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Threads profile can only be deleted by deleting Instagram account, Meta says

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Re: Threads profile can only be deleted by deleting Instagram account, Meta says

#361

Post by justinclift »

mrguyorama wrote: post #173
justinclift wrote: post #101

Wonder if this will turn out to be a case of illegal tying of one product to another? Might be some anti-trust interest in this. :)

Didn't facebook get away with doing that exact thing with whatsapp? They promised not to combine the phone number data with their other data and did exactly that. Maybe they got a slap on the wrist fine.

Yeah, it'd be good if the governments that had issues with it changed their position to require divestment of WhatsApp after facebook pulled that shit.

Pity that didn't happen, so yeah... they got away with it. :(

Re: Threads profile can only be deleted by deleting Instagram account, Meta says

#362

Post by cf141q5325 »

2muchcoffeeman wrote: post #357
bitcharmer wrote: post #334

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I warned everyone in my circles about that before removing WhatsApp prior to their privacy policy changes post FB takeover. Yes, it's entirely on the people who decided it's OK to share my data with FB.

There are so many people that could have your number. That one plumber you called that one time, who added your number to their phone could have added everyone in their contact list to WhatsApp. Maybe you did a favour for someone and helped out their cousin and you gave the cousin your number and never talked to them again. Maybe you had a friend you lost touch with and their number changed but they kept their addres…

You do realize this is pure diffusion of responsibility? Something you can paraphrase as "It could have been anyone" is not an argument for this not to be wrong. I also believe the lack of empathy comment to be uncalled for. You not valuing your personal data doesnt give you the right to disregard mine. Especially with a friend, those dont profit off each other because of a personal disregard for the cost.

Its something worth considering, seeing as it has been two days and unsurprisingly nobody could come up with an actual justification for such behavior.

Re: Threads profile can only be deleted by deleting Instagram account, Meta says

#363

Post by afandian »

dtgriscom wrote: post #313
londons_explore wrote: post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They generally believe that nearly everyone living in a western nation will already be in their user database. Ie. your friends will have already uploaded your phone number to them, or you'll already have an account on one of their other products (Whatsapp, Facebook, Instagram). If you are an adult and they don't have any record of you, then you're probably a fraudster, bot, scammer, or someone else they don't want,…

> The way to get unbanned is to make sure at least 30 or so friends have your phone number in their contacts list synced to facebook, all with similar names, and then sign up to instagram with that phone number. That requires someone with a whole lot more motivation than me. I'll pass.

Based on GP, sounds like you had a lucky escape!

Re: Threads profile can only be deleted by deleting Instagram account, Meta says

#364

Post by KSPAtlas »

jrib wrote: post #282
smcf wrote: post #256

I don't have an Instagram account so I tried to create one to try Threads. I used my real name and phone number but it was instantly banned as soon as it was created. I submitted an appeal, which required a selfie taken while holding a piece of paper with my username on it, which I provided. The next day I got an automated email that the selfie wasn't "acceptable" (no further elaboration) and that I was permanently b…

I submitted a png that said "I value my privacy and will not submit a photo of myself" with black text on a white background. My account was reinstated. Found it pretty funny.

Wonder if it was automated image detection or some person who was checking the selfies decided to let you in

Re: Threads profile can only be deleted by deleting Instagram account, Meta says

#365

Post by ideamotor »

JohnFen wrote: post #161
ideamotor wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They have enough highly paid engineers they should be able to write an entirely new authorization system in binary in ten minutes.

> have enough highly paid engineers Throw enough highly paid engineers at it and it will take 10 months.

Have ten of them do it independently and then they rank everyone else’s work.

Also, note the word “should”.

Re: Threads profile can only be deleted by deleting Instagram account, Meta says

#366

Post by DonsDiscountGas »

tshaddox wrote: post #242
paxys wrote: post #204

From what I have seen so far Threads seems to have been an incredibly rushed and premature launch, done directly to counter Twitter's missteps from the last few weeks. And the decision is proving to be the absolute correct one. What I don't understand is why Bluesky didn't seize the opportunity first. People were literally banging on their doors begging to be let in and they continued to go "sorry we are exclusive, i…

A social network being invite-only is such an obvious non-starter that I genuinely can't imagine the conversation that went into that decision. Assuming the basic underlying tech works more often that not (and ideally some story for community moderation), there's literally nothing I want from a Twitter competitor other than having everyone on it . My interest in a Twitter competitor that is invite-only is and will al…

Facebook was never exactly "invite only" but when they started it was limited to certain universities, and they expanded gradually. If a social network is only going to have a few user it can still provide value if they all have something in common; better 1,000 users all in the same city/university than 10,000 users scattered across the globe. Threads doesn't have this problem since they can just do a full-court-press immediately and get 30M users in a few days. I dunno how bluesky works but if they are reasonably generous with the invites you can get your friends on it (who are interested) pretty quickly.

Re: Threads profile can only be deleted by deleting Instagram account, Meta says

#367

Post by slim »

londons_explore wrote: post #280
smcf wrote: post #256

I don't have an Instagram account so I tried to create one to try Threads. I used my real name and phone number but it was instantly banned as soon as it was created. I submitted an appeal, which required a selfie taken while holding a piece of paper with my username on it, which I provided. The next day I got an automated email that the selfie wasn't "acceptable" (no further elaboration) and that I was permanently b…

They generally believe that nearly everyone living in a western nation will already be in their user database. Ie. your friends will have already uploaded your phone number to them, or you'll already have an account on one of their other products (Whatsapp, Facebook, Instagram). If you are an adult and they don't have any record of you, then you're probably a fraudster, bot, scammer, or someone else they don't want,…

thak you for this explanation (it explains my similar experience with instagram)

Re: Threads profile can only be deleted by deleting Instagram account, Meta says

#368

Post by bobbruno »

kramerger wrote: post #342
dorkwood wrote: post #278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I couldn’t log in to Instagram for over a year due to a bug with my account. At first, there was no recourse. Then, they released Meta Verified, which offered customer support for a monthly subscription fee. It took about 50 emails back and forth (most some version of “I’m sorry, there’s nothing we can do”) before they finally fixed it for me. I deleted it shortly after. I really hope all the developers and artists I…

At least you could close your account. My twitter account is banned. Not sure why as I've never used it. I can neither activate it or delete it, or contact support, as they all require a working account. Their entire system is falling apart, but maybe this one is intentional.

How can that fly if the operate in Europe, if GDPR provides the right to be forgotten? If you won’t even be acknowledged, that blocked account may contain private information about you that you must be allowed to request deletion of.

Re: Threads profile can only be deleted by deleting Instagram account, Meta says

#369

Post by 0ct4via »

dang wrote: post #340
0ct4via wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Can you please stop posting flamewar comments to HN? You've unfortunately been doing it repeatedly. It's not what this site is for, and destroys what it is for, and we eventually have to ban such accounts. I've banned some of the other accounts who were posting flamebait stuff in this thread, because they didn't have much history and some look like serial trolls. I don't want to ban your account because it's been aro…

Stating facts and citing sources isn't "posting flamewar comments" -- the only "flamewar" was the baseless trolling nonsense posted in the first place, so if you could actually bother to note context rather than jumping to making ridiculous threats, I'd be grateful.

Re: Threads profile can only be deleted by deleting Instagram account, Meta says

#370

Post by dang »

0ct4via wrote: post #369
dang wrote: post #340

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you please stop posting flamewar comments to HN? You've unfortunately been doing it repeatedly. It's not what this site is for, and destroys what it is for, and we eventually have to ban such accounts. I've banned some of the other accounts who were posting flamebait stuff in this thread, because they didn't have much history and some look like serial trolls. I don't want to ban your account because it's been aro…

Stating facts and citing sources isn't "posting flamewar comments" -- the only "flamewar" was the baseless trolling nonsense posted in the first place, so if you could actually bother to note context rather than jumping to making ridiculous threats, I'd be grateful.

"Another anonymous coward registering a throwaway to make baseless claims" isn't "stating facts and citing sources". It's just garden-variety internet attack/flamewar (ditto for "you have mock outrage", "projecting much?", "keep up the baseless drivel and assumption", and so on).

That sort of thing is not allowed here and we ban accounts that do it, so please don't do it again. You can state facts and cite sources while remaining thoughtful and respectful, so please do that instead.

Edit: We've had to ask you about this more than once before:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33850557 (Dec 2022)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33850484 (Dec 2022)

and you've unfortunately been continuing the same pattern in other recent threads (e.g. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36338416). As I said already, I don't want to ban you, but if you don't stop posting like this, we're going to have to—so if you'd please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and stick to the rules, we'd appreciate it.

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