• marrow1@lemm.ee
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    5 months ago

    I cannot decide what to support here. On one hand, Tiktok is a blight and a cancer upon the whole world. But on the other hand, I’m kind of a libertarian, anyone should be able to do what they like.

    • schizo@forum.uncomfortable.business
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      5 months ago

      Until a flood of TikTok users bankrupt them, anyways.

      Not entirely sure how you’d make the economics of hosting endless video files work without great big piles of money and some way to get even more big piles of money on a routine basis :/

        • Telorand@reddthat.com
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          5 months ago

          They can. And if at any point it becomes untenable, you can just archive whatever you host, shut down your instance, and put the videos up for download somewhere.

          • Bassman1805@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            If a company is going bankrupt as a result of hosting a video service, they’re not hoping to be able to afford to archive and make it available for download either.

          • PriorityMotif@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            I think this could lead to bigger activity pub instances collecting revenue for allowing company owned instances to federate. aka ad revenue.

            • Telorand@reddthat.com
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              5 months ago

              Could you explain that idea in more detail? I’m not really sure I understand how that would work in practice.

              • PriorityMotif@lemmy.world
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                5 months ago

                Private instance for company/creator: Hey, can we federate with your instance?

                Large public instance: pay me.

      • grue@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Not entirely sure how you’d make the economics of hosting endless video files work without great big piles of money

        You’re absolutely right, which is why BitTorrent never managed to take off. Totally unviable, doesn’t work at all, and definitely isn’t the technology underpinning federated video services like PeerTube.

        • Alphane Moon@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          At one point BitTorrent/P2P was responsible for something like 30-40% of all global internet traffic.

          The thing is the protocol never really developed beyond some useful, but minor evolutionary updates.

          • grue@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            You say “never really developed beyond” as if that isn’t a synonym for “finished and working fine.”

      • Chozo@fedia.io
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        5 months ago

        Yeah, video hosting is notoriously expensive. It’s why there’s still not a real competitor to YouTube, because nobody else but Google could afford to run the platform at a net loss for the amount of time required to build a profitable user base.

        If even a tiny percentage of TikTok’s US user base decided to move to Loops, that may be enough traffic to not only completely disable Loops, but would probably impact the rest of the Fediverse at large, too.

            • WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world
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              5 months ago

              Yet none of them really paywall you for using an adblocker.

              Actually come to think of it, porn sites are the only place I allow ads (obv blocking the pop ups and other dark pattern fuckery)… probablys because I learned to ignore them entirely as a teen before ad blockers existed.

  • Fedizen@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    stupid rule that helped cost Harris the election. Fuck every moron that voted for it.

  • Netrunner@programming.dev
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    5 months ago

    Has anyone actually looked at their network traffic whilst TikTok is running? I’ve already isolated my partners phone because it’s so bad.

    I am against blocking shit online but since it’s being done against my will at least it’s that shit hole.

    • OsrsNeedsF2P@lemmy.ml
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      5 months ago

      I’ve worked in mobile development before. We hide the traffic by batching it, sending it through i.e. Google Play Services (so it looks like Google traffic), or simply sending it all to a relay server so it doesn’t look diverse. In any case, all your apps are doing this, and the ones that want to hide it, can.

      • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        5 months ago

        Tik Tok likely isn’t going anywhere, they’ll sell to someone able to keep it up and running. The Tik Tok allowed in China isn’t the same one, so they don’t have to worry about data being pulled from their citizens.

          • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            5 months ago

            Why do you think that? That’s an aggressive claim. I don’t use it, but thats because it isn’t my idea of fun, obviously many like it. Data collection happens everywhere, are you referring to kids eating tide pods or something?

  • Excrubulent@slrpnk.net
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    5 months ago

    This week on How to Raise an Entire Generation With an Intimate Knowledge of Counter-Surveillance: Ban Their Favourite Social Media!

    • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
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      5 months ago

      This week on the Effectiveness of Foreign Influence Campaigns on Impressionable Youths: Young people refuse to even consider that TikTok might be bad.

      • 0xD@infosec.pub
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        5 months ago

        That is true for all social media. Everything is being used for disinformation campaigns, that is not why TikTok is being banned.

        • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
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          5 months ago

          Yeah but the others are US companies. They can be regulated. Which they don’t want and they will at least make an effort to get rid of at least the obvious disinformation.

          With TikTok, there is no middle ground. Can’t keep them in line with the threat of regulation as they’re a foreign company. Operating in the country that has superseded Russia as the biggest source of disinformation. The only leverage they have is the threat to ban it outright.

          Besides, Zuckerberg and Musk live in the US. They don’t want things to get too bad. Though they’re so disconnected from reality they may inadvertently make things bad. But they at least have an incentive to not have the US go to shit.

          With TikTok, US cities could burn to the ground and they’ll still be fine. And we see TikTok making people particularly unhinged already.

      • trolololol@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Next week on effectiveness of foreign influence campaigns: muricans don’t spy on me. Except when they do it’s for my own good and protection. Except if it’s not for my own good it’s important to sell my data so they keep running. Except when they accept state agents to buy ad in bulk to influence elections

  • MooseTheDog@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    Now the horses are completely out of the stables, we close the door before the cows get any ideas

    • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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      5 months ago

      I don’t see it as a bright side, but I also think it should be unbanned. Don’t get me wrong, I think TikTok is cancer and nobody should use it, but I also don’t think the government should decide what propaganda I get to consume.

      The government should absolutely do a public campaign against it and keep a close eye on it, but don’t ban it.

      In the meantime, we should look into passing laws to solve the underlying problems, which would impact Meta and other big social media orgs as well. Or maybe fund independent social media alternatives that are FOSS.

      But don’t ban speech. Banning TikTok feels a little too close to banning books…

    • 31337@sh.itjust.works
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      5 months ago

      I think TikTok appeased the right by changing their algorithm. Charlie Kirk is apparently doing extremely well on the platform now.

  • FourPacketsOfPeanuts@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    I get it, but also can you imagine a foreign country banning Amazon because “it means the US can see what you’re up to and it gets to choose what deals to push at you” etc?

    I mean… Facebook for god’s sake…

    Being protectionist makes sense sometimes but it screws you over when other countries start banning your apps in favour of home grown alternatives…

    • TrueStoryBob@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      The People’s Republic of China has banned Meta (Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp, etc). Brazil has banned Twitter and the European Union is considering it.

        • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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          5 months ago

          It really doesn’t. Banning Tiktok is banning certain types of speech. Same goes for Twitter/X and Meta. It’s like banning a book because it wax heavily influenced by an adversary country.

          Brazilians and Europeans should be very angry about doing anything that resembles banning speech.

      • dan@upvote.au
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        5 months ago

        China has banned practically all US social media sites, not just Meta-owned properties. A bunch of other sites are blocked too.

        China generally wants major internet services to have servers in China itself, similar to how the EU wants citizens’ data to remain in the EU. In order to operate servers located in China, you need to get a license from the Chinese government (ICP license). Large sites that don’t do this tend to get banned by the Great Firewall.

        • _cryptagion [he/him]@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          5 months ago

          Well, TikTok refused to abide by the law saying they had to be sold to a US company, which is why they’re being banned, so it’s technically the same situation, if for different reasons.

          • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            Not really, Brazil’s demand was to stop spreading seditious material and to engage with their court system.

            The American law is to bar them from the market. Reducing that to “follow the law” is a bit disingenuous.

  • Etterra@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    Good riddance, vertical videos are cancer, short form obliterates attention spans, and their algorithm is engineered specifically to addict people, especially kids.

    Now to ban all the rest of them. Let’s start with Facebook. Twitter is already killing itself but could stand to be “helped” off the cliff.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      As a video editor, let me tell you how much I hate that not only do people watch shitty vertical videos all the time, but I’ve had to learn how to edit the fucking things.

      I hate vertical video on a professional level.

      That’s not just a TikTok thing though.

    • JackbyDev@programming.dev
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      5 months ago

      Why would America ban Facebook for being a “national security threat” to America lmao? Nothing about this had to do with protecting kids or the dangers of social media. Don’t act like it did.

    • nek0d3r@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      These bans are bad. All it takes is for the US to think the fediverse is a threat and this goes too. You clearly don’t like the platform and that’s okay, but don’t root for government censorship on the internet.

      • JcbAzPx@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        The only reason this is bannable is that it is owned by china essentially; based on national security grounds. As long as the fediverse is never sold to an enemy nation, there’s nothing to worry about.

        • nek0d3r@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          The US has control of US tiktok servers. This is bannable because politicians want the power to control social media.

          • JcbAzPx@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            Not true. That’s why the banning has a clause allowing for the sale of the US portion to a US (or other allied) company.

              • JcbAzPx@lemmy.world
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                5 months ago

                There’s no national security basis to ban social media from the US or a friendly country. It would be protected by the first amendment otherwise. They have actual evidence that China was using TikTok as electronic warfare, which is the only reason they can ban it.

                • nek0d3r@lemmy.world
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                  5 months ago

                  I’m baffled by your blind faith in politicians. There’s been clear foreign influence on just about every major social media platform.

      • Dozzi92@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Yeah, I’m all for Australia style banning to kids, however that gets implemented, but this is slippery slope and all that. But hey, maybe not, maybe it’s the only time they do it.

      • Woht24@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Depends what you use it for.

        I joined Facebook when it first came out, when it was still only for Uni students, used it for many years and stopped probably about 8-10 years ago now. Fuck, how long has it been around for?

        Anyway, I’ve recently rediscovered Facebook as I bought an old muscle car and I’ve been enjoying the groups and marketplace for parts.

        Anyway, just a thought from an old Facebook user.

            • Rekorse@sh.itjust.works
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              5 months ago

              Sorta rough facebook is the avenue for that nowadays. Sorta like if public libraries were located inside walmarts or something.

        • GHiLA@sh.itjust.worksBanned
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          5 months ago

          I just use it to find shitty $50 flat screen televisions when the next one dies. Works a treat.

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          Agreed. Much of my family is on it, and most of them live in other countries. My brother, who is ASD, prefers to communicate with it rather than text or phone, and I live at least an hour’s drive from any friends. I use it to talk to them and I have joined a handful of groups, most of which I don’t post in, I just lurk.

          I also tell them I don’t want to see any ads of any type of thing except the narrow number of things I don’t give a shit about if I see an ad for. Lots of telling them “I don’t want to see ads of this type” for a while, but it’s not anywhere near as bad now.

          I did discover recently that if you go to “feeds” rather than just look at the main scroll, you see a lot less bullshit.

  • SendMePhotos@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    Short videos are dumb. Are people really that addicted? I have it and go on it sometimes. And by sometimes I mean like 10 minutes per week. The videos are OK at best, but half of them are ads or live weird shit and the search function for relevant topics are trash.

    • ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      I actually really like short-format videos for recipes so you don’t have to watch somebody chopping onions for ten minutes. Also, Ronaldo highlights set to Brazilian phonk are kinda cool. Other than that, the format seems pretty worthless.

    • lorty@lemmy.ml
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      5 months ago

      It’s about xpntrolling the narrative. Tiktok is one of the few (if not the only one) popular social media apps that doesn’t censor everything that the US government decides. Just look at how much Palestine stuff goea around there compared to anywhere else.

    • rumba@lemmy.zip
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      5 months ago

      I stay the f away from it. You haven’t spent enough time to properly train it. As you watch, it tracks time spent on each video, interactions, passive and active choices and slowly builds a dossier on you.

      As you keep going, it occasionally throws adjacent stuff in. It starts tossing you stuff that other people with your likes watch. If there is content on there that you’ll appreciate, it will eventually find it. If there is enough, it’ll stream it to you non-stop.

      They’ll find people who share your political alignment and say precisely what you want to hear. If you like brunettes with flowy blouses or redheads who are gym rats, you’ll get them. If you like skeptics or preppers, you’ll get them.

      My wife gets a lot of her news from it, I find probably 1/3 of it to be suspect and 90% of it biased toward what she wants to hear. Nothing there is telling both sides of any story. (to be clear we have the same political/ethical views, but I’m a touch more skeptical about journalism and random influencers, especially popular influencers)

      • ivanafterall ☑️@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        For all its bullshit, YouTube is the same. I’ve found myself on it more lately precisely because of the reasons you’re saying. It’s amazing how much niche content there is for any taste, even ones you don’t yet realize you have.

        • dual_sport_dork 🐧🗡️@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          Youtube at least realizes when its suggestions are in a rut and gives you that little popup offering to show you stuff slightly outside of your current echo chamber. Just how different it actually is I can’t really prove.

        • Rekorse@sh.itjust.works
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          5 months ago

          For my wife, it never occurred to her that she could trust tiktok influencers far less than even corporate journalists. They have to ethical requirements on tiktok, no verified sources or corrections or redactions, or any accountability at all.

          I had to point that out over multiple videos, although to be fair some of the people on there do put up a front like they are legit to trick people into taking them seriously.

          • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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            5 months ago

            The same nonsense happens on YouTube and Instagram. Just look at the motivations, these “content creators” get paid via ads (so views) and corporate sponsors, so they don’t get rewarded for truth, they get rewarded for saying things their spomsors and viewers like.

            I’m not saying they’re intentionally misleading people, but journalism is hard and clickbait and copycat “journalism” is easy, so they’ll tend to do more of the latter.

            • Rekorse@sh.itjust.works
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              5 months ago

              I think its the mentality in america of, “whatever I need to do to get ‘mine’ is good”.

              Theres a reason people ask “was it worth it” about nearly everything here. I dont know how to convince people theyd be happier if greed didnt drive their values.

        • JackbyDev@programming.dev
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          5 months ago

          Why is it shocking that people hear about topics through social media? Seriously? Why? I heard about the UHC shooter through TikTok. And it’s not necessarily just memes, there are “real” news accounts on TikTok. The same way I hear about new on Lemmy because people post links to stories. Like the literal platform and thread we are currently discussing.

          • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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            5 months ago

            It’s not shocking that they hear about news through social media, it’s shocking that people trust it anywhere near as much as traditional journalism.

            There’s no incentive for someone on social media to fact check or tell any more of the story than will get them views.

    • AWittyUsername@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      I’m guilty of using tiktok half the people on here have never used it. But you’re exactly right a few years ago it was actually not too bad, but these days every other video is an advert for some AliExpress level shit.

      • Rekorse@sh.itjust.works
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        5 months ago

        Ive tried to use it, my wife is on it a lot. I can get through a few videos before the constant changing bothers me and I physically feel a need to get away from it. Its to quick, too short, too shallow. My brain is wired nearly the opposite.

    • JackbyDev@programming.dev
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      5 months ago

      Framing this as people being pouty because their favorite social media is being banned is a shit tier take. This is a problem of censorship and government overreach.

    • nek0d3r@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      I was on tiktok and even created for it for a bit, but it did get exhausting quickly after getting flooded with a painful amount of ads. I do like short form content though, I’ve been enjoying Loops!

    • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
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      5 months ago

      Most videos on my feed are 3 - 10 minutes, they are ttending less short.

      I like tiktok, it’s the only “social media” I use other than Lemmy. I normally hate finding video content, YouTube sucks, and their shorts are even worse. But on Tiktok I get served all sorts of interesting videos, I will stumble upon some cool topic that has been chopped up into five 10 minute videos and then find the video or a similar video on YouTube or something.

      It’s an excellent way to discover things fast. You just can’t use it as a good source, need to do external research.

      My biggest gripe is as you said, they have really seemed to amp up the ads and stupid live crap.

    • DoucheBagMcSwag@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      5 months ago

      Yes with the attention span of a ground squirrel.

      Why do you think they all talk vast with stupid ADHD inducing shit on one side. (Minecraft parkour, GTA V driving or subway surfers)

      Because people will scroll away if you don’t jingle keys in front of them

      • maplebar@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        It’s not “censorship” to ban a product like TikTok any more than it’s censorship to ban any other product. TikTok had the opportunity to sell to an American company (the same way all products on the Chinese market are forced to go through Chinese companies) and, for reasons that only they can explain, they chose not to do that. They would have made billions of dollars selling, but perhaps money isn’t their primary concern…

        At any rate, we absolutely need to have a separate conversation about all social media in terms of privacy and data rights (though it’ll never happen under Republicans), but that doesn’t mean TikTok is free to continue being a completely opaque and unaccountable backdoor to the Chinese government.

      • meliaesc@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Obviously being on Lemmy you get people who support open access. But seeing the state of the average American, and the results of their latest election, maybe it’s time for big brother to step in a little bit…

        • OBJECTION!@lemmy.ml
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          5 months ago

          Yeah, full support for the Trump administration to have the power to say which social media is acceptable, that’ll fix everything! /s

          • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            5 months ago

            … They said the populous of Lemmy was more scrutinizing of privacy than other platforms. He never said anything about the people using meta or Google. I’m not sure people here are even reading what others are saying.

            To me it comes like this. If China won’t allow a Chinese owned app to be used in China, it gives other countries reason to worry about it. Meta and Google can be controlled by the U.S. government and are allowed within the nation they are owned in.

            Is it a good thing they collect so much data, no. But this law has nothing to do with privacy, and everything to do with the flow of usable data and who controls that.