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TikTok told moderators to suppress posts by “ugly” people and the poor

theintercept.com

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Re: TikTok told moderators to suppress posts by “ugly” people and the poor

#191

Post by robbrown451 »

Would we be upset if they told the moderators "try to promote things that will be shared/upvoted a lot", and tied their earnings to how good they did at picking winners? Even if the effect was precisely the same?

Basically, what seems to have happened is someone worded it crassly, but they were just telling them to think like marketing people, and use common sense. Also, the word "suppression" implies censorship and heavy handedness, while "promote" seems harmless. But they can really be describing the same process.

Re: TikTok told moderators to suppress posts by “ugly” people and the poor

#193

Post by leereeves »

rrdharan wrote: post #175
leereeves wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you desperately want to be part of a group that doesn’t want you, then that’s your problem to overcome. Tell that to the black people who demanded the right to eat in "white" restaurants.

Wow, so now the nightclub line is a civil rights issue? This is an incredibly ignorant and offensive analogy.

The restaurant counter was one of the first civil rights issues. Not that different from a nightclub. What's the real difference here? That effectively segregating ugly people is more acceptable than segregating by skin color?

The ignorance here is among those who don't understand that people are suffering from this discrimation, and the offense is coming from people who justify and defend it.

Nightclubs and TikTok aren't the most important examples of this, but for people who faced discrimination their entire lives, any victory would make life a little easier.

Re: TikTok told moderators to suppress posts by “ugly” people and the poor

#194

Post by gjs278 »

chillwaves wrote: post #160
anigbrowl wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rarely. I operate several facebook profiles that exclusively look at very racist or politically extreme people, and guess who FB keeps recommending as potential friends.

Why?

he's probably jewish and writes it for the shock factor

Re: TikTok told moderators to suppress posts by “ugly” people and the poor

#195

Post by searchableguy »

cocktailpeanuts wrote: post #20

How is this different from nightclubs having a high bar to entry? I am not saying this is an ethical thing to do, I am saying these apps are no different from nightclubs and they gotta do what they gotta do to survive. And no matter what you may say, humans prefer non ugly people over ugly people. I am sorry but this is simply how humans work. If you disagree, then you are a hypocrite. So should high end nightclubs b…

It's the scale, purpose and effectiveness that is worrying rather than the similarity. Actually, I wouldn't call them very similar beyond their intent - to keep people coming and making money but everything else is wildly different and doesn't make sense to compare.

Many night clubs want users to have "fun" so they pay for a membership. TikTok wants users to stay so they can collect enough data to give it to advertisers or government to target them better.

A single night club won't have more than 100 people at any given time. But tiktok boasts 1.5 billion+ users and millions of them are active at any given time.

Few people going to night clubs won't decide the future of your country but millions on tiktok or other US centric social media might - facebook? instagram?

This too - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22611404

Other comment - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22612589

Re: TikTok told moderators to suppress posts by “ugly” people and the poor

#196

Post by krick »

I'm not really surprised how this is considered a huge deal once again, but, in fact, this is what the users generally want. TikTok is a quite specific platform, it's not there to share opinions and whatnot. It's to film and binge-watch hundreds of short stupid gimmicky music videos depicting what the general audience of the platform finds appealing (which turns out to be uncannily specific thing: I'm afraid by now it must be millions of hours of the same music, moves and facial expressions by 14-year old girls with awfully similar clothes and hairstyle).

Videos TikTok moderators are suppressing here get to be watched and liked too, but not in some unassuming liberal manner SJWs are hoping to promote: you can find hundreds of so called "TikTok cringe compilations" on youtube. It's not what TikTok's "normal" audience wants to see in their feeds. So TikTok is doing them a service supressing this stuff. And it absolutely doesn't matter if they do it "algorithmically" or with manual labor. Essentially this is the same process, they differ only by cost and efficacy.

Re: TikTok told moderators to suppress posts by “ugly” people and the poor

#197

Post by monadic2 »

cocktailpeanuts wrote: post #20

How is this different from nightclubs having a high bar to entry? I am not saying this is an ethical thing to do, I am saying these apps are no different from nightclubs and they gotta do what they gotta do to survive. And no matter what you may say, humans prefer non ugly people over ugly people. I am sorry but this is simply how humans work. If you disagree, then you are a hypocrite. So should high end nightclubs b…

> How is this different from nightclubs having a high bar to entry?

Nightclubs tell you if they think you're not up to their standard. This is far more manipulative and cruel. You could even call it gas-lighting to simply encourage these people to post content!

Re: TikTok told moderators to suppress posts by “ugly” people and the poor

#198

Post by antonzabirko »

cocktailpeanuts wrote: post #20

How is this different from nightclubs having a high bar to entry? I am not saying this is an ethical thing to do, I am saying these apps are no different from nightclubs and they gotta do what they gotta do to survive. And no matter what you may say, humans prefer non ugly people over ugly people. I am sorry but this is simply how humans work. If you disagree, then you are a hypocrite. So should high end nightclubs b…

Thank you for speaking the truth

Re: TikTok told moderators to suppress posts by “ugly” people and the poor

#199

Post by crispinb »

krick wrote: post #196

I'm not really surprised how this is considered a huge deal once again, but, in fact, this is what the users generally want. TikTok is a quite specific platform, it's not there to share opinions and whatnot. It's to film and binge-watch hundreds of short stupid gimmicky music videos depicting what the general audience of the platform finds appealing (which turns out to be uncannily specific thing: I'm afraid by now i…

this is what the users generally want

It is not the case that people entirely autonomously 'want' things. Humans have culture, which amongst other things, inculcates desires. Further, it manifestly doesn't follow that anyone is right to provide anything that people happen to have been acculturated into wanting. That brand of absurd corporate nihilism would have been literally unthinkable to any human prior to (roughly) the European Enlightenment, and is what has led our planet to the brink of oblivion.

Re: TikTok told moderators to suppress posts by “ugly” people and the poor

#200

Post by DoreenMichele »

cocktailpeanuts wrote: post #20

How is this different from nightclubs having a high bar to entry? I am not saying this is an ethical thing to do, I am saying these apps are no different from nightclubs and they gotta do what they gotta do to survive. And no matter what you may say, humans prefer non ugly people over ugly people. I am sorry but this is simply how humans work. If you disagree, then you are a hypocrite. So should high end nightclubs b…

How is this different from nightclubs having a high bar to entry?

Most people going to nightclubs are there for fun. In contrast, it's possible to make money on Tiktok and a lot of handicapped people are desperately looking for ways to make money online.

A lot of those people will not be beautiful people. Their disability makes sure of that in many cases.

So the difference is that nightclubs are not telling people "You can make money from the comfort of home" and then shafting people who have few other viable means to make money.

There may be a few sex workers and drug dealers making bank at the nightclub, but they already know they have to fly under the radar and can be thrown out if caught, etc. The nightclub isn't actively telling them they are welcome to hang there and establish an income, then secretly saying "only the sexy people."

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