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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

#151
post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Which part is a conspiracy theory?

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

#152

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."

If it's jingoism to support Western enlightenment values, liberal democracy, and basic human rights, then yeah I guess I'm a jingo.

There's a patriot in China talking about you and your government in exactly the same way. And his government has a quarter of the incarceration rate the US does, and bases its governance on the work of one of Hegel's students.

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

#153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Online services can only do so much due diligence. Do you want mandatory photo ID & facial verficiation instead? That would be infinitely more harmful to user privacy.

So now we're discussing implementation? Does that mean we've moved on from "this is a good idea"?

No one is walking down your path of false logic other than your own baseless assumptions.

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

#154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The problem is that we don't control it and China does. So, if TikTok was a US-based company (like Meta) fucking up peoples' minds (like Meta) it would be fine? Sounds a bit racist, if not everybody is allowed to destroy lives.

It would be less bad, yes, because American elites could more easily co-opt and control it to their support own agendas, like they are doing with Meta and Twitter and have done with all traditional media. I have heard it said that in China, the TikTok algorithm heavily favors content supporting and glorifying science and engineering, in an attempt to encourage their youths to go into those fields, while here, they pr…

Im in Taiwan, I downloaded tiktok, and basically in between a bunch of Taiwan content, was bombarded with propaganda videos about how covid started in the US and it’s all the US fault, and how amazing China is…

So I don’t doubt they push content that keeps us dumb while they try to use their own platform for good inside China.

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

#155

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.

The idea is that if religion is like an opium for the masses, and if Facebook is more like morphine, TikTok is like poorly made fentanyl.

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

#156
post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. TikTok appears to be the optimum in social media platform evolution for the foreseeable future. The other platforms don't even come close. TikTok presents a perfect stream of user interests - no "friends" that bare little interest graph similarity. It's all delivered in a video funnel (great for ads) and A/B tests are so natural they're part of the platform itself. Highly optimized dopamine-triggering doom scrolli…

> TikTok appears to be the optimum in social media platform evolution for the foreseeable future. Could have been Vine, but we allow leaders in an industry to buy out insurgent, innovative competition and shut them down. > Furthermore, all US-based social media is blocked in China, and there's an argument for reciprocity. Reciprocity would be walling off sections of our social networks that could be bound to Chinese…

> We get a special TikTok that isn't bound by Chinese censorship

Content negative to China gets removed all the time while content negative to the US stays up. So I would assume there is still censorship.

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

#157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah but just because you made a list of unrelated things, doesn't mean I have to let my kids get addicted to some silly government controlled app. I wouldnt want them to get addicted to gambling, or drugs either. Thatd be a dumb thing to do. The power of marketing is real.

The fact OP included the dark web in this list shows how little they paid attention while constructing this list

Maybe you should elaborate in the interest of having a meaningful discussion.

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

#158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They do seem to have a policy of asymmetric warfare, for example turning a blind eye to the export of fentanyl. It's not exactly far fetched. See the book "Unrestricted Warfare" by 2 PLA colonels. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unrestricted_Warfare

I doubt they merely turn a blind eye. China's mass production and export of fentanyl strikes me as a literal modern Opium War.

Is it really possible for anyone to doubt that it is anything but this?

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

#159
post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Which part is a conspiracy theory?

That the content is promoted to create disorder. Facebook has similar issues (they're even being sued for contributing to genocide) but they were never accused of the same thing (but mostly of negligence).

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

#160
post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Everyone who pretend to be "politically neutral" will always be helping former. I'll assume you mean latter, easy mistake to make. Personally I find the "if you aren't supporting the ridiculous things we're doing you're supporting the enemy" argument ridiculous. I'm capable of thinking both need to seriously change, and think it's a better use of my time to try and change the Western Democracy I am a part of as it's…

I'm neither meant to mark anyone as traitor nor I like how Facebook affected society. At the same time I totally for any limitation or sanctions against media companies controlled by totalitarian or authoritarian states. Allowing literal "enemy" propoganda machines to run freely while they banned everything in their own countries is madness. Disclaimer: I'm not US or EU citizen. I just seen how my home country change…

A Western democracy invented nuclear fire, is the only country to have ever burned anyone in nuclear fire, and is currently threatening the two largest nuclear powers on the basis of their border disputes.
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