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.

  • Odum@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    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.

  • Cuttlefish1111@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    Great effort and execution. Wonderful job. We also need one to identify Koch products and halt project 2025. They want to do terrible things.

    • evasive_chimpanzee@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      There was an app called Buycott that lets you join “campaigns” of things you are either for or against, and when you scan something, it tells you which positive and which negative campaigns apply to that product and the company as a whole. Koch was on there. Seems like it may have been abandoned years ago, though.

  • cyd@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

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

  • Linkerbaan@lemmy.worldOP
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    6 months ago

    Great app works very well. Users can submit barcodes and brands and the database is really significant by now. I tried it on a few articles and it correctly recognized each of them.

  • Mrkawfee@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    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.

    • Linkerbaan@lemmy.worldOP
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      6 months ago

      I can’t find info on that so I am guessing at the moment it’s not. Though it seems to be more of a small volunteer project than a big group effort for now.

  • Zagorath@aussie.zone
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    6 months ago

    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@lemmy.worldOP
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      6 months ago

      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:

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

  • Jackthelad@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

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

    • reddwarf@feddit.nl
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      6 months ago

      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.

  • Today@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    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

      • Today@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

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

        • Linkerbaan@lemmy.worldOP
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          6 months ago

          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.