Somebody (presumably from the USA) complained about "Open Street Maps just not being as updated as Google."
That got me thinking. I'm from Europe.

First of all I haven't had a Google account or regularly used any of their products for over a decade. So I need to ask.

And by Openstreetmap (OSM) I mean the maps themselves that are used by many apps, routing services, and even secondary map providers.

OSM is community-driven. It requires people to actively participate, or at least deliberately install apps that do that I guess, to create maps and keep them up-to-date.

Google Maps is an app. Where do the maps come from? The data they get automatically (from their users; one might claim it's community driven too, lol) and those cars with those weird cameras on top and probably something else. Maybe they even take from OSM.

OSM probably won't ever be able to "see" traffic jams, but apart from that it works very well, gives me a satisfying mapping and navigation experience by car, bike or foot.

And many big professional/official sites rely on OSM.

So, is that not the case in other places in the world, e.g. the USA? How often do you see these Google cars? I haven't seen one in ages. Let's say once a year.

I hope you get the main drive of my question. It's about how crtain "alternatives" to Big tech work, and are perceived, in different places around the world, although the Europe-USA comparison is bugging me the most.

Over the past few months, I’ve noticed a sharp increase in proactive foreign state propaganda across major Western social media platforms.

The pattern became undeniably clear around September 11, when an overwhelming volume of hostility, anti-American messaging, and divisive narrative pushes flooded feeds across multiple platforms. Whenever I attempt to engage with these posts or debunk blatant disinformation, my account rapidly becomes the target of coordinated backlash—ranging from sudden downvote brigading and mass reporting to lockouts and automated harassment.

It leads to a broader question about how foreign influence operations—particularly those linked to actors like state-aligned bot networks (e.g., "Spamouflage")—operate beyond their own borders. While foreign governments cannot directly delete content on American platforms, they seem to rely heavily on manipulating platform algorithms, abusing automated reporting systems, leveraging major calendar events (like 9/11), and deploying bot networks to suppress counter-narratives and silence individual users.

With major elections and midterms consistently serving as prime targets for foreign interference, these tactics appear to be getting more aggressive. Instead of just pushing state-sanctioned talking points, these campaigns increasingly aim to disrupt organic debate, hijack community moderation, and foster general distrust in democratic discourse. I don't know what's your take on it?

What does the term mean and when is it appropriately used.

Cross posted from https://lemmy.ca/post/70382736

Cross posted from https://discuss.online/post/44964173

So basically I’m 23 years old and I’m a male, I am currently staying over at my grandmother’s house Because my family just moved out of our old house and we’re kinda like in different places right now so I’m staying with her for the “temporary foreseeable future.” Thing is, when I was at my old home, I engaged in self pleasure (masturbation) pretty much every day with no problem. Now I’m in her guest room, and there’s family photos EVERYWHERE, like not just adults but mainly her children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren as well. And I knew the layout of the room before I moved in and knew it was gonna be an awkward issue. Last night I ended up doing it with the lights off. And I was just watching XXX content on my phone, and I was trying to remained focused on my phone but it was just like the awkwardness of the whole thing and me knowing there were pictures of children in there the whole time. I only like a couple of times looked at my surroundings and the walls around me during the moment just…because I tend to look around when I’m already weirded out. I ended finishing. But I was wondering has anyone else been through this same situation and do you think this makes me weird. Any advice helps.

Eddie Duran is charged with killing an innocent civilian and i attended all 3 days of the hearing in attempt to get immunity defense to fail and have charges go to trial. context surrounding the case

i wanted to do an AMA to essentially help me write a memoir and get detail. i did make notes during the trial but flow might be to unorganized to follow along. i did color code it for high lights.

everything below will be my philosophy on how you should stand in solidarity for strangers in a courtroom setting. better to ask your question before reading all of that

so i attended this trial in solidarity of the family of Rodger Fortson. didn't know who was family of Rodger and i tended to avoid the family because I could say something insensitive given that Rodger is complete stranger to me. like i felt that the witnesses are goofy, but i would want to share that with the family because the witnesses are testifying that Eddie Duran was in enough danger to justify killing but not enough danger to approach his door. yes there are some nutty people that just want cops to get away with killing and think "im afraid" should absolve them of killing innocent people. I see goofy, the family probably see people justifying the killing of their brother/son/cousin. when I did interact with the family i kept it small, commented on the uncomfortable padded chairs, the weather, and where the vending machines are. also i walked a family member to their car with an umbrella while it was raining (i was just helping a stranger)

So given i had next to nothing to do with the case, i tried my best to come off as a model jury member. I brought clipboard with pen and paper, i dressed up, didn't wear any hats, and i look as attentive as i could. the pen and paper kept me off my phone, i knew it would look bad if my head was down a lot. I didn't sit in the front row, i sat behind the family to show solidarity. I made sure to nod as judge communicated information to give a sense of reasonably so that the judge would be upfront with what they are trying to do. Looking at witnesses with a clipboard puts pressure on them (Eddie Duran did testify so putting pressure on him would get information than if they were comfortable). I believe that Eddie Duran doesn't trust his lawyers. the results so far is that the decision of the immunity hearing got pushed down the road for some other cases to be decided; it sounds like it would have happened if i didn't show up, but i do consider it a victory that the immunity wasn't granted on the last day. **point being that in activism your not going to have clear and defined feedback you just have to be confident in what you know and the actions you take based on what you know. **

I did take an edible to the hearing, dont recomend btw.

i knew about his case for like 2 weeks at this point and I read one article and i only watch the footage twice. in my first viewing i saw the video i could tell that fortson was not going to shoot back as soon as the gun was drawn and pointed at fortson. fortson body language was too calm and clearly fortson did not even react to a gun being drawn on him. if deputy really get acquitted of charges then law enforcement can shoot you at your door basically if you arm yourself and apparently theres a bunch of code of conduct you'll have to follow that's not law just to answer your door for a cop and cop doesn't need any code of conduct they can believe they're responding to a domestic violence, feel you have a weapon, and just kill you and at best serve as law enforcement till their replacement get hired. one of the witness testimony that the defense requested said that fortson could have put his weapon down before answering the door.

I could rant about the pro police witnesses, there's a lot of social commentary to be made. how the expert witnesses get paid thousands of dollars, but the witnesses relevant to the killing like the ones that called the police didn't get paid. the pro police expert witnesses will most likely have there testimony thrown out. the pro police expert witnesses actually tried to say that Eddie Duran was responding to domestic violence and they were making up shit like "classic domestic", "violent domestic", or just "domestic" to promote the idea that Eddie believed that was responding to a domestic violence situation. expert witnesses credential to testify are weird. like the medical examiner that did the autopsy makes sense, but the guy that has a law degree, can practice in a federal courtroom, and trains ex military people to be cops, probably has very little to do with a police shooting case (seriously all he does is make recommendations didnt even say he worked with the sheriffs department prior to the case)

I'm Yakuza_Wolf_ReRise and I just migrated here from Reddit (I went by the name u/Yakuza-Wolf_Kiwami). To briefly explain what happened, I had a couple of imposters pretending to be me to do some dirty deeds, leading to my account to be suspended. I can't go too deep into details, but that's the basic jist of it. So I came here as an "alternative" to reddit up until my account is back and running.

So, AMA

As the title suggest, I practise a reconstructed version of what historical Germanic Paganism may have looked like (adapted best I can to modern day).

this is my more serious post that i want to talk about and i want to help out various communities to help engagement.

so i got into a leadership position for Pensacola democratic socialist of america after 4 months of being an member and 6 month of interacting with them and i have been in leadership since march. I dont consider it like that big of an accomplishment that im in leadership, im just the guy that just has responsibilities and should put out fires.

if you want to get into leadership into a chapter in a chapter its not that hard.

Too lazy to get the original post and the subsequent drama related to it so I'll just summarize.

I told a community they shouldn't celebrate "kys posts" because it's mentally unhealthy and isolating. Made another post asking a similarly named community to look out and help out another post. I got accused of being transphobic because I finger wagged at celebrating the death/murder of other people. Then I pretty much stood up for myself, explained what I mean the best I could, and let people know that I think they're mentally ill things. Amazing

Ask me anything. Yes I am petty.

As I write this, I'm eating, for breakfast, a parfait made with (among other things) close to a tablespoon of cayenne pepper and 11 hearty shakes of 650,000 Scoville unit jolokia pepper hot sauce. (The cayenne pepper hits quick. As soon as it hits the tongue. The jolokia peppers take a bit before the heat starts. So, I like to balance the two.)

Last night I made a 7-layer bean dip also with cayenne and the same hot sauce. The day before that, egg salad with... you guessed it: cayenne and jolokia hot sauce. Most of what I eat, I add really spicy stuff to it.

AMA!

Title says it all.

this is because i have a lack of empathy but also im aroace so i cant form romantic connections easily nor sexual ones.

aroace - aromantic asexual ( little to no romantic or sexual attraction )

Yes, I want to become the living, breathing version of that character and I get euphoria acting like them. If you're just going to be rude about it, though, do not ask me anything. Only ask if you're genuinely curious.

I grew up in Guatemala. You might know its one of the most unequal countries in the world - you're either in the rich class or poor.

I don't have a degree, don't have professional level skills or business skills. I worked for everything I had, never had much money. But nothing too bad - usually had enough food.

Two years ago I met a gringa in a tourist spot. I'm good with girls and we ended up sleeping together that night. We are both in out mid-30s.

Then I found out she's married. Married tourist looking for some cock on vacation - old story.

She has a rich husband and three children. I think she is from a rich family and her husband is also from a rich family, so between them it's double-rich. She mentioned having "oil rights", she mentioned multiple homes (I think over 20 rental properties).

Since then, I have done little bits of social media work for her businesses - it is easy work anyone could do, just running the company's facebook page and stuff. Plus we see each other in the Caribbean/Latin America and sleeping together for a week here and there. Since two years. She started saying "I love you" six months ago.

One time she said, "something something.... because you've already made your money...". I didn't let my reaction show. She assumed I was in her social class!. Just because people assume their life is the normal life. It feels normal to her to have multiple houses and a million a year in passive income (or whatever number), she thinks everyone she meets is probably like that.

Now she is starting a business, has almost finished investor funding. I let her keep thinking I am rich, and I asked for a big salary for my social media role. She is offering me more money than anyone in my village ever had, plus a percentage of the company. If the company works, it could be millions of dollars. I have seen the contract now, and with luck we will sign in one or two months. I can't fuck it up now.

Yes this is a sin because it is adultery. But I have the opportunity on a plate. The only thing I've ever been good at and I can use it to climb the social ladder.

usually use the 2 most popular AMA communities because theres activity. i have used this community 5 months ago, must have tried to help smaller communities back then https://lemmy.world/post/41495614

Hi. I never used Reddit because I thought it didn't align enough with my values and I heard about their censorship (or perhaps lack thereof.)

My husband (FtM) and I had a daughter at 17. We got married at 18 due to the pregnancy and love each other even as 22-year-olds.

Second year in a row I do this lol. What can I say? I love the attention.

Turning 25 which is scary old :/

No one that was with me was hurt. Miraculously, all of my neighbors survived too.

I've been a union organizer since 2021. I was the lead organizer for my union. I've confronted bosses, stood up to billionaires, organized strikes, planned workplace actions, faced retaliation, and helped grow class consciousness within the working class. We won union recognition in March 2024, and I was illegally fired in December 2024. The case to get my job back is still ongoing. I have stories, knowledge, strategy, and more, so ask me anything!

Howdy, fellas! This is Maya! I wanted to come over here and make a little introduction on Lemmy!

As you can see, I'm a small little apple. I'm going to dig into my lawn so I can finally grow into a tree!

But I'm too small and I haven't sweetened yet :/ If I dig myself in right now, I might not germinate before the fall :/

So, I thought why not wait it out and mingle with all of you?

Ask Maya Anything!

I am a UK-based self-employed Art Technician, who travels around my local region to different galleries and museums to install art exhibitions.

Sometimes I handle famous and expensive artworks or priceless artifacts, but most of the time it's probably artworks you've not heard of. This includes 2D work like paintings, 3D work like sculptures, video projections, screens, sound systems, computers, and room-filling installations. Sometimes we work directly with living artists to help produce their work.

Happy to talk about technical stuff i.e. how artworks are transported, packed, fixed to the wall, what sort of fittings are used, how an exhibition is spaced out, hung, arranged etc; or to talk about working in galleries, or any questions from artists about how to prepare works for exhibition etc

I'm also a practicing artist, and historically both a filmmaker and gallery curator - so happy to answer things relating to that sort of thing too.

Because it's a pretty niche job I may have to keep some details vague for privacy etc.

I'm doing a public talk fairly soon on "what I do", and I need to know what sort of things people are potentially interested in, so I can focus more on those in the talk - so any relevant questions would be really helpful to me, thank you.

Any curiosity about life in Italy? How it is really like to live in the northern part of the boot shaped peninsula?

So, I am a father, I love and have cats and dogs, live in a small town in northern Italy, and and I work full time in a field related to software, technology and loosely transportation. I also lived in Rome, one of the biggest northern italy metropolies, and in smaller places like Pisa.

In a previous life I traveled around lots of the world and in my current life I am training for an Ironman.

All of this, while living in the above mentioned country.

Specially for US lemmiers, but also people from other parts of the world, anything you want me to explain, clarify or just answer about all of the above?

burner account for privacy

Until the age of about 13, when I met some queer folks (I was straight at the time) and some people with undocumented parents, I wore my grandpa’s red hat at school. I was proudly against undocumented immigration and didn’t care much about the environment, though I was friendly with my peers and left-wingers, I just kept my beliefs and they kept theirs.

Well, that eventually changed. My grandpa became more right-wing, I became more leftist and now I am a proud leftist

I'll admit, doing a bit of self-reflection, I don't actively bully others but it would kinda make sense to have covert narcissism because my dad is kind of narcissistic, he is said to be like that by many people. My mom is said to have signs of BPD but of course, she wouldn't realize or think she has it, so she would not get diagnosed. Also, she can change emotions on a whim.