Mr_Blott
@Mr_Blott@feddit.uk
- Comment on goldcrests 1 day ago:
What the actual fuck am I supposed to do with
100th of a pound
As a piece of information?!?
- Comment on Does this guy win Lemmy? 1 day ago:
I’d rather eat beans than click on a thumbnail like that. In fact I’d rather try sounding with a clownfish than click on that thumbnail
- Comment on You know what, fuck you [un-Jags uar icon] 1 day ago:
Hah don’t worry, the existing brand is utterly fucked now. One of the worst, most unreliable and badly made cars on the market
- Comment on Anon thinks the French are posers 2 days ago:
No idea what a French press is. Probably a cafetière ?
- Comment on Meta hit with $840 million EU fine for 'abusive' Facebook Marketplace ad practices 3 days ago:
It takes just slightly longer to work out how to bypass paywalls as it does to type “pAyWaLl”
The EU fined online giant Meta almost 800 million euros on Thursday for breaching antitrust rules by giving users of its Facebook social network automatic access to classified ads service Facebook Marketplace.
The European Commission said the US tech titan also abused its dominant position by imposing unfair trading conditions on other online classified ads service providers that advertise on its platforms.
“This is illegal under EU antitrust rules. Meta must now stop this behaviour,” the bloc’s competition chief, Margrethe Vestager, said in a statement.
Meta said it would appeal, alleging the decision ignored “the realities of the thriving European market for online classified listing services.
“Facebook users can choose whether or not to engage with Marketplace, and many don’t. The reality is that people use Facebook Marketplace because they want to, not because they have to,” the firm said in a statement.
Among the 10 largest antitrust fines ever imposed by the 27-nation European Union, it is the latest in a string of hefty penalties slapped on Big Tech companies in recent years by the commission, the regulator for the bloc. ‘Abusive practices’
Detailing what it termed “abusive practices” by Meta, the commission said that because Facebook Marketplace was tied to Facebook, the former enjoyed a “substantial distribution advantage which competitors cannot match.”
“All Facebook users automatically have access and get regularly exposed to Facebook Marketplace whether they want it or not,” it said.
Additionally Meta imposed unfair conditions on competitors in the classified ads service who advertised on Facebook and Instagram, the commission said.
This allowed it to “use ads-related data generated by other advertisers for the sole benefit of Facebook Marketplace”, it said.
Meta, which also owns WhatsApp and Instagram, contended it did not “use advertisers’ data for this purpose” and has “built systems and controls to ensure that”.
“It is disappointing that the Commission has chosen to take regulatory action against a free and innovative service built to meet consumer demand,” the company said.
Meta’s dominant position in the market for personal social networks comes with a special responsibility not to abuse it by restricting competition, according to the EU. ‘Duration and gravity’
The commission opened formal proceedings into possible anticompetitive conduct by Facebook in June 2021, communicating its concerns to Meta in December 2022 — and receiving the firm’s response in June 2023.
The EU fined the company 797.72 million euros ($840 million), a sum the commission said took into account the “duration and gravity of the infringement”, as well as the turnover of Meta and Facebook Marketplace.
Meta’s total revenue last year stood at around $135 billion.
The European commissions has had several run-ins with Meta as part of a broader clampdown on abusive Big Tech practices.
Its policy arsenal has been beefed up over the past two years with major twin laws, the Digital Services Act and the Digital Markets Act, that carry massive financial penalties in the event of infringements.
In July the EU accused Meta of breaching the digital rules with its new “pay or consent” system. It meant users had to pay to avoid data collection, or agree to share their data with Facebook and Instagram to keep using the platforms for free.
Bowing to pressure from EU regulators, Meta announced this week it was offering non-paying users in the bloc the option of receiving less targeted ads, as well as cutting subscription rates for entirely ad-free services.
- Comment on gen z gorillas 4 days ago:
Just days after a poacher’s snare had killed one of their own, two young mountain gorillas worked together Tuesday to find and destroy traps in their Rwandan forest home, according to conservationists on the scene.
“This is absolutely the first time that we’ve seen juveniles doing that … I don’t know of any other reports in the world of juveniles destroying snares,” said Veronica Vecellio, gorilla program coordinator at the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund’s Karisoke Research Center, located in the reserve where the event took place.
“We are the largest database and observer of wild gorillas … so I would be very surprised if somebody else has seen that,” Vecellio added.
(Also see “Dian Fossey’s Gorillas Exhumed for Investigation.”)
Bush-meat hunters set thousands of rope-and-branch snares in Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park, where the mountain gorillas live. The traps are intended for antelope and other species but sometimes capture the apes.
Adults are generally strong enough to free themselves. Youngsters aren’t always so lucky.
Just last week an ensnared infant named Ngwino, found too late by workers from Karisoke, died of snare-related wounds. Her shoulder had been dislocated during escape attempts, and gangrene had set in after the ropes cut deep into her leg.
The hunters, Vecellio said, seem to have no interest in the gorillas. Even small apes, which would be relatively easy to carry away for sale, are left to die.
(Related pictures: “Baby Gorilla Rescued in Armed Sting Operation.”)
All-Natural Arsenal
Poachers build the snares by tying a noose to a branch or a bamboo stalk, Vecellio explained.
Using the rope, they pull the branch downward, bending it. They then use a bent stick or rock to hold the noose to the ground, keeping the branch tense. A sprinkling of vegetation camouflages the noose.
When an animal budges the stick or rock, the branch springs upward, closing the noose around the prey. If the creature is light enough, it will actually be hoisted into the air.
(See National Geographic magazine mountain gorilla pictures.)
Rwema and Dukore Save the Day
Every day trackers from the Karisoke center comb the forest for snares, dismantling them to protect the endangered mountain gorillas, which the International Fund for Nature (IUCN) says face “a very high risk of extinction in the wild.”
(Related: “Gorillas Extinct Within Ten Years in Central Africa?”)
On Tuesday tracker John Ndayambaje spotted a trap very close to the Kuryama gorilla clan. He moved in to deactivate the snare, but a silverback named Vubu grunted, cautioning Ndayambaje to stay away, Vecellio said.
Suddenly two juveniles—Rwema, a male; and Dukore, a female; both about four years old—ran toward the trap.
As Ndayambaje and a few tourists watched, Rwema jumped on the bent tree branch and broke it, while Dukore freed the noose.
The pair then spied another snare nearby—one the tracker himself had missed—and raced for it. Joined by a third gorilla, a teenager named Tetero, Rwema and Dukore destroyed that trap as well.
Gorilla Tactics
The speed with which everything happened makes Vecellio, the gorilla program coordinator, think this wasn’t the first time the young gorillas had outsmarted trappers.
“They were very confident,” she said. “They saw what they had to do, they did it, and then they left.”
Silverbacks in the Kuryama group have occasionally been caught in the snares, so Vecellio thinks the juveniles would have known the traps are dangerous.
“That’s why they destroyed them,” Vecellio said.
(Related: “Gorillas Seen Using ‘Baby Talk’ Gestures—A First [With Video].”)
“Quite Ingenious”
Despite the unprecedented nature of the event, Vecellio said she wasn’t surprised by the reports. “But,” she said, “I’m always amazed and very proud when we can confirm that they are smart.”
Veterinarian Mike Cranfield, executive director of the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project, also said he wasn’t shocked by the news.
“Chimpanzees are always quoted as being the tool users, but I think, when the situation provides itself, gorillas are quite ingenious,” he said.
Cranfield speculated that the gorillas may have learned how to destroy traps by watching the Karisoke center’s trackers.
“If we could get more of them doing it, it would be great,” he joked.
Karisoke’s Vecellio, though, said actively instructing the apes would be against the center’s ethos.
“No we can’t teach them,” she said. “We try as much as we can to not interfere with the gorillas. We don’t want to affect their natural behavior.”
- Comment on [Thread] Mental Math 6 days ago:
Another one is levelling.
A lot of people can see a picture frame is about 0.5° out of level and their fucking eye twitches until the fix it
Me included
That’s nuts when you think about it
- Comment on What should I bring to far-north Scandinavia? 1 week ago:
Gin and tonic
- Comment on Is it really possible to tax the rich? 1 week ago:
We?
- Comment on What good thing just happened in your life? 1 week ago:
…then next year pass on the costs to their tenants
Bravo
- Comment on Accounts that send a 2fa code to your email rather than using the 2fa code generator you've already setup for that account 1 week ago:
What century do you live in where you have to actually log in to pay your mortgage?! 😂
- Comment on This might blow up in our face 1 week ago:
the cat
I feel old
- Comment on Anon tries programming in Java 1 week ago:
Really want to go to La Scala one day but I looked it up and the tickets are like 500 euros. An eclipse is much cheaper
- Comment on Anon remembers 7th grade 1 week ago:
It was the
during choir
WTF
- Comment on is "oh boy" considered a gendered term? 1 week ago:
Look at it this way, if you’re talking to someone who gets offended because you said “Oh boy”, you really, really don’t want to be having any more conversations with a person like that, so it’s kind of a win/win situation
- Comment on Sign the petition calling on PM Keir Starmer to be bold when dealing with Donald Trump 1 week ago:
I mean yeah but this “petition” will make absolutely fuck all difference tho
- Comment on Mine was the fact that Anne Frank and Martin Luther King Jr were both born in 1929 😭 1 week ago:
I’d kick your arse if my knees weren’t fucked
- Comment on What did France just call me?! 1 week ago:
You missed this -
- Comment on aerodynamics 2 weeks ago:
Interestingly, Jeep Wranglers are like the stereotypical hairdresser’s car in Europe so this kinda makes sense
- Comment on Cost of ‘bat shed’ to protect colony near HS2 has topped £100m, chair says 2 weeks ago:
I’m sure he could do a great job of muddying the waters with the propeller of his new fucking yacht
- Comment on Scary moment 2 weeks ago:
Interestingly, ‘tohught’ is the noise a cat uses to evict hairballs
- Comment on Good luck today, Americans 2 weeks ago:
Yeah but do you guys have some kind of weird imperial months or something we don’t know about? You could mean two months or six washing machines I dunno
- Comment on Are YOU having an emergency? 4 weeks ago:
He’s lying, I saw Track Shovel in a cafe last week and it’s definitely just Dougie Jones in a massive latex fat suit
- Comment on American Freedom 4 weeks ago:
Not so much “Tread on me” as “Please stamp viciously and repeatedly on my testicles”
- Comment on Fead 5 weeks ago:
gas station sushi
I didn’t know those 3 words existed in that combination and I’m frankly appalled that they do
- Comment on The internet, every October 5 weeks ago:
The holiday came about because that’s when the potato harvest is, and they needed schoolkids to work in the fields
Halloween has always been a thing in the UK though, it’s just more for little kids
- Comment on Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 sucks up to 180 Mb/s of internet bandwidth while in flight — equivalent to 81GB of data per hour 5 weeks ago:
*Most
- Comment on Implants 5 weeks ago:
Fuck you :)
- Comment on Why don't we have cool vending machines in the US? 5 weeks ago:
Yeah we have those outside!
- Comment on Which great actor is overdue for a career defining role? 5 weeks ago:
Just watched James MacAvoy’s new film and he’s now a disturbingly good actor
