You forgot the third car using a VPN to get all the content they’re actually paying for on all of their streaming apps
A 4th car is going to the highseas.
Baton down the hatches and raise me sails matey!
Baton
Batten
Maybe they were just really stubborn.
I just want to watch the Japanese Netflix anime drops. Is that so much to ask for natively?
Texas residents using a VPN for porn
And Louisiana. People forget that it was first in the porn ban that doesn’t even work.
Don’t forget Virginia!
Virginia living up to its name with the state mandated NoFap challenge.
I live close enough to Tennessee that I turn off my WiFi and let the cellular take me there haha.
Don’t forget Utah
There are 17 states that have passed or introduced bills requiring age verification for access to porn sites: New Jersey, West Virginia, Virginia, Oregon, Minnesota, South Dakota, Arizona, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, South Carolina and Florida.
Oregon? I thought Oregon was blue
What a joke. My home is WV and I’m currently in VA. Didn’t even notice either state had a porn ban. Get your fucking religion out of politics though.
Bout to be CO too, not just limited to red states unfortunately.
Admittedly, it’s not just for porn, but social media in general. Either way, the same reasoning applies, I’m not giving a third party company my identity just for a social media account and I’m certainly not going to do it for porn
I’m one of these Texas motherfuckers getting fucked with by this dumb shit. I am in the market for a cheap, effective VPN.
I’m thinking about trying Express VPN, but I haven’t had time to do all the comparison shopping for which one is actually best. I don’t need a shitload of different devices, all at once. At most, I need to maybe cover one desktop PC and two WiFi devices. But I’d be cool with just one seat.
Anyone got recommendations?
Mullvad VPN is my go-to. No nonsense and meets all of my needs.
Hadn’t even heard of them. I’ll look into it. Thank you!
I love the fact that you put money in monthly like putting money in a meter. Really makes it feel anonymous with the no username or passwords.
I’m using Private Internet Access. It was purchased by a company some people think are sketchy, but they work well in my experience and are cheap. If you really need security that you trust, maybe go somewhere else. If you just need a VPN that works and is cheap, it’s an option.
I just heard that Express VPN was bought by a shady company, too. I wonder if it’s the same one.
EDIT: Yep. It’s the same one. Kape technologies. They are apparently pretty evil.
Try WindScribe. You won’t regret it.
$69 for a yearly plan. They know what it’s being used for.
(‿ˠ‿)( ͡⚆ ͜ʖ ͡⚆ )(‿ˠ‿)
This is mine as well, I like the price I like ControlD (the company’s other product) and I like that it’s not Nord or surfshark that’s good enough for me lol
I’d recommend proton vpn. They have a few other services like email and password managers but there free tier is more than adequate
Well, holy fuck! I already have a Protonmail account, so I guess all I need to do is download the VPN app. I’ll fuck with that, later. Thanks for reminding me this exists!
No problemo
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My recommendation is to run your own instance of something like OpenVPN on a $5/month Digital Ocean droplet tbh
While a good approach, this is not really possible for a majority of non-tech people.
Sure, I recognize that there are folks who won’t be able to pull it off, but there are also loads who can - And don’t know about options like OpenVPN. Figured it was worth a mention.
Can someone explain it to Europeans?
Several states with republican leadership have required identification to view sites that have “adult content”. You technically can still access it without a VPN in these states, but I’m not trusting these sites with personally identifying information. Depending on the state I think you have to upload an image of your ID and other information. It’s really sketchy.
What the fucking fuck. In Europe this would cause French and Germans combined beheading entire governments. One thing I want to keep to myself is my porn choices. Giving my ID to a porn site sounds like a big fucking NO
“The land of freedom!”
Thats odd. I seem to remember the UK’s IWF breaking Wikipedia trying to block a CD album image. Must have been an illusion
UK quit Europe remember? They don’t count, the poor suckers.
Could you theoretically fake the ID cards with image-generating AI?
I think they’re looked up to verify they’re authentic. I’m not certain, but I’m pretty sure that’s the case. If it isn’t then it’d be easier to just take an image of a real ID and modify it rather than using image generation to hope it comes out correct.
Oh man, this is a much better comparison.
It’s still not perfect, though, since technically porn isn’t banned, but it’s effectively banned by requiring ID checking, which major websites like pornhub refuse to do.
But this also allegedly targets “culture”, just like China’s great firewall. It’s pretty damn stupid.
Americans who pluralize with an apostrophe.
For serious. 😵💫🖕🏽
mostly a mistake af habbit
Pointing out mistakes while misspelling yourself is always funny to me.
I think it’s perfectly acceptable with TLAs. Just using the lower case s makes it seem like it could be an extension of the short hand.
Chinese citizens using VPN to access TikTok too.
Specifically American tiktok. The tiktok they have isn’t the same. Iirc It’s only educational stuff, and you get a time limit.
It is not American tiktok. It is tiktok for the world except China who owns tiktok.
Off topic but I really enjoyed much of this show (Umbrella Academy), particularly I was so impressed with how the child actor actually pulled off carrying the entire show, he was not only the leading & most interesting character but also IMO had one of the best performances on it. Come to think of it, I should look into what else he’s done.
Anyway, what episode is this from, do you know? (I know it’s just a meme format now, worth a shot tho)
Excellent post btw, I gave all the upvote I could
The umbrella academy was hard carried by five. The actor really pulled off the adult stuck in a kid’s body thing. The actor that played the guy with addiction issues was great too.
Five and Klaus carried the show
If you like Klaus you should watch a show the same actor did years ago called Misfits! He kind of carried that show too, it was never quite as good after he left lol
Yeah I stopped watching when he did. It was teen drama before, which I’m normally not a fan of, but he made it worth it. Without him it was just another “teens get crazy powers, hijinks ensue” show.
It was one of the first “teens misuse crazy powers” I saw.
Lactokinesis was an excellent superpower.
However, After the time travel was resolved there wasn’t much left to keep long term interest.
I kept watching for a few more seasons. There was enough of the original cast left that it wasn’t bad per se, but it wasn’t the same. I finally had to give up during that season where the guy was screaming about his missing cock the whole time lol
I actually watched the whole first season with a buddy of mine but couldn’t get myself to like it. Only good thing was all that bri’ish swearing
I’m introducing my partner to the show now. We’re just about to finish S1. Gotta be ready when the final season drops.
They’re gonna be real disappointed with the version of “Tiktok” available in China
TikTok isn’t banned in canada, or the UK, or a number of other english speaking non-US countries
There are…other countries? WHAT!? 🫨
Why would they VPN to the version of the app that has less English speakers?
to learn? To experience something new? Monolingual life starts loosing it’s charm.
*losing
yeah, that’s… thanks for illustrating my point
I live to serve. Lol
I still fell like unless you want to learn Chinese specifically, the non Chinese version would explose you to more foreign languages. Guess its up to you, but I’d imagine they’d just VPN to the same verion they’re using now.
well now i wanna just cus i’m getting pushback
you’ve fallen for my trap card; the allure of forbidden fruit!
I don’t blame you, I play Genshin so Chinese tiktok would probably have some neat stuff
I’ve got Chinese GenZ TikTok pegged as 10x more entertaining than American Boomer Facebook.
嘿，宝贝，想换VPN吗？(Hey babe, you wanna swap VPNs?) 🥵
That’s kinda funny. Do people really use that pun?
I’m using a VPN to byapass porn blocks while I’m stuck as an inpatient in hospital.
Fun fact, VPNs are regulated by the state in China
that’s not how VPNs work
Regulated doesn’t mean they control all VPNs, it means they usually have laws requiring any use of VPN to be licensed, and usually is allowed for businesses rather than individuals. They also block via their firewall many providers. Of course, you could always use one illegally as long as traffic isn’t blocked. Just don’t get caught.
Sure it is. But it means that they can tell the VPNs to block the same stuff that everyone else is told to block.
“the VPNs” is not a thing when literally anyone’s connection can be a VPN for someone else and nobody else would know
Internet itself is regulated by the nation state.
Same in Russia. I worked with a banking company that had a Russia office, and the company had to get government approval for the BOVPNs that were used.
Not in Hong Kong :)
Hong Kong is the cooler Daniel
What’s the point then?
False sense of security. It will still provide some privacy against ad tracking.
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Security and testing localization will be big use cases. But privacy and or using banned apps, no so much. They don’t call it the Great Firewall for nothing. ISPs, VPNs, etc.
If you want to use western social media , it’s not as simple as jumping into a VPN.
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This is the kind of thing that gets to me in this whole TikTok situation the most.
China bans most American based social media and what it doesn’t ban is heavily monitored censored and regulated.
Why would we (Americans) want to willingly use a Chinese owned/based/operated social media platform like TikTok?
We should never have started using it in the first place or at least immediately dropped it as soon as it became common knowledge that it had substantial ties to china.
There is so much hypocrisy on all sides of this issue.
What’s funny about this is that the fear of Chinese Authoritarianism leads Americans straight into American Authoritarianism.
It’s this close to self awareness and then veers straight into hypocrisy
It does smack of hypocrisy but I’ve been feeling more it’s a paradox of tolerance thing. Which itself a sort of hypocrisy now that I’m thinking about it. Huh.
nah, i don’t see it as a tolerance issue at all, I see it more through a Chomsky/Foucault lens.
US social media has been used as a state messaging apparatus for going on two decades now, and a foreign-owned platform is simply not as responsive to US state pressure as a domestically-owned one. China was simply playing the same game as the US has been. It’s not at all surprising that the US would want to ban one that has gotten to be so widely used - but what’s funny about it is the messaging/logic used to do so.
“A communist authoritarian actor is influencing civilian opinion through media curation, so we must take drastic authoritarian action to control media curation to stop foreign influence of civilian opinion.”
I think seeing it through a ‘paradox of tolerance’ lens kinda misses the point of the irony I see in the response.
Well, they probably read Machiavelli and may not always have our best interests at heart so it’s not inconceivable it’s entirely intentional.
We are not in China, are we? The (american) government should NOT have control over what information its citizens have access to. We should not strive to be like China in this regard.
I think they mean that the users shouldn’t use it. Not that the government should ban it.
China censors what its people sees on its platforms so its people started using facebook. Then China started demanding that facebook censor itself in China (there was a major terror attack that sparked this) but Facebook refused so they banned it. Same thing happened with reddit and such.
Meanwhile, the US started censoring its major media platforms people either fled to niche libre sites like this or the shiny new addictive app from China. China doesnt care about what americans see. It’ll happily let americans see Israelis document their war crimes. The US said, sell to american investors, and be censored or be banned. ByteDance chose being banned. Welcome to the great american firewall.
I don’t know if Chinese government actually reaches out to social platforms before banning them, I remember reddit was avaliable in China in 2015 - 2016ish. Then it got banned, I believe its because of its political contents (r/china and such).
China bans most American based social media
they’ve banned all the big ones except youtube, but their version of youtube is extremely censored.
Russians using VPN to access
gosuslugi in 2024telegram in 2018.Please, don’t even touch this. With our RKN and useless pinnocchios banning random things extrajudiciously, I’d be surprised if we’d have any access to the internet in 2026. For those without a government issued pass and active service in bot farms, I mean. If I’d get limited to local resources, I feel like I’d give up on internet altogether. Can’t discuss shit there without pseudo-trad weirdos chiming in.
It may be a major plus for the Internet as a whole if the cable is cut completely, but I feel like it’d only be cut for dissenting folks, while carriers of the official talking points wouldn’t ever get limited.
using VPNs*
It’s the VPN’s service.
Anytime I see a misplaced apostrophe I assign some kind ownership to it. This one’s okay.
Fun fact, China doesn’t even have TikTok, their version is strictly educational and can only be used certain times of the day, to my understanding
is strictly educational and can only be used certain times of the day
Nope and nope. Like normak tiktok, douyin have all sort of things, depends on what you view. You can login to it (doesn’t have to), and the account is connect to your cellphone number which is connected to your national ID. I don’t know if theres time limitations if you are a minor though.
I’ve sideloaded douyin before, it isn’t strictly educational but I do believe if a child is using the device there is time limits. and also you can’t sign up without a Chinese ID but it doesn’t require an account. I actually did find some Americans on there who somehow found a way to sign up.
The IDs of criminals are sometimes leaked on the web. People use those leaked IDs to register their account. Many systems don’t actually check whether the ID is already registered, it works as long as the ID itself is valid.
Lol lazy CCP. Now that optimization is going brr that probably won’t last. Lol idk maybe they don’t care. If it isn’t a problem why care? If it became an issue though they’d lock it down so fast lol
They are hackermans (or have China issued IDs)
China has indeed blocked tiktok, but their version, douyin likely runs on similar systems and have similar types of contents. These two versions just don’t share content and probably have different moderation and privacy policies.
I think you are confusing the tiktok block with the computer game ban, which requires excessive verifications (even biometric) to play games. And underaged children can only play games in assigned time slots with time limit:
In 2019, the country imposed a cybercurfew barring those under 18 from playing games between 10 p.m. and 8 a.m.
Recognizing that wily teenagers might try to use their parents’ devices or identities to circumvent the restrictions, the Chinese internet conglomerate Tencent said this week that it would close the loophole by deploying facial recognition technology in its video games.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/08/business/video-game-facial-recognition-tencent.html
You forgot there is a tram service to Lemmy
Meh, entirely different type of SM, what we really need is the defederated version of TT
But video is expensive so it probably won’t happen for a long time
Now if TT redoes their app to be defederated to evade US law that would be hilarious
TT is the defederated TT
I think you mean federated ;)
Oof yea, that’ll teach me to comment on Monday mornings lmao
Supposedly Pixelfed or Peertube just added shorts.
A big issue with that is when I signed up to peertube 10 months ago, literally the only videos I could find were French language protestors.
I would have preferred if they kept shorts off.
If it gets people to start using it and uploading content overall it is a win, although my hope was that it would build out to be a PBS competitor
Hey, woah. I don’t want you to be right. I want to stew in my contempt of YouTube Shorts.
They are working on it
I saw a post for this service yesterday I think. I don’t remember the name of it or I’d post a link, but it is created now and I think it’s active, or will be soon. It’s only for short-form video though, like TikTok, which isn’t my style of content.
Stay tuned Loops
not a lot of videos hosted on lemmy
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