Technology Alternative Social Media and Tech

[Husky_Khan]

Oh and just in happier news...

DuckDuckGo surpasses 100 million daily search queries for the first time

DuckDuckGo reaches historic milestone in a week when both Signal and Telegram saw a huge influx of new users.

www.zdnet.com

If we're talking about alternative technology (maybe I'll redo the thread title) DuckDuckGo is my default search engine (though I still bounce to Google if I need something more particular and DuckDuckGo and it's lack of surveillance over every aspect of my life turns out to be insufficient for my search needs because I'm a pathetic shill).

Here is why you should use Yippy:

If you're looking for a "conservative" non-tracking search engine, I highly recommend Yippy

Yippy is probably the best search engine I've ever used. It's a true non-tracking search engine that doesn't discriminate against conservatives, or conservative content.

conservativehardliner.com

I haven't tried Yippy yet but I'll give it a gander.

A Conservative (or at least doesn't shill constantly with NBC, CNN, WaPo and WSJ links) News Aggregator would be nice. I do like Rumble in that it has news from Conservative channels as well as random local television/radio stations and newsfeeds like Newsy and Reuters.

 

[Abhorsen]

Because, from what I've seen recently, they've strayed from their original purpose/mission and joined in on the Leftist rhetoric that anything different = racist, sexist, kitchensinkist.

They really haven't strayed from their original rhetoric though. They are constantly on the lookout for anything near antisemitism and trying to stop it. That's their goal, and that's always been their goal since 1913. I don't see how they've changed.

 

[Jormungandr]

They really haven't strayed from their original rhetoric though. They are constantly on the lookout for anything near antisemitism and trying to stop it. That's their goal, and that's always been their goal since 1913. I don't see how they've changed.

While Gab does have some antisemitic content on it (all platforms do, sadly enough), they're trying to get the platform itself banned. They've basically thrown their lot in with Big Tech and their insanity/monopoly, IMO.

I'd say they've strayed a bit.

 

[Abhorsen]

I'd say they've strayed a bit.

I agree that it is wrong for the ADL to support banning Gab, but at the same time, this isn't straying. This was always the intention of the ADL: outshout, name and shame, deplatform, etc those who defame Jews. In this case, they are going after Gab because Gab won't go after the antisemetic posters. It's simply the next step that they never needed to take with twitter. The ADL has never been a free speech organization.

 

[Terthna]

I agree that it is wrong for the ADL to support banning Gab, but at the same time, this isn't straying. This was always the intention of the ADL: outshout, name and shame, deplatform, etc those who defame Jews. In this case, they are going after Gab because Gab won't go after the antisemetic posters. It's simply the next step that they never needed to take with twitter. The ADL has never been a free speech organization.

The ADL is, in reality, The DL; the Defamation League. They accuse people and organizations of engaging in and/or supporting antisemitism, in order to either scam money out of them, or do things that support the regressive left's radical political agenda. It's the same thing almost every left-aligned "non-profit" organization does; including the ACLU, just with different "isms" or "phobias" they like to accuse you of. Racism, sexism, ableism; it never stops.

Note how the ADL almost never confronts left-leaning organizations like BLM or Antifa, or those who support them, for their rampant and blatant antisemitism. That, more than anything, proves what their real agenda is.

 

[Husky_Khan]

Parler CEO ‘confident’ platform will return by month’s end after weekend of positive developments

EXCLUSIVE -- Parler chief executive officer John Matze is “confident” that his social media platform will be back online in the near future after his team was able to launch a static website and recover the company’s data over the weekend in a series of positive developments.

www.foxnews.com

Parler CEO John Matze (whose currently in hiding from Hackers who leaked his personal information and that of other Parler employees) stated on Fox News Sunday that he's confident Parler will be back up by the end of the Month.

Hopefully he invests a bit more in website security.

Here's the website with a special message from some of the Parler leadership including Dan Bongino.

Parler Free Speech Social Network

Parler is an unbiased social media focused on real user experiences and engagement. Free expression without violence and no censorship. Parler never shares your personal data.

parler.com

 

[Laskar]

Hopefully he invests a bit more in website security.

About that. Some 'Security researchers' published a hundred-terabyte dump of Parler and claimed it included private messages and the like, but I've heard that they only scraped the publicly visible portions of the website.

 

[Husky_Khan]

Shocking disclosure on how DuckDuckGo manages to FLEECE its users and harvests their keyword search data for delicious, green money!!!

Gabriel Weinberg's answer to What is the revenue generation model for DuckDuckGo? - Quora

In fact, search advertisers buy search ads by bidding on keywords, not people. It makes intuitive sense, too. If you search for ‘car’, you are more likely to respond to a car ad than something you searched for last week. This keyword-based advertising is our primary business model. When you search on DuckDuckGo, we can show you an ad based on the keywords you type in. That’s it. And it works. Our privacy policy, in a nutshell, is to not collect or share any personal information at all. Every time you search on DuckDuckGo it is as if you were there for the first time – anonymous.

About that. Some 'Security researchers' published a hundred-terabyte dump of Parler and claimed it included private messages and the like, but I've heard that they only scraped the publicly visible portions of the website.

Supposedly the hackers Security Researchers did just scrap all of the public Parler information and it was all just the public information (including location information for cell phone uploaded pictures apparently) and might've included some deleted messages/posts as well. Here's the... uhhh persons, actual tweet thread.

 

[Abhishekm]

Shocking disclosure on how DuckDuckGo manages to FLEECE its users and harvests their keyword search data for delicious, green money!!!

That...doesn't sound too bad honestly. Is there something I am missing or is it humour?

 

[Husky_Khan]

That...doesn't sound too bad honestly. Is there something I am missing or is it humour?

Well it was meant to be satire...

 

[Abhishekm]

Well it was meant to be satire...

Oh good. That actually sounded pretty fine to me. But these days you can't really be sure. Hehe😅

So what about that stuff about Parler donating to the Clinton's? Only seen one post about it somewhere but sounded kinda sketchy.

 

[LindyAF]

Someone might have mentioned this already, but don't trust Parler with your information. From what I've read there were serious security concerns prior to them going down.

Gab, Telegram, Signal, etc. from what I know are fine. Gab has there own servers, which has advantages, but also means they've been hard pressed to keep up with increased activity. Haven't had any issues with Telegram, although the user interface is a bit non-intuitive for me, and it definitely feels like a messaging app first and social media second.

 

[Abhishekm]

Someone might have mentioned this already, but don't trust Parler with your information. From what I've read there were serious security concerns prior to them going down.

Gab, Telegram, Signal, etc. from what I know are fine. Gab has there own servers, which has advantages, but also means they've been hard pressed to keep up with increased activity. Haven't had any issues with Telegram, although the user interface is a bit non-intuitive for me, and it definitely feels like a messaging app first and social media second.

Yeah Telegram has always been a messaging app first and social media second. Like whatsapp used to be honestly. There is nothing wrong with that. Honestly kinda helps keep things secure. Plus a lot less excuse for it to no be private with any groups being explicitly invide and acceptance based message chains instead of 'public' posts like Twitter or facebook.

 

[Marduk]

I agree that it is wrong for the ADL to support banning Gab, but at the same time, this isn't straying. This was always the intention of the ADL: outshout, name and shame, deplatform, etc those who defame Jews. In this case, they are going after Gab because Gab won't go after the antisemetic posters. It's simply the next step that they never needed to take with twitter. The ADL has never been a free speech organization.

ADL is classic case of an organization subverted by general far left activist circles, made so much easier due to being somewhat sympathetic to each other in some areas to begin with.
It is well demonstrated by the fact that since some time ADL is getting itself involved into ideological and political battles that have absolutely nothing to do with fighting antisemitism, and everything to do with some kind of more generic leftist progressive cause, in turn making it functionally indistinguishable from any random leftist progressive NGO.

 

[Abhorsen]

ADL is classic case of an organization subverted by general far left activist circles, made so much easier due to being somewhat sympathetic to each other in some areas to begin with.
It is well demonstrated by the fact that since some time ADL is getting itself involved into ideological and political battles that have absolutely nothing to do with fighting antisemitism, and everything to do with some kind of more generic leftist progressive cause, in turn making it functionally indistinguishable from any random leftist progressive NGO.

Some of the examples you give definitely show the ADL straying from it's purpose. And I don't doubt it has. But trying to silence Gab isn't an example of straying from it's purpose. Instead, I'd say that the tactics used have become outdated (if they every were relevant).

 

[Marduk]

Some of the examples you give definitely show the ADL straying from it's purpose. And I don't doubt it has. But trying to silence Gab isn't an example of straying from it's purpose. Instead, I'd say that the tactics used have become outdated (if they every were relevant).

It could seem that way if you ignore that context, but taking what i said before a bit further - if every random leftist progressive NGO speaks up and wants to silence Gab, and ADL just so happens to join them, what is the argument that ADL wants to silence Gab as part of its old purpose, and not for the same reason(s) all the other NGOs of similar political alignment and behavior do?

 

[Abhorsen]

It could seem that way if you ignore that context, but taking what i said before a bit further - if every random leftist progressive NGO speaks up and wants to silence Gab, and ADL just so happens to join them, what is the argument that ADL wants to silence Gab as part of its old purpose, and not for the same reason(s) all the other NGOs of similar political alignment and behavior do?

I'm not speculating as to their motives though. I'm saying that it falls right in line with their mission. For all I know, the owner of Gab played a prank on the leader of the ADL in high school, and that's why they are doing it. I'm not going to try to read their minds on this, as a reasonable explanation exists within the established role of the ADL, which also means that as an avenue of criticism, saying that "trying to ban Gab has caused them to stray from their mission" is not a compelling argument, at the very least.

 

[Marduk]

I'm not speculating as to their motives though. I'm saying that it falls right in line with their mission. For all I know, the owner of Gab played a prank on the leader of the ADL in high school, and that's why they are doing it. I'm not going to try to read their minds on this, as a reasonable explanation exists within the established role of the ADL, which also means that as an avenue of criticism, saying that "trying to ban Gab has caused them to stray from their mission" is not a compelling argument, at the very least.

We can't read their minds, but we can read their site.

You are being redirected...

www.adl.org

Ultimately, ADL diluting their mission into anything they consider fitting a general social justice cause set has caused them to stray from their mission.

Back to Gab though, we can also compare ADL's wish to get Gab deplatformed to its treatment of other platforms. Like the (in)famous Twitter, which to some degree goes after antisemitic posters, but as ADL themselves will admit, is not doing a good job of it at all.
Did ADL ever call for Twitter itself to be deplatformed?
If not, it would suggest that to ADL some antisemitism hosting platforms are more equal than others.

 

[Karmic Acumen]

I'm surprised no one here has mentioned PocketNet yet. It may just be the only truly decentralized social media platform out there. It works off blockchain nodes run by whichever user feels like they have the PC resources to spare. As long as there are five nodes running somewhere in the world, it will live on. It's not reliant on any Big Tech, nor their services like cloudflare or whatnot.

Currently it supports most of what twitter does, except the mods/owners can't actually ban or censor anyone. It's up to you to mute or downvote whoever you don't like. There is also a method where community mass flagging can downvote or memory-hole illegal shit like terrorist recruitment. Making that function relatively bot-proof was one of the first things the designers did when the beta came online, back in 2019.

The pocketnett.app website COULD, theoretically, be blocked by Big Tech bullshit, with some difficulty, but the app itself doesn't have this problem and should work as long as you have an internet connection. From what I understand, it doesn't use www or any standard URL addressing (which can be blocked) but magnet links or something along those lines (which can't be blocked, at least not the same way).

Don't lose your password though.

 

[Bear Ribs]

Brave now supports IPFS for peer-to-peer websites that don't rely on any specific server that could be controlled. This seems at least adjacent to the idea of alternatives that can avoid being controlled by big companies though I don't know of any platform using IPFS yet, and I'm only vaguely familiar with how it works.