It’s kind of like a total solar eclipse… That rare moment when the sun is blocked and a person can see stars during the daytime.
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I do understand that for certain demographics this blackout would be a larger hurdle than for others, and can sympathize, but you’re right - it’s hard for me to understand why this is more than a temporary inconvenience, even in regions where it’s become a de facto standard. I’ll gladly admit that this could just be a failure of imagination on my part, however.
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The bright side: If everyone who normally spend their day reading Facebook spends the day actually reading ABOUT Facebook instead, COVID vaccination rates may go up.
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No, non-first world problem writ large.
Seriously, I’m reluctant to “make a fucking phone call” to France at 67p a minute, and I’m in a good job in the UK. What do you think the impact is in places like Kenya or South Africa?
Yes, it’s unhealthy, but it’s the reality at the moment. The grim reality as well is that neither you or I are going to convince a pensioner to lobby MPs about the ownership of a messaging service. That’s down to people like us to do.
It’s great that you hope that it’s down for days too. I’m sure my Mum would be really happy to be cut off from her old friends for that long. She’s got a group chat with people she used to work with, another one with people she grew up with (they finally had a wake yesterday for a friend who died last year, think that was arranged over WhatsApp), and it’s how she’s able to talk to her sister in France without it costing a fortune.
I’m guessing you don’t actually want my Mum cut off like that for days, same as I’m guessing you don’t actually mean to tell people in poorer countries to “use that fucking phone to make a fucking phone call” that they might not be able to afford. Might be worth taking a second to think outside the righteous tech indignation in that case.
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Apologies, you said you wanted this to continue for weeks, not days.
Edit:
And via The Guardian and the NYT, a couple of relevant quotes.
“With Facebook being down we’re losing thousands in sales,” said Mark Donnelly, a start-up founder in Ireland who runs HUH Clothing, a fashion brand focused on mental health that uses Facebook and Instagram to reach customers. “It may not sound like a lot to others, but missing out on four or five hours of sales could be the difference between paying the electricity bill or rent for the month.”
Samir Munir, who owns a food-delivery service in Delhi, said he was unable to reach clients or fulfill orders because he runs the business through his Facebook page and takes orders via WhatsApp.
“Everything is down, my whole business is down,” he said.
Douglas Veney, a gamer in Cleveland who goes by GoodGameBro and who is paid by viewers and subscribers on Facebook Gaming, added, “It’s hard when your primary platform for income for a lot of people goes down.” He called the situation “scary.”
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Am I the only one that uses Facebook properly, to torment my 36 year old daughter?
Seriously, Facebook is what you make of it, I have a very small friend list that consists of people I can and do (well not so much lately) meet in person. It’s also fun to play around on the local groups when they get all wackadoodle with conspiracy nonsense.
I hadn’t even realized it was down until I read this post. Now that I know I’m starting to get nervous, one of our cats did something cute and I need to post it before bed.
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only 2098 lines long!? ( hmm… are wildcards not allowed or something? ex. *.facebook.com? )
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I’m sorry for your family, and I sympathize. One side of my own family has a Group to share pics and information, and some use Messenger to keep in touch with people who’ve moved to other states. I don’t have much love for the FB empire (especially as it shows me which of my relatives hold repugnant views on politics and Covid), but for many it does provide inexpensive and convenient ways to stay in touch with loved ones, and that shouldn’t be forgotten in all of this drama.
Ideally, I’d like to see the FB empire broken up and easy-to-use alternatives developed so that no company can create another social media monopoly… but in a way that won’t penalize the users too much. Smarter minds than me will have to work out the plan for that, but I’d love to see it happen.
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Not in the hosts file, certainly not in Windows. Most firewall/router rules are more flexible.
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Super cool neckbeards here don’t understand that regular people use facebook to coordinate their social lives and interact with distant friends they otherwise can’t easily contact.
Facebook isn’t toxic. We are.
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I wonder if all the contractors paid to review all of the filth will still get paid for the time it was down…probably not.
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While I’m all for dunking on Facebook for being down for a while, I feel for all the people that depend on WhatsApp as their primary means of communication. While it’s not popular in America, hundreds of millions of people in the third world depend on it.
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Very true of most central and South American countries. It’s the default app for all of my contacts both personally and professionally. It’s the only reason I keep it
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Everyone is regular people.
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Oh, tumblr’s all over it.
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Facebook is toxic. The fact that regular people depend on a disinformation mill to communicate with friends and family is precisely the problem.
P.S. If you need an example, here’s one (posted by @Akimbo_NOT in the Facebookwatch thread).
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