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As TikTok grows, so does suspicion

economist.com

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Re: As TikTok grows, so does suspicion

#71

Post by shostack »

dijit wrote: post #66
dymk wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, US/China relations are pretty distinct from US/EU relations.

Why do you think that's the case? Aside from the trade-war that's going on, which is pretty arbirary; The US has routinely spied on Europe, allowed backdoored technology to make it's way into the continent including to spy on government officials from another sovereign (allegedly allied ) nation. It's hard for me not to draw direct comparisons, because other than the surface level of "everything's fine, we have a com…

Well for one, there's this thing called NATO. For another there isn't constant saber rattling between the EU and US.

Re: As TikTok grows, so does suspicion

#72

Post by ok123456 »

unixhero wrote: post #43

TikTok is an AMAZING platform for original content on just about everything.

And that's the reason people use it.

It eats into the consent manufacturing pipeline that the US has carved out and that's the reason they're really worried.

"Military recruitment is down because of TikTok!" No. There are just service members who are showing what it's really like there.

Re: As TikTok grows, so does suspicion

#73

Post by bigcat12345678 »

crmd wrote: post #28

85% of US teenagers use tiktok. That's 85% of the future generation of US senators, Cabinet members, and Supreme Court justices, of police chiefs, civil rights activists, mayors, CEOs, etc. in their bedrooms right now consuming content curated by, and filming their lives and that of their friends, and uploading the video to data centers, that are controlled by a strategic adversary of the United States. This is, to p…

> 85% of US teenagers use tiktok. That's 85% of the future generation of US senators, Cabinet members, and Supreme Court justices, of police chiefs, civil rights activists, mayors, CEOs, etc.

What's the basis of social elites are coming uniformly from the population?

I think it's obvious that the social elites in all areas are predominantly from wealthy and affluent families. So the line of thinking of 85% teens corresponding to 85% or some number close elites, is baseless at best, and misleading at worst.

Re: As TikTok grows, so does suspicion

#74

Post by meowtimemania »

novok wrote: post #17
tonymet wrote: post #5

they mention data harvesting and influencing public relations as risks, and both are worrisome . another more subtle but pernicious concern is the trivialization of entertainment (which started from a low bar ) tiktok is addictive and much of the content is low bar , slapstick and sexually suggestive thirst traps . there may be a good share of high quality content , but we all know time spent is on garbage. our grand…

Imo tiktok is a bit of a mirror. Its a thirst trap for you. For the short time i used it, it quickly started centering around cute/funny pets and science explainer videos. I also doubt it would show thirst traps to the typical straight female user too too.

I think GP's point still stands. There is good content on TikTok, but given the time many users spend, the content isn't a good trade for time. Same could be said for other platforms. Tiktok/youtube worry me most since they seem to be the most addictive for kids.

Re: As TikTok grows, so does suspicion

#76

Post by est31 »

Ekaros wrote: post #42
djbusby wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of the other Chinese apps were clones. TikTock was a novel improvement to the crap of Twitter and Facebook, etc. And it's algo is(was?) very "good"

One has to wonder why none of the big USA based players don't have as good product? From what I have heard there isn't really anything special with the app itself. Ofc, it has reached the critical mass in creators, but it was there for taking...

Youtube has built shorts (youtube tiktok competitor), and according to Google it has more users now than tiktok [0] even though it's been launched in September 2020. It contains tons of reposts of tiktok videos, sometimes legal ones by the original creators, sometimes uploads by third parties.

That being said, I would take that claim with a big grain of salt, for multiple reasons. First you need to look at the relevant generation where tiktok is strong, whether youtube can break that monopoly. Also, it's fairly easy to make existing youtube users "try out" shorts via an in app pop up, and then mark that down as successful use of the feature. If your app has enough users, you can reach relevant usage counts easily, even though none of the users are there for the shorts feature only.

Also, what matters with social apps like these is also not just the content consumption but whether friend groups etc. are communicating on that app or another one. This has extremely strong network effects that are hard to break.

[0]: https://www.investors.com/news/technology/google-stock-rises...

Re: As TikTok grows, so does suspicion

#77

Post by Avamander »

rasz wrote: post #65
unixhero wrote: post #43

TikTok is an AMAZING platform for original content on just about everything.

for reposting copies of original content?

There's a significant amount of original content on TikTok, so I'm not sure what you've seen exactly, but you might want to scroll past those to see less of them.

Re: As TikTok grows, so does suspicion

#78

Post by winternett »

analyst74 wrote: post #39
winternett wrote: post #22

I don't think it's the privacy issues that will defeat TikTok, I think it's the deception of a success economy being possible on the platform. In the past few weeks I've been observing a lot of marginal content trending on the platform which indicates to me that a lot of the more quality posters aren't posting new content. The minute quality creators leave a platform is the minute it dies. TikTok has not really been…

For successful YouTubers, the money coming from YT is actually not their primary income, one YouTuber publically said YT payout is ~1/4 of their total revenue. Their other main sources of revenue includes brand deals, affiliates, product/merc sales and direct donation. Tiktokers are generally following YouTuber model in how they monetize their content, minus Ads revenue share.

If Microsoft said "Come work for us every day for free, you may get brand deals!"

Would anyone with talent, skills, and self respect jump to do it?

Working for free at a large and quite profitable company?

The problem is that because of how perception can be manipulated on social platforms based on that success illusion. It makes people think that the success comes just for creating simple content, and trumps one's ability to prioritize making money to do real world things like paying rent and for food. It's borderline exploitation of children, who often over expose themselves just for likes, and that is going to be bad for their future prospects in being taken seriously when they want to get real world and respectable jobs.

It's free work with little reward. The brand deals go to celebrity creators, NOT to normal creators, while the platform profits massively and underpays most everyone who does the real work. Most of the influencers on these platforms find that even the popularity they gain fades quickly in the real world, especially as the platforms begin to decline in popularity as well, and the minute they stop working hard for free.

We need to stop fooling ourselves about it all.

Re: As TikTok grows, so does suspicion

#79

Post by [deleted] »

tonymet wrote: post #5

they mention data harvesting and influencing public relations as risks, and both are worrisome . another more subtle but pernicious concern is the trivialization of entertainment (which started from a low bar ) tiktok is addictive and much of the content is low bar , slapstick and sexually suggestive thirst traps . there may be a good share of high quality content , but we all know time spent is on garbage. our grand…

[deleted]

Re: As TikTok grows, so does suspicion

#80

Post by ralusek »

dijit wrote: post #66
dymk wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, US/China relations are pretty distinct from US/EU relations.

Why do you think that's the case? Aside from the trade-war that's going on, which is pretty arbirary; The US has routinely spied on Europe, allowed backdoored technology to make it's way into the continent including to spy on government officials from another sovereign (allegedly allied ) nation. It's hard for me not to draw direct comparisons, because other than the surface level of "everything's fine, we have a com…

EU and US are both fundamentally liberal democracies and not adversarial. China is an authoritarian single party state which openly declares the US an enemy...
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