Meta confirms it is blocking EU-based users from accessing Threads via VPN
After multiple EU-based users complained about not being able to access Threads app through VPN, Meta confirmed it is blocking such efforts.
Why would anyone voluntarily use it anyway?
It’s been out for less than ten days and it already has more than 35x the number of total users as Mastodon. It might not be for us, but saying that no one would want to use it is just sour grapes.
I've pretty quickly concluded that sour grapes are in no short supply here.
That so many people genuinely cannot fathom the concept that many people actually like social media - and may even be aware of the privacy cost and find it acceptable - really speaks more about how out-of-touch a lot of people here are than anything else.
The numbers are highly skewed because of the launch. A number of users are being paid to create content during the launch. A lot of the users are just checking out the hype. Some will stay, many won't.
The numbers won't really be useful or comparable until the dust settles. I give it a month.
Because everyone else is there, that's how it works. People don't give a rat's ass about privacy, they just want to be where their friends are.
The same type of people who uses tik tok
You underestimate how many people don't give a fuck about their privacy.
Why shouldn't it? They are interested in personal data, not some fabricated online personalities.
Let it be the perfect counterargument to every moron who says "I'm not that important". Yes, you are. If you weren't, the Big Tech wouldn't go to such length to acquire all the data about you, they can put their sweaty palms on.
You are human, and therefore data. Anything helps them train AI and use you for marketing data.
I'm not saying it shouldn't, but that IMO, nothing of value was lost.
Which has to mean that they're blocking everyone from accessing Threads via VPN, since they can't tell where the real source is beyond the VPN exit server.
Authoritarian regimes like China do this, too, unsuccessfully.
That’s good for both sides
Of course they are blocking VPNs, but using one to access Meta is more effort than it's worth.
How are they doing this though? They just black list any traffic coming from all VPNs they know about?
What if someone in the US were to use a VPN?
Or are they getting location data from the phone itself?
Meta has exposure to enough of the internet that I'm sure they can identify VPNs relatively accurately. If you see activity coming from a single IP associated with users that you know to be located all over the world, you can draw conclusions pretty fast.
It's an app. Maybe it requires GPS access so they can track that data point. VPN says USA, GPS says Germany, they block access.
Double Jump VPN activate
I find this very hilarious after seeing so many people make threads accs and posting them to their stories on insta when you can't even use the app. And I kept thinking about the mountaons of data their collecting.
It wasn't even launched in the entirety of EU and the Republic of Ireland at all, because of GDPR concerns, but then, the Digital Markets Act also chimed in.
I'm on it in Testfight, it's interesting for like 3 days, now it's already dying down.
Shrugs
Shrugs
Shrugs
![[HN] Meta is blocking EU-based users from accessing Threads via VPN](https://lemmy.uhhoh.com/pictrs/image/b8c64ecf-2c57-4be3-a501-6aca5749360b.jpeg?format=webp&thumbnail=196)
![[TECHCRUNCH] Meta is blocking EU-based users from accessing Threads via VPN](https://lemmy.uhhoh.com/pictrs/image/acbb109e-3c3e-4dcb-92e4-fdf43f720045.jpeg?format=webp&thumbnail=196)