Who's trying to break the internet today?

[CoffeeHorse]

Frankly, I'm suspicious of any large channel YouTube seems to like, including LegalEagle, and this "but then you'd never be exposed to content you actually do want to watch but didn't know" crap seals the deal. He's in the club.

I know what actually I want to watch. It is exactly what I searched for. And if it is not in the three results I get before they're interrupted by the trending section, the "related to your search" section, the "people also watched" section, the "based on your history" section, the "for you" section, and whatever section they add next that is categorically not what I searched for on purpose, I will just keep scrolling until I get past them all and back to some actual search results again. I will scroll for miles if I have to. I can do this all day.

I will not watch Mr Beast clone #2068. I will not watch clips from vapid talent show #736. I will not watch the ball go. I will not watch your music video. I will not watch your main channel, your side channel, your backup side channel, your react channel, your TikTok react channel, or your highlights channel. I have 96 channels blocked and I am not afraid to add more.

 

[abates]

Honestly I'm starting to think that destroying the internet wouldn't be the worst thing we could do, at this point.

That would not be a good thing, given how much of our infrastructure these days depends on the internet working.

 

[Rhinox]

Tanking the internet will create a fallout the likes of which has never been seen. Sure you'll have your fundies and asshats saying it's God's will or whatever, but even those "pious pew fillers" will be pissed their easily available porn is no longer there for them.
A wrong decision here will have consequences far beyond what the boomer generation can imagine.

 

[Plutoniumboss]

I will agree that some sort of recommendation algorithm is a good idea. But that algorithm just being a radicalization funnel that maximizes views no matter the consequence is an unsustainable situation.

 

[NovaSaber]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1626309806372814849

 

[Dekafox]

So the "TikTok ban" bill is far more broad than even I was expecting. I was thinking it would be aimed more at Social Media, but it includes provisions for:

software designed or used primarily for connecting with and communicating via the internet that is in use by greater than 1,000,000 persons in the United States at any point during the year period preceding the date on which the covered transaction is referred to the Secretary for review or the Secretary initiates review of the covered transaction, including—
(A) desktop applications;
(B) mobile applications;
(C) gaming applications;
(D) payment applications; or
(E) web-based applications; or
(7) information and communications technology products and services integral to—
(A) artificial intelligence and machine learning;
(B) quantum key distribution;
(C) quantum communications;
(D) quantum computing;
(E) post-quantum cryptography;
(F) autonomous systems;
(G) advanced robotics;
(H) biotechnology;
(I) synthetic biology;
(J) computational biology; and
(K) e-commerce technology and services, including any electronic techniques for accomplishing business transactions, online retail, internet-enabled logistics, internet-enabled payment technology, and online marketplaces.

The bill text: https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/senate-bill/686/text?s=1&r=15

It has the potential to be PATROIT Act Part II, especially with things like a 20 year jail sentence or 1 mil fine for using VPN to access verboten material, such as the aforementioned TikTok.

*edit* Oh even better, you can't even FOIA it. At the very end:

(2) INAPPLICABILITY OF FOIA.—Any information submitted to the Federal Government by a party to a covered transaction in accordance with this Act, as well as any information the Federal Government may create relating to review of the covered transaction, is exempt from disclosure under section 552 of title 5, United States Code (commonly referred to as the “Freedom of Information Act”).

 

[Ungnome]

Not a fan of that. It's one thing to block financial transactions(such as us companies paying for ads on questionable apps), something totally different to bar users from even accessing said services under penalty of law.

 

[Pocket]

It has the potential to be PATROIT Act Part II, especially with things like a 20 year jail sentence or 1 mil fine for using VPN to access verboten material, such as the aforementioned TikTok.

Well, there won't be an aforementioned TikTok anymore once the bill goes into effect, since it's operated out of the company's US-based offices and is separate from the Chinese equivalent Douyin. Unless they manage to find someone outside of China to sell it off to, which seems like the most likely scenario now that I think about it.

It does seem likely that sites like AliExpress and Wish.com are getting the knife, and I'm interested to know whether it'll also force Valve to shut down the Chinese arm of Steam. I mean, it probably will anyway once the Chinese government inevitably retaliates by passing their own law banning any business dealings with American tech companies.

EDIT: Ooh, and I wonder what'll happen with US game companies that are partially owned by companies like Tencent, like Epic and Riot.

 

[Dekafox]

Oh it won't be just China. By making it apply to "foreign adversaries" any nation that incurs the dislike of the administration is up for grabs.

 

[Pocket]

And it's not just the current administration. It sounds like this grants sweeping powers to the executive branch that are just begging to be abused by the next Republican to inherit the office.

Does Biden... think?

 

[abates]

It seems to have a time limit built in, from what I read. In section 3:

(1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 180 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary, in consultation with the relevant executive department and agency heads, shall review any transaction described in subsection (a) to—

Maybe I'm interpreting it wrong, but it looks like they've limited it so it would only apply to whatever the secretary of commerce could review in the 180 days.

 

[Dekafox]

Other way around.. the way I read it, that means that they have a time limit to start implementing this of 180 days after it passes.

 

[NovaSaber]

https://callese.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F713185764323852288

 

[wonko the sane?]

The internet should functionally be treated like a library. Free for everyone and available basically everywhere.

Edit: and frankly; such a massive overreach into private matters is blatantly going to spill out into other countrys, basically in second one. Especially considering how many people use VPN's to spoof having an american IP to watch streaming services which aren't available legitimately at home.

 

[Ungnome]

They had an opportunity to beef up internet privacy protections and instead those the opportunity to increase government surveillance instead.....

 

[KidTDragon]

Which really shouldn't be surprising.

 

[Pocket]

The part about banning modems and routers that are made in China... do they not realize that's all of them? Are they just going to make having a working internet connection a crime in and of itself???

 

[Ungnome]

A lot of manufacturing is moving to Vietnam and Malaysia from China. Still, there's gonna have to be a grandfather clause for pre-law hardware..

 

[NovaSaber]

Imgur is trying to break itself:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1648883351233896448

 

[Pocket]

It was inevitable. First Photobucket, then ImageShack, now this; it's amazing it didn't happen a long time ago.

We had plenty of time to recognize that our collective dependency on a single third-party site that was providing a free service with no strings attached was a bad idea and take steps to find an alternative.

I'd say this is evidence of how the internet is already broken, on a fundamental level. We're dependent on the specific services we use in a way that precludes the possibility of just finding an alternative if they ever shut down. It's not like buying groceries, where you can just find a different store to shop at if your local supermarket closes down.