• Vespair@lemm.ee
    12·
    4 months ago

    Fuck Duolingo and any other company that thinks it’s okay to comment all over social media. If you aren’t paying those people sponsorship deals to promote your brand, it should be illegal to hijack their page with your product.

    Shit is disgusting and there is literally no worse offender of this loophole than Duolingo.

    I recommend any time you see them in the wild telling them how disgusting it is that they think they can put up their billboards in other people’s lawns.

    Fuck that bird. Don’t even support their entirely manufactured meme status. Just give them zero fucking attention

    • dingus@lemmy.worldEnglish
      32·
      4 months ago

      Bro I get company shills exist, but that’s a big level of paranoia right there.

      I swear, some people on the internet act as if you even mention a company name, that you’re some sort of paid corporate shill. No, man, sometimes I just talk about every day things in my life lol.

      • Vespair@lemm.ee
        6·
        4 months ago

        I’m not saying OP is a shill, I’m saying that Duolingo manufactured the “Duo is coming to get you” meme intentionally, and people are happy to be stooges so happily accepted it. I don’t think OP has any affiliation to Duolingo, but they’re still normalizing their stupid trend so they can continue to leave meme comments on individual pages and get free advertising. It sucks.

      • Vespair@lemm.ee
        2·
        4 months ago

        Yes, I’m aware of that, but ubiquity doesn’t make it okay, and my ire for Duolingo is specifically because they have been the most successful exploiter of this circumstance

    • null@slrpnk.net
      1·
      4 months ago

      If you aren’t paying those people sponsorship deals to promote your brand, it should be illegal to hijack their page with your product.

      Huh? Just don’t follow them…

      • Vespair@lemm.ee
        4·
        4 months ago

        That’s not what I mean. What I mean is that Duolingo frequently comments on individual user posts on tiktok, which tiktok raises as a high-visibility comment because Duolingo’s size makes the algorithm think it’s quality content. This means that Duolingo isn’t just advertising on their own tiktok page, obviously that would be fine, it means that they get to piggyback on viral content from completely unaffiliated users massively spreading their brand while providing no compensation of any kind to the creator of those viral videos. It wouldn’t be okay for somebody to run an ad before your content without your consent (we aren’t talking about the ads you consented to run by tiktok/youtube/whoever), so it shouldn’t be okay to use the comments as free advertising space too.

        • kautau@lemmy.world
          8·
          4 months ago

          TikTok

          I think you should take it up with them. I hear they’re super ethical and give a shit about what their algorithms do to people in the interest of farming data and profit

          • Vespair@lemm.ee
            2·
            4 months ago

            And for that reason we should turn a blind eye to any and all other broaches of ethics?

            • kautau@lemmy.world
              5·
              4 months ago

              No, you should decide with your wallet, which is not to pay Duolingo, and decide with your choice of social media, which is not to use TikTok, and most importantly, you should petition your representatives and vote accordingly. What TikTok and Duolingo are doing is morally shitty, but it’s basic late stage capitalism, and excepting the nations that are actively fighting against the shittiness of using and selling user data, it’s not illegal

          • Vespair@lemm.ee
            3·
            4 months ago

            Yes, and I have. This solves me the personal grief of being reminded of their bad practices but does nothing to actually solve the problem. Not that I think “awareness” is a great or in anyway meaningful solve, but if talking about the issue leads to a few other people also blocking Duolingo then at least I won’t feel like I am forced to merely accept the situation as is with no protest.

    • aname@lemmy.one
      4·
      4 months ago

      For some people, self study is a fine choice. For others a structured environment like a class room works better.

      I’d sign up for a point blank french class.

      • A_Chilean_Cyborg@feddit.cl
        3·
        4 months ago

        I took French I at uni, but too many people want to take French II so it will be a while before I manage to take said class.