Read on Twitter
there are so many things going on at the same time that a lot of people i trust are posting really stupid things on here when they are normally very reliable at not doing that
in the interests of helping de-couple your pattern recognition from "What's Happening?!" i would like to slow some things down for you in digestible bite sized chunks
parler got archived and shut down, brutally, when their apps were pulled down from google and apple's ecosystems, and their content host (amazon) terminated their contract.
parler is just racist twitter, for the most part. it doesn't need any more nuance than that.
parler is just racist twitter, for the most part. it doesn't need any more nuance than that.
literally the NEXT DAY, whatsapp's privacy policy changed to remove language indicating they had no access to your encryption keys on their servers, which caused a lot of infosec types to raise a lot of alarms about facebook having access to encrypted whatsapp data (rightly so)
there's a lot going on in the world right now that isn't going on in the US. e.g.:
- hong kong just rounded up anyone who may have been considered "dissentious" to the CCP and arrested them
- uganda is in the middle of a "free and fair election" where all social media is cut off
- hong kong just rounded up anyone who may have been considered "dissentious" to the CCP and arrested them
- uganda is in the middle of a "free and fair election" where all social media is cut off
so understandably: people who need encrypted messaging like signal and (formerly) whatsapp needed a new home
to give you an idea of whatsapp's reputation damage right now: british MPs were once told it was secure enough to have secure conversations about gov't business
to give you an idea of whatsapp's reputation damage right now: british MPs were once told it was secure enough to have secure conversations about gov't business
whatsapp had at one point over a BILLION users. with a b. not an exaggeration.
so naturally everyone saying "whatsapp is NOT SECURE anymore" means that people need a new home
enter: telegram (not secure, but in different ways)
so naturally everyone saying "whatsapp is NOT SECURE anymore" means that people need a new home
enter: telegram (not secure, but in different ways)
(and no, cryptography folks, i am not interested in the "is telegram secure" conversation -- you should always, always assume anything you say is being listened to on the internet)
as any startup does, telegram right now is taking a big ol' victory lap.
"we hit 500 million registered users!" that is not an insignificant number. that is 1/15th of the planet.
maybe they should have waited on that one, given another startup's recent collapse (parler)
"we hit 500 million registered users!" that is not an insignificant number. that is 1/15th of the planet.
maybe they should have waited on that one, given another startup's recent collapse (parler)
so it REALLY DOES look like right now when telegram says "over 25m users joined in the last 24 hours alone!" that "everyone from parler joined telegram"
which, as recently as july: lol
which, as recently as july: lol
does telegram have a nazi problem: oh absolutely telegram has a nazi problem. so does furaffinity, so does facebook, so does imgur, so does reddit, so does skype, so does discord
if there are places for people to communicate there are going to be nazis there
if there are places for people to communicate there are going to be nazis there
you, of course, can help with that by not giving these guys a fair shake and throwing them out wherever you see them (and encouraging others to do the same)
and if you look at the breakdown in numbers we can look at where those users came from
73% of the new user growth was asia, africa, and europe, lol
73% of the new user growth was asia, africa, and europe, lol
i understand the rush to judgement. believe me, i do. https://twitter.com/horse_ebooks/status/218439593240956928?lang=en
hard as it is, take events in bite sized chunks. it is easy to conflate things happening all at the same time -- take breaks to digest all of the news.
inhale. exhale.
inhale. exhale.
source on the ugandan election: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/1/12/unprecedented-violence-as-uganda-gears-up-for-elections
one of many sources on the hong kong crackdowns: https://www.reuters.com/article/hongkong-security-democracy/exclusive-china-plans-further-hong-kong-crackdown-after-mass-arrest-sources-idUSL4N2JJ1N3
whatsapp privacy policy change https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/01/whatsapp-users-must-share-their-data-with-facebook-or-stop-using-the-app/
