This article is worth reading, imo. There’s more going on here than the introduction of the “Max” “super-app”. I wasn’t aware of this but Russia has also been subjecting its population to a “digital detox” where Internet blackouts are becoming increasingly common. In some areas the Internet is down most of the time, in others service has returned but is extremely poor compared to before the blackout. Mobile Internet blackouts have been performed claiming without evidence that it’s to disrupt drones coming from Ukraine.
In some areas this Max ‘super-app’ (which handles banking, communication, and more–and is a direct line for government surveillance) is the only option to do banking or communicate with anybody by phone. This practice is sweeping the country after declaring Meta a terrorist organization, and swiftly eliminating any Meta apps from Russian access including Instagram, Facebook, and the most popular app for communication in Russia: WhatsApp.
This is fucked on another level and i think we should be paying attention because this is presumably where Trump gets his inspiration and/or his marching orders, so i have a suspicion we’ll see something similar wash up on our shores soon enough.
I’ve been thinking about this for a while now–a mass, extended Internet disruption would not only screw up communication on a grand scale here, but business would also be tremendously impacted. It’s the next ‘privilege’ for us to have taken away and replaced with an enshittified surrogate, forcing large swaths of people to sign over even more of their autonomy to big brother in exchange to have all the things the Internet has now made possible. Want to be able to easily get navigation on gps? Talk to your friends or family? Pay bills using your bank account? Imagine there was only 1 app that will allow you to do that from now on. I can only imagine how shitty the user experience is on “Max” but i suppose in time i won’t need to–I’ll have a front row seat to try it out here in the comfort of my home one of these day, seeing the direction things appear to be heading in. I mean shit, we’re probably already nearly there and i just don’t realize it yet 🫠
Visstix@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Declaring Meta a terrorist organisation is a rare win for Russia.
abbiistabbii@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 days ago
Yeah but it’s a little bit like finding out that the Taliban banned Opium production: the reason they’re doing it is because they want the price to shoot up and they wanna move the country onto making Meth.
drath@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Doesn’t work, though. Every other business in Russia is still asking for WA for contact. I’ve been using extremist excuse for the past year for why Im not in it, because I can’t be too arsed to explain that I’m not using agressively proprietary phone-only garbage from privacy violating corporation. They’re still asking, even after the recent ban. Honestly, I should just straight up report them to the police at this point.