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TikTok is manipulative, addictive, and harmful to privacy

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Re: TikTok is manipulative, addictive, and harmful to privacy

#41

Post by hnuser52395 »

Quikinterp wrote: post #27
UIUC_06 wrote: post #24

Point: Tobacco is especially bad for young children. Therefore we must restrict it for children. Counterpoint: Caffeine is bad, too. Therefore, should we also outlaw Coca-Cola for children? The argument that "TikTok is no worse than other social media" is the Counterpoint. TikTok is very bad for children and adolescents, and we should do the difficult-but-honorable thing and prevent them from using it. If that's diff…

I don't want to sound pedantic or smug, but I think maybe coca-cola should be banned for children too. Perhaps not illegal but just not for sale for children. I think social media should be similar. 16+ at least

Nah, schools should teach children about appeals used in advertising and propaganda to resist marketing, and why and how to avoid junk food.

In addition, the parents, rather than the state, should also have greater responsibility for what junk foods a child can have access to consume.

Re: TikTok is manipulative, addictive, and harmful to privacy

#42

Post by woevdbz »

watwut wrote: post #23

There is more complaining about kids making tiktok videos then there was about them making super offensive memes on 4chan.

Is that surprising given that there are approx 2 or 3 orders of magnitude difference between the popularity of these platforms? 4chan is and has always been fringe even within its demographic, whereas TikTok is already one of the dominant networks.

Re: TikTok is manipulative, addictive, and harmful to privacy

#43

Post by badRNG »

daqnal wrote: post #32
badRNG wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> TikTok is spyware. TikTok is an adversary. In what unique ways is TikTok compromising privacy that Facebook isn't that warrants the labels of "spyware" and being "the adversary?"

Its legislation. More transparent governments like the US' are generally trusted with data over closed governments, at least, for the majority of Westerners.

Are you more likely to be harmed by the US collecting data or China?

If a woman is seeking an abortion, is she better off using a service that collects data for the US or China?

Re: TikTok is manipulative, addictive, and harmful to privacy

#44

Post by angio »

Reminder that Facebook paid a firm to create negative buzz around TikTok [0].

> The firm, Targeted Victory, pushed local operatives across the country to boost messages calling TikTok a threat to American children. “Dream would be to get stories with headlines like ‘From dances to danger,’ ” one campaign director said.

> The campaign includes placing op-eds and letters to the editor in major regional news outlets, promoting dubious stories about alleged TikTok trends that actually originated on Facebook, and pushing to draw political reporters and local politicians into helping take down its biggest competitor.

[0] https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/03/30/faceboo...

Re: TikTok is manipulative, addictive, and harmful to privacy

#45

Post by pasquinelli »

UIUC_06 wrote: post #24

Point: Tobacco is especially bad for young children. Therefore we must restrict it for children. Counterpoint: Caffeine is bad, too. Therefore, should we also outlaw Coca-Cola for children? The argument that "TikTok is no worse than other social media" is the Counterpoint. TikTok is very bad for children and adolescents, and we should do the difficult-but-honorable thing and prevent them from using it. If that's diff…

your analogy is wrong. the correct analogy would have the point be that a particular brand of tobacco is particularly bad for children.

Re: TikTok is manipulative, addictive, and harmful to privacy

#46

Post by xtracto »

bilsbie wrote: post #21

I’ve been using TikTok for search lately and it kind of works. Web is at a point where it’s faster to watch a video than open a search result. Click a cookie warning, figure out how to disable my ad blocker, and hope I’m not on an SEO page.

The current state of text-based Web is unusable. It's mostly SEO text walls with fill up content for SEO. Most of the content is in Youtube videos, which also have it's own filler blabber but at least you find answers.

It's terrible how the "strategic decisions" of one company (Google/Youtube) have marked the flow/form of information in the web. Even "for pay" content providers (mostly news sites) now shove video when you enter into their websites.

Long lost and forgotten are information dense text sites like HowTOs, Benchmarks, Shoot outs and similar web pages from the 90s and early 2000s.

Re: TikTok is manipulative, addictive, and harmful to privacy

#47

Post by angio »

suggestion wrote: post #38
bradleybuda wrote: post #26

As far as I can tell, TikTok scares like these are 30% standard social media moral panic, 70% jingoism. Everyone knows that they are paying for TikTok with their data and a few hundred million people (myself included) are okay with that calculus and making a rational, informed decision to continue using the product.

You're not paying with your data, you're paying with the foundations of functioning society and democracy that are being algorithmically subverted by a totalitarian slave state. The very things that trend on TikTok in the West are banned and filtered in China for a reason.

That's because China has strict censorship laws while the US protects free speech. TikTok (like Meta) follows local regulations when it comes to their content.

Re: TikTok is manipulative, addictive, and harmful to privacy

#48

Post by angio »

daqnal wrote: post #32
badRNG wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> TikTok is spyware. TikTok is an adversary. In what unique ways is TikTok compromising privacy that Facebook isn't that warrants the labels of "spyware" and being "the adversary?"

Its legislation. More transparent governments like the US' are generally trusted with data over closed governments, at least, for the majority of Westerners.

Funny thing to say when US-based services are being challenged in the EU because the US government is, in fact, not trusted with EU citizens data.

Re: TikTok is manipulative, addictive, and harmful to privacy

#49

Post by Barrin92 »

>Whatever the strength of your scroll, you are going to be shown the next video TikTok selected for you, one by one — or keep moving your finger to actively scroll up after each video begins. They are in control of what you see, not you

I mean this is just plain wrong given that TikTok has a search function. In fact this seems to work so well for young people that apparently half of Gen Z is now using TikTok as a replacement for Google[1].

>TikTok is newer and much less scrutinized than Facebook and Google

TikTok barely escaped being forced to sell off or open up their codebase to inspection by authorities for what was essentially just nationalistic paranoia. Anything said in this piece applies to American domestic companies. the article follows the typical style of "throw enough shit and hope that some of it sticks" together with spurious assumptions about what, why or how people use the app or get out of it.

>TikTok is not a suitable place for content that is purely informative or educational, that follows a normal learning pace,

well no shit because it's not a replacement for school, it's a short form video app. That's not a crime. There's honestly a decent amount of educational stuff and people do use it for that purpose. This goes for criticism of Facebook and Instagram as well by the way, these are tools, not replacements for parenting or education and it's the parents job, not the companies to see that children use them appropriately.

[1]https://www.businessinsider.com/nearly-half-genz-use-tiktok-...

Re: TikTok is manipulative, addictive, and harmful to privacy

#50

Post by boomboomsubban »

suggestion wrote: post #38
bradleybuda wrote: post #26

As far as I can tell, TikTok scares like these are 30% standard social media moral panic, 70% jingoism. Everyone knows that they are paying for TikTok with their data and a few hundred million people (myself included) are okay with that calculus and making a rational, informed decision to continue using the product.

You're not paying with your data, you're paying with the foundations of functioning society and democracy that are being algorithmically subverted by a totalitarian slave state. The very things that trend on TikTok in the West are banned and filtered in China for a reason.

Jingoism. "Facebook may algorithmically subvert the foundations of society and democracy, but at least it's being done by a state I support."
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