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The TikTok War

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Re: The TikTok War

#351

Post by chillacy »

skizm wrote: post #275
WillPostForFood wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it manually curated? The article talks about how their algorithms are part of their core success. TouTiao was about the feed and the algorithm from the beginning. The first time a user opened TouTiao, the news might be rather generic, but every scroll, every linger over a story, every click, was fed into a feedback loop that refined what it was the user saw. Meanwhile all of that data fed back into TouTiao’s large…

Probably a mix of manual and automated. I know where was a big stink semi-recently about them manually removing content from "ugly" and "poor" people. I guess no way to be 100% sure of the validity of the claims, but here is one article reporting on it: https://theintercept.com/2020/03/16/tiktok-app-moderators-us...

I haven't verified this but supposedly this is now done automatically with machine learning: https://www.tiktokbeautiful.com/

Re: The TikTok War

#352

Post by chillacy »

agustif wrote: post #117
xapata wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a difference between Facebook lobbying and Facebook using its products to disseminate propaganda.

Yeah right, Cambridge Analytica wasn't a thing...

That discounts intent: Facebook's intent is for better or for worse to sell a bunch ads and make profits. That Cambridge Analytica was able to exploit Facebook's social graph for political ends is not conducive to the company's mission.

Presumably the GP is implying that TikTok would be working even closer with groups like CA, to the point with partnering with them instead of kicking them off the platform as Facebook did.

Re: The TikTok War

#353

Post by chillacy »

ralfd wrote: post #211
bstar77 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was a bit critical of my wife using TikTok until I realized that she replaced the negativity of Facebook with something that, in its current form, is pretty harmless. It's replaced rants and frustration with laughter and positivity.

This. Take any social media app and there is something toxic, mean, snarky about it. Twitter is optimized for snark and shit storms. Facebook has your crazy uncle sharing fake news. Instagram posts are fake and pretentiousness. Reddit has their subreddit drama. TikTok is just fun. Even wholesome fun. I tried if I could find one mean tiktok video, but there was not one bullying video. Even if the girl making a dance v…

I was wondering awhile ago to what extent the famous saying "the medium is the message" applies here. It's famously easy to misread the intent of text, to see hostility when there is none (and so smiley faces and emojis came into being), it's probably harder to be mean over photos than text (especially a photo of yourself...), and even harder over video.

Re: The TikTok War

#354

Post by dvt »

fivre wrote: post #346
dvt wrote: post #340

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a silly argument, because it runs into a wall via a very simple reductio ad absurdum: it's the year 2000, and I made my career making fun of Muslims.. they wear funny things on their heads, do a weird carpet prayer, etc. Uh-oh, now it's 2002. Muslims are being persecuted again in some Southern states because of 9/11. Now, two years later, according to your very own present-day-contextualized-moral-joke-compas…

Are you Muslim? When you, or your hypothetical strawman comic make fun of them, are you punching up or down? To not mince words here, if your comedy career was wholly dependent on making fun of Muslim cultural practices that have existed for millennia before you were born, in America, a country that totally had no relationship with the Middle East or history of anti-Muslim bigotry prior to 9/11, and you further canno…

> Are you Muslim? When you, or your hypothetical strawman comic make fun of them, are you punching up or down?

I'm not sure why this matters at all. In fact, it's just another red herring, as you provide no counter-arguments. I think that the case for free speech (my God, especially in comedy) is pretty strong, whether you're a Muslim comic making fun of Muslims or an Asian comic making fun of Muslims.

This isn't a strawman, this is the entire argument: is it okay to make fun of people? I contend that it is.

Re: The TikTok War

#355

Post by chillacy »

quicklime wrote: post #223
Schnitz wrote: post #147

"the Chinese Communist Party very much believes that Marxism is the means by which that must be accomplished" This is BS, the economic system in China is in no way Marxist, nor is it going in that direction. It's worse, lol. This sounds like someone is simply rehashing propaganda he heard somewhere that was intended to either smear Marx or China or both.

It's unfortunate that you were downvoted for this; you're absolutely correct. No one in China gives a fuck about Marxism, and the CCP certainly isn't trying to wage some ideological war to establish some sort of Marxist utopia. To think so is to completely misunderstand the CCP's motivation, which is a dangerous thing when the tensions are escalating and war could be the result.

This link was included in the article: https://sinocism.com/p/engineers-of-the-soul-ideology-in

While China has certainly strayed pretty far from its state-controlled economy in recent years, it also seems pretty clear that Xi is more ideologically "hardcore" than his predecessors.

Re: The TikTok War

#356

Post by chillacy »

vorpalhex wrote: post #64
actuator wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am all for activism but does this work unless it reaches a sizeable mass, look at how FB brushed aside the impact of protests by their advertisers.

The current Facebook situation is a bit of a different beast. Most of those advertisers were already cutting their marketing spend because Covid, and are using the current cause to still get attention while reducing direct spend (though I'm sure they'd like Facebook to be a bit heavier on the censorship all the same). Facebook is likely doing the math now on what makes sense in terms of keeping advertisers happy whil…

Facebook ads are sold as an auction so the discount on ads is already happening. It also tends to produce the type of tempting situation which makes it impossible for brands to resist going back in if they can sneak an advantage in over their competitors.

Re: The TikTok War

#357

Post by TurkishPoptart »

coliveira wrote: post #316
oxymoran wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It has nothing to do with race. China is bad because of the CCP. And the Chinese people suffer the most because of it. Remember in 1968 when the CCP encouraged the cultural revolution that lead to the death of millions of Chinese at the hands of the Red Guard? Or when the Red Guard literally cannibalized their fellow citizens as an ideological purity test? Same party is still in charge with similar goals, just a diff…

No, Chinese people will suffer if the US continue to inflame the tensions of cold war for its only financial benefit. The Chinese people would be far better in a world where they are viewed as equal, and freedom will spread when the US respects freedom of every people to participate of the global world. You cannot say that you defend freedom by creating barriers and inflaming wars across the world.

No, Chinese people will be free if the CCP is overthrown, and a popular form of government is established.

Re: The TikTok War

#358

Post by billjings »

streb-lo wrote: post #349
billjings wrote: post #345

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I found it funny that the author of this post is trying to defend liberal values like the free flow of information on the internet by...making Apple and Google remove Tiktok from people's phones." This is what the posted article is about. I cannot write a rebuttal to this that is better than what Ben Thompson wrote, and I won't. The section "A Reluctant Prescription" section is directly about this. I can rebut this,…

I find it very hard to believe they don't promote content intended to elicit an emotional response to drive engagement in China the same way they do everywhere else.

I was referring specifically to American companies. They don't do so in China for the simple reason that they're not allowed to operate there.

Re: The TikTok War

#359

Post by xapata »

kube-system wrote: post #210
xapata wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd call it an information war, rather than a trade war.

Restrictions on foreign-owned companies operating domestically in China applies to many industries -- this is not something unique to TikTok, information companies, or even tech companies. This is something that is often discussed in regards to trade negotiations.

Yes, but China makes a special effort to block information. That's what the article discussed.

Re: The TikTok War

#360

Post by drdrey »

streb-lo wrote: post #349
billjings wrote: post #345

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I found it funny that the author of this post is trying to defend liberal values like the free flow of information on the internet by...making Apple and Google remove Tiktok from people's phones." This is what the posted article is about. I cannot write a rebuttal to this that is better than what Ben Thompson wrote, and I won't. The section "A Reluctant Prescription" section is directly about this. I can rebut this,…

I find it very hard to believe they don't promote content intended to elicit an emotional response to drive engagement in China the same way they do everywhere else.

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, Youtube are all banned in China
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