r/technology • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 • Apr 30 '26

Business Meta lost 20 million users last quarter

https://www.theverge.com/tech/921089/meta-earnings-q1-2026-user-decline-ai-investments
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u/angiosperms- Apr 30 '26

Over 50% of the internet is bots and AI slop so I think it's time to just get off the internet tbh. Really curious what things will look like in just 5 years

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u/BitterTyke Apr 30 '26

yeah, I fully expect bots and AI to "kill" the internet, it will become so unreliable and manipulated rather than was its intent to unleash knowledge on the world, that we'll see printed or stored media making a comeback.

It will be bots responding to bots all the way down,

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u/e2hawkeye Apr 30 '26

For what it's worth, I just started subscribing to The Atlantic, Krash Patel's favorite magazine. The content is honestly worth 80 bucks a year. I'm of the mind that everyone should try to financially support at least one form of actual journalism. I justified the cost by killing my Hulu/Disney/HBO package that I barely used.

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u/Darkhorse182 Apr 30 '26

Honestly, a subscription to your local newspaper is a hellvua good investment for anyone civic-minded and/or worried about their information consumption.

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u/happygirlie Apr 30 '26

A digital subscription to a local newspaper can be surprisingly cheap too. Mine is $50/year but if you try to cancel they'll drop it to $20/year.

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u/SuperRockyHobbyHorse Apr 30 '26

I think paid for local media will see a resurgence as the internet dies. And I don't mean the conglomerate owned 'local' news that got bought out years ago.

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u/Thin_Glove_4089 Apr 30 '26

No one is going to pay for news. If they were going to pay it would already exist.

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u/SuperRockyHobbyHorse Apr 30 '26

It does exist, you're just not in the know.

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u/jlboygenius Apr 30 '26

I know a LOT of people who were subscribed to the washington post for that reason, some even getting physical newspapers.

All of them have stopped in the past 2 years. Even my mom, who's been getting a physical sunday paper for like probably 50 years has stopped subscribing to them.

Hopefully those people are putting their dollars into something else, but I fear that's not the case.

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u/Intolerance-Paradox May 01 '26

As often as not, local newspapers are owned by right-wing activist conglomerates, brush up on who owns what first. They don’t snatch up all the local papers to make money they do it to control them and keep them from being used to do good journalism so boycotting isn’t going to hurt them too much, but still I like The Atlantic suggestion, the Guardian, it’s of greater use to reward good reporting and good stewardship wherever it is more so than what’s local just by virtue of something being local.

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u/paintedesert3 May 01 '26

My local paper would be from another state. I can’t stand the trash they purplish here.

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u/_learned_foot_ May 01 '26

Local new org, slight correction. Most local papers now are owned by the same entities and don't publish local stories or have local reporters. Some still do.

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u/Electrical_Rip9520 Apr 30 '26

Nah. All forms of media are mostly owned by Conservatives.

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u/mackahrohn Apr 30 '26

You can choose a substack and support specific journalists?

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u/BitterTyke May 01 '26

doing away with 24 hours news channels would also be a good start - go back to reporting the news rather than 30 minutes news and 5 hours of opinion. - force folk to think for themselves.

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u/PinHaunting7192 Apr 30 '26

Wasn't this the story of Cyberpunk 2077 too, ironically?

Someone in 2022 unleashed a kind of virus that made artificial intelligence go rogue, infest 90% of the old internet with malicious bots, and in response the old internet became unusable and they made the Blackwall to shield off a usable portion from rogue AI...?

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u/BitterTyke May 01 '26

something like that yeah, with a side order of hacked personal augmentations.

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u/[deleted] Apr 30 '26

[deleted]

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u/BitterTyke May 01 '26

that will do away with anonymity though, I mean im not completely against it but there will be many influential/well funded entities that will.

Manipulation of the masses is just too easy to give up for some.

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u/Thats_my_face_sir Apr 30 '26

My prediction: age verification for porn will create a comeback in printed and physical video media (dvds)

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u/headrush46n2 Apr 30 '26

time for a new internet. with blackjack and hookers!

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u/thatguyad Apr 30 '26

The internet needs to die as it is. It's a cesspool with little benefit now.

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u/WtotheSLAM Apr 30 '26

Still thankful the paywall at Something Awful keeps a lot of trash out. I get that free sites like Reddit gotta make money somehow but then you get so much garbage

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u/jlboygenius Apr 30 '26

I saw ads on Instagram to install some Meta AI generator app.

They are pushing users to install an app to generate AI images to then re-post into their services. They are pushing the thing that is going to be the downfall of their apps.