A TikTok alternative called Loops is coming for the fediverse | Users own their content, and Loops doesn’t sell or provide videos to third-party advertisers or train AI on them. It will be open source
A TikTok alternative called Loops is coming for the fediverse | Users own their content, and Loops doesn’t sell or provide videos to third-party advertisers or train AI on them. It will be open source
Loops promises to bring the TikTok experience to the fediverse.
Signups opened this week for Loops, a short-form looping video app from the creator of Instagram alternative Pixelfed, reports TechCrunch.
Read their privacy policy, yo.
Screw the privacy policy, bruh, read that TOS:
When you post Contributions, you grant us a license (including use of your name, trademarks, and logos): By posting any Contributions, you grant us an unrestricted, unlimited, irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, royalty-free, fully-paid, worldwide right, and license to: use, copy, reproduce, distribute, sell, resell, publish, broadcast, retitle, store, publicly perform, publicly display, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or in part), and exploit your Contributions (including, without limitation, your image, name, and voice) for any purpose, commercial, advertising, or otherwise, to prepare derivative works of, or incorporate into other works, your Contributions, and to sublicense the licenses granted in this section. Our use and distribution may occur in any media formats and through any media channels.
In other words, you put any content up there, they can resell it to some movie studio AND make an AI copy of you with no consequences... at least according to their ToS.
EU law however... well, time will tell how fast and violently EU lawyers will inject themselves into the urethra of the service provider.
Basically, CLA^2
They even contradict themselves in this shit. There's what you quoted, but there is also this bit further up in a previous section:
We do not assert any ownership over your Contributions. You retain full ownership of all of your Contributions and any intellectual property rights or other proprietary rights associated with your Contributions. We are not liable for any statements or representations in your Contributions provided by you in any area on the Services. You are solely responsible for your Contributions to the Services and you expressly agree to exonerate us from any and all responsibility and to refrain from any legal action against us regarding your Contributions.
"We can use your shit however we like, but if your shit is illegal, you're the one who'll be responsible; not us."
And before you go "it's to avoid liability", fucking duh - it doesn't make it right though.
Are you just generally suggesting, or is there something concerning?
I really hope this gets a proper foss "for you" algo. Personalized content and people discovery features are lacking on the fediverse.
This is entirely possible through Mastodon/Misskey apps but not having it bound to local data would be awesome. Predictive engines are something most people want an ethical alternative for.
I never used tiktok but i was a fan of vine. It would be fun to host an instance
Sick, that'll get rid of like 60% of my reason to use YouTube (bc I use YouTube shorts, aka Google giggles). Edit: signed up, waiting on my email
Everybody's heads are up their asses about this. It's a great idea for a fediverse thing.
The real issue is nobody can use it because the damn confirmation emails don't get sent.
yea this is really their biggest thing here, by the time conf emails get sent everyone will lose interest lol
People who care about decentralisation, privacy and data sovereignty etc are usually smart enough to understand that endless feeds of short form video is the new asbestos. You'd have better luck selling big macs to vegans.
hear me out. The toxicity of social mefia comes from algorithms and advertising. Lots of short videos by the community can be fun/interesting and not addictive/ brain rotting.
endless feeds of short form video is the new asbestos
that's like saying Mastodon is bad because Twitter ruined society, I mean how often do you find yourself raging endlessly at Mastodon.
I would love to have a chill way of scrolling these videos without having to live with one of the evils.
That being said i am also sceptical if this is it, I mean why do they want my email?
Excellent points 👍
Theres vegan big macs - Theres no vegan tiktok :'(
I meant the ones made out of meat 😛
Yep. Agreed - except it is yet another avenue for monetization should it take hold. People keep acting like the fediverse is some kind of incorruptible platform.
Can’t see this doing well, who’s gonna want to host it and pay the bandwidth and storage costs?
I know people would be willing to do that for a YT alternative, but I don’t think there’s many people who want to shell out so some kid can post their cringe dance video.
Also, who tf gonna use it? I’d imagine Tik Tok users are the social media group that cares the least about the fediverse, open source, and privacy…
It's just like Peertube. Cool concept in theory, but breaks down once you consider the less fun parts of it (storage volume).
Gonna be really hard to figure out how to make solid Fedi alternatives to image/video-based social media.
Also, who tf gonna use it? I’d imagine Tik Tok users are the social media group that cares the least about the fediverse, open source, and privacy…
Perhaps it's one way to change that
i like cringe dance videos but i think the problem's gonna be the volume
I'm interested, and I hope it's successful.
I'm not sure how they're going to attract creators, when Tiktok already has the same features, has a larger audience, and pays... But I hope they can because I'd love to dump Tiktok for something open source.
I wonder how their FYP will work, because honestly that's a huge part of what makes Tiktok good.
so far it seems like an over-marketed unfinished piece of vaporware. there was nothing to look at when it was first dripped months ago. or when the magical countdown stopped. or when no one received beta invites despite it being 'this week'
just seems like a lot of spamming the fed community now. happy to be proven wrong
Dan seems to have trouble sticking with a single project. Sometimes it feels like he announces some new thing every week that never gets finished.
Yeah I still remember his fediverse direct messaging platform. Haven't heard about it since he announced it.
Maybe he's just too busy?
Yea this was the last email I got...a promise for another email....5 days ago
Yeah it would have been enticing to see, you know, an actual video or the interface or at least something other than a logo.
There's a discord channel now.
Have you ever seen a TikTok video? Why on Earth do we want that on the Fediverse? Not everything that exists deserves to be copied.
Because wanting braindead content that you don't have to think about or form a critical opinion over is a valid request. There's a big reason the Fediverse doesn't see widespread adoption: the content sucks, it's all politics from the farther edges of every end of the spectrum and FOSSbro tech discussion that's about as insufferable as cryptobro subreddits.
If the Fediverse wants to attract more people, then it needs to start expanding into what those other people actually want. They don't want to have a furry with a Stalin profile pic explain Linux kernel to them, they want to laugh at inconsequential videos of children falling into things that they can leave a "heart" on and quickly share a link to their friend with.
Tiktok is the type of social that is meant to redirect people elsewhere, I don't know, I think that this could work with the Fedi. Tiktok doesn't really pay it's creator well AFAIK.
I don't really get why people scroll through short-form video, but at least there's an opensource alternative in the works... Will be interesting to see if they allow non-loops users to contribute bandwidth because hosting all of those videos will be expensive af.
It's because it gives a nice dopamine hit. Just like a still-image meme but more so because it's video.