[News] The Internet Was a Mistake

A thread for updates on the various ways the internet is destroying everything and the undying hellsites of social media. Let's all laugh at the abyss.

Half or just over $20 billion

420 blazin

WizKid wrote:

So how high will the settlement be?

Snoopdogghighface.jpg

IMAGE(https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/3E45/production/_126014951_5c5c20b8-672c-434a-bca6-d2c8bc502a60.jpg)

Chemtrails: What's the truth behind the conspiracy theory?

The word "chemtrails" has trended on sunny mornings this summer - but what's the truth behind the conspiracy theory?

Look up at a clear blue sky and you might see puffy white trails behind airplanes.

They are made up mostly of water and are called contrails or vapour trails, but a growing number of people falsely believe they are evidence of something sinister going on.

Some think malign forces are spraying the population with dangerous chemicals - so-called chemtrails - for purposes that are neither entirely clear nor consistent.

A surge in conspiratorial thinking following the Covid pandemic along with the summer travel season and clear skies mean the once obscure chemtrails theory is now being promoted by major influencers.

Watching your entire species slouch towards disaster.

Go go gadget check button

I switched to iOS in large part due to that cross-app tracking block.

It has been criticized for being imperfect, but it's clearly having a dramatic impact.

Apple may leverage privacy controls as a competitive advantage rather than out of any deep-rooted altruism, but it's still a position that I will earnestly vote for with my dollars.

On the drive into the office today, I saw graffiti advertising the website "VirusesAreNotContagious.com"

Which.... y'all.

Prederick wrote:

On the drive into the office today, I saw graffiti advertising the website "VirusesAreNotContagious.com"

Which.... y'all.

Nope.

There are conspiracy nutters who deny basic germ theory. In their bizarro universe, "viruses" in the body are created by disease rather than causing disease.

While the depths of human stupidity on display across the Internet rival that of the Marianas Trench, the audacious ignorance on display in this group is truly stunning. In the group's current take on germ theory denialism, bacteria are merely scavengers and are a symptom of disease. Viruses are considered cellular debris and cannot cause disease or transmit from one person to another.
Prederick wrote:

On the drive into the office today, I saw graffiti advertising the website "VirusesAreNotContagious.com"

Which.... y'all.

Stupidity is clearly more contagious...

Quintin_Stone wrote:

basic germ theory

Why did you give them their next thing, bro?

Rat Boy wrote:
Quintin_Stone wrote:

basic germ theory

Why did you give them their next thing, bro?

That’s already a thing. Most common narrative I see is that germs exist but are incapable of affecting humans in any adverse way and all illnesses attributed to germs/bacteria/etc are actually due to poor diet and environmental factors. The same people tend to argue that viruses don’t exist at all, have never been observed or isolated, and are just a conspiracy by the medical community.

Bloody f*cking hell. Seriously? Rejecting the germ theory of disease now?

Do your own research! (tm)

I don’t know if there’s already a Rule 34 equivalent for conspiracy theories, but basically if something exists there’s probably a couple thousand people on the internet claiming it doesn’t exist.

You know... I wonder if there is any effort on the left to go into these information warfare sites for the express purpose of turning people on eachother. Log into antivaxxing or Q websites and turn them on Faux news. Get new media to declare war on old, and so on. Start out on the Q site and turn them on something that Faux really loves, then log into 4 or 8chan and turn them on something ancillary to something that Q loves. Set up digital false flag OPs to turn these trolls on one another.

You wouldn't be able to directly turn them against one another... at first, but once all parties are fully engaged just turn up the heat till everything explodes.

If we want to "win" our country back we may have to engage in the same sh*tty, evil tactics as they're using on the world at large.

Just a crazy ass, prolly stupid thought.

Farscry wrote:

Bloody f*cking hell. Seriously? Rejecting the germ theory of disease now?

Germ theory denialism

Farscry wrote:

Bloody f*cking hell. Seriously? Rejecting the germ theory of disease now?

"It's jUsT a ThEoRy"

"There's no germs in the Bible"

Drazzil wrote:

You know... I wonder if there is any effort on the left to go into these information warfare sites for the express purpose of turning people on eachother. Log into antivaxxing or Q websites and turn them on Faux news. Get new media to declare war on old, and so on. Start out on the Q site and turn them on something that Faux really loves, then log into 4 or 8chan and turn them on something ancillary to something that Q loves. Set up digital false flag OPs to turn these trolls on one another.

Yes, although typically it's called "trolling." subreddits like r/selfawarewolves have to be careful because sometimes the posts they pick end up being too perfectly Poe's Law-ish and end up being lefty trolls. Also, since the human race is wonderfully diverse, it's more or less impossible to tell the difference between lefty trolls sowing discord among right wing media and right wing trolls sowing discord among the same groups.

This is one of those times when it actually is appropriate to say "both sides," too, since the entire #Walkaway campaign is a coordinated version of the opposite -- right wing trolls posing as lefties and infiltrating liberal spaces to sow discord.

Quintin_Stone wrote:
Farscry wrote:

Bloody f*cking hell. Seriously? Rejecting the germ theory of disease now?

Germ theory denialism

I'm not surprised it was contested originally, that's generally how it goes with new theories, but I am genuinely disturbed that GTD denialism has persisted ever since. Not terribly surprised that chiropractic "medicine" has overlap with GTD denialism though.

Seth wrote:
Drazzil wrote:

You know... I wonder if there is any effort on the left to go into these information warfare sites for the express purpose of turning people on eachother. Log into antivaxxing or Q websites and turn them on Faux news. Get new media to declare war on old, and so on. Start out on the Q site and turn them on something that Faux really loves, then log into 4 or 8chan and turn them on something ancillary to something that Q loves. Set up digital false flag OPs to turn these trolls on one another.

Yes, although typically it's called "trolling." subreddits like r/selfawarewolves have to be careful because sometimes the posts they pick end up being too perfectly Poe's Law-ish and end up being lefty trolls. Also, since the human race is wonderfully diverse, it's more or less impossible to tell the difference between lefty trolls sowing discord among right wing media and right wing trolls sowing discord among the same groups.

This is one of those times when it actually is appropriate to say "both sides," too, since the entire #Walkaway campaign is a coordinated version of the opposite -- right wing trolls posing as lefties and infiltrating liberal spaces to sow discord.

So *checks notes* Would be ineffective and... may blow up in our faces. Check.

Forever young, beautiful and scandal-free: The rise of South Korea's virtual influencers

I hate it.

Although this does also dovetail neatly with the rise of AI-generated art and writing I'm seeing increasing anxiety about online now.

Like, at the pace it's going, I do think it's reasonable to believe that, in 10 years, you won't need to get a commission from an artist of your ideal OC, you can just buy a program and enter in the correct prompts and it'll do it for you.

(There is also the somewhat complicated reality that these AIs are achieving this capability by scraping from tons and tons of copyrighted [and sometimes not] art made throughout history.)

But back to the article:

She's got more than 130,000 followers on Instagram, where she posts photos of her globetrotting adventures. Her makeup is always impeccable, her clothes look straight off the runway. She sings, dances and models -- and none of it is real.

Rozy is a South Korean "virtual influencer," a digitally rendered human so realistic she is often mistaken for flesh and blood.

"Are you a real person?" one of her Instagram fans asks. "Are you an AI? Or a robot?"

According to the Seoul-based company that created her, Rozy is a blend of all three who straddles the real and virtual worlds.

She is "able to do everything that humans cannot ... in the most human-like form," Sidus Studio X says on its website.

That includes raking in profits for the company in the multibillion-dollar advertising and entertainment worlds.

Since her launch in 2020, Rozy has landed brand deals and sponsorships, strutted the runway in virtual fashion shows and even released two singles.

And she's not alone.

The "virtual human" industry is booming, and with it a whole new economy in which the influencers of the future are never-aging, scandal-free and digitally flawless -- sparking alarm among some in a country already obsessed with unobtainable beauty standards.

So, they came up with Lucy, who is "forever 29 years old."

The next one's gonna be "forever 15 years old".

*Legion* wrote:
So, they came up with Lucy, who is "forever 29 years old."

The next one's gonna be "forever 15 years old".

Menudo?

*Legion* wrote:
So, they came up with Lucy, who is "forever 29 years old."

The next one's gonna be "forever 15 years old".

This reminds me of my favorite part of the article:

Baik, the Sidus Studio X CEO, said Rozy isn't what "anyone would call beautiful" and that the firm had deliberately tried to make her appearance unique and veer away from traditional Korean norms. He pointed to the freckles on her cheeks and her wide-set eyes.

"Rozy shows people the importance of inner confidence," he added. "There are other virtual humans that are so pretty ... but I made Rozy to show that you can still be beautiful (even without a conventionally attractive face)."

This is Rozy:

IMAGE(https://dynaimage.cdn.cnn.com/cnn/q_auto,w_727,c_fit/http%3A%2F%2Fcdn.cnn.com%2Fcnnnext%2Fdam%2Fassets%2F220718152659-03-south-korea-virtual-influencers.jpg)

This is on the same level as Hollywood trying to convince us Rachael Leigh Cook was a disgusting troll because she was wearing glasses and overalls.

You can't even see her right eye! So untraditional!

Visa and Mastercard Cut Ties With Pornhub’s Advertising Network

On Thursday, Visa and Mastercard both announced that the payment processing giants would stop serving the main advertising network for Mindgeek’s sites, including Pornhub.

These announcements come after a U.S. district judge denied Visa’s attempt to remove itself as a defendant in a case that alleges the payment processor is culpable for harms done to minors on Pornhub. The plaintiff accuses Mindgeek and Visa of profiting from videos of her sexual abuse as a child that were uploaded to Pornhub by her then-boyfriend when she was 13 years old.

“The legal decision, with which we disagree, has also created new uncertainty about the role of TrafficJunky, MindGeek’s advertising arm,” Alfred F. Kelly, Jr., the chairman and CEO of Visa, wrote in a statement published on Thursday. “Accordingly, we will suspend TrafficJunky’s Visa acceptance privileges based on the court’s decision until further notice. During this suspension, Visa cards will not be able to be used to purchase advertising on any sites including Pornhub or other MindGeek affiliated sites.”

“From day one, MindGeek and all of its platforms, including Pornhub, have never tolerated CSAM or any other illegal material. It is against our stated terms and conditions, it is against our values, and it is against our commitment to ensuring the safest possible online experience for our users,” a spokesperson for Mindgeek said in a statement. “Recently, allegations have been made that MindGeek knowingly allowed and monetized CSAM. These assertions are reckless and, more importantly, absolutely false. In many cases, these falsehoods have been propagated by groups whose stated agenda is to shut down the adult entertainment industry.”

Once again, Garbage Day with several interesting stories for today:

@natashajuliakim wrote:

1/ ICYMI: TikTok is enhancing its search features in a bid to become GenZ’s Google

If they’re successful it will create an entirely new category of SEO and fundamentally change the way we consume + produce information

Next, because Facebook is doing well!

@cameronwilson wrote:

dug into this page out of curiosity:
- run by a former cop-turned-email marketer from Guyana
- the page was launched in 2019 and has accumulated 80 million engagements since then!
- it's all a Amazon affiliate marketing scheme
- the average engagement / post is crazy high.

Also in Facebook

IMAGE(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FZjkyTqVQAMEut1?format=jpg&name=large)

(It genuinely gets worse.)

And finally, a post about the Kardashians, Instagram and TikTok.

IMAGE(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FYmRdVzWYAM6ct0?format=jpg&name=large)