Automatically creating a shadow account for everyone on Instagram?
Even allowing people to follow that account?
Sounds like they really wanted to push Threads out the door in a big way.
this post was submitted on 08 Jul 2023
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Hey, don't give them any ideas!
I've never had a Facebook or Instagram account in my life. But I do use WhatsApp because it's the main way most friends and family communicate (Australia).
I would not be happy if I found out I suddenly had a Threads account that my friends could follow without me even signing up, just because I use WhatsApp!
Meta has 100% already made shadow accounts for you across their ecosystem.
They’ve been doing that for just Facebook for at least a decade at this point, with the primary intent of tracking online activity of literally as many people as they can. Much of it is done in an “anonymous” fashion - tied to device MACs, IMEIs, source IP, etc, along with cookies that they’ve persuaded most SaaS companies to integrate on their sites (and often apps), instead of tying it directly to your PII.
Yes, but in this instance, they are allowing people to pre-follow that shadow account and then apparently you get a notification to say they have followed you promoting you to join and follow them back.
That's a very cunning way to boost their new service quickly!
I'm relieved they're not doing that with WhatsApp.
You keep saying the word shadow account like it's some nefarious thing. They are following an existing Instagram account that they already follow, and will get a notification when that existing account starts using a new service.
There is nothing wrong with this.
Yeah, all fair points. And I agree that letting early adopters concretely engage with/follow shadow accounts that “don’t exist yet” is very fucking cheeky and, imo, more than a bit disingenuous.
I think you have nailed the reason they have not done this.
I guarantee you that's not the reason. They did/do similar shit with Facebook and people were pissed, now anyone barely remembers or cares. People don't care and facwbook/meta/zuck certainly doesn't.
Things are more complicated than that. Spinning off of facebook was necessary. Just because you've done something once doesn't mean you do the same thing in similar-but-not-identical situations though. It's all calculation at the end of the day, and each equation has its own set of variables.
Similar to how we're likely going to see a brand new form of attack, where instead of being EEE'd, he just tries to smother awareness of us and keep us small. Since he can't actually outright eliminate us.
And because WhatsApp isn't popular throughout since there are also regions that almost exclusively use LINE or very heavily adopted Telegram. Not everyone uses Instagram but it's a popular choice for the kind of service it offers all over the world.
Get friends and family to switch to Signal App
Yeah, that's not likely sadly.
The fact that WhatsApp is so crucial may very well be the reason. In India and places in Europe, WhatsApp is literally a direct replacement of texting, which means it contains communications from practically everyone and everything - your workplace, your local government, your grocery store, your gym, your friends and family, public services, etc. And since your chats themselves are E2E encrypted, the background usage data Meta can extract from users will be too dirty and unmonetizable.
Their interactions on Facebook and Instagram - now that's rich data. They get to know exactly where and with which people your preferences and interests lie.
They would never greenlight something based on popularity outside the US, that's just not how Usians think. WhatsApp might as well not be popular anywhere.
There might be things Meta isn't allowed to do with WhatsApp. Also the concept of account is bit blurry on WhatsApp because you basically login with your phone number and an SMS code sent to your device. This wouldn't work as well for a service that can be used elsewhere.
WhatsApp is a messenger. Facebook, Instagram and Threads are social media. Also, Threads is actually by Instagram moreso than it is by Meta (although the distinction isn't too dramatic, it's just under the Instagram branding)
Is WhatsApp really that popular???
Yes, especially in India. It's not a surprise that India is Whatsapp's biggest market.
5 billion downloads on the Play store. Apparently about 1-2 billion of those are not very active. Still huge numbers though.
Yes, in very poor countries, they subsidize the data usage for WhatsApp, so that it's free to end users. It's extraordinarily popular in Asia and Africa as a result.
Threads isn't even in europe yet thanks to EU privacy rules.
I wanna leave whatsapp so bad but I'm trapped :(
at least you get to use whatsapp. i happen to be bound to the only two countries on the damn planet that near exclusively use facebook messenger for everything including corporate business support. i'd take whatsapp over facebook messenger any day.
of course, i'd take neither given the choice. but still.
What two countries are those so I can avoid them?
Same here. I installed signal but only managed to convince 2 people to use it so far. Everyone else is on WhatsApp
I already have enough spam and scam messages on Whatsapp now imagine they are opening my profile to another billions of people