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TikTok overtakes Facebook as most downloaded app

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Re: TikTok overtakes Facebook as most downloaded app

#311
post #129
post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another thing Tik Tok does is get rid of people who are obese, queer, or otherwise the target of harassment. Their stance is it's easier to get rid of the person being made fun of or limit who can see their videos rather than the 10k people harassing them. > According to Netzpolitik, the social media company instructed moderators to find users who are “susceptible to harassment or cyberbullying based on their physica…

This is an out of touch take from the TikTok=China=bad days of 2019/2020. I see queer creators on TikTok all the time. Quite frequently actually. This was the second video that showed up for me today, with 500k views (it is propaganda out of the White House, in collaboration with a popular queer creator): https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMdosCgTr/ Only 50k views from an amateur creator, because TikTok hates queers: https://vm.…

50k is really amateur numbers. 50k people have probably already read you comment. Charli Damelio's last post was her eating a bag of Takis for 20 seconds and it got 15 MILLION views. We're just not seeing those numbers in marginalized communities on tiktok but we do see queer creators with top-tier numbers on youtube, facebook, insta, etc. Where's the trans Charli or the obese Charli or the anti-capitalist Charli?

Secondly, you're cherry picking examples. First you can't see how much more exposure these people would have had. Secondly, you're probably not in a country where these people would be invisible to you.

Cherry-picking model minorities isn't helping your case at all. I'm not seeing anything too upsetting to the status quo here or to anything that might threaten tiktok economically. Those voices certainly aren't going to be heard as much. This is like cherry picking popular books, movies, and posters in China and saying, "So where's all the censorship then?" Survivorship bias is at work here, you're only really seeing the survivors.

Its incredible that tiktok literally has admitted to this:

https://www.dazeddigital.com/science-tech/article/50444/1/ti...

Yet somehow the popular HN response is alt-right denial and dismissal of anything that remotely sounds "SJW" to them. Literally after The Intercept and Netzpolitik broke these stories to the public. Its not even in the realm of "wow are they doing this?" As much as it is in the realm of "How much of this are they doing and how much do we not know?"

“TikTok users posting videos with these hashtags are given the impression their posts are just as searchable as posts by other users, but in fact they aren’t,” the report said. “In practice, most of these hashtags are categorised in TikTok’s code in the same way that terrorist groups, illicit substances, and swear words are treated on the platform.”

Its incredible to me that the oppression could not be more obvious, yet bigoted attitudes guarantee that some people will refuse to believe even what tiktok says. The fact that this company is grouping terrorists with queer and disabled people is completely and utterly inexcusable.

Also encouraging vaccinations isn't "propaganda" but sane and safe health policy.

Re: TikTok overtakes Facebook as most downloaded app

#312
post #25

I'm a huge fan of TikTok because after years of content stagnation and dullness, the internet is fun again. Especially places like Twitter and Instagram are outrage and depression inducers for me, consumed together it feels like the society is collapsing but everyone is living a perfect life at the same time. The China thing is touchy but I want the west to beat them by being better, not by being dismissive and prote…

TikTok's algorithm is just pre 2017 YT and FB cranked up by 100X. For some reason the media hasn't gone after TikTok yet for pushing people into "echo chambers" but they basically just feed the most engaging content with no breaks on the train.

I read an article about the parent company and they have one of the most popular news app in India as well despite none of the engineers being able to read what content is being pushed to the top, they just let their machine learning push the most "engaging" content, which is basically stuff that is controversial, creates anger, etc.

Re: TikTok overtakes Facebook as most downloaded app

#314
post #25

I'm a huge fan of TikTok because after years of content stagnation and dullness, the internet is fun again. Especially places like Twitter and Instagram are outrage and depression inducers for me, consumed together it feels like the society is collapsing but everyone is living a perfect life at the same time. The China thing is touchy but I want the west to beat them by being better, not by being dismissive and prote…

>the short and fast phased nature of the TikTok content

Ahh, so it's Twitter for video... is this good? It's my impression that there's a growing consensus that Twitter's content length restriction optimizes for shallow hot takes and angry mobs.

Re: TikTok overtakes Facebook as most downloaded app

#316
post #25

I'm a huge fan of TikTok because after years of content stagnation and dullness, the internet is fun again. Especially places like Twitter and Instagram are outrage and depression inducers for me, consumed together it feels like the society is collapsing but everyone is living a perfect life at the same time. The China thing is touchy but I want the west to beat them by being better, not by being dismissive and prote…

> Especially places like Twitter and Instagram are outrage and depression inducers for me, consumed together it feels like the society is collapsing It's been interesting to watch the steady decline of Reddit and Twitter since they launched. They've always had a significant amount of doom-and-gloom clickbait headlines, but in the past it was far easier to filter out the bad and follow subreddits or Twitter people wit…

Interesting, no one seems to be talking about SnapChat any more.

Re: TikTok overtakes Facebook as most downloaded app

#317
post #283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What sort of manipulative amplification/suppression, specifically? Maybe a skinner box outrage machine that turns us into hostile tribes sniping over cultural crap while completely unable to govern ourselves as they surpass us?

> What sort of manipulative amplification/suppression, specifically? I don't know if this counts but I was surprised to run into this pro-DPRK account while scrolling recently: https://www.tiktok.com/@dprkorea_?lang=en It purports to show North Korea through the lens of a hidden camera. Plenty of shots of couples holding hands and playing badminton without nets. I get the sense that this is propaganda and not genuine…

Why wouldn't North Koeans hold hands? Most have normal lives in an abnormal place.

The best performers train there entire lives and put on shows year round. Secretly they hope the leader will show up one day.

In America people wait hoirs to get a star to sign something. In North Korea the biggest star is the leader.

From the real footage I've seen it's a crazy place with normal people who do normal things.

Re: TikTok overtakes Facebook as most downloaded app

#318

TikTok is not social media and can be used without 'engaging' with anyone, is an incredible useful feature to me.

I've never used TikTok, but that sounds nice. The "comment" section that has appeared under every piece of content on the internet in the last 10 years is the source of so much wasted effort and conflict it's truly depressing. If TikTok is breaking that pattern then it's a step in the right direction.

... he wrote, unironically, in the Hacker News comment section.

Re: TikTok overtakes Facebook as most downloaded app

#320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you had an issue with Zuck calling early Facebook users "dumb f**ks," wait until you find out what's going on behind the closed Tik Tok doors. You have to remember - we're still in the honeymoon phase with Tik Tok and haven't learned to hate them yet. Once the media and all your friends start sharing hatred about Tik Tok, leaks are going to start coming out, and there will be all the other fun ways through which w…

Yeah, no. TikTok's algorithm has introduced me to my (now) favorite neurodivergent and LGBTQ+ content makers. Some of them have hundreds of thousands of followers, some a few hundred. I've learned more about these subjects (and myself!) than from most other sources. The value of TikTok for me was that it linked up a bunch of neurodivergent/lgbtq+ people into a vibrant, supportive community. Honestly, if they decide t…

The social media functionality is the secondary purpose of the app, the first being surveillance and data collection.

Of course Google, Facebook, and a million other companies do the same thing, all completely disregarding user privacy in favor of selling your information for a quick buck, thereby making the internet a more hostile environment for taking advantage of the technologically uninitiated than ever before. TikTok is just the latest in a line of the worst thing to happen to the internet.

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