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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

#111

Post by anonporridge »

justapassenger wrote: post #93
8f2ab37a-ed6c wrote: post #57

I'm with the rest of the commenters here in being puzzled about why TikTok is being singled out here with respect to the other social media apps. It's like comparing whiskey, vodka, and tequila in terms of health risks. You can't single out one as particularly pernicious when they do about the same thing.

Facebook, IG, Snapchat and other old social apps already had their fair share of dirt thrown at them. TikTok didn’t, and lots of people think that they are just a cool app for teenagers to record their dancing. So it’s more about telling people who already know that alcohol is bad, that White Claw is also bad.

Not really. TikTok has had tons of bad press from day one, even if it was just the sense of ick that it's just for kids and skeevy people watching young people dancing. And there's been criticism for years that it's a covert tool China is using to manipulate our youths. We need to think of the children!

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

#112

Post by pessimizer »

1shooner wrote: post #52
boomboomsubban wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Who is defending facebook in this discussion?

Anybody who isn't trying to ban it as they try to ban TikTok, unless they see a material difference in the behavior of the applications other than hypernationalism.

Ban both for kids. Double ban Instagram. If nobody has planted a flag in your moral center, you'll rarely find a reason to mention TikTok by name when talking about the manipulation and surveillance that social media decided it wants to be.

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

#113

Post by anonporridge »

initplus wrote: post #89
8f2ab37a-ed6c wrote: post #57

I'm with the rest of the commenters here in being puzzled about why TikTok is being singled out here with respect to the other social media apps. It's like comparing whiskey, vodka, and tequila in terms of health risks. You can't single out one as particularly pernicious when they do about the same thing.

All social media apps have the same goal: soak up as much of your attention as possible to get you to look at ads. But it's a difference of degrees, TikTok is simply so much more successful at soaking up peoples attention than competing platforms. TikTok is seriously affecting peoples quality of life en-masse in a way that social media has never achieved before. Any social media person will tell you how insane the nu…

> TikTok is seriously affecting peoples quality of life en-masse in a way that social media has never achieved before.

What evidence do you have that its effect is worse than other platforms? Perhaps its scale is worse, but is the actual effect on the individual that much worse than it is with Instagram?

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

#114

Post by suggestion »

bradleybuda wrote: post #28
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?"

Because it's Chinese and therefore Evil, of course /s

The CCP is objectively, unironically evil

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

#115

Post by cosmiccatnap »

I agree but nobody is holding a gun to anyone's head telling them to watch cats smelling stuff and people making songs in response to hot takes.

You want to stop them? Make a better platform that respects their privacy while still trying to make a living.

Good luck, you'll need it.

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

#116

Post by angio »

suggestion wrote: post #100
angio wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

No it's because TikTok is owned by the CCP and used as a tool to sow discord and subvert liberal democratic values so that it may destabilize the west and pave the way for CCP supremacy.

That's a conspiracy theory with, so far, no confirmation.

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

#118

Post by UmbertoNoEco »

SXX wrote: post #92
boomboomsubban wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Not that I support Facebook, but it's impossible to be moral absolutist in today's world. You either support western democracy with all it's imperfections or you are supporting authoritarian / totalitarian states. Everyone who pretend to be "politically neutral" will always be helping later. UPD: Yeah I meant "later" and not "former". Corrected.

who is 'you'? white people in the 10% of so of nato;anzac countries? maybe

the rest of he world is not interested on keep perpetuating the status quo

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

#119

Post by pessimizer »

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.

The US government is not transparent, and people try their best not to trust the US with their data.

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

#120

Post by patmcc »

kareemsabri wrote: post #103
patmcc wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>Can I settle in on Tik Tok and spend an hour gaining a deep understanding of the history of the Israel-Palestine conflict? Unironically, yes, I'd bet dollars to donuts there's some niche creator doing exactly this. As an example, one of the people I follow (@maklelan) is a PhD in theology & religion, and has ~1000 videos on biblical scholarship, the history of various religious texts, different translations/interpr…

Fair enough. I thought I'd test it. I opened Tik Tok for pretty much the first time. I've installed it but not yet used it. It showed me a bunch of girls dancing, as expected. I thought I could swipe up / down to tell them what I like, but I can only swipe up, so I'm not sure how I train it. I searched "Israel Palestine". I got an Irish guy named Freddy Quinne telling me it's like "coming home from work one day, only…

Oh, it's absolutely not easy finding that niche content. You're going to need to swipe past a lot of cleavage to find anything else. To get more of whatever you're currently on, re-watching, liking, commenting all probably work. To get less, either swipe past quickly or long press (I think?) and you can choose "not interested" or something. I think there are other ways to block particular creators and sounds (and maybe filters?) if you don't want to see that specific thing.

The search does leave something to be desired - the app is very much designed for just endless scrolling.

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