Chinese sextortion scammers are flooding Twitter

stopthatgirl7@kbin.social to Technology@lemmy.world – 229 points –
restofworld.org

Scammers are targeting Chinese-language users, harassing political dissidents and influential figures.

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Honestly, the only real solution is leaving Twitter. With the plan to remove the block feature this will only get worse and worse. I really don’t see this sort of thing getting better anytime soon or later.

Some options: Mastodon is great, push through that initial anxiety about servers and just hop on. Not threads! Unless you’re okay with FaceBook taking, very literally, all your data. Bluesky I’ve heard is okay, but it’s another billionaire project that has an algorithm to do whatever they want.

How do you find people you want to follow on other instances with mastodon? I've tried searching all kinds of ways with username and instance, but it doesn't find the people I'm looking for (specific accounts)

trending works great now, hashtags always worked, and many apps support features like following instances. The search feature is upcoming so maybe wait for that to drop

Yeah Ive already done this, they don't appear when searching...is this method only usable for the website version?

Can't say that I know for sure, but could be that the app doesn't support this (yet)?

I came find you like this from the Mastodon app.

I'm finding you like this.

Yes, we can follow Lemmy users from Mastodon.

Maybe the accounts you're looking for are in defederated instances?

No they should be on large federated instances too...but that is not my mastodon account, I have an account in a different instance for mastodon.

I really think Elon just wants to destroy twitter to finally put an end to that hellhole

If he was competent at that, he wouldn't be sinking it alongside his own reputation, he'd get his puppet CEO to undermine it and then call it inevitable.

I think he wants this X app to be a thing, he just has no idea what he's doing

I think I've heard this from a podcast but don't remember which, but one conspiracy is that Musk is deliberately running the company to the ground, but is masking it with "optimistic" business decisions to prove he was trying to keep the company afloat, so as to avoid lawsuits and compensations when it goes under? I'm not that well versed in law so I can't verify it's legitimacy though, so take it with a grain of salt.

He is already being sued for a variety of issues related to how he is handling Twitter. The conspiracy has to go all the way around into suggesting that he intentionally wants everyone to think he is a fool, at expense of his other businesses, to make decisions even average people believe to be clueless and destructive, when he could arrange for that to happen much more subtly.

Seems simpler to me to just believe he is a fool. This whole conspiracy seems to come from sheer disbelief that someone so wealthy could be so stupid. But it seems to me it proves that wealth and competence or intelligence aren't correlated after all.

Exactly. It’s Hanlon’s Razor: Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.

Stupidity alone more than adequately explains what Elon is doing to Twitter.

He is connected to Thiel who is connected to US intel. Perhaps decisions were made that Twitter is too influencial and influenced by users during elections? Just a theory.

If anyone might be deliberately trying to kill Twitter, maybe it's whoever financed it. Wouldn't they realize that Elon offered for Twitter far more than it was worth and that repaying it is very unlikely?

I actually wonder if the point is to launder money through it? You buy it at a certain valuation. You tank it while promising investors that you have big ideas that will have them making money hand over fist in no time. You instead, make significant investment elsewhere using an unknown shell company or something to invest in its competitors, forcing users off the original platform and onto something else that makes you money. You insure it in some way so that you can get a payout when it finally whistles it's last death rattle, the investors get a payout, you get a payout, the platform dies, and you move on to something else.

I have no idea how it all works but haven't most of us seen The Producers? Same basic premise. Bet against yourself. Take the winnings while leaving the liability elsewhere.

You're better than I am at it already lol.
The conspiracy is on! 🍿

Haven't seen The Producers before. Do you recommend it?

I do recommend it. It's great fun and I found it very enjoyable.

Yeah, nah.

More likely situation is the ma child is simply bad at running a business. This is backed up by his history.

Wasn't there this thing of grandsons ruining their grandparent's business?

But seriously, Elon is doing it too wrong for it to be accidental