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immibisyesterday at 6:36 PM4 repliesview on HN

The problem is that everyone is reading Instagram.

I don't understand why. I made an account recently in order to access a specific thing. I can confirm the app is 100% pure garbage. The home feed is garbage and navigation is awful (to keep you on the home feed). I uninstalled it after they were caught bypassing the permission system to spy on you, by binding localhost ports that web ads would access. The web app is no better garbage-wise (but it can't bind ports).

And it's the subcultures that you'd expect to be the most untied from corporate shackles, that are the ones most on Instagram. I don't get it.


Replies

charcircuittoday at 7:49 AM

>bypassing the permission system

On Android you can't make a network service permissioned. And when you make a binder service permissioned it's up to the app itself to specify with what permission a caller needs in order to be able to use the service, or the service can choose to be unpermissioned. Either way apps on Android are free to host unpermissioned services that other apps on the system connect to. Chrome connecting to such a service did not have to bypass a permission since there was no permission protecting it.

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roughlyyesterday at 8:19 PM

I think it's two aspects - one is that Insta started out as the "not-facebook" platform and Meta's somehow managed not to fuck that up, and the other is there's a massive network effect - every tattoo artist, venue, and band are on instagram now, and it all becomes very self-reinforcing.

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ipaddryesterday at 7:34 PM

Instagram is useless unless their are people you want to follow or get people to follow you.

MichaelZuoyesterday at 7:10 PM

By definition someone’s actions, if repeated sufficiently often, define their real character.

You don’t have to take claimed pretenses seriously.

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