META: The ‘Threads’ App is FILLED With Deceptive Dark Design Patterns – We Spotted More Than TEN.

Aside from probably the launch of ChatGPT, I can’t ever recall a recent time in which the internet was THIS excited. While I personally believed that Zuckerberg’s new Threads app was doomed to be a hit and miss, it seems like I was dead wrong – the app saw more than 10 million users sign up in just 1.5 hours, with the number climbing up to 75 million as per a recent announcement from Zuckerberg. The reason? FOMO, along with the fact that the Threads app was designed to be incredibly intuitive. You didn’t need to make an account – if you were on Instagram, the account was already made for you. A simple click would import all your followers, your profile settings, and profile-picture and bio. However, veiled underneath that ease and convenience were a few patterns that designers and tech nerds were all too familiar with. These patterns, referred to as Dark Design Patterns, are known to manipulate and influence a user into doing something against their will.

As a user, you’ve probably encountered a whole bunch of dark design patterns in your life. If you’ve used the Uber app, you’re familiar with how notorious it is to cancel a ride while the app is searching for one. The ‘Cancel Ride’ button is greyed out, but the ‘Continue Searching’ is black and highly visible. Hit the Cancel button and Uber asks you at least twice if you’re sure you want to cancel. Amazon does the same thing with its Prime subscribers. Try canceling your Prime subscription and chances are you’ll just give up because Amazon’s made it so incredibly hard to cancel an active Prime membership.

The Threads app almost immediately displayed a whole bunch of dark patterns with its user interface. We spotted at least 11 of them, and we’re sure there are a lot more to come. Here are some highly evident dark tricks the Threads app is using to ensure you stay on the platform as long as you possibly can… and supply Meta with even more data than before.

There’s a simple way to avoid all that, of course.

MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT: Indiana Jones’ B.O. Stinks. “Viewers like you and me — who loved the original trilogy precisely because those films relied on character, story, and low-tech filmmaking techniques — couldn’t even be bothered to show up for the opening week of this consequence-free CGI spectacle. The viewers who would bring down that 88% Rotten Tomatoes score didn’t and won’t watch it.”

JAW, JAW IS BETTER THAN WAR, WAR: Washington may deny it, but looks like someone wants to talk to Russia.

According to the NBC News story, which cites “people briefed on the discussions,” the talks focused on some of the most pressing questions concerning the conflict, including “the fate of Russian-held territory that Ukraine may never be able to liberate, and the search for an elusive diplomatic off-ramp that could be tolerable to both sides.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov attended at least one of the meetings when he made a rare visit to New York City to chair the UN security council in April, according to the report. The former U.S. officials named in the article are Richard Haass, the outgoing president of the Council on Foreign Relations, Charles Kupchan, and Thomas Graham — all of whom previously worked in senior positions in the State Department, among other national-security agencies — as well as former Pentagon official Mary Beth Long.

The Biden administration reportedly was aware of the meetings, but did not organize them. There was no indication of whether or not the White House endorsed the discussions.

It’s at least a little reassuring that the Biden White House might not be actively involved in this off-the-books diplomatic effort, given that it was their diplomatic fecklessness that opened the door to Russia’s full-scale invasion.

SHOCKER: Law professor who spread disinformation has book coming out … on disinformation.

DISPATCHES FROM THE BLUE ZONES: Metro Atlanta Mayor Arrested on Trespassing Charges Offers a Lame Excuse for His Crime.

WRONGTHINK ON PARADE: ‘Pay your bills like adults!’: Protesters take to White House after student debt ruling.

LIFE AMONG OUR RULING CLASS: Having made her millions, a congresswoman will retire. “While many are the members of Congress whose wealth explodes while they oversee federal spending and regulate the companies they invest in, Grace was exceptionally good at increasing her net worth. She did so well, she could be a Biden.”

#DEFUNDPRIVATESECURITY: Zuckerberg Spent $43 Million on Security, but $5.5 Million to Back Defund the Police.

Among the CZI donations to anti-policing activist groups, according to the report, are:

• $3 million to PolicyLink, the organization behind DefundPolice.org, which seeks to “diminish the role of policing in communities and empower alternative visions for public safety.”

• $2.5 million to Solidaire, which seeks to defund the police through its “Anti-Police Terror Project” and boasts it helped strip $18 million out of the Oakland Police Department’s budget.

Solidaire funds the Movement for Black Lives, a coalition of 150 activist groups, which said in a press release: “[T]he police do not keep us safe, and they do not prevent nor stop crime.

“Pouring more money into the system of policing only threatens the very lives they’re purported to protect.”

Meta/Facebook representatives and CZI did not respond to the Post’s requests for comment.

Meanwhile, Zuckerberg’s Meta is raising its private security spending pre-tax from $10 million for the past few years to $14 million in 2023, according to the report, citing February company filings.

That’s different because Zuckerberg is more important than those nasty city-dwellers.

ICYMI: Hunter Biden probe shows corruptness in America’s two-tier justice system.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: What if They’d Found Anthrax in the White House Instead of Cocaine? “We all know what would happen. The Secret Service would already know EXACTLY who left that little doggie bag in the White House, and the perp would be locked away, never to be seen again, along with the J6 protesters.”

Paula Bolyard is filling in for Kruiser today.

RULE OF LAW: Biden White House Attacks Supreme Court, Bizarrely Claiming Affirmative Action Is a ‘Constitutional Right.’

Everything Democrats want is a constitutional right. Everything they oppose is unconstitutional. If their wants and opposition change, so does the Constitution. It’s a magic wish-fulfillment tool!

FBI FLASHBACK: FBI agent who mistakenly shot man during backflip in Denver bar can carry gun again, judge rules.

Remember, rules are for the little people, not for the nomenklatura and their minions.

THE IDEAL TIME WAS IN 2019 BUT THE NEXT BEST TIME IS RIGHT NOW: When is the optimal time for Biden to drop out of the race? “If Biden does drop out of the race, will he wait too long to do so? And, should that be the case, will Vice President Kamala Harris — whom few Democrats truly have confidence in — get crushed in the general election by the Republican nominee?”

PARTS OF AMERICA STILL WORK: SpaceX launches additional Starlink satellites into space.

This isn’t really news anymore, but that doesn’t mean it’s boring.

HE’S NOT WRONG: ‘Those Groups Are Politicized’: Utah Gov. Cox Rejects American Medical Institutions’ Approval Of Trans Procedures For Children.

MARK JUDGE: Oppo the Justices: The Stasi Left is Using the Avenatti Playbook.

GOOD: Donor Cancels $400,000 Annual Gift Due To Arizona State’s Response To Speaker Series Event With Four Conservatives.

MEN REALLY ARE BETTER AT EVERYTHING: Congratulations, a Man Just Won Miss Netherlands.

UPDATE NEWSPEAK DICTIONARIES ACCORDINGLY, COMRADES: Vagina rebranded as ‘bonus hole’ by cervical cancer charity.

IN CHINA, WAR STARTS IN KINDERGARTEN: Daily Caller News Foundation’s Phillip Lenczycki reports the Chinese military is now training legions of kindergarteners how to kill and destroy.

Now, if memory serves, it was only recently that China’s dictator, Xi Jinping, ordered his military to be prepared for war by 2027. Two potential targets come immediately to mind: Taiwan and its chief protector, the U.S. So these children will be all of 9 years old, but they’ll have four years of training under their belt, which is a good bit more than the average Russian draftee serving in Ukraine gets.

THE GOVERNMENT IS NOT YOUR FRIEND: Government Spyware on Your Phone? Unfortunately, There’s an App for That. “The New Civil Liberties Alliance is challenging the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) in federal court for coordinating with Google to automatically install spyware on the smartphones of more than one million Commonwealth residents, without their knowledge or consent, in a misguided effort to combat Covid-19. A newly-released video details how DPH’s actions have violated fundamental constitutional rights.”

Reminder/disclosure: I’m on the NCLA’s advistory board.

THERE GOES THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION, RESTORING MORE OF THAT RESPECT ON THE WORLD STAGE: Yellen Commits Grave Error in Show of American Weakness in China.

As with Blinken, Yellen also got no red carpet, although one Chinese official did meet her when she arrived two days ago.

But then on Saturday, Yellen committed a grievous diplomatic error—she bowed repeatedly, at least three times, to Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng when she met him.

That’s a grave show of American weakness to the Chinese, particularly the repeated and deep nature of the bowing. If the Chinese didn’t already think they could step all over us, that’s the type of signal to them that they can, when Biden officials act that desperate to bend over for them. Lifeng even backed up a little to give her more room to kowtow to him, like she was a servant.

It was only a “grave error” if you believe that Yellen and the White House didn’t intend to indicate submission to Beijing.

HEH: Sen. John Kennedy Responds to Cocainegate in a Way Only He Can.

ICYMI: MY NEW YORK POST COLUMN: Hunter Biden probe shows corruptness in America’s two-tier justice system. “Our Constitution forbids ‘titles of nobility,’ whereby the elite live by different rules than the rest of us. It doesn’t seem to be working very well, does it?”

WHAT HEEL-AND-TOEING A RACE CAR TAUGHT ME ABOUT GOD: Reading scripture, studying philosophy, or digging deeply into evolutionary biology are not the only paths to discovering important stuff about God and man. Believe it or not, downshifting on a race track can do it, too.