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TikTok’s greatest asset isn’t its algorithm, it’s your phone

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Re: TikTok’s greatest asset isn’t its algorithm, it’s your phone

#251

Post by walls »

probably_wrong wrote: post #170
mnsc wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The app is collecting tons of metrics of actual watching behaviour to adapt the feed. So maybe you don't want to advertise that "after using the app extensively I'm still getting only half naked young girls dancing". I'm not getting any half naked girls dancing in my feed despite quite enjoying young people dancing mindlessly as a counterweight to the state of the fucking world. Eg. the top notch editing/dancing by C…

I'm sorry to say that your comment is the type of comment I'd typically downvote, but there's something about it that I think is worth discussing. The user is complaining that he cannot get rid of the half-naked young girls dancing no matter how hard he tries. And yet, your reply is to accuse them of it being somehow their fault? If this is not Thoughtcrime, I don't know what it is. For the record, I have heard this…

It's very easy to not get these on TikTok by simply skipping past them a few times.

It's also very easy for them to become your whole feed if you happen to watch all of them.

Re: TikTok’s greatest asset isn’t its algorithm, it’s your phone

#252

Post by nemothekid »

MichaelCollins wrote: post #242
nemothekid wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> lectures and talks, historic films, documentaries and instructional videos Please point to such content on Instagram. Instagram has the same qualities you ascribe to TikTok but the only difference is you cannot point to a chinese boogeyman. > happily allows Bytedance to export it. This is nonsense. TikTok produced crap is produced locally . It's not Chinese influencers generating "vapid shallow trash"; and if Tikto…

You are insinuating that I have defended Instagram, but Instagram and the entirety of Facebook can die in a fire as far as I'm concerned. Fuck off with the strawmen; my comment above is a defense of youtube, not instagram. You're trying to change the subject because you have no rebuttal to what I actually said.

You are implicitly defending instagram when you say something like They view it as revenge for the Opium Wars; they're deliberately exporting poison.

And again, just because you can point to a small amount of educational content of youtube doesn't change the fact that a large majority of it is "vapid", and that YouTube is also trying to cash in on that trend (via YouTube Shorts).

Nonetheless you can find educational channel on TikTok as another commenter shows which makes your defense of YouTube quite flimsy.

Re: TikTok’s greatest asset isn’t its algorithm, it’s your phone

#253

Post by thatguy0900 »

mcculley wrote: post #223
jojo259 wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes that's what I meant, the apps coordinate by being linked to some government ID. At least that's what I've heard.

I am quite skeptical of this. There would have to be an API. There would have to be documentation for that. There would likely be keys assigned to individual apps.

Couldn't they just send the government 'ID #11111 has played our game for 30 minutes' and 'ID#11111 is requesting a login how much time do they have left' and let the gov track the specifics

Re: TikTok’s greatest asset isn’t its algorithm, it’s your phone

#254

Post by sofixa »

slashtab wrote: post #248
sofixa wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't this one of the reasons why phone permissions (at least on Android) have the option to share location data with an app only when it's in use?

I don't know for sure but sneaky apps stills gets the location data through scanning nearby devices, looking for nearby wifi addresses, bluetooth, network traingulation etc. Few of these doesn't give them the exact location but still if you're a person of interest thar may be enough to connect the dots.

> sneaky apps stills gets the location data through scanning nearby devices, looking for nearby wifi addresses, bluetooth, network traingulation

All of those are also gated behind permissions like location, at least on Android.

Re: TikTok’s greatest asset isn’t its algorithm, it’s your phone

#255

Post by mnsc »

probably_wrong wrote: post #170
mnsc wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The app is collecting tons of metrics of actual watching behaviour to adapt the feed. So maybe you don't want to advertise that "after using the app extensively I'm still getting only half naked young girls dancing". I'm not getting any half naked girls dancing in my feed despite quite enjoying young people dancing mindlessly as a counterweight to the state of the fucking world. Eg. the top notch editing/dancing by C…

I'm sorry to say that your comment is the type of comment I'd typically downvote, but there's something about it that I think is worth discussing. The user is complaining that he cannot get rid of the half-naked young girls dancing no matter how hard he tries. And yet, your reply is to accuse them of it being somehow their fault? If this is not Thoughtcrime, I don't know what it is. For the record, I have heard this…

I don't think I was saying that it was their fault, I'm just saying that _if_ tiktok eg analyses something subtle, like how hesitantly the user is swiping away a video, the algorithm might expose the subconscious desire to look at scantily clad ladies.

Edit: I have absolutely no insight on what metrics are being used, I'm just making it up.

Re: TikTok’s greatest asset isn’t its algorithm, it’s your phone

#256

Post by lossolo »

mcculley wrote: post #223
jojo259 wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes that's what I meant, the apps coordinate by being linked to some government ID. At least that's what I've heard.

I am quite skeptical of this. There would have to be an API. There would have to be documentation for that. There would likely be keys assigned to individual apps.

This is a country that has "great firewall", social credit system for all citizens with centralized API etc. It's not a problem for them to create an API for this.

Re: TikTok’s greatest asset isn’t its algorithm, it’s your phone

#257

Post by mnsc »

tluyben2 wrote: post #198
mnsc wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The app is collecting tons of metrics of actual watching behaviour to adapt the feed. So maybe you don't want to advertise that "after using the app extensively I'm still getting only half naked young girls dancing". I'm not getting any half naked girls dancing in my feed despite quite enjoying young people dancing mindlessly as a counterweight to the state of the fucking world. Eg. the top notch editing/dancing by C…

I did not say extensively; I used it for a week now to see what the fuss is about and got, at first time opening this app, these videos. Not sure how that analysed my behaviour of ‘opening the app’. Then I followed a bunch of guys in true crime and made sure to swipe other videos away as fast as I could and it got less but i still get them. Probably if you use it for a long time; it might be more tailored to me but t…

Well I don't know how it is nowadays because so many creators have flocked there and I could absolutely imagine that thirst traps are so numerous and popular that the algorithm cant do a good job anymore. To be fair I joined more than 3 years ago "to check what my kids was raving about" and remember how I regularly was amazed on what the algorithm dug up for me, funny interesting content from people that seemed genuine. I still get that feeling but maybe not as much. And I never had any issues of watching too much either. It's just my kind of social media.

But I also have a couple of times where I fucked up the algo by liking the wrong video and having to mindfully steer it back on track again. So it's not magic, ofc.

Re: TikTok’s greatest asset isn’t its algorithm, it’s your phone

#258

Post by paulryanrogers »

Arainach wrote: post #153
robertlagrant wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> restricting which content or how much someone can consume, even kids, would be touted as deeply authoritarian in our societies No. We have industry-voluntary schemes such as PEGI ratings, and most products have kid-friendly modes. Spotify, Netflix, YouTube, Disney Plus, Amazon Prime all have kid-specific modes, for example. They're selling to parents, and that's what parents want, so that's what they get. You're ri…

Parents also want cheap gas and big engines that make them feel macho, and to be able to use hand me down car seats of dubious safety. Sometimes what's good for society takes precedence over what people want.

Won't someone think of the child-car-seat manufacturers?! The second hand market is driving them to ~bankruptcy~ [buying fewer yachts]! /s

Re: TikTok’s greatest asset isn’t its algorithm, it’s your phone

#259

Post by mrguyorama »

ChrisRR wrote: post #192
ajsnigrutin wrote: post #182

I don't know why, but I hate the tiktok trends and it's spread all over other platforms (eg. "shorts" on youtube). Cooking channel? What was once a 10 minute video with a recipe and all the details is now a reddit-gif style recipe, 30 seconds without any details (eg. how cooked the first ingredient is, when s/he throws in the second, etc.). Tech channel? Yeah, 30 seconds can only be a teaser (=ad) for a full video. M…

I've seen Tiktok described as "what happens when you give the illiterate a platform" I'm sure hoping this short attention span, no time to think sort of content doesn't become common

I really really hate how common it is for someone on tiktok to claim they have relevant credentials and then repeat a blatant lie about the industry that's been a lie forever.

There was a person who posted a video saying "I'm a flight attendant and airline seats are designed to kill you to pay less for the lawsuit" even though that's been debunked IN POPULAR MEDIA for about twenty years (mythbusters) and "Flight attendant" should not be considered a reputable source for information on the engineering, legal, and liability of an airline. And yet, she had millions of views.

It's just utterly FULL of assholes claiming they are reputable and spouting the dumbest, oldest, most asinine conspiracy theories for views.

Re: TikTok’s greatest asset isn’t its algorithm, it’s your phone

#260

Post by mcculley »

lossolo wrote: post #256
mcculley wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am quite skeptical of this. There would have to be an API. There would have to be documentation for that. There would likely be keys assigned to individual apps.

This is a country that has "great firewall", social credit system for all citizens with centralized API etc. It's not a problem for them to create an API for this.

I agree it would be no problem. It would obviously be an enormous security problem. Apps would have to know the government ID of children. Nefarious entities could stage denial-of-service attacks against individuals.

Obviously China could do this. I am skeptical of the claim presented as hearsay without evidence.

If such a system exists, there should be easily found documentation for it.

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