Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

TikTok's algorithm exhibited pro-Republican bias during 2024 presidential race

psypost.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 110 posts

Re: TikTok's algorithm exhibited pro-Republican bias during 2024 presidential race

#21

Post by giancarlostoro »

eastbound wrote: post #11
whalesalad wrote: post #2

Of course it did. This is why so many want it out of the US. It's a propaganda vehicle for the CCP. Our citizens have an IV drip of bullshit feeding them 24x7. This is why Trump wants to save it. Back in his first term he tried to destroy it[0]. Flash forward to now, he openly acknowledges that it helped him win[1]. He doesn't want to lose that influence if it gets dismantled, so of course he's now talking about intr…

This comment is just adding storytelling around facts, but doesn’t contain facts. I could build the opposite storytelling with the same facts.

Considering Trump originally wanted to ban TikTok his previous term... Yeah...

Re: TikTok's algorithm exhibited pro-Republican bias during 2024 presidential race

#22

Post by IncreasePosts »

9283409232 wrote: post #14
IncreasePosts wrote: post #8

Why is it called bias, as if the results should be even? Would we say that there is a bias in TikTok to show interesting videos, instead of boring videos? I guess you could describe it as such, but the term carries an implication of impropriety with it, as if what displays bias should rightfully not display bias. Liberals love consuming Trump content, maybe even more than conservatives. Sort of like the Howard Stern…

> Conservatives didn't have that with Harris. Conservatives spent days nitpicking every single thing they could about Harris and would just invent things about Walz. Tim Walz's son cried and conservative media and social networks ran that into the ground for weeks. Acting like MAGA didn't say anything about Harris/Walz is pure delusion.

I think that shows conservatives were so starved for rage content that they needed to latch onto the side-show of a side-show in order to scratch that itch. Sequestering your candidate away from any kind of challenge certainly is a strategy.

I never said MAGA didn't say anything about Harris/walz. Is that what you took away from my post?

Re: TikTok's algorithm exhibited pro-Republican bias during 2024 presidential race

#23

Post by daveguy »

eastbound wrote: post #19
daveguy wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And obviously China preferred Trump in office (of course they wouldn't admit it, because whoever China backs helps the other party). The more batty the US is in international relations the more our soft power declines and China's soft power rises. Destruction of USAID was a huge win for China. If Trump effectively controls both Tik Tok and Twitter, huge numbers of people under 30 will only know what Trump wants them…

Which is why Trump added tariffs on China. To… to blur his tracks. The best action is to do the opposite of what you want to do, so people don’t know what you’re doing. This, or China supports the Dems, and everything else becomes logical. But let’s start the narrative that Trump supports China by banning their apps and products.

Hahaha. "banning". Only Trump could save a company from being banned, try to buy it with US tax dollars, and have his stooges claim he's against the company.

Re: TikTok's algorithm exhibited pro-Republican bias during 2024 presidential race

#25

Post by nayuki »

sapientiae3 wrote: post #17

This makes sense - as Paul Graham mentioned in his essay from January [1] “outrage means traffic”. No-one gets more outraged than left leaning viewers watching Trump videos. [1] https://paulgraham.com/woke.html

> outrage means traffic

Which CGP Grey also described a decade ago: https://youtu.be/rE3j_RHkqJc?t=200 "This Video Will Make You Angry" [2015-03-10]

Re: TikTok's algorithm exhibited pro-Republican bias during 2024 presidential race

#26

Post by ThePowerOfFuet »

AnEro wrote: post #4

Weird to say but could be a relevant anecdote, as a trans person, that avoids politics in my socials but watches trans creators. I've never gotten a platform that doesn't show me the trans negative politics in my feeds after engaging with trans creators. I find I only get the positive politics AFTER I ignore or dislike the negatives ones.

> I've never gotten a platform that doesn't show me the trans negative politics in my feeds after engaging with trans creators.

How about Mastodon or Bluesky?

Re: TikTok's algorithm exhibited pro-Republican bias during 2024 presidential race

#27

Post by jsheard »

ahs1 wrote: post #16

what about the other apps?

Well X has a pretty clear slant as of late. I've tried making a fresh burner account a few times to see what the default algorithm is like and surprise, it's dominated by Elon Musk himself, his fanboys/orbiters, and political content which strongly aligns with his views.

Even when dissenting political content slips into the feed it's usually still about Elon Musk, the algorithm surfaces more mentions of him than the actual president.

Re: TikTok's algorithm exhibited pro-Republican bias during 2024 presidential race

#29

Post by AnEro »

nemomarx wrote: post #12
AnEro wrote: post #4

Weird to say but could be a relevant anecdote, as a trans person, that avoids politics in my socials but watches trans creators. I've never gotten a platform that doesn't show me the trans negative politics in my feeds after engaging with trans creators. I find I only get the positive politics AFTER I ignore or dislike the negatives ones.

the community doesn't help by trying to dunk on the anti trans stuff a little too much but I do assume it's engagement bait

I'd say with the reverse being very true as well would largely just make it so once you get anything close to touching the topic it tosses out which ever side they think you'll engage with the most.

For more anecdotal context, my other interests lean into a demographic/stereotype of an upper middle class pilates/health/cleangirl girliepop. Which from my experience they centrist/ambivalent maybe skew left but not inherently pro trans.

Re: TikTok's algorithm exhibited pro-Republican bias during 2024 presidential race

#30

Post by inverted_flag »

eastbound wrote: post #19
daveguy wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And obviously China preferred Trump in office (of course they wouldn't admit it, because whoever China backs helps the other party). The more batty the US is in international relations the more our soft power declines and China's soft power rises. Destruction of USAID was a huge win for China. If Trump effectively controls both Tik Tok and Twitter, huge numbers of people under 30 will only know what Trump wants them…

Which is why Trump added tariffs on China. To… to blur his tracks. The best action is to do the opposite of what you want to do, so people don’t know what you’re doing. This, or China supports the Dems, and everything else becomes logical. But let’s start the narrative that Trump supports China by banning their apps and products.

In the eyes of China, Trump's piddly little tariffs are a small price to pay for the damage he'll inflict on the US over the next 4 years.
Post reply on HN