More than “mildly infuriating”, this is deeply depressing.

(And seeing TikTok two times there don’t make things better…)

  • hendrik
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    813 hours ago

    Is that because of the political situation? Like repression, internet censorship… Or an unrelated trend?

    • NONEOP
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      512 hours ago

      Yeah, is political. We can enter twitter (not that I care) and other sites.

      • hendrik
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        411 hours ago

        Just read the government is currently also on a VPN banning spree. I guess that list is going to change frequently now, if people continue with watching Youtube, Instagram and Twitter.

        My top apps are all shopping apps, discount apps, WhatsApp, ChatGPT, TEMU, video streaming and TikTok is there, too. VPN comes further down along with dating apps and then it gets quite random. Guess in Germany our biggest worry is to save some money when grocery shopping…

        • NONEOP
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          311 hours ago

          You are the third person from a different third country to mention Temu. What on earth is so good about Temu? Legit question 😭

          • Possibly linux
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            28 hours ago

            Temu has a pretty sketchy history and some how manages to be so much worse than Amazon.

            • NONEOP
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              24 hours ago

              Then why is so famous around the globe? 😭

              • hendrik
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                11 hour ago

                Because people like cheap stuff. Need a phone case? Harry Potter merchandise knockoffs, socks, a brush for your arts project? TEMU has that for $0.61, delivered to your door.

                And as far as I know it’s sponsored by the Chinese government. They chip in with forced labor camps. And they also invested massively in advertising and making it a thing.

                I wouldn’t buy from them. As far as I know the app is also spying on the users etc. But yeah, enough people seem to buy stuff there. I suppose it’s cheap and convenient and people don’t care. It’s kind of depressing. I agree.

                • NONEOP
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                  11 hour ago

                  Isn’t Alibaba the same shit?

                  • hendrik
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                    21 hour ago

                    I think Alibaba and Aliexpress are less tightly connected with the Chinese government. They also ship stuff from China, but they aren’t specialized in the cheapest of the cheapest. Plus as far as I know they’re more a marketplace platform. They handle the money and connect you with an individual seller in China. The platforms are a bit less convenient to use. I think it’s a bit like eBay vs Amazon, if you want to compare it to western companies.

      • Possibly linux
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        18 hours ago

        Me and many others all run the Snowflake browser extension so that you can still bypass censorship with Tor. With Snowflakes it is impossible to block Tor without blocking the public internet.

        Also Briar messager can be used for communication in the event of internet black outs.

        • NONEOP
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          24 hours ago

          Well, you see, is kinda hard to explain to someone that oy use Facebook and TikTok what Tor even is, so…