Post #1058492

2026-04-10 15:45 UTC

@KathyReid I feel like Facebook is a good marker for 'oops, too late', but I'm not as confident of what the early warning sign might have been. I usually like to follow Bill Hicks in blaming most of society's ills on 'marketing'... or more specifically, in the context of the Internet, advertising-driven surveillance capitalism. So maybe when Google Ads launched?

Replies (5)

@alexanderondu@troet.cafe 2026-04-10 17:24

@denny @KathyReid In Germany, there were a couple of other social networks before Facebook, called StudiVZ and Stayfriends, among others. That's when trouble started. Out of nowhere, we had discussions like "Who put me in that group?" or "Who posted that picture of me at that party last week? I don't want that!" Then we learned to respect the right of digital self-determination of others, and that some people did not care about that kind of respect.

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@bms48@mastodon.social 2026-04-10 19:52

@denny @KathyReid I have Shoshana Zuboff's book coming shortly (she coined the term "surveillance capitalism") and of course Bill Hicks knew it's all just a ride

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@drdrmc@mastodon.me.uk 2026-04-10 21:22

@denny @KathyReid Oh the signs were there https://lawshun.com/article/what-laws-did-facemash-break

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@flippac@types.pl 2026-04-10 21:44

@denny @KathyReid Facebook on mobile, perhaps - it wasn't not working before then, but having its own app etc etc cemented the lockin a lot

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@gabe@mendeddrum.org 2026-04-11 00:42

@denny @KathyReid specifically when Google added behaviour-based ad targeting was a huge inflection point, yes. Underlying accelerant was and is the US American cancerous idea that corporations are "persons" beyond the ability to hold credit and/or debt, and thus have rights beyond some basic property ones. In a legal framework set up to favour the richer party to any dispute, this ensures the ratchet only ever goes one way. It would have helped, and could still help, if at any point European leadership decided that between them they have at least one functional vertebra.

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