Promoted on TikTok, ‘No Thanks’ boycott app targets products tied to Israel

A pro-Palestinian app created to help consumers boycott Israeli products has gained traction on TikTok amid calls in Hebrew-language media for Google to ban it.

The free app, called “No Thanks,” was launched by Palestinian graduate student Ahmed Bashbash last November. Downloaded by 100,000 users within a month, the app enables consumers to scan product barcodes to determine if the item has connections to Israel.

By the start of April, “No Thanks” reported one million people had downloaded the app. Millions of users had viewed tikTok influencer videos promoting “No Thanks,” contributing to the app’s growth of 900,000 downloads in four months.

Mrkawfee,

This app is so useful in helping me exclude products that support the apartheid genocide regime.

Boycott Divest and Sanctioning Israel is the only way to bring about the end of Zionism.

Zagorath,
@Zagorath@aussie.zone avatar

I love the idea of the app, but I think some greater coordination with the BDS movement would help. Instead of a simple “yes/no”, tell the user of the app which category the product/company is listed in by BDS and let them make up their own mind.

For example, currently products in the “pressure targets” are displayed exactly the same as “consumer boycott target”. As BDS says, boycotts are most effective when they’re more highly targetted. So there’s no problem with boycotting the pressure targets, but there is if someone uses the fact that they’re boycotting a pressure target as an excuse to feel good and not boycott a boycott target. Being clearer could only help.

Relevant BDS page.

Linkerbaan,
@Linkerbaan@lemmy.world avatar

I think a rating score would indeed be better. Big disctinctions I make are

  • Vocally support israel
  • Donate money to israel
  • Production in israel
  • Production in illegally colonized Palestinian territory.

I also found this website which does not work with barcodes but does mention different brands and reasons why:

boycott.thewitness.news It even got Ben and Jerry’s right

https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/4d029dd2-bf15-41b1-9a36-1d7b70d4cb4a.png

FlashMobOfOne,
@FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world avatar

I love this.

BDS all the fucking way.

febra,

It’s a great app. I’ve been using it for some time now

Today,

I tried at and found it a little misleading. If you click Barbie, the proof is a Variety article about Hollywood condemning Oct. 7. That was in the first 2 minutes of scrolling the list. Uninstalled. Gonna try BoycottX

Linkerbaan,
@Linkerbaan@lemmy.world avatar

I checked it, Paramount Studios publicly proclaimed as one of the very first that they stand with israel. So the boycott claim is completely valid.

They also donated 1 million dollars to israel and I cannot find anything about them donating to Palestine

Today,

The articles about supporting Israel and donating are from October 12th. That’s not anti-palestinian, that’s anti-hamas.

Linkerbaan,
@Linkerbaan@lemmy.world avatar

It is pro israel and they are not showing any type of support for Palestinians. Their statement amounts to manufacturing consent for Genocide only.

This app shows products with ties to israel. Paramount studios clearly falls under that. If you don’t want to boycott israel that’s up to you.

Andromxda, (edited )
@Andromxda@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

It’s a great app, unfortunately it’s not open-source. According to the Exodus report, it contains some tracking SDKs, but their network activity can be blocked in DNS. It also displays an ad banner by default, but this can easily be turned off in the settings.

IcePee,

Slightly off topic, but wasn’t there a general purpose boycott app? One that allowed one to figure out the political stance behind products. Initially it was marketed as the anti-woke app, but further investigation showed that anti-woke was only one profile of many you could subscribe to.

andrewrgross,

That’s cool. Do you have any details?

Anon518,

www.buycott.com

metasaval,

tried the other posters buycott site, but the play store link leads to a “can’t find app” page. at least in America.

this app seems to be similar and is available. messing with it for a few minutes and it works. www.goodsuniteus.com

cyd,

It’s gonna get pulled from app stores for “promoting antisemitism”. You don’t need to be the Kwisatz Haderach to foresee this.

fawanen,

Interesting. I’m definitely going to be checking this out.

If I have to decide between two products and one of them has fewer ties to Israel, you know which one I’m going to pick.

capital,

Gab users will be users of this app.

Odum,

Holy crap that app has been review bombed like crazy on the Play store. Down to 2.0, claiming it uses your phone to make calls, kills your battery, etc. One even claiming it’s “trying to push it’s own agenda on you without letting you choose how to use for your own benefits” like wtf? The bots and trolls just need enough text to seem legitimate, I suppose.

fawanen,

Zionists don’t play fair.

They are religious nationalists, after all.

Linkerbaan,
@Linkerbaan@lemmy.world avatar

I think that’s another one. The current app is at 4.8

Play store link

https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/804f09a8-d11b-436b-84b4-6396b604998a.jpeg

cosmicrookie,
@cosmicrookie@lemmy.world avatar

This is the one you linked to, through my phone https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/e7def9b5-98d4-485a-a96a-8068ab742db2.jpeg

XeroxCool,

Maybe it’s rapidly changing via bot/invalid review washing. A screenshot from 3 hours prior to your comment shows it at 4.3 but still 14k reviews

Cethin,

I think I’ve heard at some point that the review score there are region based. Different people may see different values based on where they are.

moitoi,
@moitoi@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Scores are regional. I have 4.8 stars in a European country.

VonReposti,

It’s 2.9 for me right now

sness,

2.0 now.

XeroxCool,

2.2 for me now. Clicking the ratings it warns me “ratings are based on recent reviews from your region by people using similar devices to you”. I didn’t check it before, just relayed other comments.

ianovic69,
@ianovic69@feddit.uk avatar

Screenshot from Google Play.

https://feddit.uk/pictrs/image/c0e7df21-502f-40f8-977e-fcb1e331aa43.jpeg

Jackthelad,

Imagine being sad enough to do this with everything you buy, as if you’re actually going to make a difference to anything.

NoneOfUrBusiness,

Uh... There's a reason Israel hates BDS's guts and that's not because it doesn't work.

reddwarf,
@reddwarf@feddit.nl avatar

I can just about guarantee that most of your day to day life is influenced by what people did in the past in regards to protests. Could be as huge as in civil war or smaller local protest to combat small issues. Your rights and comforts have been written in the blood of those who preceded you. Sometimes metaphorically, sometimes very real blood.

Protesting helps and did help.

SharkAttak,
SharkAttak avatar

Imagine being sad and cynical enough to do this kind of comment. And if it's not "actually going to make a difference", why Israel want it banned?

muse,
muse avatar

ok

fawanen,

Boycotts work.

IcePee,

Not always and not all the time. One only has to look at the many rightwing outrage, astroturf boycotts.

ModernRisk, (edited )
@ModernRisk@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

I think you haven’t watched the news about the boycotts on for example; Starbucks and Mcdonalds. Also about Samsung leaving Israel.

  1. Samsung Next Withdraws From Israel
  2. McDonald’s to buy back Israeli restaurants after boycotts
  3. Starbucks loses $12B market cap amid sales concerns, boycotts over Israel

You have to start somewhere and slowly build up the boycott.

gravitas_deficiency, (edited )

Edit2:

https://media0.giphy.com/media/3o85g2ttYzgw6o661q/giphy.gif

Please ignore me. It’s the age rating. 🙃

Was launched by Palestinian graduate student Ahmed Bashbash last Novemberhttps://sh.itjust.works/pictrs/image/51e3c268-b24f-4739-8dd1-cabdc71c11f2.jpeg

🤔

Edit:

To clarify: the point I’m making is that I did an absolutely trivial, cursory accuracy check on one of the central points of the timeline of the article, and it was immediately and obviously discernible as false.

But seriously, don’t take my word for it. Check it yourself.

And yeah, the Israeli government these days is comically hypersensitive to stuff like this, i agree. I just have made a habit of checking easily verifiable facts like this, and trying to point out where I observe discrepancies. Sometimes it’s nothing; sometimes it’s something, but not really a related issue. Sometimes it’s highly pertinent. Regardless, I think it’s a good thing to point out, simply in the interest of showing others how easy it is to increase your media literacy and detect hinky propaganda-leaning ”journalism” that seems to be getting a lot more common these days across the political spectrum. (Addendum) And sometimes I am not as careful as I should be and I point out something entirely unrelated :D

Linkerbaan,
@Linkerbaan@lemmy.world avatar

deleted_by_author

    •
    gravitas_deficiency,

    Nah I just looked at the wrong thing because I rarely download new apps and am apparently unfamiliar with the AppStore interface lol

    Phanatik,

    The Age rating is who can use the App, not how long it's been up.

    Spiralvortexisalie,

    Thats an age rating (like for content like Movies with Violence), the version history shows v1.0 came out 3 months ago

    gravitas_deficiency,

    Yes, you’re right; edited to reflect that. My mistake.

    ModernRisk,
    @ModernRisk@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

    The text is from the TimesOfIsrael website, so blame them for being wrong.

    Screenshot of TimesOfIsrael

    What matters is that the app exists and helps to boycot and from what I understood is that Israel wants to see it banned.

    Heni_meat_smasher_69,

    Nice ads

    Diabolo96,

    The website you link being timesofisrael is a bit ironic. Great app nonetheless! If they’re writing about it then it’s working and is among the most probable reasons of the tiktok ban

    ech,

    Yes, the legislation that’s been in discussion for years is because of this app released 5 months ago. That’s definitely how cause and effect works.

    andrewrgross,

    I don’t think they mean that tiktok is being banned over this app specifically: I just interpreted their comment to mean that tiktok has been an ongoing nuisance to the American mainstream political establishment.

    Diabolo96, (edited )

    Damn, so it’s been discussed for years but nothing happened. Israel commit atrocities (like always ) but unlike it’s other domestic media, the US government and some of its billionaires can’t censor, lie and push their narrative anymore, so the youth finally see the truth about the genocidal apartheid, ethno-state that is Israel. Now, they ban tiktok.

    This is just another perspective you haven’t thought about, or don’t want to think about because of it’s morbid implications about your country (if you’re from USA)

    technocrit,

    The campaign against TikTok isn’t so much ironic but more an organized campaign against journalism, free speech, truth, etc.

    WamGams,

    Tik tok is not a journalism app. China does not have free speech, nor do they export it, and if what they are telling you is true, than let’s talk about the genocide of the Uyghurs.

    andrewrgross,

    I find the Times of Israel to be a decent source. They’re obviously biased in favor of Israel, but it’s not behind a paywall and they’re far more informative than The NY Post, for instance. I think they seem less biased then the WSJ, frankly.

    Overall, a useful insight into mainstream discourse in Israel with fairly accurate reporting.

    Diabolo96, (edited )

    Okey, but let’s put it in another context. would you trust a British colonizer owned newspaper with its news articles exclusively being written by other white colonizers during the 80s Apartheid era south Africa ? Would you consider it to be a decent source of what’s happening in South Africa and what’s happening to the black population ? Heck, apartheid era south Africa wasn’t even an ethno-state and wasn’t doing a grand scale genocide. It’s more akin to a nazi Germany newspaper.

    andrewrgross,

    Obviously not. But that’s true to some degree for all news sources. I don’t blindly trust any newspaper. I read Times of Israel through a lens of context, just like I do for the NY Times, The Guardian, The Intercept, etc.

    I think it’s incredibly useful to see what a country reads about itself. Not only is that true even for countries engaged atrocities: it’s especially true for countries engaged in atrocities.

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