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this post was submitted on 18 Apr 2024
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There's obviously not going to be proof, it'd be huge news if there were. At the same time, I also wonder why people so adamantly defensive of TikTok in particular? It seems trivial enough to establish that they could exert an undue influence on a global audience through social media with just a few (I would think uncontroversial) assumptions
With a state ownership stake in the picture, it creates a pretty uneasy tension, right? If they know (1), they could just push ads and content which would help prime you emotionally and mentally to receive that advertising via mechanism (2). This is their actual business model.
Alternatively, if so motivated, they could just as easily use that same profile and mechanism to push content which nudges the content consumer in any myriad ways (politically, socially, etc.). Start with something that's "close" to the viewer's existing views, and cumulatively keep pushing content which leads folks down pipelines. They don't even need to make the content. The users create it; the sentiment, quality, and popularity data informs which shorts to push where; refine the model based on receptivity; repeat as necessary.
Given (3), especially at the scale we're talking about with TikTok, I think it's obviously possible that the platform could be used to meaningfully influence public opinion, sow discord, spread misinformation, whatever. Whether they actually do this is purely speculative, but I also have a hard time thinking people would be quite so enthusiastically defensive of a similar social platform under direct influence from their own government?
I'm pretty sure an American company already reviews all their code - Oracle, iirc. They already did this after people complained last time. The CEO isn't even Chinese.
This is just outright wrong, like hilariously wrong and if you used the platform for more than 10 minutes you'd see that. Tiktok is the ONLY social media that feeds me content I want to see as accurately and often as I want. It will even adjust the videos I see within the same 30 minute session to feed me more of what I'm favoring within that 30 minute session.
There is not any other single social media that does this.
Please don't take my post as a claim that the algorithm isn't absolutely amazing at what it does. All I'm saying is that it is, by nature, pushing you content rather than serving you content which you actively seek out. I don't believe the things we're claiming are mutually exclusive here.