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TikTok: Cheerfulness and censorship

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Re: TikTok: Cheerfulness and censorship

#52
post #49
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you just call Hacker News apolitical? I feel even Reddit is better when coming to political debates because on Reddit you can find a subreddit that aligns to your political ideology. On HN, if you are from China, India, Russia, African country, the best thing you can do is to avoid articles about those geographical locations because comments will be mostly negative and any dissenting view will be downvoted until…

I excluded Hacker News from social networks I'm in the market for. HN is political as hell, and yes, whenever I make a niche (on HN) political comment I'm always prepared to burn karma.

Thanks for clarifying. I am in the same boat. Whenever I go against ideologies of HN, I am always prepared to lose some karma also. I refuse to use a throwaway account.

Re: TikTok: Cheerfulness and censorship

#53
post #13

I fail to see why every platform has to become a fucking idealogical battleground. If I’m in the market for a social network myself (HN notwithstanding) I’d probably choose a politics-free one if possible.

I’m not directly using TikTok but r/TikTokCringe is one of my favorite. People just seem to have fun and share their videos, it’s so lighthearted and refreshing.

Re: TikTok: Cheerfulness and censorship

#54
post #39
post #13

I fail to see why every platform has to become a fucking idealogical battleground. If I’m in the market for a social network myself (HN notwithstanding) I’d probably choose a politics-free one if possible.

Did you just call Hacker News apolitical? I feel even Reddit is better when coming to political debates because on Reddit you can find a subreddit that aligns to your political ideology. On HN, if you are from China, India, Russia, African country, the best thing you can do is to avoid articles about those geographical locations because comments will be mostly negative and any dissenting view will be downvoted until…

> avoid articles about those geographical locations because comments will be mostly negative

Comments on most topics skew negative. If you agree with something, that's not much reason to comment, but if you disagree, one angry comment coming straight up. That's not limited to the geographical regions you list; most threads on those have a subthread devolve into a discussion of US politics at some point.

> and any dissenting view will be downvoted until it becomes unreadable.

The comments that get downvoted until they become unreadable are mostly dissenting, but that doesn't mean dissenting views collect more downvotes than upvotes on average. When dang bans someone for making a single-purpose account for ideological battle, they usually have positive karma, often in the hundreds: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...

Re: TikTok: Cheerfulness and censorship

#55
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really. Try rallying up support against Xi Jingpin on TikTok?

Showing non-sexual images of breasts on facebook may or may not work out well: https://www.facebook.com/the.ban.on.breastfeeding/ The sensibilities are different but they exist.

Is there breastfeeding on TikTok? More generally, is there anything on TikTok which is banned by Facebook?

Re: TikTok: Cheerfulness and censorship

#56

Facebook will probably become like this (moderating proactively rather than reactively) eventually when they become too scared of fines under governments' attempts to regulate it into being good (governments should break it up instead).

This is a great plan for governments who don't want problematic speech to be hosted online.

Re: TikTok: Cheerfulness and censorship

#57
post #22
post #7

TikTok is, as the title says, a social network for cheerfulness and fun. I don't use it, but I can understand they outright ban politics: 1) they avoid becoming the vile cesspool Twitter has become, 2) they avoid being asked by governments around the world to take down posts, 3) they avoid being targeted in propaganda campaigns.

In Ireland there is an implicit rule that at the pub you don’t talk politics or work, looks similar…

I can understand excluding politics, but why are we drinking if it's not to lubricate our complaining about work? In what context is it acceptable for the Irish to complain about work?

Re: TikTok: Cheerfulness and censorship

#58
post #39
post #13

I fail to see why every platform has to become a fucking idealogical battleground. If I’m in the market for a social network myself (HN notwithstanding) I’d probably choose a politics-free one if possible.

Did you just call Hacker News apolitical? I feel even Reddit is better when coming to political debates because on Reddit you can find a subreddit that aligns to your political ideology. On HN, if you are from China, India, Russia, African country, the best thing you can do is to avoid articles about those geographical locations because comments will be mostly negative and any dissenting view will be downvoted until…

I can tolerate HN's political stance because it fits into a predictable larger story. American tech company is obviously going to be very pro certain topics and against others. That's predictable and reliable.

The subreddit tyranny of anonymous moderators and punishingly overwrought hivemind is a less pleasant experience. Combine that with more extreme content in general than HN and it feels fundamentally less trustworthy and more manipulative.

Re: TikTok: Cheerfulness and censorship

#59
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no such thing as a politics-free network, only one that only allows politics you agree with.

Not true. For instance it’s pretty easy to create a programming language forum that bans all off-topic content, including identity politics in programming, workplace politics, etc. Unless you believe in the bullshit that is the absence of X == automatically siding what whatever X considers its opponent (usually “the establishment” or “the status quo”) at that moment in time.

"no politics" is still a political position established by the programming authors as a form of control.

Re: TikTok: Cheerfulness and censorship

#60
post #39
post #13

I fail to see why every platform has to become a fucking idealogical battleground. If I’m in the market for a social network myself (HN notwithstanding) I’d probably choose a politics-free one if possible.

Did you just call Hacker News apolitical? I feel even Reddit is better when coming to political debates because on Reddit you can find a subreddit that aligns to your political ideology. On HN, if you are from China, India, Russia, African country, the best thing you can do is to avoid articles about those geographical locations because comments will be mostly negative and any dissenting view will be downvoted until…

> because on Reddit you can find a subreddit that aligns to your political ideology.

IMHO that makes Reddit worse for politics, not better.

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