One App – Two Worlds: This Is TikTok in Russia and Ukraine

Post by kube-system » Tue, Apr 05, 2022, 1:42 PM UTC

sourthyme wrote: post #30

toxik wrote: post #24

The dream of the internet as some sort of great democratizing force is already dead and buried, but for any who still believes, this must surely be the final nail in that coffin. Controlling the narrative is only a problem for existing democracies with press freedom. All bets are off once the threat model includes control of the media. So cherish your freedom of speech, and exercise and defend it. I don’t know what t…

To me TikTok is not the "internet" because no matter how much the app gives, the user doesn't own their content. You can still write anything in a blog that you own and have people see it. To me that freedom is the "internet".

Post by Noumenon72 » Tue, Apr 05, 2022, 1:43 PM UTC

catchclose8919 wrote: post #9

...uhm, isn't TikTok practically irrelevant in Russia now that they've stopped allowing users to post new content?! I mean, this is what ppl use it for, viewing new content from ppl like them and posting new content hoping to get "famous". With all respect for the author's work, this is not very relevant, since TikTok is in "zombie mode" now for Russia.

Post by ajsnigrutin » Tue, Apr 05, 2022, 1:43 PM UTC

viraptor wrote: post #87

toxik wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed, I was also surprised that the EU would do the very thing that is supposed to set it apart: media censorship.

RT was targeted multiple times in the past - this is not exactly a new thing. RT itself was not really censored either (not in the way specific information is outright illegal in Russia for example) - you can still go to the source if you really want to. (See the comment below about domain blocking though) They're just forbidden from using the national broadcast, since that was always controlled by various orgs. In m…

Post by ianbutler » Tue, Apr 05, 2022, 1:50 PM UTC

Joeri wrote: post #73

dotancohen wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The threat that you're modeling against is not a threat to the internet. The internet is a group of technologies enabling near-realtime dissemination of information. It has no implicit promise of freedom of speech or press, democracy, or any other political ideal. Even the World Wide Web has no such implicit promise. The great democratizing force to which you refer is the ability to publish content, and to an extent…

Like the zen koan, does a piece of information exist of no one is around to read it? Self-hosting is mostly pointless because the problem is the walled gardens trapping global attention. Many people barely see a browser window, and consume all online information inside the walled gardens. Whether you publish outside that garden or not it is effectively the same, because they will never see what you write.

Post by selestify » Tue, Apr 05, 2022, 1:57 PM UTC

pydry wrote: post #77

dotancohen wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The threat that you're modeling against is not a threat to the internet. The internet is a group of technologies enabling near-realtime dissemination of information. It has no implicit promise of freedom of speech or press, democracy, or any other political ideal. Even the World Wide Web has no such implicit promise. The great democratizing force to which you refer is the ability to publish content, and to an extent…

My great hope in the early 2000s was that all you had to do was provide a route for information and the effect of propaganda would crumble once people had access to the truth. And, the internet did provide the route that did not exist before it just didnt matter. Truth is that people largely place trust in institutions and people they are used to and identify with, often for irrational reasons. People are prone to FU…