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South Dakota first to ban TikTok on state-owned devices

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Re: South Dakota first to ban TikTok on state-owned devices

#131

Post by leereeves »

lzooz wrote: post #55
leereeves wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I found that European TV is a lot drier and more educational than US TV, but I don't know if that's because of interest, regulation, a smaller market (in each language), or ?

I've only watched European TV but if you say US TV is even worse... it must be like in that movie Idiocracy

Worse. In the next hour, the History Channel has a show about UFOs, the Travel Channel about ghosts, National Geographic about drugs, TLC (formerly The Learning Channel) has a dating show, and about 10 channels have shows about murders.

Re: South Dakota first to ban TikTok on state-owned devices

#132

Post by nradov »

DiogenesKynikos wrote: post #121
gjsman-1000 wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is a paranoid vision of how China works. The more I read about China the more paranoid I get. I don't think they haven't earned it.

I recommend going to China and seeing for yourself. What you read from afar and what you see on the ground are very different. Imagine if all you heard about the US were constant stories about gun violence, drone strikes and homelessness. You'd have a very distorted view of life in America. That's basically the situation with China, if your only point of reference is what you read in the English-language media.

Only an idiot would risk traveling to China at this point. You could be detained and held as a political bargaining chip.

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/06/19/families-biden-admi...

I should have visited China back when it was opening up and relations were relatively friendly. But now that we have entered a new Cold War it's too late, I missed my chance.

Re: South Dakota first to ban TikTok on state-owned devices

#133

Post by MrPatan »

blopker wrote: post #76
hammock wrote: post #5

The bigger deal (bigger than the tracking that people usually focus on) might be how the algorithm is specifically tuned to reward dumb content in the US, compared to rewarding STEM and other educational content in China. One minute video that explains: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hus9fWz0RRk Further reading: https://www.opindia.com/2022/07/tiktok-china-engineering-oth...

I'm not sure if this claim is true or not, but the person in your first reference is Andrew Schulz. He's a comedian who has already come out to say that he made all that up, and the media just ran with it [0]. [0]: https://youtube.com/shorts/tAV3QkzHC5E

Doesn't matter. They could do it, and they are not really a friendly state, if not in a hot war currently. Why would you hand them the capability?

Re: South Dakota first to ban TikTok on state-owned devices

#134

Post by 2OEH8eoCRo0 »

nemothekid wrote: post #120
2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> sinophobic How?

If you are concerned about the content that American's consume, there is no reason to single out TikTok. Instagram has been shoving the same garbage into the feeds of teenagers for nearly a decade and Reels is nearly exact clone of TikTok. There is little "educational" content on Instagram Reels. The solution would be regulate all the social media companies, like how China does. If the problem is solely TikTok, then…

It's not that it's owned by Chinese, it's that it is based in China with demonstrated links to the Chinese communist government.

It's not sinophobic to distrust the Chinese government. Are the Chinese protestors sinophobes?

Re: South Dakota first to ban TikTok on state-owned devices

#135

Post by satoru42 »

hammock wrote: post #5

The bigger deal (bigger than the tracking that people usually focus on) might be how the algorithm is specifically tuned to reward dumb content in the US, compared to rewarding STEM and other educational content in China. One minute video that explains: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hus9fWz0RRk Further reading: https://www.opindia.com/2022/07/tiktok-china-engineering-oth...

How much dumb content does it take for one to believe such bullshit? Of course, the system are rewarding dumb content all over the world, because dumb people are the majority all over this planet.

Re: South Dakota first to ban TikTok on state-owned devices

#136

Post by themodelplumber »

gjsman-1000 wrote: post #79
blopker wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure if this claim is true or not, but the person in your first reference is Andrew Schulz. He's a comedian who has already come out to say that he made all that up, and the media just ran with it [0]. [0]: https://youtube.com/shorts/tAV3QkzHC5E

So he made it up thinking it was fake - but now it has been independently shown to be likely true. In which case he made up a conspiracy theory then demonstrated to be accurate when he thought it was a joke. https://www.china-briefing.com/news/china-passes-sweeping-re... https://www.deseret.com/2022/11/24/23467181/difference-betwe... CBS 60 Minutes Interview with an IT expert just 3 weeks ago: https://www.youtube.com…

One note on that sourcing: I would not generally find Deseret News (i.e. Mormon cultural-industrial-habits-porn outlet) a credible source in this context.

I also design productivity systems as part of my job, and found that watching TikTok in the laziest way possible can be an outstanding part of such a system.

We are long past the Horatio Alger bootstrapping days where we condemn procrastination and laziness out of hand. And yet Chinese government culture continues to try to speak with that always-on productivity-porn voice--fine, let them do it, see how it works out. They love to wax poetic about theoretical human machinery without giving attention to a reasonable duty cycle concept.

And keep in mind that they are simultaneously blocking a lot of that E-word they hate: Expression.

We now have much more deep, nuanced experience with productivity that exists and outperforms outside of that context.

IMO TikTok is better feared (if that's the lens) for the more rational, non-propagandistic reasons.

Re: South Dakota first to ban TikTok on state-owned devices

#137

Post by Karunamon »

gjsman-1000 wrote: post #119
the_lonely_road wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your point would be stronger if YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and every streaming service in the country was showing the same kind of content. TikTok getting bashed for serving American consumers American content is one of the silliest trends on Hacker News.

And the CCP doesn't have ties or influence with them...

Not to the degree that TikTok does. If you have evidence to the contrary, please share it.

Re: South Dakota first to ban TikTok on state-owned devices

#138

Post by dools »

LAC-Tech wrote: post #21
pjc50 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US doesn't reward factual programming, that's why the History Channel turned into the Ancient Aliens Channel.

As opposed to what other part of the world? Interest in drier, more educational content is less for every human society I know of.

My youngest daughter’s favourite TV show is operation ouch which is aired on the ABC and produced by the BBC.

Having a publicly funded TV network goes a long way to producing good content.

Re: South Dakota first to ban TikTok on state-owned devices

#140

Post by mbgerring »

TikTok is such an obvious threat on so many levels, it’s very hard to understand why we don’t talk about this more.

I don't feel like its controversial to say that social media algorithms can be designed to manipulate people, or that this capability is especially dangerous in the hands of a hostile state. It seems to me like TikTok is ripe for weaponization in any future conflict between China and any other country.

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