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TikTok’s algorithm keeps pushing suicide to vulnerable kids

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Re: TikTok’s algorithm keeps pushing suicide to vulnerable kids

#111

Post by whitemary »

vlunkr wrote: post #27
nineplay wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's the conspiracy theory I 100% believe in. I don't think the reason to ban TikTok is that it gathers information, I think the reason to ban it is that its ranking algorithm is deliberately destructive. Maybe it's a coincidence that all the dangerous stunts and vandalism "pranks" come from TikTok and not Meta and Twitter, but I don't buy it. I'm leftist liberal and I have no particular paranoia about China, but I'm…

> I'm a completely leftist liberal I'm confused. Do you think the CPP is liberal? It's very authoritarian.

Liberalism is just authoritarianism with a lot of competing authorities. My American workplace is 100% authoritarian.

Re: TikTok’s algorithm keeps pushing suicide to vulnerable kids

#112

Post by [deleted] »

robopsychology wrote: post #90

> When she opened the TikTok app on his iPad, she found a library of more than 3,000 videos her son had bookmarked, liked, saved or tagged as a favorite. She could see the terms he’d searched for: Batman, basketball, weightlifting, motivational speeches. And she could see what the algorithm had brought him: many videos about depression, hopelessness and death. Horrific.

[deleted]

Re: TikTok’s algorithm keeps pushing suicide to vulnerable kids

#113

Post by pphysch »

nineplay wrote: post #23
4gotunameagain wrote: post #7

I don't know how true it is, but allegedly[1] the algorithm of tiktok in china is tuned to promote achievements and education, while in the western world it promotes debauchery and stupidity. Doesn't take a huge leap to think it could be intentional.. [1] https://www.opindia.com/2022/07/tiktok-china-engineering-oth...

It's the conspiracy theory I 100% believe in. I don't think the reason to ban TikTok is that it gathers information, I think the reason to ban it is that its ranking algorithm is deliberately destructive. Maybe it's a coincidence that all the dangerous stunts and vandalism "pranks" come from TikTok and not Meta and Twitter, but I don't buy it. I'm leftist liberal and I have no particular paranoia about China, but I'm…

USA has Hollywood, Super Bowl, and the NRA, and yet people clutch pearls when Americans get shown violent debauchery through a specific social media app. Totally unserious. These are parts of our culture that aren't necessarily universal (i.e. that would be reflected on Douyin).

Re: TikTok’s algorithm keeps pushing suicide to vulnerable kids

#114

Post by dabluecaboose »

rchaud wrote: post #98
greenhearth wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a chapter in Malcolm Gladwell's famous "The Tipping Point" that deals with waves of teenage suicides. He describes that a single suicide acts as a subliminal permission for this behavior to be mimicked. This permission is sent out as a beacon and susceptible agents replicate this behavior. I forget the details of it, but the point was that this could be extended to other behavior as well, possibly all behavio…

Gladwell's a good writer, but almost never backs up his positions with empirical evidence. I don't mind too much because I like his writing, but I wouldn't really trust his theories too much because he is a storyteller first.

For what it's worth, media contagion[1] has been a well-known factor in suicides for decades

[1] https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00031539.htm

Re: TikTok’s algorithm keeps pushing suicide to vulnerable kids

#116

Post by [deleted] »

GordonS wrote: post #33
vlunkr wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm a completely leftist liberal I'm confused. Do you think the CPP is liberal? It's very authoritarian.

I'm not the OP, but I read that qualification as meaning "I'm not some right-wing nutter that's paranoid about Red Danger, and I don't believe everything mainstream media tells me".

[deleted]

Re: TikTok’s algorithm keeps pushing suicide to vulnerable kids

#117

Post by make3 »

jrm4 wrote: post #92

This still feels like a hit piece, designed to favor e.g. Meta et al against Tiktok. While I have concerns about the above, I am MUCH more concerned that through this and Twitter's recent changes, we're slowly losing extremely valuable "alternative news sources." and that these are mostly a result of quiet socio-politcal interests, and not for many (or any) genuine concerns for safety (i.e. Facebook and Instagram wil…

I feel like the real societal harm of TikTok is the reduction of the attention span

Re: TikTok’s algorithm keeps pushing suicide to vulnerable kids

#118

Post by Dig1t »

s0rce wrote: post #104
Dig1t wrote: post #8

Seriously though, why haven't we banned TikTok yet? There is no legitimate reason to allow them to keep pushing disinfo here. There are already tons of replacements lined up ready to replace it, it would not hurt anyone in the US at all to ban it.

Why ban tiktok and not facebook + instagram?

Because Facebook and Instagram are not controlled by the CCP.

Re: TikTok’s algorithm keeps pushing suicide to vulnerable kids

#120

Post by AmericanChopper »

CuriousSkeptic wrote: post #102
AmericanChopper wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The left/right view of the political spectrum doesn’t accurately characterise politics anywhere. Almost every political party in western democracies are “liberal” in the classical sense. The only generalisation I think reliably separates left/right is the level of government intervention, in both economic and social issues, that they ideologically support. But I don’t think that translates very well into the level of…

> Almost every political party in western democracies are “liberal” in the classical sense. There is an interesting case made[1] that while this used to be true, it is actually not the case any more and that things are starting to become rather anti-liberal on both sides of the political spectrum. [1] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/102146148-what-s-our-pro...

I’m not sure I buy that argument. When I was a kid I remember we had the PMRC, panic over violence in video games, and endless debates over a different flavour of “political correctness”. They purveyors of moral panic has a different cast today (on both sides of the political spectrum), but I don’t really buy into this “everything is worse than it used to be” idea. I guess government encroachment on civil liberties tends to only head in one direction, but I’m not sure that’s the topic of the book?
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