Just over four years ago, an insurrectionist mob found each other online, descended on Washington, stormed the Capitol and threatened the vice-president with a noose. But that was the good old days. We’re living in a different reality now. One in which the billionaires have been unchained.
It is wild how much conservatives attack these platforms and accuse them of silencing their voices while they continue to weaponize said platforms to nefarious ends.
Facebook? Right wing conspiracy farm (also marketplace which I hate to admit is pretty good).
Twitter? Right wing conspiracy spreader and platform for Christian nationalists.
Instagram? Corporate hellscape and some beach photos.
TikTok? So far has not shown a preference for right wing or left-wing content, but definitely has no reasonable content policing in place to stop misinformation from spreading wildly.
The list goes on. None of it good.
By attacking their opposition for something, they can seed the idea that it is happening in the first place. Once this idea is established, it gives them license to pursue the tactic themselves under the guise of “fighting fire with fire”.
We see this with stolen election claims. By yelling constantly about cheated elections and fraud, Trump sets the stage to be able to cheat and commit fraud without alienating his fans.
Exactly. Sometimes I think people forget he was saying the election would be stolen before we even saw the results in 2016, then after winning he said the number of illegal votes totaled the exact amount he lost the popular vote by.
Note to self: post a thread on [email protected] about how refusing to use Facebook severely limits access to the used goods market.
Whoever was allowed to run with the idea did a great job. Again I hate to admit it. It’s truly a Craigslist 2.0.
Except it’s not. The filtering, sort, and search functions are truly awful compared to Craigslist, especially if you’re looking for cars. I find so many mislabeled cars because FB Marketplace has an extremely limited set of models and manufacturers, and also has a stupid system where you can’t price late model cars way over KBB, so people have to price things with really stupid values to get around it.
Not to mention the sheer number of blatant scams that Facebook does literally nothing about, regardless of how blatant they are and number of reports. I’ve seen accounts that have 1 star and have dozens of comments about how they’re blatant scammers, but their accounts are still up and they’re still running the same scam. Craigslist had its fair number of scammers, but it didn’t take much to report and get them taken down usually.
My experience with gaming/tech stuff has been great and as a consumer my protections have been great. I won’t speak to cars as that isn’t something I have dealt with.
I’ve never been scammed - I’m not sure how you’re getting scammed unless you’re not paying on fb and instead opt for cash app/venmo/etc. in which case that’s 100% on the buyer for exposing themselves.
I’ve had 3 incidents where someone sent me damaged or otherwise things with issues and each time I sent one message to FB and got my money back. Took no effort. I’m honestly curious how you’re getting scammed with such a buyer-friendly stance. If anything it’s harder to be a seller on the platform.
It’s not that I’m getting scammed directly. It’s just the sheer prevalence of them, how much they clog up my feed, and FB’s unwillingness to do anything about them. It seems no matter how much they’re reported, I get the same “We’ve looked into it and found no issues” message. I agree having a payment platform built into the marketplace is nice, but that’s basically the sole benefit I see vs Craigslist.
My issues just really come down to how awful the search function is, and how filters do literally nothing. No matter how irrelevant the items might be to your search, they still feel the need to show you *something *, literally anything to maybe convince you to click on another item.
A while ago I was shopping for a piano, and given how difficult they are to move, I was looking in a fairly small area in Michigan, and some very specific brands/models. Naturally, this meant that when there wasn’t anything that fit those filters, it filled my list with pianos anywhere from Kentucky to South Africa, which at least to my knowledge, is a bit outside the 40mi radius I had set.
It does this constantly, which makes it insanely frustrating because I’ll find something that is within the state in a town I don’t recognize, get interested, only to find out it’s 4 hours away. It doesn’t even bother doing the “We couldn’t find anything that matches, so here are some similar items” thing. Just straight up puts items into the feed that don’t match my search criteria whatsoever, all for the sake of filling it with literally anything it possibly can.
Maybe it’s better for items that can be shipped, but I almost exclusively use Marketplace for local shopping/large items (like cars and pianos), so having even a basic thing like the search radius not even work is a major pain to say the least.
Only deal locally. I got a Mario kart 64 original cartridge, in box with the manual and the plastic around the cartridge for $75. If I went to eBay or a specialized dealer, that would’ve cost $200+.
NextDoor and OfferUp have a ton of scammers, too. It’s so fucking annoying - I’m looking for a decent used bicycle and 99% of the listings are either outright scams or semi-pro bike flippers who are just another variety of scam, essentially.
I’m forced to use Instagram for engagement as a performing artist and producer.
My community is FREQUENTLY at odds with its automated content moderation, which heavily favors conservative values. Posts get censored for “sexual activity” even when there’s no nudity, and performer accounts are more often shadow banned than not. Even posts in which I’m fully dressed in winter street clothes get censored as “sexual activity”
Meanwhile, I have NEVER seen Instagram take action a single time on posts that promote CSAM or that are made by literal white supremacist Nazis. Like clockwork, every time I report one it comes back with “this content does not violate Instagram’s guidelines”
Fuck Instagram. Fuck META. Nazi pieces of shit.
Was so glad to ditch IG once I stopped freelancing
I dread this shit. I have nothing to do with social media (unless Lemmy counts) and I haven’t for almost 15 years now, but I’m finishing up a mobile app that I’m going to start selling in a couple of months and I think I’ll have to make accounts on all of these sites to promote it.
They won’t be happy until they can propagandise uncontested
It’s expensive to have to come up with good propaganda campaigns only to have them never see the light of day
At best tik Tok is brain rot. It’s digital heroine.
Facebook marketplace is literally a shit show full of scams and it is hard to find anything, a bad UI, and no good filtering. The only thing holding it up is the algorithm to show you products (based on your browsing and advertising data). It is a step up from Craigslist, but it is mediocre at its absolute best. There are just no used alternatives in many places
We have an app here called 2dehands which has a similar scam problem, but is easier to filter out. However, the UX is 10x better with robust filtering, setting up pre-specced searches based on location, price, text strings, quality, categories, etc… with email and/or app notifications for new items added and everything surrounding bidding and favorite item status.
I really do not understand how people are getting scammed. I am totally willing to concede that people have very different experiences with FB marketplace overall. Mine has been good, does not mean it has been good for everyone. But the scamming I really don’t get. Are y’all just not using the actual platform to pay? Have you personally been scammed?
Scammers simply know how to scam. A common one is the scammer visiting a house (pretending to buy) with a newer lock that gives one time codes and leaving a different door unlocked. Then the scammer “rents” out the house (even though it’s only for sale) and tricks people out of a deposit and first month’s rent.
That isn’t on FB marketplace.
I know people who almost fell for this scam on Facebook Marketplace. However, they looked up the owner and called the owner themselves.
If you pay through the platform you won’t be scammed.
The only one of those I ever made an account for was Facebook back when it was like Friends Reunited but free.
Of course what you find is that most of the people you thought were fairly normal were illiterate raving lunatics all along.
The new Craigslist.