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So far, Americans using RedNote have said they don’t care if China has access to their data. Viral videos on TikTok in recent days have shown Americans jokingly saying they will miss their personal “Chinese spy,” while others say they are purposefully giving RedNote access to their data in a show of protest against the wishes of the U.S. government.

“This also highlights the fact that people are thirsty for platforms that aren’t controlled by the same few oligarchs,” Quintin said. “People will happily jump to another platform even if it presents new, unknown risks.”

  • watty@lemm.ee
    58·
    1 month ago

    I used to think that the perceived complexity of the fediverse was creating a hurdle for more adoption.

    Now all these fucking people are learning Chinese to better use RedNote.

    Apparently convenience isn’t actually a barrier? I’m baffled why so many people are flocking to anything other than the fediverse.

      • the_weez@midwest.social
        18·
        1 month ago

        I agree. You have to either be in the tech sphere or privacy sphere to know about fediverse apps. Outside of reddit refugees I don’t think anyone using the normal apps know about fediverse options or what that even means to be decentralized. I don’t think it’s really a functionality or convenience issue, we really need our own special interest groups or something to help with fedi app branding and PR. Not sure if that is even something that is crowd sourceble?

      • witten@lemmy.world
        5·
        1 month ago

        It’s marketing, but it’s also the value proposition. Average Joes don’t see the value in decentralization, privacy, or the freedom from corporate control. Although that may change under an authoritarian regime…

    • AnonomousWolf@lemm.ee
      11·
      1 month ago

      A big barrier is the UI, the default lemmy UI is terrible.

      The apps aren’t great either, I’m very techy and haven’t found one feels as nice as reddit (and the reddit app has many issues)

      Normies just aren’t going to push past all those barriers

        • AnonomousWolf@lemm.ee
          2·
          1 month ago

          What mobile app do you use?

          I’ve tried a few, none of them are great for various reasons. My favourite is Sync The up-vote buttons are hidden on comments. Very annoying

          The default website is terrible, it looks like the social media app I built in highschool for a project. You have to click into every post to see it properly.

          I use photon.lemmy.world but non tech people will give up long before finding it.

          And when I introduce people to Lemmy and send them that link, some literally think it’s a virus link, it looks dodgy