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TikTok overtakes Facebook as most downloaded app

asia.nikkei.com

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Re: TikTok overtakes Facebook as most downloaded app

#321
I am honestly stunned that so many people apparently use both HN & TikTok.

What does it offer you? Why isn't it the reserve of teens and younger that I thought it was? (I'm in my twenties, it's not news to me that I'm out of touch with the modal person my age/younger, but I'm not totally obliviously removed by generations or anything, and seemingly it's not just used by people my age/younger anyway.)

Re: TikTok overtakes Facebook as most downloaded app

#323
post #317
post #283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What sort of manipulative amplification/suppression, specifically? I don't know if this counts but I was surprised to run into this pro-DPRK account while scrolling recently: https://www.tiktok.com/@dprkorea_?lang=en It purports to show North Korea through the lens of a hidden camera. Plenty of shots of couples holding hands and playing badminton without nets. I get the sense that this is propaganda and not genuine…

Why wouldn't North Koeans hold hands? Most have normal lives in an abnormal place. The best performers train there entire lives and put on shows year round. Secretly they hope the leader will show up one day. In America people wait hoirs to get a star to sign something. In North Korea the biggest star is the leader. From the real footage I've seen it's a crazy place with normal people who do normal things.

> Why wouldn't North Koeans hold hands? Most have normal lives in an abnormal place.

Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that they wouldn't. What I'm trying to convey is: I have no idea what life in North Korea is like because (to my understanding) nearly every photo that is taken and leaves the country must be approved by North Korean officials[1].

I think many people would love to see North Korea as it is, not as North Korean officials would like it to appear. As such, a TikTok account that claims to be secretly filming North Koreans and exfiltrating that footage is very interesting. However, I believe there is a good chance that this footage is still released with the approval of the North Korean government and does not accurately capture the everyday lives of North Koreans.

The fundamental problem here is that I don't know what life in North Korea is like. I cannot claim with certainty that this footage was staged. I suspect the same could be said about the footage that you've seen, it is very hard for outsiders to know what is real and what is not.

[1] https://www.businessinsider.com/north-korea-life-photos-2018...

Re: TikTok overtakes Facebook as most downloaded app

#324

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you had an issue with Zuck calling early Facebook users "dumb f**ks," wait until you find out what's going on behind the closed Tik Tok doors. You have to remember - we're still in the honeymoon phase with Tik Tok and haven't learned to hate them yet. Once the media and all your friends start sharing hatred about Tik Tok, leaks are going to start coming out, and there will be all the other fun ways through which w…

China was supposed to start overtaking the US, but the one child policy knee-capped that route. Now their workforce is getting much smaller and the burden of care for the elderly is growing fast.

Unless you count farmers as part of the workforce, otherwise China will not see a reduction of their workforce for 10-15 years.

Re: TikTok overtakes Facebook as most downloaded app

#325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For YT, try a client like NewPipe or SmartTubeNext that can be configured with adbock & sponsor block, and which is less "in your face" about suggesting/autoplaying rabbit-hole content.

How do they pull of this off? I’m assuming Google would defend aggressively against these type of clients.

Considering NewPipe isn't available in the Play Store or at all on iOS, I'd imagine the number of people using it is small enough that Google doesn't care too much.

Technology-wise, NewPipe builds off of the back of youtube-dl and a custom page parser, and SponsorBlock uses a user-built database of timestamps.

Re: TikTok overtakes Facebook as most downloaded app

#326
post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, it does sound terrible, on any level. Just get rid of minority viewpoints rather than enforce some sort of basic civility when discussing them? Just get rid of the harassed rather than the harassers? How will that iterate over time? That would be like firing the current women coming forward against Governor Cuomo and leaving the governor alone to continue his ways, to put it in a current headline context.

Do minorities have the right to force the majority to listen? That is the abstract question this policy is dancing around. Or, do you let the minority talk to the minority…

I think that’s an odd way of framing the issue. No-one is being forced to listen to anyone on TikTok. The question is whether certain minority groups should have their videos artificially lowered in the recommendation rankings. To do this on the grounds that people bully and harass members of these groups is surely just to let the bullies win.

Re: TikTok overtakes Facebook as most downloaded app

#327
Has anyone actually enjoyed using Facebook since 2009? Other than to very occasionally interact with old friends from high school and college, it's all just noise as far as I'm concerned. Everyone is too afraid of making the wrong step in the Real Name panopticon. Nobody under 30 wants to use it. On a good day, it's just a worse version of Craigslist (Marketplace).

TikTok at least makes me laugh. It's something to flip through while I do mindless cardio at the gym.

Re: TikTok overtakes Facebook as most downloaded app

#328

I'm baffled by the glowing endorsements of TikTok on Hacker News of all places. TikTok content comes across as completely vapid. It's like the worst possible mashup of bad television and social media. As a company TikTok seems to have zero goals beyond increasing engagement.

I'm deep into exploring farming practices, a funny opthamologist and queer culture. All of which I am not exposed to in my regular life and are not shallow.

It's as deep as you want to make it. As vapid as you want to make it.

Re: TikTok overtakes Facebook as most downloaded app

#330
post #25

I'm a huge fan of TikTok because after years of content stagnation and dullness, the internet is fun again. Especially places like Twitter and Instagram are outrage and depression inducers for me, consumed together it feels like the society is collapsing but everyone is living a perfect life at the same time. The China thing is touchy but I want the west to beat them by being better, not by being dismissive and prote…

TikTok's algorithm is just pre 2017 YT and FB cranked up by 100X. For some reason the media hasn't gone after TikTok yet for pushing people into "echo chambers" but they basically just feed the most engaging content with no breaks on the train. I read an article about the parent company and they have one of the most popular news app in India as well despite none of the engineers being able to read what content is bei…

> they basically just feed the most engaging content with no breaks on the train.

this is simply not true, i regularly get videos with less than 100 views, and a few videos i published got a few hundred views.

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