#user-based targeting apps

[signimus]

Location Based Services Applications –   How We Bring Real-World Context to Digital Experiences

Location based services applications are everywhere now, but at Signimus, we don’t just build them because it’s trendy — we build them because they work. And by “work,” we mean they help real businesses do more with less.

Over the past few years, we’ve helped everyone from new startups to established brands tap into location features that make life easier for users. Whether it’s showing nearby services, tracking deliveries, or sending offers when someone’s close to your store — it’s not magic. It’s smart tech done right.

Where We Started With Location-Based Solutions

Our journey with location based services applications didn’t begin with a grand plan. It started with a simple request — a client asked if we could help their users find stores nearby. We figured it out, delivered it, and suddenly, other businesses wanted the same thing.

We Don’t Build Generic Features

When someone approaches us for location based services applications, our first response is always: “Tell us what problem you’re trying to solve.” Because unless location tech is solving something real, it’s just another widget that gets ignored.

One of our favorite projects involved a client who wanted to alert customers when they were near their delivery partner. We built that. Another client needed check-in features that only activated in specific locations — we built that too.

That’s how we work. We don’t throw around buzzwords. We figure out what makes sense and then build only what’s needed.

People Expect Relevance — And Location Delivers That

Here’s the thing: users today are busy and distracted. They only respond when something feels timely and useful. That’s exactly where location based services applications shine.

Let’s say someone’s walking past your store and gets a friendly alert about a deal inside. Or a logistics manager gets notified the second a vehicle exits its assigned route. That’s not just convenient — it’s powerful. It’s real-time relevance. That’s what we aim for with every app we design.

Location Features Need to Be Accurate and Respectful

When building location based services applications, we’re very aware of two things: precision and privacy.

We make sure the data is accurate enough to be useful, but not so invasive that it creeps people out. If someone shares their location, they should know exactly what for — and feel in control of it. So, we always add transparent opt-ins, customizable settings, and clear explanations.

The way we see it, location data is useful only when it’s trusted. And trust is earned.

What Kind of Location Applications Have We Built?

We’ve done quite a bit in this space. For example:

Apps that notify field agents when they’re near a client site

Delivery systems that track order routes and alert users on ETA

Store locators that work even in low signal areas

Event check-in tools based on physical zones

Push notification campaigns tied to specific places

Each of these location based services applications was tailored to that business. No copy-pasting, no shortcuts.

We Also Work with What You Already Have

One concern we hear often is: “Do we have to rebuild everything from scratch?” The short answer is no. A lot of the time, we just plug location functionality into your current system.

Let’s say you have an app already, and now you want it to highlight nearby services, or maybe alert staff when they’re close to a certain warehouse. We can make that happen. We’ve done it before, and it works.

So whether you’re starting new or upgrading what you’ve got, we’ll meet you where you are.

We Keep the Focus on the User, Not Just the Map

One mistake we’ve seen in some location based services applications is focusing too much on the map, not enough on the experience. We’re not here to build something that just shows a blue dot. We want that dot to mean something.

Maybe it tells someone they’ve arrived. Maybe it unlocks a feature. Maybe it just shows the nearest help center. Whatever it is, the point is: location needs to serve the user — not just sit there looking pretty.

Let’s Talk About What It’s Like Working With Us

Clients say they like working with Signimus because we talk like people, not like manuals. You won’t hear us throw a bunch of technical stuff at you unless you ask. We’re here to build what makes sense for your business — and make the process feel easy along the way.

When we build location based services applications, we don’t disappear after launch. We stay in touch, fix issues, suggest improvements, and grow the solution with you.

Why We Believe in Location Based Services Applications

We’ve seen what these tools can do — how they improve customer experience, increase efficiency, and give businesses new ways to stay relevant.

But more than that, we’ve seen how location based services applications help people. From saving time to making better decisions on the go, they really do make life a little simpler.

And that’s what keeps us motivated.

Let’s Build Something Together

If you’ve been thinking about adding location features to your app or building something entirely new, we’d love to hear from you.

You don’t need to have it all figured out. That’s what we’re here for. We’ll listen, ask the right questions, and then build a solution that fits you — not the other way around.

At Signimus, we’re not just building location based services applications — we’re building smarter ways to connect people, places, and purpose.

📞 Call us at: +91 8839486844 🌐 Learn more here: https://signimus.com/services/location-based-services-applications/

[4theitgirls]

productivity apps for self improvement

pinterest

you know i had to include the ultimate form of social media. pinterest is one of the only truly peaceful social media apps out there and focuses on sharing photos to your themed boards. this app is everything if you’re into making vision boards, moodboards, beauty, productivity, and really anything else. there’s something there for everyone!

finch

this is a wonderful self-care app, in which you take care of a bird while taking care of yourself! this is my new favorite app. i use the free version and it is adorable. the app asks you some questions about your goals and how you feel about self care, and gives you some daily goals based on your answers, but you can delete and add goals of your own. the more you log in and track your goals, the more adventures your bird can go on and the more they grow. i recommend this app to absolutely everyone and i will never shut up about it.

gymshark training

this is a free training app including many different types and styles of workouts. you can search for workouts based on duration, equipment used, the targeted muscle, and so on. you can also add workouts and plans of your own and track your progress.

i am sober

this is my favorite app for if you have something you want to quit. this isn’t just for substances or alcohol, but can also be used for quitting sugar, skin picking, caffeine, fast food, and so many other things. you can track your progress, review your days, make pledges, and connect with others who are struggling with the same thing you are. you are also given motivational quotes and reminders when you log into the app. there is an option for a subscription, but i use the free version and have had no problems with it at all.

study bunny: focus timer

an adorable focus timer where you gain coins with every goal/time you accomplish something with your focus timer and you can spend your coins on cute little accessories for your bunny! the only real issue with this app is that the ads are kind of crazy, and it’s $15 a month to go ad-free.

flora - green focus

this app includes a pomodoro timer and plants a tree in a rural community based on how often you stay focused using the timer on the app. the app does not plant a tree unless you opt for their subscription, which is $2 per year and allows you to plant one tree for 120 hours of focused time. you can also plant a tree every 24 hours with the $10 plan.

focus to-do: focus timer&tasks

this app combines a pomodoro timer with a daily to-do list. the app is free to use, but includes additional features for those with a subscription, which is $3 for every three months or $9 for a lifetime membership.

balance: meditation & sleep

a great app that includes nightly reviews, meditations, and sleep sounds. this app has great reviews, but it’s worth noting that it’s not completely free. it includes a trial, after which is $12 per month, or $70 per year.

insight timer - meditate & sleep

just as it sounds, this is another great app for meditations, ambient sounds for sleep, and progress tracking. there are tons of free things included in the app, but if you want to unlock everything, the premium plan is $10 per month or $60 per year.

structured - daily planner

an app with great reviews intended to help organize your daily tasks into achievable goals and track your progress. the app has basic features for free, but also includes a premium subscription if you want to unlock all the features.

routineflow: guided routines

this app caters to those who have difficulties staying focused and maintaining a set routine by guiding your routine for you and managing your progress. the app gives you one routine for free, but if you want another, you would need to pay for the $30 annual subscription.

how we feel

a wonderful free journaling app developed by therapists and scientists for logging your emotions, talking to other users, and tracking your mood patterns.

gentler streak fitness tracker

if you’re tired of the constant work and grind mentality, this may be the app for you. this app takes a gentler approach to fitness by tracking exercise, giving encouragement, and notifying you if you are overworking yourself. the app itself is free, but certain features require a subscription, which is $8 per month or $50 per year.

glo | yoga and meditation app

glo is a highly rated app for yoga, pilates, and meditation. unlike most of the other apps listed, you can’t really access much on glo for free. to access the full courses, they offer two plans: $30 per month or $245 per year.

waterllama

another adorable app that lets you track your water intake with a cute llama! super motivating and is free for basic features. if you want to unlock all features, the subscription is $7 per year.

mindllama

made by the same people as waterllama, this app allows you to practice and track your meditation and breathwork practice with a cute llama! like waterllama, the app is free, but some features require a subscription, which varies depending on whether you want the premium plan, the anxiety relief plan, or the sleep focused plan.

daily bean - simplest journal

another super cute app that helps you track your days and moods. the app itself is free, but a premium plan is also offered, which is $20 per year.

schmoody: mood & habit tracker

this app aims to help you through depression, anxiety, and/or adhd by helping you track your habits, talk to other users, and give you the resources to get you back on track. the free version includes the “essentials” to support mental health and well-being, but they also offer a premium version, which unlocks more resources and personalized options. the subscription is $15 per month, $60 per year, or $100 for a lifetime membership.

meditation timer - zenitizer

this is a meditation timer that focuses on simplicity and organization while tracking your meditation practice. a free version is available with a limited amount of content, but a premium version is also offered, which is $3 per month, $20 per year, or a $50 one-time payment.

mineral - gratitude journal

this is a free journaling app that is secure in the fact that you have to use face id in order to access your journal. this app is definitely more simple, but effective nonetheless.

focus keeper: productive timer

this app is a popular pomodoro-style timer app. i’ve heard that this app works wonders for many people with adhd. the app is free, but includes additional content and features for those with a subscription.

[sayruq]

A little-discussed detail in the Lavender AI article is that Israel is killing people based on being in the same Whatsapp group [1] as a suspected militant [2]. Where are they getting this data? Is WhatsApp sharing it? Lavender is Israel's system of "pre-crime" [3] - they use AI to guess who to kill in Gaza, and then bomb them when they're at home, along with their entire family. (Obscenely, they call this program "Where's Daddy"). One input to the AI is whether you're in a WhatsApp group with a suspected member of Hamas. There's a lot wrong with this - I'm in plenty of WhatsApp groups with strangers, neighbours, and in the carnage in Gaza you bet people are making groups to connect. But the part I want to focus on is whether they get this information from Meta. Meta has been promoting WhatsApp as a "private" social network, including "end-to-end" encryption of messages. Providing this data as input for Lavender undermines their claim that WhatsApp is a private messaging app. It is beyond obscene and makes Meta complicit in Israel's killings of "pre-crime" targets and their families, in violation of International Humanitarian Law and Meta's publicly stated commitment to human rights. No social network should be providing this sort of information about its users to countries engaging in "pre-crime".

[fairuzfan]

Nearly 100 journalists and other members of civil society using WhatsApp, the popular messaging app owned by Meta, were targeted by spyware owned by Paragon Solutions, an Israeli maker of hacking software, the company alleged on Friday.

The journalists and other civil society members were being alerted of a possible breach of their devices, with WhatsApp telling the Guardian it had “high confidence” that the 90 users in question had been targeted and “possibly compromised”.

It is not clear who was behind the attack. Like other spyware makers, Paragon’s hacking software is used by government clients and WhatsApp said it had not been able to identify the clients who ordered the alleged attacks.

Experts said the targeting was a “zero-click” attack, which means targets would not have had to click on any malicious links to be infected.

WhatsApp declined to disclose where the journalists and members of civil society were based, including whether they were based in the US.

Paragon has a US office in Chantilly, Virginia. The company has faced recent scrutiny after Wired magazine in October reported that it had entered into a $2m contract with the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s homeland security investigations division.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Your car spies on you and rats you out to insurance companies

I'm on tour with my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me TOMORROW (Mar 13) in SAN FRANCISCO with ROBIN SLOAN, then Toronto, NYC, Anaheim, and more!

Another characteristically brilliant Kashmir Hill story for The New York Times reveals another characteristically terrible fact about modern life: your car secretly records fine-grained telemetry about your driving and sells it to data-brokers, who sell it to insurers, who use it as a pretext to gouge you on premiums:

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/11/technology/carmakers-driver-tracking-insurance.html

Almost every car manufacturer does this: Hyundai, Nissan, Ford, Chrysler, etc etc:

https://www.repairerdrivennews.com/2020/09/09/ford-state-farm-ford-metromile-honda-verisk-among-insurer-oem-telematics-connections/

This is true whether you own or lease the car, and it's separate from the "black box" your insurer might have offered to you in exchange for a discount on your premiums. In other words, even if you say no to the insurer's carrot – a surveillance-based discount – they've got a stick in reserve: buying your nonconsensually harvested data on the open market.

I've always hated that saying, "If you're not paying for the product, you're the product," the reason being that it posits decent treatment as a customer reward program, like the little ramekin warm nuts first class passengers get before takeoff. Companies don't treat you well when you pay them. Companies treat you well when they fear the consequences of treating you badly.

Take Apple. The company offers Ios users a one-tap opt-out from commercial surveillance, and more than 96% of users opted out. Presumably, the other 4% were either confused or on Facebook's payroll. Apple – and its army of cultists – insist that this proves that our world's woes can be traced to cheapskate "consumers" who expected to get something for nothing by using advertising-supported products.

But here's the kicker: right after Apple blocked all its rivals from spying on its customers, it began secretly spying on those customers! Apple has a rival surveillance ad network, and even if you opt out of commercial surveillance on your Iphone, Apple still secretly spies on you and uses the data to target you for ads:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/14/luxury-surveillance/#liar-liar

Even if you're paying for the product, you're still the product – provided the company can get away with treating you as the product. Apple can absolutely get away with treating you as the product, because it lacks the historical constraints that prevented Apple – and other companies – from treating you as the product.

As I described in my McLuhan lecture on enshittification, tech firms can be constrained by four forces:

I. Competition

II. Regulation

III. Self-help

IV. Labor

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/30/go-nuts-meine-kerle/#ich-bin-ein-bratapfel

When companies have real competitors – when a sector is composed of dozens or hundreds of roughly evenly matched firms – they have to worry that a maltreated customer might move to a rival. 40 years of antitrust neglect means that corporations were able to buy their way to dominance with predatory mergers and pricing, producing today's inbred, Habsburg capitalism. Apple and Google are a mobile duopoly, Google is a search monopoly, etc. It's not just tech! Every sector looks like this:

https://www.openmarketsinstitute.org/learn/monopoly-by-the-numbers

Eliminating competition doesn't just deprive customers of alternatives, it also empowers corporations. Liberated from "wasteful competition," companies in concentrated industries can extract massive profits. Think of how both Apple and Google have "competitively" arrived at the same 30% app tax on app sales and transactions, a rate that's more than 1,000% higher than the transaction fees extracted by the (bloated, price-gouging) credit-card sector:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/06/07/curatorial-vig/#app-tax

But cartels' power goes beyond the size of their warchest. The real source of a cartel's power is the ease with which a small number of companies can arrive at – and stick to – a common lobbying position. That's where "regulatory capture" comes in: the mobile duopoly has an easier time of capturing its regulators because two companies have an easy time agreeing on how to spend their app-tax billions:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/06/05/regulatory-capture/

Apple – and Google, and Facebook, and your car company – can violate your privacy because they aren't constrained regulation, just as Uber can violate its drivers' labor rights and Amazon can violate your consumer rights. The tech cartels have captured their regulators and convinced them that the law doesn't apply if it's being broken via an app:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/18/cursed-are-the-sausagemakers/#how-the-parties-get-to-yes

In other words, Apple can spy on you because it's allowed to spy on you. America's last consumer privacy law was passed in 1988, and it bans video-store clerks from leaking your VHS rental history. Congress has taken no action on consumer privacy since the Reagan years:

https://www.eff.org/tags/video-privacy-protection-act

But tech has some special enshittification-resistant characteristics. The most important of these is interoperability: the fact that computers are universal digital machines that can run any program. HP can design a printer that rejects third-party ink and charge $10,000/gallon for its own colored water, but someone else can write a program that lets you jailbreak your printer so that it accepts any ink cartridge:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/11/ink-stained-wretches-battle-soul-digital-freedom-taking-place-inside-your-printer

Tech companies that contemplated enshittifying their products always had to watch over their shoulders for a rival that might offer a disenshittification tool and use that as a wedge between the company and its customers. If you make your website's ads 20% more obnoxious in anticipation of a 2% increase in gross margins, you have to consider the possibility that 40% of your users will google "how do I block ads?" Because the revenue from a user who blocks ads doesn't stay at 100% of the current levels – it drops to zero, forever (no user ever googles "how do I stop blocking ads?").

The majority of web users are running an ad-blocker:

https://doc.searls.com/2023/11/11/how-is-the-worlds-biggest-boycott-doing/

Web operators made them an offer ("free website in exchange for unlimited surveillance and unfettered intrusions") and they made a counteroffer ("how about 'nah'?"):

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/07/adblocking-how-about-nah

Here's the thing: reverse-engineering an app – or any other IP-encumbered technology – is a legal minefield. Just decompiling an app exposes you to felony prosecution: a five year sentence and a $500k fine for violating Section 1201 of the DMCA. But it's not just the DMCA – modern products are surrounded with high-tech tripwires that allow companies to invoke IP law to prevent competitors from augmenting, recongifuring or adapting their products. When a business says it has "IP," it means that it has arranged its legal affairs to allow it to invoke the power of the state to control its customers, critics and competitors:

https://locusmag.com/2020/09/cory-doctorow-ip/

An "app" is just a web-page skinned in enough IP to make it a crime to add an ad-blocker to it. This is what Jay Freeman calls "felony contempt of business model" and it's everywhere. When companies don't have to worry about users deploying self-help measures to disenshittify their products, they are freed from the constraint that prevents them indulging the impulse to shift value from their customers to themselves.

Apple owes its existence to interoperability – its ability to clone Microsoft Office's file formats for Pages, Numbers and Keynote, which saved the company in the early 2000s – and ever since, it has devoted its existence to making sure no one ever does to Apple what Apple did to Microsoft:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/06/adversarial-interoperability-reviving-elegant-weapon-more-civilized-age-slay

Regulatory capture cuts both ways: it's not just about powerful corporations being free to flout the law, it's also about their ability to enlist the law to punish competitors that might constrain their plans for exploiting their workers, customers, suppliers or other stakeholders.

The final historical constraint on tech companies was their own workers. Tech has very low union-density, but that's in part because individual tech workers enjoyed so much bargaining power due to their scarcity. This is why their bosses pampered them with whimsical campuses filled with gourmet cafeterias, fancy gyms and free massages: it allowed tech companies to convince tech workers to work like government mules by flattering them that they were partners on a mission to bring the world to its digital future:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/10/the-proletarianization-of-tech-workers/

For tech bosses, this gambit worked well, but failed badly. On the one hand, they were able to get otherwise powerful workers to consent to being "extremely hardcore" by invoking Fobazi Ettarh's spirit of "vocational awe":

https://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2018/vocational-awe/

On the other hand, when you motivate your workers by appealing to their sense of mission, the downside is that they feel a sense of mission. That means that when you demand that a tech worker enshittifies something they missed their mother's funeral to deliver, they will experience a profound sense of moral injury and refuse, and that worker's bargaining power means that they can make it stick.

Or at least, it did. In this era of mass tech layoffs, when Google can fire 12,000 workers after a $80b stock buyback that would have paid their wages for the next 27 years, tech workers are learning that the answer to "I won't do this and you can't make me" is "don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out" (AKA "sharpen your blades boys"):

https://techcrunch.com/2022/09/29/elon-musk-texts-discovery-twitter/

With competition, regulation, self-help and labor cleared away, tech firms – and firms that have wrapped their products around the pluripotently malleable core of digital tech, including automotive makers – are no longer constrained from enshittifying their products.

And that's why your car manufacturer has chosen to spy on you and sell your private information to data-brokers and anyone else who wants it. Not because you didn't pay for the product, so you're the product. It's because they can get away with it.

Cars are enshittified. The dozens of chips that auto makers have shoveled into their car design are only incidentally related to delivering a better product. The primary use for those chips is autoenshittification – access to legal strictures ("IP") that allows them to block modifications and repairs that would interfere with the unfettered abuse of their own customers:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/24/rent-to-pwn/#kitt-is-a-demon

The fact that it's a felony to reverse-engineer and modify a car's software opens the floodgates to all kinds of shitty scams. Remember when Bay Staters were voting on a ballot measure to impose right-to-repair obligations on automakers in Massachusetts? The only reason they needed to have the law intervene to make right-to-repair viable is that Big Car has figured out that if it encrypts its diagnostic messages, it can felonize third-party diagnosis of a car, because decrypting the messages violates the DMCA:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/11/drm-cars-will-drive-consumers-crazy

Big Car figured out that VIN locking – DRM for engine components and subassemblies – can felonize the production and the installation of third-party spare parts:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/05/08/about-those-kill-switched-ukrainian-tractors/

The fact that you can't legally modify your car means that automakers can go back to their pre-2008 ways, when they transformed themselves into unregulated banks that incidentally manufactured the cars they sold subprime loans for. Subprime auto loans – over $1t worth! – absolutely relies on the fact that borrowers' cars can be remotely controlled by lenders. Miss a payment and your car's stereo turns itself on and blares threatening messages at top volume, which you can't turn off. Break the lease agreement that says you won't drive your car over the county line and it will immobilize itself. Try to change any of this software and you'll commit a felony under Section 1201 of the DMCA:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/02/innovation-unlocks-markets/#digital-arm-breakers

Tesla, naturally, has the most advanced anti-features. Long before BMW tried to rent you your seat-heater and Mercedes tried to sell you a monthly subscription to your accelerator pedal, Teslas were demon-haunted nightmare cars. Miss a Tesla payment and the car will immobilize itself and lock you out until the repo man arrives, then it will blare its horn and back itself out of its parking spot. If you "buy" the right to fully charge your car's battery or use the features it came with, you don't own them – they're repossessed when your car changes hands, meaning you get less money on the used market because your car's next owner has to buy these features all over again:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/28/edison-not-tesla/#demon-haunted-world

And all this DRM allows your car maker to install spyware that you're not allowed to remove. They really tipped their hand on this when the R2R ballot measure was steaming towards an 80% victory, with wall-to-wall scare ads that revealed that your car collects so much information about you that allowing third parties to access it could lead to your murder (no, really!):

https://pluralistic.net/2020/09/03/rip-david-graeber/#rolling-surveillance-platforms

That's why your car spies on you. Because it can. Because the company that made it lacks constraint, be it market-based, legal, technological or its own workforce's ethics.

One common critique of my enshittification hypothesis is that this is "kind of sensible and normal" because "there’s something off in the consumer mindset that we’ve come to believe that the internet should provide us with amazing products, which bring us joy and happiness and we spend hours of the day on, and should ask nothing back in return":

https://freakonomics.com/podcast/how-to-have-great-conversations/

What this criticism misses is that this isn't the companies bargaining to shift some value from us to them. Enshittification happens when a company can seize all that value, without having to bargain, exploiting law and technology and market power over buyers and sellers to unilaterally alter the way the products and services we rely on work.

A company that doesn't have to fear competitors, regulators, jailbreaking or workers' refusal to enshittify its products doesn't have to bargain, it can take. It's the first lesson they teach you in the Darth Vader MBA: "I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further":

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/26/hit-with-a-brick/#graceful-failure

Your car spying on you isn't down to your belief that your carmaker "should provide you with amazing products, which brings your joy and happiness you spend hours of the day on, and should ask nothing back in return." It's not because you didn't pay for the product, so now you're the product. It's because they can get away with it.

The consequences of this spying go much further than mere insurance premium hikes, too. Car telemetry sits at the top of the funnel that the unbelievably sleazy data broker industry uses to collect and sell our data. These are the same companies that sell the fact that you visited an abortion clinic to marketers, bounty hunters, advertisers, or vengeful family members pretending to be one of those:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/05/07/safegraph-spies-and-lies/#theres-no-i-in-uterus

Decades of pro-monopoly policy led to widespread regulatory capture. Corporate cartels use the monopoly profits they extract from us to pay for regulatory inaction, allowing them to extract more profits.

But when it comes to privacy, that period of unchecked corporate power might be coming to an end. The lack of privacy regulation is at the root of so many problems that a pro-privacy movement has an unstoppable constituency working in its favor.

At EFF, we call this "privacy first." Whether you're worried about grifters targeting vulnerable people with conspiracy theories, or teens being targeted with media that harms their mental health, or Americans being spied on by foreign governments, or cops using commercial surveillance data to round up protesters, or your car selling your data to insurance companies, passing that long-overdue privacy legislation would turn off the taps for the data powering all these harms:

https://www.eff.org/wp/privacy-first-better-way-address-online-harms

Traditional economics fails because it thinks about markets without thinking about power. Monopolies lead to more than market power: they produce regulatory capture, power over workers, and state capture, which felonizes competition through IP law. The story that our problems stem from the fact that we just don't spend enough money, or buy the wrong products, only makes sense if you willfully ignore the power that corporations exert over our lives. It's nice to think that you can shop your way out of a monopoly, because that's a lot easier than voting your way out of a monopoly, but no matter how many times you vote with your wallet, the cartels that control the market will always win:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/05/the-map-is-not-the-territory/#apor-locksmith

Name your price for 18 of my DRM-free ebooks and support the Electronic Frontier Foundation with the Humble Cory Doctorow Bundle.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/12/market-failure/#car-wars

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

[oldguardleatherdog]

[Gift link, no paywall]

Zuck wiļl now explicitly allow vile and dehumanizing hate speech against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people to be posted on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads without adverse consequences for the poster. He has gone so far as to provide Meta employees with detailed examples of speech that will now be allowed on Meta platforms. This article goes into detail as to how these new policies were formulated and rolled out. It's worth a read to understand the calculation and planning that went into this.

This is more than "mere" homophobia and transphobia. Zuck went out of his way to explicitly target us and single us out over other minorities who use these platforms.

It's clear that this is Zuck prepping and staging his platforms for use in actions that The Rapist Administration is setting up to launch against us in the days to come. Our elected officials and our so-called national LGBTQ+ leaders and organizations have put out a statement or two, but I'd hate to be hanging until they actually take action to protect us.

We need to find a way to mount a response to this, and to all the rest of what's coming at us. Good people of good will are gathering and planning, but it's early yet. Take note of these signs, keep watch and stay alert, don't detach, don't look away.

From the article:

"Among its changes, Meta loosened rules so people could post statements saying they hated people of certain races, religions or sexual orientations, including permitting 'allegations of mental illness or abnormality when based on gender or sexual orientation.' The company cited political discourse about transgender rights for the change. 

"The company also removed the transgender and nonbinary 'themes' on its Messenger chat app, which allows users to customize the app’s colors and wallpaper, two employees said.

"That same day at Meta’s offices in Silicon Valley, Texas and New York, facilities managers were instructed to remove tampons from men’s bathrooms, which the company had provided for nonbinary and transgender employees who use the men’s room and who may have required sanitary pads, two employees said.

"In the @Pride employee resource group, where workers who support L.G.B.T.Q. issues convene, at least one person announced their resignation as others privately relayed to one another that they planned to look for jobs elsewhere, two people said.

"In a post this week to the @Pride group, Alex Schultz, Meta’s chief marketing officer [and Meta's highest-ranking openly gay executive], defended Mr. Zuckerberg and said topics like transgender issues had become politicized. He said Meta’s policies should not get in the way of allowing societal debate and pointed to Roe v. Wade, the landmark abortion case, as an example of 'courts getting ahead of society' in the 1970s. Mr. Schultz said the courts had 'politicized' the issue instead of allowing it to be debated civically.

"'You find topics become politicized and stay in the political conversation for far longer than they would’ve if society just debated them out,' Mr. Schultz wrote. He said looser restrictions on speech in Meta’s apps would allow for this kind of debate.

"On Friday, Roy Austin, Meta’s vice president of civil rights, announced he was leaving the company. He did not give a reason."

[Emphasis added.]

[fearfulfertility]

CONFIDENTIAL MEMORANDUM

DRC, Black Ops Command, Covert Acquisition Unit

To: Director [REDACTED]

From: Administrator [REDACTED], Covert Acquisition Unit

Date: [REDACTED]

Subject: Surrogate Recruitment via Social Media Application

Executive Summary

This memorandum summarizes the initial pilot testing of "Broodr," a mobile dating application developed by the DRC Covert Acquisition Unit as an identification and capture tool of viable surrogate candidates within the Los Angeles metropolitan region.

The Broodr pilot program aims to:

Test effectiveness in luring suitable surrogate candidates aged 18-25.

Assess the app’s capability to profile and locate high-fertility individuals discretely.

Evaluate the overall success rate of transitioning online interactions into physical capture operations.

Operational Procedure

Broodr was launched covertly through standard digital app distribution channels. It is marketed as a casual social/dating application targeted at young, romantically single men. Four other apps in the market were also disrupted to reduce competition and increase public awareness. The application utilizes advanced profile analytics to identify users displaying surrogate-compatible traits based on fertility indicators such as age, athletic status, height, genetic background, and health metrics.

Once identified, candidates receive targeted messaging from AI bots and doctored profiles using altered photos of athletes and models designed to entice them to designated physical meeting locations. These meeting spots are strategically placed within zones easily secured by DRC rapid response capture teams.

Initial Test Results

Since the pilot launch [REDACTED] weeks ago, Broodr has attracted over [REDACTED] registered users within the target demographic.

[REDACTED]% of identified high-value targets initiated interactions leading to physical meetings.

Capture success rate currently stands at [REDACTED]%, exceeding initial operational goals.

Captured surrogates demonstrate above-average fertility rates, with an average fetal load of 12-16 embryos upon initial insemination.

Key Incident

On [REDACTED], Broodr successfully identified, seduced, and facilitated the capture of a high-profile fitness celebrity at our DRC detainment site in [REDACTED], Beverly Hills.

Mr. [REDACTED], a 23-year-old fitness influencer known for his muscular physique, extensive social following, and endorsements of health products, was identified as a prime surrogacy candidate due to exceptional fertility markers (5'11", 174 lbs pre-pregnancy, optimal athletic conditioning). 

Four real profiles and 28 tailored AI-generated profiles initially contacted him, depicting attractive, athletic personas that closely matched his profile's interests. This sophisticated digital interaction rapidly evolved into sexually graphic exchanges, successfully convincing him to attend what he believed to be a home address for a physical engagement.

“Hey, handsome ;)  Hott as fuck! A stud like you promising an unforgettable night got me seriously curious. What are you into? I would love to work out all your kinks, physical and sexy!” - Copy of Chat Log

Upon arrival at the designated location, a rapid response team swiftly and discreetly apprehended Mr. [REDACTED]. Upon completion of on-site insemination, secured transport protocols were immediately enacted, moving Mr. [REDACTED] to the nearby Paternity Compound 141, best equipped for his subsequent gestation, birth, and expiration. Mr. [REDACTED] was assigned the surrogate ID S-141-548-P (which will be used henceforth to identify the surrogate).

Post evaluations confirmed highly successful insemination, resulting in an exceptionally high fetal load of sexdecuplets (16 embryos), and in under 33 days, S-141-548-P's weight jumped to 534 lbs (+360 lbs) with an abdominal circumference of 96 inches (+64 inches), rendering the surrogate wholly bedridden and dependent on continuous medical supervision. Despite his extreme size and rapidly declining mobility, regular medical evaluations confirmed that S-141-548-P's health remained within acceptable operational parameters.

"I can barely process what's happened—my body’s unrecognizable. I used to flex these abs for millions online, and now they're buried beneath a mound of babies. I'm so enormous and heavy that breathing feels like a workout! I never thought I'd feel this helpless—or this big." - S-141-548-P, Gestation Day 21

Labor commenced on day 33 of gestation, and over 22 hours, all 16 fetuses were successfully delivered. Upon completion of delivery, vital signs deteriorated rapidly, culminating in S-141-548-P’s expiration approximately [REDACTED] minutes after the last fetus was expelled. Post-mortem assessments indicated complete [REDACTED] shutdown, extensive [REDACTED] to the [REDACTED] and [REDACTED] system. 

"I can't stop it! They’re coming! Everything's ripping apart, and every contraction feels like my belly's splitting open. Oh God—I can’t move, I can't breathe, but my body... I'm just so... fat…" - S-141-548-P, Gestation Day 33

Of particular note is that S-141-548-P was well known on social media channels for exemplifying his abdominal muscles, mainly using the moniker “All Core, No Compromise.” The primary cause of expiration was confirmed to be the macroscopic tearing and rupture of all abdominal muscles, a typical result for surrogates subjected to such high fetal loads.

Recommendations

The capture and subsequent pregnancy of such a notable public figure not only significantly boosted internal operational morale but also underscored the strategic efficacy of Broodr as an unprecedented method of securing high-value surrogate candidates. This incident has provided robust proof-of-concept evidence, strongly supporting further investment and nationwide deployment of the Broodr initiative.

Based on the Los Angeles pilot:

Expand Broodr's implementation to additional high-density urban areas (e.g., New York City, [REDACTED], San Francisco).

Increase application analytics capabilities to enhance fertility trait profiling.

Implement additional security protocols to ensure continued operational secrecy.

Conclusion

The pilot deployment of Broodr in the Los Angeles metro area confirms the application's high efficacy as a discreet surrogate recruitment and capture tool. Expansion into additional metropolitan zones is recommended to bolster surrogate conscription efforts further nationwide.

Prepared by: Assistant Director [REDACTED]

DRC, Black Ops Command, Covert Acquisition Unit

----------------

Click Here to return to DRC Report Archives

[fiveeven]

TikTok Ban: A Little Too Convenient?

The TikTok ban saga has been wild to watch unfold, but honestly, the closer you look, the more questions arise. Between members of Congress holding Meta stock and Facebook’s sudden interest in integrating TikTok accounts, it feels less like a genuine privacy concern and more like a potential power play. Let’s break this down.

Congress Loves Meta—And Hates TikTok Did you know that several members of Congress own Meta stock? A 2023 analysis revealed that lawmakers with financial interests in Meta, Alphabet, and Snap could stand to benefit if TikTok faces a U.S. ban. This raises potential conflicts of interest, especially when these same lawmakers are involved in crafting legislation that directly affects TikTok.

Meanwhile, Meta, despite its long history of privacy violations (remember Cambridge Analytica?), doesn’t seem to face the same scrutiny. It’s hard not to wonder why Congress is suddenly so concerned about user privacy when it comes to TikTok but continues to give Meta a pass.

Meta’s Sudden Interest in TikTok Integration With TikTok under threat of a U.S. ban, Facebook recently added features allowing TikTok users to link their accounts to their profiles. While this feature aligns with broader trends of social media integration, the timing feels a little too coincidental. It suggests a strategic move by Meta to retain users who might migrate away from TikTok or prepare for an influx of creators seeking alternative platforms.

Even If Trump “Saves” TikTok, I’m Not Buying It Let’s say Trump swoops in and “saves” TikTok at the last minute. I still have serious concerns about what that actually means. Trump is transactional—he doesn’t do anything unless it benefits him or his allies. If TikTok is “saved,” I can’t help but wonder:

Does it get sold—in name only—to a U.S. company like Meta, keeping the same issues but with a different logo?

Does it stick around but get neutered, suppressing content like other corporate-owned platforms?

Or does it become a tool for pushing American propaganda, especially with initiatives like Project 2025 on the horizon?

These are just questions, but I think they’re valid ones. If TikTok survives under Trump’s “protection,” it’s unlikely to remain the platform we know today.

Is This Really About Privacy? The ban is framed as a response to concerns over data privacy and national security, but critics argue it might be more about corporate competition and information control. TikTok’s algorithm has surpassed its competitors in engagement and reach, making it a significant threat to U.S.-based platforms like Meta.

It’s worth noting that many social media platforms collect similar levels of user data, and the difference often lies in who owns the company. In TikTok’s case, its ties to China have made it a target for U.S. lawmakers.

The Bigger Picture Regardless of what happens with TikTok, the implications of this ban extend far beyond one app. It sets a precedent for government control over digital platforms, raising questions about freedom of expression, competition, and corporate influence.

If we’re not questioning these decisions now, we risk handing over even more control to a small group of powerful entities—whether they’re corporations, governments, or both.

[mariacallous]

On ThursdaY, Reuters published a photo depicting then-United States national security adviser Mike Waltz checking his phone during a cabinet meeting held by President Trump in the White House. If you enlarge the portion of the image that captures Waltz’s screen, it seems to show him using the end-to-end encrypted messaging app Signal. But if you look more closely, a notification on the screen refers to the app as “TM SGNL.” During a White House cabinet meeting on Wednesday, then, Waltz was apparently using an Israeli-made app called TeleMessage Signal to message with people who appear to be top US officials, including JD Vance, Marco Rubio, and Tulsi Gabbard.

After senior Trump administration cabinet members used vanishing Signal messages to coordinate March military strikes in Yemen—and accidentally included the editor in chief of The Atlantic in the group chat—the “SignalGate” scandal highlighted concerning breaches of traditional government “operational security” protocol as well as compliance issues with federal records-retention laws. At the center of the debacle was Waltz, who was ousted by Trump as US national security adviser on Thursday. Waltz created the “Houthi PC Small Group” chat and was the member who added top Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg. "I take full responsibility. I built the group," Waltz told Fox News in late March. "We've got the best technical minds looking at how this happened," he added at the time.

SignalGate had nothing to do with Signal. The app was functioning normally and was simply being used at an inappropriate time for an incredibly sensitive discussion that should have been carried out on special-purpose, hardened federal devices and software platforms. If you're going to flout the protocols, though, Signal is (relatively speaking) a good place to do it, because the app is designed so only the senders and receivers of messages in a group chat can read them. And the app is built to collect as little information as possible about its users and their associates. This means that if US government officials were chatting on the app, spies or malicious hackers could only access their communications by directly compromising participants' devices—a challenge that is potentially surmountable but at least limits possible access points. Using an app like TeleMessage Signal, though, presumably in an attempt to comply with data retention requirements, opens up numerous other paths for adversaries to access messages.

"I don't even know where to start with this," says Jake Williams, a former NSA hacker and vice president of research and development at Hunter Strategy. “It's mind-blowing that the federal government is using Israeli tech to route extremely sensitive data for archival purposes. You just know that someone is grabbing a copy of that data. Even if TeleMessage isn't willingly giving it up, they have just become one of the biggest nation-state targets out there.”

TeleMessage was founded in Israel in 1999 by former Israel Defense Forces technologists and run out of the country until it was acquired last year by the US-based digital communications archiving company Smarsh. The service creates duplicates of communication apps that are outfitted with a “mobile archiver” tool to record and store messages sent through the app.

“Capture, archive and monitor mobile communication: SMS, MMS, Voice Calls, WhatsApp, WeChat, Telegram & Signal,” TeleMessage says on its website. For Signal it adds, “Record and capture Signal calls, texts, multimedia and files on corporate-issued and employee BYOD phones.” (BYOD stands for bring your own device.) In other words, there are TeleMessage versions of Signal for essentially any mainstream consumer device. The company says that using TeleMessage Signal, users can “Maintain all Signal app features and functionality as well as the Signal encryption,” adding that the app provides “End-to-End encryption from the mobile phone through to the corporate archive.” The existence of “the corporate archive,” though, undermines the privacy and security of the end-to-end encryption scheme.

TeleMessage apps are not approved for use under the US government's Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program or FedRAMP. TeleMessage and Smarsh did not immediately return requests for comment about whether their products are used by the US federal government and in what capacity.

"As we have said many times, Signal is an approved app for government use and is loaded on government phones,” White House press secretary Anna Kelly tells WIRED. She did not answer questions about whether the White House approves of federal officials using TeleMessage Signal—which is a different app from Signal—or whether other officials aside from Waltz have used the app or currently use it.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency does not create policy around federal technology use but does release public guidance. When asked about Waltz’s apparent use of TeleMessage Signal, CISA simply referred WIRED to its best-practices guide for mobile communications. The document specifically advises, “When selecting an end-to-end encrypted messaging app, evaluate the extent to which the app and associated services collect and store metadata.”

It is not clear when Waltz started using TeleMessage Signal and whether he was already using it during SignalGate or started using it afterward in response to criticisms that turning on Signal's disappearing messages feature is in conflict with federal data-retention laws.

“I have no doubt the leadership of the US national security apparatus ran this software through a full information-assurance process to ensure there was no information leakage to foreign nations,” says Johns Hopkins cryptographer Matt Green. “Because if they didn’t, we are screwed.”

[changes]

Friday, June 30th, 2023

🌟 New

You can now target your Blazed posts based on your blog’s specific language setting.

On web, when moving through feeds with the J and K keyboard shortcuts, the glow that appears is now a bit nicer to look at.

🛠 Fixed

Earlier today, password reset and verification emails were taking longer than expected to send from Tumblr, but it’s cleared up now.

On web, when using the site on a tablet device or with a narrow resized window, the navigation drawer no longer takes up a large amount of space when opened.

When using direct messaging on Tumblr in a mobile phone browser, the back button behavior is now more consistent when moving across conversations and your blogs’ inboxes.

🚧 Ongoing

We’re aware that some users are still experiencing audio from ads autoplaying (even when no ad is visible) in the mobile apps, we’re still chasing this issue down as quickly as we can.

🌱 Upcoming

We’re rolling out the ability to have more than one type of badge visible next to your blog. This option will be available in the next version of the mobile apps, and released soon on web!

Experiencing an issue? File a Support Request and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can!

Want to share your feedback about something? Check out our Work in Progress blog and start a discussion with the community.

[avelera]

I've been talking with a few people irl about the TikTok ban and I was wondering if I could get your take on it? (iirc you work in election security). Mainly I'd like to know why TikTok/China is *uniquely* bad wrt dating mining/potential election interference when we've seen other companies/governments do the same thing (thinking of the Russian psyops here on Tumblr in 2016). It feels like the scope is so narrow that it doesn't come close to targeting the root problem (user privacy and data mining as a whole), leading me to think it's only point is "ooh China Scary". Thoughts? (No worries if you'd rather not get into it, I just thought of you as someone who might have more insight/informed opinions on the matter).

So I'm not really familiar with all the details of the case and certainly not all the details of the bill. But I will give my perspective:

TikTok as a particular threat to users' data and privacy has been known for some time in the cybersecurity world. US government employees and contractors have been straight-up forbidden to have it on their phones for some time now. I, for example, have never had it on my phone because of these security concerns. (Worth noting, I'm not a government employee or contractor, it was just a known-to-be dangerous app in the cybersecurity world so I avoided it.)

This is because the parent company, as I understand, has known connections to the Chinese government that have been exploited in the past. For example, to target journalists.

Worth noting, another app that would potentially be on the chopping block is WeChat, which also has close ties to (or is outright owned by?) the Chinese government. This is just speculation on my part but it's based on the fact that all the concerns around TikTok are there for WeChat too and it has also been banned on government devices in some states, so I imagine it would be next if the bill passes.

I think this is important to note because I've seen some hot takes here on Tumblr have said that the entire case against TikTok is made up and there is no security threat. That is simply not true. The concerns have been there for a while.

However, the question of what to do about it is a thorny one.

The determination seems to be that so long as TikTok is still owned by its parent company with its direct ties to the Chinese government, there really is no way to guarantee that it's safe to use. From that angle, demanding that the company sever ties and set up some form of local ownership makes sense.

I am not a lawyer, but, that being said, forcing them to sell their local operations to a locally-based buyer is a pretty invasive and unusual step for legislators to take against a private company, even in a clear case of spying. I'm sure TikTok's widespread popularity is a big part of the threat it poses, which lends to the argument used to justify such an extreme step. (Because it is on so many phones, it really could be a danger to national security.)

That said, at one point young activists on TikTok embarrassed Trump (lots of good context in this article) while he was campaigning in 2020, and there was some talk then about shutting it down which seemed pretty clearly linked to how it was used as a platform to organize against him. I'm sure there's at least some right wing antipathy towards the app that has a political basis going back to this event. Trump signed an executive order banning it, the ban going into effect got bogged down in the courts, and then Biden rescinded that executive order when he got into office, pending an investigation into the threat it posed.

Those investigations seem to have further confirmed that the Chinese government is getting access to US user data through the app, and further confirmed it as a security threat.

Now, to muddy the waters further, there's several dodgy investment funds including one owned by former Secretary of the Treasury to Trump Steven Mnuchin that are circling with an interest to buy TikTok if it does sell. That's very concerning.

Funds like Mnuchin's interest in purchasing TikTok (even though they do invest in other technologies too, so it is in their portfolio) definitely makes the motivations behind the sale look pretty damning as momentum builds, that it could be some sort of money grab here in the US.

China has also pointed out that forcing the sale of a company because of spying concerns like this opens a whole can of worms. If China thinks that, say, Microsoft is spying on their citizens, could they force the US company to sell its operations in China to a Chinese investor? Could they force Google? Could they even further polarize the internet in general between "free" and "not free" (as in, behind the great Chinese or Russian firewall, as examples) if this precedent is set, so that no Western companies can operate in authoritarian states without selling their local operations there to a government-controlled organization, and thus be unable protect their users there? Or, if you don't have so rosy a view of Western companies, could it effectively deal a blow to international trade in general by saying you have to have to sell any overseas arms of a company to someone who is from there? Again, I'm not a lawyer, but this is a hell of a can of worms to open.

But again, this is muddy because China absolutely is spying on TikTok users. The security reason for all of this is real. What to do about it is the really muddled part that has a ton of consequences, and from that angle I agree with people who are against this bill. Tons of bad faith consequences could come out of it. But the concerns kicking off the bill are real.

[thesims4blogger]

The Sims 4: New Game Patch (September 18th, 2024)

Your game should now read: PC: 1.109.185.1030 / Mac: 1.109.185.1230 / Console: 1.99.

Sul Sul Simmers!

This patch is a big one and brings many new updates and fixes into the game that span across different packs, including improvements to apartment walls, ceiling lighting, and a whole host of fixes for our recently released expansion pack, Lovestruck. These, along with so many more across both Base Game and Packs, can be found below.

Thank you for your continued reporting efforts at AnswersHQ. It really helps to let us know the issues you care most about. We hope these fixes keep improving your game and allow you to keep having more fun! More to come.

There’s a colorful update to Build/Buy items! 650 color variants have been added and there are new items such as archways, doors, and even ground covers to spruce up your terrain. Check out the vibrant colors and new items in the video. For more details, scroll to the end of the patch notes to see a list of all the Build/Buy items. We can’t wait to see how you mix and match!

Performance

Reducing Memory Usage:

Frequent Memory Updates – Increased the frequency of memory usage data updates to prevent out-of-memory crashes.

Improving Simulation Performance:

Streamlining Data Storage – We restructured how we store game data to reduce the overhead of using Python objects, making the game run faster and use less memory.

Efficient Buff Generation – Reworked how temporary data is generated and stored to fix previous issues and optimize memory usage.

Reducing Load Times:

Optimizing Render Target Allocation – Stopped unnecessary allocation of large color targets during certain rendering processes, now saving valuable memory especially in high-resolution settings.

DirectX 11 (DX11) Updates

We’re pleased to announce improvements to the DirectX 11 executable for PC users. While these updates are focused on Windows PC’s, Xbox Simmers will also see benefits from these changes as the Xbox runs a console-based variant of DirectX 11. Here’s what to expect:

NVIDIA and AMD

NVIDIA and AMD Graphics Cards – Players using NVIDIA and AMD GPUs will now automatically default to the DX11 executable. Players on other GPUs like Intel, will continue to enjoy The Sims 4 on DX9 until a later update.

DirectX 11 Enhancements – Faster Graphics Processing – Implemented changes to how graphics data is updated, reducing delays between the CPU and GPU for smoother gameplay.

Performance Boost with Constant Buffers (cbuffers) – This enhances performance by reducing overhead and managing memory more efficiently. Users with mid to high-end GPUs should notice improved performance!

New DirectX 9 Option in Graphics Setting – By default, Simmers on NVIDIA and AMD GPUs will launch The Sims 4 using DX11. If you prefer, you can switch to DX9 via Game Options > Graphics and enable the DirectX 9 toggle before re-launching The Sims 4 to play using DirectX 9.

Intel

Ongoing Intel Development – We are continuing development on bringing DirectX 11 to Intel GPU based PC’s but it needs a little longer before we can bring it to Simmers as the default option. For now Intel based Simmers will continue to use DirectX 9 when running The Sims 4.

DirectX 11 Opt-In – DirectX 11 is available for those Simmers who want to try it, including those using an Intel GPU, you may experience visual issues with mods. We recommend disabling all mods while using the -dx11 command line argument.

For detailed information about DirectX 11 and instructions on how to enter launch arguments for both the EA App and Steam, please visit here. If you encounter any issues with DirectX, you can find assistance here.

The Gallery

Pack filters now properly work for Home Chef Hustle in The Gallery and library. No more hiding.

Base Game

[AHQ] Outdoor lighting will no longer affect inside the room through ceilings. Let there be (proper) light.

[AHQ and AHQ] When attempting to save, “Error Code: 0“ no longer occurs related to Gigs or Neighborhood Stories.

[AHQ] Addressed an additional issue where the game would fail to load and display Error Code 123 when traveling between lots.

[AHQ] Clay and Future Cubes will no longer get left on lots during events. Pick up your trash and leave nothing behind.

[AHQ] Frogs, mice and fishes in tanks are now visible when placed in laptop mode. Welcome back, friends!

[AHQ] Sims will put their tablets and homework back into their inventory instead of placing them in the world as long as they are standing or sitting. Again, stop littering, Sims!

[AHQ] The call is not coming from inside the house–you'll stop getting invitational phone calls from your own Household Members.

[AHQ] “Complete a Daily Work Task” Want now completes properly after finishing a daily work task. Work work work.

[AHQ] Children now have the option to quit their “After School Activity“. Although quitters never prosper.

[AHQ] Thought bubbles of Sims will no longer appear through walls and floors. Keep your thoughts to yourself.

[AHQ] Family fortune - “Heal Negative Sentiments” task will now properly complete.

[AHQ] Sims will return from work or school and switch into the same Everyday Outfit they had on instead of defaulting to the first Everyday Outfit in the Create a Sim list. You will wear what I tell you to wear, Sim!

[AHQ] Certain cabinet/shelf combinations over kitchen sinks will no longer prevent Sim from washing in the sink. No excuses for not cleaning up after yourself.

[AHQ] Outdoor shadows now move smoothly without jumping on the screen on ultra graphics settings and at different Live Mode speeds.

[AHQ] Camera jittering is no longer observed in Build Buy mode after using Terrain Tools.

[AHQ] When recent neighborhood stories mention a Sim that died in another neighborhood, switching to the respective Sim household will now have an urn present. RIP.

[AHQ] Upgrading washer/dryer now completes Nerd Brain Aspiration.

[AHQ] Sims will now hold the acarajé dish the right way while eating. It’s delicious however you eat it, though.

[AHQ] Autonomous check infant no longer causes new random cold weather outfit to be generated for infant. They’re not cold.

Infant no longer stretches when crawling in deep snow. Although we question why you’re letting your infant crawl in the snow.

[AHQ] Teen Sim is able to take vacation days while working in the lifeguard career. It’s only fair.

[AHQ] Event goals remain visible  even after editing from the Calendar.

Siblings can no longer be set as engaged in Create a Sim.

[AHQ] The Teen Goal Oriented Aspiration now gets completed properly after getting promoted at work.

Investigating missing Doodlepip splines. Reticulation progressing.

[AHQ] “Become friends with“ Want no longer appears for Sims with relationship equal or above friends. We’re already friends.

[AHQ] World icons on the world selection screen no longer move when middle-clicked.

[AHQ] Locked seed packets are unlocked in BB when using the gardening skill cheat “stats.set_skill_level Major_Gardening 10”. Gimme my seeds!

[AHQ] Female Sims' stomachs will no longer become invisible when paired with Masculine cargo pants in certain color swatches.

“Likes/Dislikes“ Sim preferences are now available for Sims created via Create a Sim Stories.

Sim animation will no longer pop when sitting on a stool and asking another Sim an inappropriate question.

[AHQ] Sim thumbnails are no longer low resolution on the Resume button.

[AHQ] Re-fixed issue where Skill List gets out of order, specifically when switching between Sims.

[AHQ] ‘ymTop_TshirtRolled_Yellow' top no longer clips with bottoms in Create a Sim.

[AHQ] Event Goals created through the Calendar properly show up during the Event, even if you edit the Event.

You can view the rest game patch notes on the Official site

[mostlysignssomeportents]

When the app tries to make you robo-scab

When we talk about the abusive nature of gig work, there’s some obvious targets, like algorithmic wage discrimination, where two workers are paid different rates for the same job, in order to trick occasional gig-workers to give up their other sources of income and become entirely dependent on the app:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/12/algorithmic-wage-discrimination/#fishers-of-men

Then there’s the opacity — imagine if your boss refused to tell you how much you’ll get paid for a job until after you’ve completed it, claimed that this was done in order to “protect privacy” — and then threatened anyone who helped you figure out the true wage on offer:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/08/07/hr-4193/#boss-app

Opacity is wage theft’s handmaiden: every gig worker producing content for a social media algorithm is subject to having their reach — and hence their pay — cut based on the unaccountable, inscrutable decisions of a content moderation system:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/10/e2e/#the-censors-pen

Making content for an algorithm is like having a boss that docks every paycheck because you broke rules that you are not allowed to know, because if you knew the rules, you’d figure out how to cheat without your boss catching you. Content moderation is the last place where security through obscurity is considered good practice:

https://doctorow.medium.com/como-is-infosec-307f87004563

When workers seize the means of computation, amazing things happen. In Indonesia, gig workers create and trade tuyul apps that let them unilaterally modify the way that their bosses’ systems see them — everything from GPS spoofing to accessibility mods:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/07/08/tuyul-apps/#gojek

So the tech and labor story isn’t wholly grim: there are lots of ways that tech can enhance labor struggles, letting workers collaborate and coordinate. Without digital systems, we wouldn’t have the Hot Strike Summer:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/02/not-what-it-does/#who-it-does-it-to

As the historic writer/actor strike shows us, the resurgent labor movement and the senescent forces of crapulent capitalism are locked in a death-struggle over not just what digital tools do, but who they do it for and who they do it to:

https://locusmag.com/2022/01/cory-doctorow-science-fiction-is-a-luddite-literature/

When it comes to the epic fight over who technology acts for and against, we need a diversity of tactics, backstopped by tech operated by and for its users — and by laws that protect workers and the public. That dynamic is in sharp focus in UNITE Here Local 11’s strike against Orange County’s Laguna Cliffs Marriott Resort & Spa.

The UNITE Here strike turns on the usual issues like a living wage (hotel staff are paid so little they have to rent rooming-house beds by the shift, paying for the right to sleep in a room for a few hours at a time, without any permanent accommodation). They’re also seeking health-care and pensions, so they can be healthy at work and retire after long service. Finally, they’re seeking their employer’s support for LA’s Responsible Hotels Ordinance, which would levy a tax on hotel rooms to help pay for hotel workers’ housing costs (a hotel worker who can’t afford a bed is the equivalent of a fast food worker who has to apply for food stamps):

https://www.unitehere11.org/responsible-hotels-ordinance/

But the Marriott — which is owned by the University of California and managed by Aimbridge Hospitality — has refused to bargain, walking out negotiations.

But the employer didn’t walk out over wages, benefits or support for a housing subsidy. They walked out when workers demanded that the scabs that the company was trying to hire to break the strike be given full time, union jobs.

These aren’t just any scabs, either. They’re predominantly Black workers who rely on the $700m Instawork app for gigs. These workers are being dispatched to cross the picket line without any warning that they’re being contracted as strikebreakers. When workers refuse the cross the picket and join the strike, Instawork cancels all their shifts and permanently blocks them from new jobs.

This is a new, technologically supercharged form of illegal strikebreaking. It’s one thing for a single boss to punish a worker who refuses to scab, but Instawork acts as a plausible-deniability filter for all the major employers in the region. Like the landlord apps that allow landlords to illegally fix rents by coordinating hikes, Instawork lets bosses illegally collude to rig wages by coordinating a blocklist of workers who refuse to scab:

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/10/company-that-makes-rent-setting-software-for-landlords-sued-for-collusion/?comments=1

The racial dimension is really important here: the Marriott has a longstanding de facto policy of refusing to hire Black workers, and whenever they are confronted with this, they insist that there are no qualified Black workers in the labor pool. But as soon as the predominantly Latino workforce struck, Marriott discovered a vast Black workforce that it could coerce into scabbing, in collusion with Instawork.

Now, all of this isn’t just sleazy, it’s illegal, a violation of Section 7 of the NLRB Act. Historically, that wouldn’t have mattered, because a string of presidents, R and D, have appointed useless do-nothing ghouls to run the NLRB. But the Biden admin, pushed by the party’s left wing, made a string of historic, excellent appointments, including NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo, who has set her sights on punishing gig work companies for flouting labor law:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/01/10/see-you-in-the-funny-papers/#bidens-legacy

UNITE HERE 11 has brought a case to the NLRB, charging the Instawork, the UC system, Marriott, and Aimbridge with violating labor law by blackmailing gig workers into crossing the picket line. The union is also asking the NLRB to punish the companies for failing to protect workers from violent retaliation from the wealthy hotel guests who have punched them and screamed epithets at them. The hotel has refused to identify these thug guests so that the workers they assaulted can swear out complaints against them.

Writing about the strike for Jacobin, Alex N Press tells the story of Thomas Bradley, a Black worker who was struck off all Instawork shifts for refusing to cross the picket line and joining it instead:

https://jacobin.com/2023/07/southern-california-hotel-workers-strike-automated-management-unite-here

Bradley’s case is exhibit A in the UNITE HERE 11 case before the NLRB. He has a degree in culinary arts, but racial discrimination in the industry has kept him stuck in gig and temp jobs ever since he graduated, nearly a quarter century ago. Bradley lived out of his car, but that was repossessed while he slept in a hotel room that UNITE HERE 11 fundraised for him, leaving him homeless and bereft of all his worldly possessions.

With UNITE HERE 11’s help, Bradley’s secured a job at the downtown LA Westin Bonaventure Hotel & Suites, a hotel that has bargained with the workers. Bradley is using his newfound secure position to campaign among other Instawork workers to convince them not to cross picket lines. In these group chats, Jacobin saw workers worrying “that joining the strike would jeopardize their standing on the app.”

Today (July 30) at 1530h, I’m appearing on a panel at Midsummer Scream in Long Beach, CA, to discuss the wonderful, award-winning “Ghost Post” Haunted Mansion project I worked on for Disney Imagineering.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/30/computer-says-scab/#instawork

[Image ID: An old photo of strikers before a struck factory, with tear-gas plumes rising above them. The image has been modified to add a Marriott sign to the factory, and the menacing red eye of HAL9000 from Stanley Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey' to the sky over the factory. The workers have been colorized to a yellow-green shade and the factory has been colorized to a sepia tone.]

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

[rigelmejo]

I read this post recently on reddit and it made a lot of sense Why duolingo doesn’t seem to listen to its users (it's not just because of money)

(I ignored the user advertising their own language learning tool at the bottom. If you want to learn from stories, LingQ exists, along with MANY Graded Reader websites for various languages and many physical Graded Reader books. There is likely already a tool that exists for free, or paid but very well made for the language you are learning specifically, to learn basics in the language using stories).

Read the article above if you are wondering "is duolingo useful for me?"

The short answer: is that if you ever want to learn a language, the answer is no. It's target audience is people who use the app frequently, and that is usually beginners who want very easy questions (so they learn slow if ever), who'd get on social media if they weren't playing duolingo like a 'game.'

The long answer is: yeah some people learned up to A2/B1 with Duolingo, if they pushed very hard to get through the whole duolingo course, and then kept studying with other materials, and usually those people spent more than 5-15 minutes daily on the language they were studying. Evan Edinger is an example of someone who successfully 'used duolingo' and many other things, to learn a language. Basically, if your goal is to learn to do things in a language, almost any other learning resource will be providing information to you faster than duolingo, and your success is going to be more about time spent studying than what you use, so there's no particular point in using duolingo over anything else.

My answer is: fuck duolingo it's going AI first, and I have seen enough shitty AI translations and explanations of language to say it's probably going to result in some fucked up lessons, and it means less employees who actually get a paycheck and put in real human thought into lessons, and literally ANY OTHER RESOURCE where real humans are putting effort into the course will be better to use. Pick any other resource! Pick anki user made decks, or LingQ, or Mango Languages app (free from many Libraries), or Innovative Languages/LanguagePod101 lessons (free in Library apps like Hoopla), or old Glossika cd courses, or Assimil audio/textbooks, or Teach Yourself textbooks, or free open online courses like on Coursera, or any specific courses made for teaching the specific language you're studying! If you just look up "beginner textbook" then "intermediate textbook" for the language you're studying, and follow that recommendation and do all the stuff in them, you'll be on a path to understanding novels and shows and conversations in the language upon completing those materials! It really is that simple. So many free great resources exist for language learning! And paid great resources! (I genuinely just looked up "2000 common words list" and "grammar guide summary" online as a beginner, and that'll get you to the point of being able to read graded readers, then eventually regular novels and shows if you're willing to look up words in a translation app!) There's no need to use an AI based course, which will almost certainly teach some things wrong.

[octoconbeware]

What’s ur thoughts on the announcement made from Octocon?

I do think it's funny that Atlas is trying to portray the situation as if I am attacking the community and app for its eventual shutdown. He does have a track record of interpreting criticism of the app or himself as hate and an attack with ulterior motives.

I see it as a very blatant attempt to push blame and anger, making it an "us vs. them" issue where I am leading a "hate movement against octocon" so that "octocon has to shut down" for a "mistake they made and realized was a mistake and rectified on their own" when there is no proof for any of these claims, and while I have proof for the claims that I made that I have posted and transcribed.

Did you know the decision to allow the pedophile to stay was reversed one day after I had posted about it publically on this blog? A week after the final decision to let him stay?

The timeline of events was stated in my evidence post:

"The original private ticket was posted on the 19th of January, 2025. The creator and moderators made the final decision to allow the pedophile to stay in the servers 8 days later on the 27th of January, 2025. Atlas, the creator of the app/bot, replied to my public post a little over 24 hours after I had posted it on the 6th of February, 2025, reversing the decision and banning the pedophile."

But I haven't said anything about how suspicious that timing is, because I can't check the staff channels to see if it was me publicizing the decision that caused the change. The purpose of this blog was to bring light to a situation that I found to be dangerous for a community of vulnerable people. I purposefully did not speculate on anything if I did not have proof of it, yet Atlas felt it was ok to do so to me and anyone else who disapproves of how the situation was handled.

Quotes from the announcement:

" ...appear to have no interest in arriving at a civil resolution to this conflict... making a dedicated hate movement... becoming increasingly apparent that octoconbeware and its movement have only one goal: to permanently burn our project to the ground... octoconbeware (and many) appear to be entirely uninterested in having a civil discussion, instead choosing to scare users away from our platform based on half-truths and a misconstrual of our beliefs and policies."

There is a claim within the announcement that they attempted to reach me:

"As a result of this situation, we've been targeted by a dedicated "anti-Octocon" account on Tumblr known as octoconbeware, which has misconstrued many aspects of the situation. We've attempted to get in touch with this account to no avail"

Yet this is the attempt I received:

Transcript:

"Atlas: Hey, would you be willing to have a discussion on Discord? I fully understand if not, but my username is @atlas_oc.

Yesterday 5:00 PM

The offer is still open. I'm willing to having a productive conversation and listen to your side if you're willing to reciprocate.

I genuinely don't want to antagonize you, I just want to understand what your goals are with all of this and what you want us to do as a result. We also want our community to be safe.

Today at 4:05 pm"

End transcript.

I was given less than 24 hours to see the message, think about the offer, and reply. He reached out to me the second time after he had already posted the very long announcement making unfounded claims about me. Yet a pedophile, who I am finding out may have been actively grooming another minor during the time of the ticket, was allowed to stay in the servers for over 2 weeks after the team was given the screenshots in my evidence post where he admitted to sexually abusing and traumatizing a minor.

I will also mention that this blog has been active since February 6th, 2025. This announcement was posted nearly 3 months after this blog's creation. Coincidentally, I also did not get much attention on my posts until late April. "Coincidentally", it took the posts gaining attention for them to be "transparent about the situation" and make an announcement.

This is a lot to take in! I will likely be discussing this for at least a few days with victims of the situation(s) and predator(s) before I make another official post about it. As it stands, I currently don't have much else to say about the announcement. If anyone is curious about my thoughts about any specific parts of the announcement, feel free to send an ask with a portion of the announcement quoted, and I will reply when I have the time to.

tldr; The announcement feels very disingenuous and more a reaction to how my posts have gained attention than made out of any real care for the victims of the situation and other vulnerable members. The wording of the announcement is purposefully chosen to position me an an enemy of the community with no evidence to back up any of their claims, and was likely posted to manipulate the situation and their community members and not to offer full transparency about the situation.

[coochiequeens]

'It stains your brain': How social media algorithms show violence to boys." Make no mistake boys and young men were disgusting before they had access to smart phones but this and parents not willing to admit there's an issue are creating a whole new problem.

Cai says violent and disturbing material appeared on his feeds "out of nowhere"

By Marianna Spring BBC Panorama

It was 2022 and Cai, then 16, was scrolling on his phone. He says one of the first videos he saw on his social media feeds was of a cute dog. But then, it all took a turn.

He says “out of nowhere” he was recommended videos of someone being hit by a car, a monologue from an influencer sharing misogynistic views, and clips of violent fights. He found himself asking - why me?

Over in Dublin, Andrew Kaung was working as an analyst on user safety at TikTok, a role he held for 19 months from December 2020 to June 2022.

He says he and a colleague decided to examine what users in the UK were being recommended by the app’s algorithms, including some 16-year-olds. Not long before, he had worked for rival company Meta, which owns Instagram - another of the sites Cai uses.

When Andrew looked at the TikTok content, he was alarmed to find how some teenage boys were being shown posts featuring violence and pornography, and promoting misogynistic views, he tells BBC Panorama. He says, in general, teenage girls were recommended very different content based on their interests.

TikTok and other social media companies use AI tools to remove the vast majority of harmful content and to flag other content for review by human moderators, regardless of the number of views they have had. But the AI tools cannot identify everything.

Andrew Kaung says that during the time he worked at TikTok, all videos that were not removed or flagged to human moderators by AI - or reported by other users to moderators - would only then be reviewed again manually if they reached a certain threshold.

He says at one point this was set to 10,000 views or more. He feared this meant some younger users were being exposed to harmful videos. Most major social media companies allow people aged 13 or above to sign up.

TikTok says 99% of content it removes for violating its rules is taken down by AI or human moderators before it reaches 10,000 views. It also says it undertakes proactive investigations on videos with fewer than this number of views.

Andrew Kaung says he raised concerns that teenage boys were being pushed violent, misogynistic content

When he worked at Meta between 2019 and December 2020, Andrew Kaung says there was a different problem. He says that, while the majority of videos were removed or flagged to moderators by AI tools, the site relied on users to report other videos once they had already seen them.

He says he raised concerns while at both companies, but was met mainly with inaction because, he says, of fears about the amount of work involved or the cost. He says subsequently some improvements were made at TikTok and Meta, but he says younger users, such as Cai, were left at risk in the meantime.

Several former employees from the social media companies have told the BBC Andrew Kaung’s concerns were consistent with their own knowledge and experience.

Algorithms from all the major social media companies have been recommending harmful content to children, even if unintentionally, UK regulator Ofcom tells the BBC.

“Companies have been turning a blind eye and have been treating children as they treat adults,” says Almudena Lara, Ofcom's online safety policy development director.

'My friend needed a reality check'

TikTok told the BBC it has “industry-leading” safety settings for teens and employs more than 40,000 people working to keep users safe. It said this year alone it expects to invest “more than $2bn (£1.5bn) on safety”, and of the content it removes for breaking its rules it finds 98% proactively.

Meta, which owns Instagram and Facebook, says it has more than 50 different tools, resources and features to give teens “positive and age-appropriate experiences”.

Cai told the BBC he tried to use one of Instagram’s tools and a similar one on TikTok to say he was not interested in violent or misogynistic content - but he says he continued to be recommended it.

He is interested in UFC - the Ultimate Fighting Championship. He also found himself watching videos from controversial influencers when they were sent his way, but he says he did not want to be recommended this more extreme content.

“You get the picture in your head and you can't get it out. [It] stains your brain. And so you think about it for the rest of the day,” he says.

Girls he knows who are the same age have been recommended videos about topics such as music and make-up rather than violence, he says.

Cai says one of his friends became drawn into content from a controversial influencer

Meanwhile Cai, now 18, says he is still being pushed violent and misogynistic content on both Instagram and TikTok.

When we scroll through his Instagram Reels, they include an image making light of domestic violence. It shows two characters side by side, one of whom has bruises, with the caption: “My Love Language”. Another shows a person being run over by a lorry.

Cai says he has noticed that videos with millions of likes can be persuasive to other young men his age.

For example, he says one of his friends became drawn into content from a controversial influencer - and started to adopt misogynistic views.

His friend “took it too far”, Cai says. “He started saying things about women. It’s like you have to give your friend a reality check.”

Cai says he has commented on posts to say that he doesn’t like them, and when he has accidentally liked videos, he has tried to undo it, hoping it will reset the algorithms. But he says he has ended up with more videos taking over his feeds.

Ofcom says social media companies recommend harmful content to children, even if unintentionally

So, how do TikTok’s algorithms actually work?

According to Andrew Kaung, the algorithms' fuel is engagement, regardless of whether the engagement is positive or negative. That could explain in part why Cai’s efforts to manipulate the algorithms weren’t working.

The first step for users is to specify some likes and interests when they sign up. Andrew says some of the content initially served up by the algorithms to, say, a 16-year-old, is based on the preferences they give and the preferences of other users of a similar age in a similar location.

According to TikTok, the algorithms are not informed by a user’s gender. But Andrew says the interests teenagers express when they sign up often have the effect of dividing them up along gender lines.

The former TikTok employee says some 16-year-old boys could be exposed to violent content “right away”, because other teenage users with similar preferences have expressed an interest in this type of content - even if that just means spending more time on a video that grabs their attention for that little bit longer.

The interests indicated by many teenage girls in profiles he examined - “pop singers, songs, make-up” - meant they were not recommended this violent content, he says.

He says the algorithms use “reinforcement learning” - a method where AI systems learn by trial and error - and train themselves to detect behaviour towards different videos.

Andrew Kaung says they are designed to maximise engagement by showing you videos they expect you to spend longer watching, comment on, or like - all to keep you coming back for more.

The algorithm recommending content to TikTok's “For You Page”, he says, does not always differentiate between harmful and non-harmful content.

According to Andrew, one of the problems he identified when he worked at TikTok was that the teams involved in training and coding that algorithm did not always know the exact nature of the videos it was recommending.

“They see the number of viewers, the age, the trend, that sort of very abstract data. They wouldn't necessarily be actually exposed to the content,” the former TikTok analyst tells me.

That was why, in 2022, he and a colleague decided to take a look at what kinds of videos were being recommended to a range of users, including some 16-year-olds.

He says they were concerned about violent and harmful content being served to some teenagers, and proposed to TikTok that it should update its moderation system.

They wanted TikTok to clearly label videos so everyone working there could see why they were harmful - extreme violence, abuse, pornography and so on - and to hire more moderators who specialised in these different areas. Andrew says their suggestions were rejected at that time.

TikTok says it had specialist moderators at the time and, as the platform has grown, it has continued to hire more. It also said it separated out different types of harmful content - into what it calls queues - for moderators.

'Asking a tiger not to eat you'

Andrew Kaung says that from the inside of TikTok and Meta it felt really difficult to make the changes he thought were necessary.

“We are asking a private company whose interest is to promote their products to moderate themselves, which is like asking a tiger not to eat you,” he says.

He also says he thinks children’s and teenagers’ lives would be better if they stopped using their smartphones.

But for Cai, banning phones or social media for teenagers is not the solution. His phone is integral to his life - a really important way of chatting to friends, navigating when he is out and about, and paying for stuff.

Instead, he wants the social media companies to listen more to what teenagers don’t want to see. He wants the firms to make the tools that let users indicate their preferences more effective.

“I feel like social media companies don't respect your opinion, as long as it makes them money,” Cai tells me.

In the UK, a new law will force social media firms to verify children’s ages and stop the sites recommending porn or other harmful content to young people. UK media regulator Ofcom is in charge of enforcing it.

Almudena Lara, Ofcom's online safety policy development director, says that while harmful content that predominantly affects young women - such as videos promoting eating disorders and self-harm - have rightly been in the spotlight, the algorithmic pathways driving hate and violence to mainly teenage boys and young men have received less attention.

“It tends to be a minority of [children] that get exposed to the most harmful content. But we know, however, that once you are exposed to that harmful content, it becomes unavoidable,” says Ms Lara.

Ofcom says it can fine companies and could bring criminal prosecutions if they do not do enough, but the measures will not come in to force until 2025.

TikTok says it uses “innovative technology” and provides “industry-leading” safety and privacy settings for teens, including systems to block content that may not be suitable, and that it does not allow extreme violence or misogyny.

Meta, which owns Instagram and Facebook, says it has more than “50 different tools, resources and features” to give teens “positive and age-appropriate experiences”. According to Meta, it seeks feedback from its own teams and potential policy changes go through robust process.