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TikTok Told Moderators to Suppress Posts by “Ugly” People and the Poor

theintercept.com

1–10 of 23 posts

Re: TikTok Told Moderators to Suppress Posts by “Ugly” People and the Poor

#4
post #2

Yes, but doesn't Instagram by natural vote (based on views) also punish ugly people?

Whataboutism doesn't help the conversation

Edit in response to commenter: Whataboutism is a Meme? It a logical failure and when used it should be dismissed since it highjacks the conversation which is about what tiktok did (which is different from what insta and friends do).

Re: TikTok Told Moderators to Suppress Posts by “Ugly” People and the Poor

#5
post #2

Yes, but doesn't Instagram by natural vote (based on views) also punish ugly people?

Yes. I guess it's no secret that the influencer economy is dominated by people who you could call conventionally attractive or people with lifestyles that young people would want to emulate.

This is of course not news as people in entertainment have always set impossible (and rather shallow and conventional) beauty standards, but I think apps like tiktok with their engagement drive it even faster.

You see a lot of discussions these days about dating behaviour on Tinder as well as people being obsessed with height in their profiles and whatnot, and we seriously have to wonder what this interaction through apps is doing to our social life.

Re: TikTok Told Moderators to Suppress Posts by “Ugly” People and the Poor

#6
post #4
post #2

Yes, but doesn't Instagram by natural vote (based on views) also punish ugly people?

Whataboutism doesn't help the conversation Edit in response to commenter: Whataboutism is a Meme? It a logical failure and when used it should be dismissed since it highjacks the conversation which is about what tiktok did (which is different from what insta and friends do).

Neither does dismissing things with a meme.

Re: TikTok Told Moderators to Suppress Posts by “Ugly” People and the Poor

#7
post #2

Yes, but doesn't Instagram by natural vote (based on views) also punish ugly people?

Not getting upvotes naturally is different from being suppressed by the platform. Specifically tiktok seems to remove the opportunity for success early. Lower votes on Instagram mean just lower votes - smaller communities can still get organised around the "undesirable" profiles.

You can't actually "punish" anyone on IG using voting, because as far as I can tell, you can't downvote.

Re: TikTok Told Moderators to Suppress Posts by “Ugly” People and the Poor

#8
post #2

Yes, but doesn't Instagram by natural vote (based on views) also punish ugly people?

There's no 'but'.

Companies that sell products for the disabled are not 'discriminated against' by the pretty and able-bodied who don't buy their products by virtue of the fact they don't want them.

There are no hairs to be split here: discriminating against the disabled is reprehensible if not illegal, moderating against those who are 'poor or ugly' is at least reprehensible, and suppressing those who don't support the Chinese State is deeply problematic, though it might not be illegal, it should be, at least for users within non-Chinese jurisdictions wherein the can establish regulations concerning this.

To boot, if it can be demonstrated that TikTok receives direct or indirect state aid, then they're violating WTO rules [1].

[1] https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/statra_e/statrad.htm

Re: TikTok Told Moderators to Suppress Posts by “Ugly” People and the Poor

#9
Distillation of Chinese / Tik Tok model:

1) Maintain political serenity via suppression of fringe politics.

2) Hide "embarrassment" which is distinct form merely promoting glamour.

It's a algorithm for stable mass appeal, you don't get much fringe representation, but you also don't get Arab spring. For many countries, that's the pragmatic priority.

Re: TikTok Told Moderators to Suppress Posts by “Ugly” People and the Poor

#10
post #4
post #2

Yes, but doesn't Instagram by natural vote (based on views) also punish ugly people?

Whataboutism doesn't help the conversation Edit in response to commenter: Whataboutism is a Meme? It a logical failure and when used it should be dismissed since it highjacks the conversation which is about what tiktok did (which is different from what insta and friends do).

https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...

In particular: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21854822

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