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

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

  • Possibly linux
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    12 hours ago

    Venezuela is one of those countries that just constantly seems to be in a bad state. I can’t imagine living under a government that disrespects its people.

    As it turns out unalienable rights are totally alienable

    • surph_ninja@lemmy.world
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      9 minutes ago

      It’s in a bad state now because of the sanctions placed upon it. It was in a bad state before because of capitalist rule.

    • vga@sopuli.xyz
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      4 hours ago

      For a colonial power, Spain was a real douchebag. The effects of that douchebaggery seem to have real staying power.

      • rbesfe@lemmy.ca
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        30 minutes ago

        There are plenty of other former Spanish colonies that are doing much better than Venezuela

      • DankOfAmerica@reddthat.com
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        17 minutes ago

        A colonial powers in the Americas were real douchebags. They genocided the natives, then went to another continent to enslave people and bring them over. All this was for sugar and tobacco. Millions of deaths and enslaved so some people in Europe could smoke cigarettes while they have sweets. It couldn’t get much worse than that.

    • NONE@lemmy.worldOP
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      18 hours ago

      Yeah, but the other two… (And fucking TikTok there twice! TWICE!)

      • Possibly linux
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        12 hours ago

        None of those apps are the official Ticktok app.

        Honestly I would try to get most of your apps from F-droid. F-droid only has free and open source software which means it is typically much less sketchy.

        • NONE@lemmy.worldOP
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          7 hours ago
          1. Yes, they are official TikToks apps
          2. I quit using Playstore apps a long time ago, F-Droid is my main source of apps. I just went to the list of successes of the Playstore to see if loops, the Fediverse TikTok alternative that just dropped, was on the list.
          • Irelephant@lemm.ee
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            49 minutes ago

            wait, did the loops app get on the play store? Pixelfed was added, and is the most popular new social app rn.

            • NONE@lemmy.worldOP
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              47 minutes ago

              Oh yeah, I kinda messed up the two. I was referring to Pixelfed, not loops, but I am too lazy to edit the comment.

  • Showroom7561@lemmy.ca
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    18 hours ago

    I wonder if people know why they are downloading and using a VPN. Especially when you’re talking about the more sketchy ones.

    • Fushuan [he/him]@lemm.ee
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      15 hours ago

      To avoid region locking. Anything else regarding security is just bogus talk they trying sell you.

      • lukewarm_ozone@lemmy.today
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        20 minutes ago

        Security as in cybersecurity, yes. Security as in not getting caught violating government bans, not so much - if you’re in a country where getting repressed by your government is a real possibility, it helps a lot for it to not be possible to see exactly what sites you visit. Reminder: even over HTTPS, the domain name (like lemmy.world) is normally not encrypted. Encrypted Client Hello can solve this, but it has only started being commonly used a year ago or so, and more importantly requires the host to support it.

    • Possibly linux
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      12 hours ago

      Considering that there is a ton of censorship there I think they definitely know why.

      • surph_ninja@lemmy.world
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        8 minutes ago

        Source?

        It’s my understanding the issue isn’t Venezuelan officials censoring, so much as other countries blocking access from Venezuelan users.

    • NONE@lemmy.worldOP
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      18 hours ago

      Superficially, maybe. But not in depth, like knowing what a VPN actually does and such.

      • Showroom7561@lemmy.ca
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        17 hours ago

        I wonder how much of that ‘education’ is from ads and influencers constantly pushing VPNs. LOL

        • NONE@lemmy.worldOP
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          17 hours ago

          Well, you know, no one hears about VPNs in school, so…

  • hendrik@palaver.p3x.de
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    16 hours ago

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

    • NONE@lemmy.worldOP
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      15 hours ago

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

      • Possibly linux
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        12 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.

        • NONE@lemmy.worldOP
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          7 hours ago

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

      • hendrik@palaver.p3x.de
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        15 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…

        • NONE@lemmy.worldOP
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          14 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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            12 hours ago

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

              • hendrik@palaver.p3x.de
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                5 hours 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.

  • quixotic120@lemmy.world
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    18 hours ago

    Isn’t tiktok free? Why would you need a lite version. Is it for old phones that can’t run much?

    • NONE@lemmy.worldOP
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      18 hours ago

      Yes, is for old phones and such. A mutual told me the main app is bad optimized, and a lot of smartphone here are very VERY old. Mine have like 5 years or so, I think that’s like 5 decades in more “develop” countries.

      Third-world shenanigans, you know.

    • L3ft_F13ld!@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      16 hours ago

      If it’s anything like Facebook lite, it’s literally a wrapper for the website. Not even a proper app. Usually a worse experience than using a real browser, but the main apps are usually so bad that people with older phones put up with the lite “apps”.

      • fxomt@lemm.ee
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        13 hours ago

        So it’s not too bad? with how corrupt venezuela is, you’d think they would censor a lot of things. That’s how it works in most corrupt countries including mine at least.

        • NONE@lemmy.worldOP
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          13 hours ago

          It is very weird. The normal thing here is to throw shit at the government, at least at street level. I have heard that in social networks they are much tougher, I just have not experienced it because I no longer use the Mainstream social networks. There are blockades and restrictions, but they are punctual rather than general.

          It seems to me they know that if they were to go full North Korea or China, it would be counterproductive for them, since people are already fed up. China is restrictive, but at least it is prosperous in its own way; and North Korea has decades of propaganda educating its population. Here there is neither.

          • DankOfAmerica@reddthat.com
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            4 minutes ago

            Hi! I used to live in a US city with lots of recent Venezuelan immigrants. They would tell me about how difficult things were in Venezuela, but that they missed it a lot. Their faces would light up when I would ask them about things they liked about home. They also seemed to have hope that things in Venezuela would improve and they could move back. It must be really difficult to leave one’s country to another for economic and political reasons. They didn’t truly want to leave, so they miss home, never really acculturate, and feel alienated. I have been to several other countries myself for extended periods. Many of them were well-developed and welcoming of Americans. Some even had characteristics that I found better than in the US. Regardless, I found myself missing home a lot.

            I don’t know if it makes any difference what I tell you, but wanted you to know that the recent Venezuelan immigrants I’ve met in the US still have their heart in Venezuela.

            • NONE@lemmy.worldOP
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              2 minutes ago

              It is difficult to eliminate Venezuela from one’s heart. Every brother and sister who leaves dreams of coming back, because for us there is nothing like our homeland…

          • fxomt@lemm.ee
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            12 hours ago

            That’s very admirable of you guys. Unfortunately we in other third world countries are completely submissive, and will allow ourselves to be pushed around. I mean, we are pretty prosperous in KSA too, but it’s not worth living like a slave imo.

            I don’t know about state violence in venezuela, but i’ll assume it’s like ours/other countries. So stay safe.

        • NONE@lemmy.worldOP
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          7 hours ago

          No. To be frank, it is a quick and superficial comparison trying to take as a reference countries with a “similar” ideological alignment to Venezuela.

          Although that too is questionable, because, from what I have researched, Maduro’s government is only “socialist” in name.