Live data from Hacker News

EU Summons TikTok CEO After Romanian Election Shocker

romania-insider.com

61–70 of 80 posts

Re: EU Summons TikTok CEO After Romanian Election Shocker

#61
post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does it matter in the end? The way I see it, it's a parliamentary member from France from the Renew group in the EU parliament who is not happy with the results and thinks that the democracy needs to be saved because the results do not align with their expectations. The decent thing to do would be to take this vote into account and accept that not everyone wants the same thing.

> Does it matter in the end? Yes, it does. It matters very much. The difference between a governmental body ordering you to do something and a single employee making one comment is tremendous. Maybe the latter can lead to the former, maybe , but they’re very far from being the same thing.

ok, let's follow your logic there to the very end.

Your argument is that we should not pay attention because whoever the MP who made this comments is, she is not part of the EU commission and she is not a big wig as you put it. So we could assume that whatever she says does not carry much weight.

But the website reporting this news does not agree with you here, otherwise, why report it in the first place? To them, it matters and it is important because she is part of the Renew group. The Renew group is staunchly opposed to the far-right and pro NATO and pro Ukraine, that is to say the complete opposite to this Romanian candidate.

Furthermore, the MP in question is a close ally of the French president which means she could have the means to convince other MPs to join her and maybe get some support from Macron to jump start some kind of investigation into this matter.

Macron is/was the de facto leading figure in Europe (before becoming a lame duck in the last election) and his words still carry a lot of weight at the EU level.

If she was a random MP in a small fringe party on the sidelines of the EU parliament, I would have agreed with you but not in this case.

Maybe you are right and nothing will come out of it but to me this is not nothing and it should not be dismissed as easily as you think.

Re: EU Summons TikTok CEO After Romanian Election Shocker

#62

That's certainly easier than sitting down and questioning your own decisions over the last couple of decades and wondering why people are voting in ways you don't like (For the record I'm not a Tiktok user and I think it's a net negative to society)

So you think amplified disinformation and misinformation, with high frequency per user, play no role in people's perception of reality and their decision-making process?

Re: EU Summons TikTok CEO After Romanian Election Shocker

#63
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You seem to be denying the fact that humans are easily programmed meat machines, even the best of us. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8116821/

You make the assumption that social media is the main source of truth for voters. But people are waking up and vote because of what they see with their own eyes.

> You make the assumption that social media is the main source of truth for voters.

That’s no longer an assumption, we’ve seen that happening for years now. For crying out loud, the CEO of a major platform regularly repeats every bullshit he reads on his own network, as long as it conforms to his world view.

https://www.techdirt.com/2024/10/25/lies-damned-lies-and-elo...

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/27/technology/elon-musk-x-po...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3u8_fp1TtJE

Re: EU Summons TikTok CEO After Romanian Election Shocker

#64
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If only it were facts being discussed, but social media is plagued with alternative facts(aka lies) and no mechanism of getting rid of it, as reporting doesn't do anything since social media companies just fake compliance but take no serious action against disinformation. This is all from my personal experience reporting egregious fake information (the kind you can check with the first google result) on social media…

If we are going to go down that road, then what about the mainstream media then? How many lies have they gotten away with and never corrected? I agree that misinformation is spreading on social media, but let's not forget that the mainstream media has been caught lying deliberately or by omission more times than I can count.

No need for whataboutism, mainstream media lies are bad as well.

Re: EU Summons TikTok CEO After Romanian Election Shocker

#65
post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Does it matter in the end? Yes, it does. It matters very much. The difference between a governmental body ordering you to do something and a single employee making one comment is tremendous. Maybe the latter can lead to the former, maybe , but they’re very far from being the same thing.

ok, let's follow your logic there to the very end. Your argument is that we should not pay attention because whoever the MP who made this comments is, she is not part of the EU commission and she is not a big wig as you put it. So we could assume that whatever she says does not carry much weight. But the website reporting this news does not agree with you here, otherwise, why report it in the first place? To them, it…

No, Macron lost his credibility and influence in the last elections, and by refusing to let his opponents try to form a coalition first (wether or not it would have succeeded is irrelevant here.), he is sometimes viewed as an anti-parliementarist by some of his allies. Being part of renew and batting for 'democracy' is quite ironic,and my guess is that she'll be ignored.

Re: EU Summons TikTok CEO After Romanian Election Shocker

#66
post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Does it matter in the end? Yes, it does. It matters very much. The difference between a governmental body ordering you to do something and a single employee making one comment is tremendous. Maybe the latter can lead to the former, maybe , but they’re very far from being the same thing.

ok, let's follow your logic there to the very end. Your argument is that we should not pay attention because whoever the MP who made this comments is, she is not part of the EU commission and she is not a big wig as you put it. So we could assume that whatever she says does not carry much weight. But the website reporting this news does not agree with you here, otherwise, why report it in the first place? To them, it…

> Your argument is that we should not pay attention because whoever the MP who made this comments is, she is not part of the EU commission and she is not a big wig as you put it.

No, that was not my argument at all. I didn’t call anyone a bigwig. You’re not replying to the same person and are starting from an entirely false and incorrect premise, thus reaching a wrong conclusion.

I don’t think this should be dismissed, nor have I claimed it. My sole point is that the difference as it exists is meaningful. One is a certainty, the other is a possibility. Possibilities may be avoided, with different degrees of probability.

Re: EU Summons TikTok CEO After Romanian Election Shocker

#68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How so? A candidate who nobody knew about built his following on a platform known for CCP control, short attention span, and repetition. What is the substance?

The substance is many people there didn't want Romania to get into a catastrophic war with Russia like Ukraine did and see hundreds of thousands of their countrymen die (likely ultimately for nothing, as Trump seems to be planning to let Russia keep the land it took).

This comment has me puzzled for so many reasons. Which candidate or party wanted Romania to get into a war with Russia? I don't think this issue was mentioned at all during the entire campaign because nobody is even thinking about that possibility. And what do you mean Ukraine "got into a war"? They where attacked.

Re: EU Summons TikTok CEO After Romanian Election Shocker

#69
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Read the article - This is not the EU commission or some bigwig requesting a hearing or an investigation. Rather there was one delegate from one of the many political groups in the EU Parliament (which has very little authority and power) who made a statement . In analogy to the US political system: This is not Mark Zuckerberg summoned to a Senate hearing. Rather this is someone of the House of Representatives making…

Does it matter in the end? The way I see it, it's a parliamentary member from France from the Renew group in the EU parliament who is not happy with the results and thinks that the democracy needs to be saved because the results do not align with their expectations. The decent thing to do would be to take this vote into account and accept that not everyone wants the same thing.

It matters in the sense that the title makes this sound much bigger than it actually is. Every parliament has a spectrum of members, some of them being relatively edgy/extreme in what they say. And most of the time what they say doesn't have any later consequences - apart from, I guess, affirming their voter base - which is why they are there in the first place.

Re: EU Summons TikTok CEO After Romanian Election Shocker

#70
post #44

A bit of context: the presidential candidate in question was predicted below 1% on all polls days before the election. He declared a campaign budget of absolute zero. He had no posters, no tents, no apparitions on TV, absolutely nothing. After a massive presence on TikTok in the last couple of weeks he won 23% of the votes, placing him first and wining a spot in the final elections where just the first two placed can…

That sounds like either the pollsters or the people running the election have significantly bigger problems than whatever that candidate might or might not have done. How did they not find any of the people swayed by TikTok? Why are they even looking at TikTok at that point?

"It didn't go as we wanted, someone else must be to blame!"

If TikTok (or any other platform) can have this kind of real impact then other political forces should consider using it as well.

Post reply on HN