This sounds like pokemon

The US courts gave corporations person-hood, AI just around the corner.

AFAIK, you have the option to enable ads on your lock screen. It's not something that's forced upon you. Last time I took a look at the functionality, they "paid" you for the ads and you got to choose which charity to support with the money.

And they've been doing it more blatantly and for longer than most tech companies.

A carrot perhaps... Or a very big stick.

The self hosted model has hard coded censored content.

Arguably we should be imposing 25% DST on digital products to counter the 25% tariff on aluminium and steel and then 10% on everything else. The US started it by imposing blanket tariffs in spite of our free trade agreement.

Phew okay /s