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TikTok preparing for U.S. shut-off on Sunday

reuters.com

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Re: TikTok preparing for U.S. shut-off on Sunday

#441

Post by suraci »

pjc50 wrote: post #58
donatj wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a casual observer, I don't understand why YouTube Shorts isn't the obvious successor? The UI is better than TikTok ever was and a lot of the most popular creators are already mirroring their content there?

A large part of it is obviously negative polarization: you tell people they can't use a Chinese app, they're going to use a different Chinese app. Hence the pictures of Luigi. It's worth asking why Reels/Shorts didn't take off and those companies had to ask for their competition to be banned instead. Everyone agrees that "the algorithm is better", but this is very hard to quantify. Perhaps something about surfacing s…

I've never saw Luigi or Aaron Bushnell suggested to me by YouTube, unless I search them

I think that's why, just saying

Re: TikTok preparing for U.S. shut-off on Sunday

#442

Post by redactd »

the_sleaze_ wrote: post #427
LeroyRaz wrote: post #417

Tiktok is obviously a massive national security risk, and I find it funny people don't see that. It is extremely well established that propaganda has great value, and so allowing a foreign adversary the capacity to potentially control the information your citizens receive in a clandestine way is insanely dangerous.

Reddit is the exact same - just a propaganda machine

I disagree. While I think there are definitely biases on Reddit, there is a difference between users, individual moderators, or even established sub policies having a political leaning versus an algorithmically masked propaganda machine like TikTok.

Call me old fashion, but I put more faith in a profit seeking US company (recently public) with light government oversight than a foreign owned black box.

Re: TikTok preparing for U.S. shut-off on Sunday

#443

Post by barbazoo »

advisedwang wrote: post #434
LeroyRaz wrote: post #417

Tiktok is obviously a massive national security risk, and I find it funny people don't see that. It is extremely well established that propaganda has great value, and so allowing a foreign adversary the capacity to potentially control the information your citizens receive in a clandestine way is insanely dangerous.

Yes, we should also forbid books published by Chinese publishing companies because the CPC might pressure those companies to put propaganda in the books. We should also forbid Hollywood from selling movies in China, because as we've already seen that means the movies are being adjusted to get approval in China. We should also forbid Chinese citizens talking to Americans, because they might convince Americans on a top…

The first two don't apply because they don't share the hyper personalized nature of social media. No two people see the same thing so it's impossible to react to foreign propaganda. Books and movies don't work that way.

Third example is irrelevant because it's impossible to achieve the efficiency (reach) that social media has.

Re: TikTok preparing for U.S. shut-off on Sunday

#444

Post by INTPenis »

kitsune_ wrote: post #433
lenerdenator wrote: post #41

I say this as someone who was in high school as the first wave of social media sites (early Facebook, MySpace, Xanga, etc.) came up: Just get rid of all of them. They're battery acid poured on the human psyche. Or, at least, get rid of the centralized massive ones. If you have to combine your online interactions with people with the interactions you have with them in real life, you're better off, and that doesn't hap…

Bring back IRC

It never left. I've been consistently on IRC since the 90s.

Re: TikTok preparing for U.S. shut-off on Sunday

#445

Post by zackmorris »

TikTok practically saved my life by exposing me to alternate worldviews and the spiritual nature of existence, so the US government singling it out feels like a personal attack to me. To think of all of the people earning independent side incomes on TikTok - one of the few places outside of eBay/Craigslist/Uber/etc where that's even still possible - who will lose that lifeline, well, words like travesty barely convey the loss.

I also don't buy the national security argument. Considering how much of our personal data is leaked through all of the other social media apps, as well as international ad markets, that argument is nonsense. This is about the US government and corporations going to any length to control the narrative as the US falls to authoritarian dystopia and fascism.

I'm disappointed in the Democratic Party for not standing up for free speech and the rights of its constituency. It's forgotten where it came from, and what its goals are. This move means that there effectively is no Democratic Party - we just have two Republican Parties, both beholden to their corporate overlords (Meta and X/Twitter), as well as the billionaires behind them (Zuckerberg and Musk).

It's also tragic beyond words that Donald Trump may be viewed as TikTok's savior if he lifts the ban after he takes office. After he has undermined so many aspects of American tradition and our institutions. It reeks.

And most of all, I'm at least as mad at all of you as I am at myself for not organizing to stop this ban. 170 million TikTok users and we can't come together in solidarity to have real leverage on our elected officials? As in, withholding our participation in keeping the web running? Talk about ineffectual.

The more time goes by, the more I'm giving up on the tech scene. We've lost our values on such a fundamental level that we are now the clear and present danger threatening the American democratic experiment. Shame on all of us.

If we keep losing the way we are, and with the rise of AI and unprecedented wealth inequality, we have maybe 5-10 years left before revolution. We've entered a Cold Civil War, divided along ideological lines. I dearly hope I'm wrong and it doesn't come to violence, but after watching America's decline as a beacon of freedom post-9/11, the safest bet is continued cynicism.

Re: TikTok preparing for U.S. shut-off on Sunday

#446

Post by leptons »

jdlyga wrote: post #115

"I would literally write my social security number on a sticky note and stick it to Xi Jinping's forehead than go back to using Instagram Reels" I saw this yesterday and it's hilarious but this is the feeling right now. TikTok has such a culture of authenticity and realness and Instagram is so phony and overly perfect (not to mention ads and so many bots and spam). It's like shutting down Reddit and telling everyone…

Is it actually Instagram Reels that is inauthentic, or is it the content that people post there? The Instagram Reels service is just that - a service people can use to post videos, same as TikTok. It's the people who choose to use the service that cause it to seem inauthentic, not the service itself. If everyone migrated from TikTok to Reels overnight, then wouldn't Reels become more "authentic"?

Re: TikTok preparing for U.S. shut-off on Sunday

#447

Post by barbazoo »

redactd wrote: post #442
the_sleaze_ wrote: post #427

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reddit is the exact same - just a propaganda machine

I disagree. While I think there are definitely biases on Reddit, there is a difference between users, individual moderators, or even established sub policies having a political leaning versus an algorithmically masked propaganda machine like TikTok. Call me old fashion, but I put more faith in a profit seeking US company (recently public) with light government oversight than a foreign owned black box.

You might be missing the fact that there is a significant amount of bots on Reddit pushing certain agendas giving the impression they're foreign sponsored.

Re: TikTok preparing for U.S. shut-off on Sunday

#448

Post by crimsoneer »

LeroyRaz wrote: post #417

Tiktok is obviously a massive national security risk, and I find it funny people don't see that. It is extremely well established that propaganda has great value, and so allowing a foreign adversary the capacity to potentially control the information your citizens receive in a clandestine way is insanely dangerous.

It would have been farcically easy to legislate that any large social media company have to expose their algorithm to a regulator, with a capacity for spot checks and immense sanctions if they fail to comply.

If your argument is "we can't allow any foreign owned social media to operate in the US", then how can you possible argue that the rest of the world should allow American applications?

Re: TikTok preparing for U.S. shut-off on Sunday

#449

Post by NooneAtAll3 »

LeroyRaz wrote: post #417

Tiktok is obviously a massive national security risk, and I find it funny people don't see that. It is extremely well established that propaganda has great value, and so allowing a foreign adversary the capacity to potentially control the information your citizens receive in a clandestine way is insanely dangerous.

the problem is that similar efforts in other countries have been criticized as "internet censorship"

either Russia and Indonesia are in the right - or US is in the wrong

Re: TikTok preparing for U.S. shut-off on Sunday

#450

Post by iforgot22 »

LeroyRaz wrote: post #417

Tiktok is obviously a massive national security risk, and I find it funny people don't see that. It is extremely well established that propaganda has great value, and so allowing a foreign adversary the capacity to potentially control the information your citizens receive in a clandestine way is insanely dangerous.

Allowing the government to control the information its citizens receive is dangerous.
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