firewall of America
😳😳😳 Westerners not voluntarily giving personal information to the Chinese government for 5 seconds [Challenge Impossible (They caught us)] 😵😵💫😧
On some level, it makes sense. Like, if I never plan to enter the PRC's jurisdiction, it has less capacity to use my personal data to cause me harm than a five eyes member state does, because the Australian government does have jurisdiction where I live.
They already bought all our info from Facebook and Google so why not?
Besides, what are they going to do with it that's worse than what an American company will?
Replacing one Chinese Spyware app with another. Lmao, it's just so funny to me.
Because an American Spyware app is much better?
Why not ban both if we are concerned about the harms of algorithmic content?
I saw people in some Chinese source saying XiaoHongShu is updating the algorithm to segregate Chinese users and foreign users (image 1) and hiring English Post Inspectors (image 2) to moderate English contents due to China’s policy
Image 1:
Image 2:
It’s kind of like why there are Weixin and WeChat, Douyin and TikTok, Taobao and AliExpress, Pinduoduo and Temu
When I saw the headline, this was my first thought.
But damn, it could have been something cool if reality wasn't so fucking predictable and ugly.
I mean, imagine a reality where a bunch of humans end up using the same service like that, between two countries at odds, and they realize that they have a lot more in common than they thought possible. It could be a bridge that changes a world.
Well, that world, because it sure as hell isn't the one we're in
The two Spidermen meme :
"You're being lied to!"
"We are?!"
"We thought it was only you guys!"
And then revolution all around the world, utopia, happiness forever.
The Chinese government was never going to let that happen. It threatens their control of their people.
I guess this is one of the few things where China and the US fully agree.
If they'd let their people freely talk it would be way harder to demonize the other side.
I mean, imagine a reality where a bunch of humans end up using the same service like that, between two countries at odds, and they realize that they have a lot more in common than they thought possible. It could be a bridge that changes a world.
The answer is Fediverse. From last time I checked while I am in Mainland China, lemmy.world is not banned (yet lemmy.ml is banned lol)
I am also able to use my own Mastodon instance in Mainland China.
Fediverse is the key and tool to break the Great Firewall.
