cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/513993
So today I clicked a twitter link because companies like to use it for official announcements, only to be greeted with a login page. Was annoyed then I remembered nitter exists. It just prompted me to install Privacy Redirect which I should have done ages ago.
Github: https://github.com/SimonBrazell/privacy-redirect
Chrome Web Store: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/privacy-redirect/pmcmeagblkinmogikoikkdjiligflglb/related
Firefox Browser Add-ons: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/privacy-redirect/
Looks like twitter waited for the reddit API changes to do push this change to try to do it under the radar.
I'm definitely not using this platform anymore, but Twitter being private also locks away a lot of valuable content (including government announcements, as someone mentioned).
Yes, we should move away from the platform and this will definitely help with that.
If the reason for the ban is massive server load due to content scraping for AI models, that could become an issue for the fediverse as well. Our infrastructure is funded by donations and has much less performance and resiliency than big tech companies.
We might reach a point where the negative impacts on the environment caused by AI outweigh the benefits, just like it already happened with blockchains.
Might get to the point where anti-DDOS measures have to be used against AI scrapers.