39 ms·
TikTok told moderators to suppress posts by “ugly” people and the poor
- Harvey_6 7y agoCertain people can try to turn this into a controversy in our modern hypersensitive hysteria, but this is perfectly sensible and reasonable behavior. Users want to see attractive, popular, charismatic, entertaining people. They want to be like them. They want to see more of them. TikTok isn't interested in turning off its userbase, no matter how much your sociopolitical agenda might prefer that.
- nkkollaw 7y agoWell, I guess those videos turn people off and they stay on the app less, and TikTok wants to make money. TikTok works with AI, but the same would happen on Facebook, where people click on "Like" manually. Cry me a river.
- kryogen1c 7y agothis is a very cogent point. algorithims act as a layer of abstraction and somehow gives people an escape for moral culpability. i wonder what facebooks algorithms would have done during US slavery, in nazi germany, during the apartheid, or any other (countless) horriffic human event? no doubt we will hoist pitchforks at tiktok for being authoritarian chinese and neglect our own senseless populism.
- detaro 7y agoHow are algorithms a "layer of abstraction" for guidelines given to human moderators?
- bronipstid 7y agoI think his point is that if people set the objectives, the AI will learn what people like, and that is going to be discriminatory in some way.
- im3w1l 7y agoThe difference is that a person with some flaw can compensate by having other qualities and still be popular. But if there is a hard rule, then that's not possible. People need that hope.
- pbhjpbhj 7y agoI wonder if racists get friend suggestions for people who aren't their "race" in appearance terms; I'm imagining that could be an emergent selection not explicitly encoded for. If that were the case ... would it be so different to people making that selection. It's a question of allowance vs. instigation I suppose ... but if you knew that behaviour was likely to emerge then the line gets blurred somewhat ...
- anigbrowl 7y agoRarely. I operate several facebook profiles that exclusively look at very racist or politically extreme people, and guess who FB keeps recommending as potential friends.
- chillwaves 7y agoWhy?
- daveFNbuck 7y agoThis is not about low quality content getting automatically filtered out by an algorithm because people don't like it. This is about TikTok using human moderators to prevent users from ever seeing content made by people they don't like.
- linuxftw 7y agoSo, like reddit?
- capableweb 7y agoModerators of the subreddits in reddit are normal reddit users (normally) compared to the moderators in TikTok who I presume are selected by the company and on payroll (or contractors maybe, I seem to recall Facebook uses contractors for this)
- daveFNbuck 7y agoI don't think Reddit gives moderators instructions to remove content if it indicates that the poster has a list of undesirable characteristics like being fat or poor.
- nkkollaw 7y agoSo, like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube..?
- 7y ago
- nl 7y agoTikTok works with AI No, it's manually done by humans.
- nkkollaw 7y agoIt's not. The whole point is that you keep scrolling and they show you what the algo thinks you'll like.
- capableweb 7y agoSure, the algorithm will try to figure out what you like and put that on the top, but the things being removed by humans don't even get into the algorithm, they are completely removed.
- nl 7y agoDid you read the article? Quote: Under this policy, TikTok moderators were explicitly told to suppress uploads from users with flaws both congenital and inevitable. “Abnormal body shape,” “ugly facial looks,” dwarfism, and “obvious beer belly,” “too many wrinkles,” “eye disorders,” and many other “low quality” traits are all enough to keep uploads out of the algorithmic fire hose.
- papeda 7y agoGeez, I thought this might be an overblown piece about algorithms unwittingly optimizing for the wrong things, but the headline is pretty accurate. Discussing how moderators choose content to recommend to people in the “For You” section (not a user — I assume this is something highlighted to users): > Under this policy, TikTok moderators were explicitly told to suppress uploads from users with flaws both congenital and inevitable. “Abnormal body shape,” “ugly facial looks,” dwarfism, and “obvious beer belly,” “too many wrinkles,” “eye disorders,” and many other “low quality” traits are all enough to keep uploads out of the algorithmic fire hose. A TikTok spokesperson seems to confirm they are real guidelines, but won’t confirm how they were used. > TikTok spokesperson Josh Gartner told The Intercept that “most of” the livestream guidelines reviewed by The Intercept “are either no longer in use, or in some cases appear to never have been in place,” but would not provide specifics.
- golergka 7y agoThat's platform vs editor problem of social media all over again. You're either a communication platform akin to a phone cord that functions regardless of what's communicated on it, or an centrally controlled media with an editorial board which is in charge of what users post on in and is responsible for it. The only difference with Facebook is that it got crap from people who wanted it to be responsible for it's content (fake news), while TikTok gets crap from people who were not prepated for it to be so moderated, but it's still the same fundamental problem of trying to sit on both chairs at the same time.
- miguelmota 7y agoInstagram does the same thing; my 'Explore' tab is full of beautiful people even though I don't follow them. From a business standpoint it makes sense to promote the best looking content since it'll lure in more young users. The young kids probably think something like "Hey look at all those beautiful people. I want to be like them and they use Tik Tok so I'm going to use Tik Tok too."
- BurningFrog 7y ago> since it'll lure in more young users The older crowd also prefer to look at beautiful people.
- dang 7y agoUrl changed from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/mar/17/tiktok-tried-to-filter-out-videos-from-ugly-poor-or-disabled-users https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/mar/17/tiktok-tr..., which points to this.
- pjc50 7y agoThe Russians call this "face control"; the practice of maintaining a club full of only good looking people by the bouncers. It's unpleasant, but a handy reminder that TikTok and other social networks don't work for you, but make you into a product.
- pbhjpbhj 7y agoTo play devil's advocate, presumably they work for some people, people that want to go to a club in which they attendees are selected by looks. Sounds just like a lifestyle magazine, or a catwalk, or a million other situations that have been normalised in which people are chosen for how they look (just about every prospectus appears to choose people to present their idea of the right type of diversity, for example). It's not great, but TikTok just seems to be doing the same as most other organisations?
- mattnewton 7y agoJust because it is normalized in some other parts of society doesn’t mean this isn’t a new front to fight this kind of discrimination on. Especially since this platform is gaining a lot of popularity with younger generations, an order of magnitude more than the nightclub scene’s impacted users https://www.oberlo.com/blog/tiktok-statistics https://www.oberlo.com/blog/tiktok-statistics
- lotsofpulp 7y agoThe biological platform of humans discriminates. There seems to be a greater amount of pleasing chemical reactions happening when people see good looking people, so they seek them out themselves. I don't know how or if one can fight that, it's seems to be one of the fundamental mechanisms of mating.
- mattnewton 7y agoThere is a difference between recognizing biology, and apps weaponizing it to drive engagement. This is like saying that nicotine releases dopamine so no one can fight cigarettes. Even disregarding social ideals about listening to people who don’t look like underwear models, the potential for harm is very real - look up Body dysmorphic disorder for the kinds of very real mental health problems this can create in younger generations. I think given the potential risks, we should have conversations about what this problem is and possible policy solutions. Giving children skewed perceptions of the world, or encoding these kinds of biases about who is worth paying attention to is dangerous.
- Consultant32452 7y agoThis is what happens when you mix utilitarian morality with a desire to stop online bullying. You just stop letting the most likely targets of bullying be seen. This is much cheaper and easier than trying to get rid of everyone who has ever been mean online, because that's everyone.
- im3w1l 7y agoThe documents reveal that it's about curating appealing content to get user retention, and that the talk of stopping bullying is just talk.
- catalogia 7y ago> The documents reveal that it's about curating appealing content to get user retention Seems kind of similar to what supermarket magazines do. Obviously a social media app is not a supermarket magazine, but the premise of cynically using pretty people to drive up engagement is nothing new.
- _jal 7y agoMagazines are not communication platforms their 'users' expect to use in anything remotely the same way. A better comparison might be bottle-service bars where looks or money buys your way in. Which I personally don't mind - if that's your thing, I guess, go for it. Not every place has to be somewhere I want to go, and they're pretty up-front that you need to meet whatever standards or pay crazy money. Tik Tok, from observed behavior, is weaselly about it. Combine with the fact that it is obviously part of the Silk Road strategy and likely an intelligence tool, and I'm going to continue to treat is as the radioactive garbage it is.
- nixpulvis 7y agoBut it's just "The Algorithm"... /s
- scotty79 7y ago
- cocktailpeanuts 7y agoHow is this different from nightclubs having a high bar to entry? I am not saying this is an ethical thing to do, I am saying these apps are no different from nightclubs and they gotta do what they gotta do to survive. And no matter what you may say, humans prefer non ugly people over ugly people. I am sorry but this is simply how humans work. If you disagree, then you are a hypocrite. So should high end nightclubs be publicly shamed for doing what they do (when what their "users" want is exactly non-ugly people) and driven out of business?
- enitihas 7y agoHumans also prefer being politically correct, so you would surely see a lot of people shaming TikTok here.
- jsjddbbwj 7y agoLouder voices want to be politically correct and shame those who aren't.
- anigbrowl 7y agoIt's just a preference for moral attractiveness, don't be hating!
- TazeTSchnitzel 7y ago> prefer being politically correct Are you implying that it is only because of a sense of “political correctness” that people would object to discrimination?
- ccktlmazeltov 7y agoI think what a lot of nightclubs end up doing is definitely discriminatory and we should not tolerate that.
- microcolonel 7y agoAs someone who does not frequent nightclubs, I don't really see the problem with a self-selecting group of people with standards? Some people don't want to see you, and that's their business.
- brenden2 7y agoMost forms of media do this to varying degrees. Most actors, for example, are attractive people. Few unattractive actors are successful, unless perhaps they only play roles which play off of their unattractiveness (like antagonists/villains). TV news anchors are also usually picked for their attractiveness.
- anigbrowl 7y agoGartner would not explain why a document purportedly aimed at “preventing bullying” would make zero mention of bullying, nor why it offers an explicit justification of attracting users, not protecting them. PR people really are the worst. It's OK to be rude to them at parties.
- lonelappde 7y agoNetflix and NBC TV do this in the shows they distribute too.
- TLightful 7y agoNot necessarily. I'm re-watching Breaking Bad. A great show about some ugly f*ckers.
- s_y_n_t_a_x 7y ago> These same documents show moderators were also told to censor political speech in TikTok livestreams, punishing those who harmed “national honor” or broadcast streams about “state organs such as police” with bans from the platform. This is the story. Why would anyone use a CPC social media platform?
- volak 7y agoPresumably because a lot of attractive young people do That's explicitly the point. Yes its evil and manipulative - but everyone should understand CPC is not above such tactics. And neither are pop magazines, holywood.. other people Its an ugly world out there
- s_y_n_t_a_x 7y agoMore because of the money they dumped into advertising. I wouldn't equate pop magazines to the people who run concentration camps and silence anyone who talks ill of them.
- mothsonasloth 7y agoEverything is becoming more curated and centralised, it wouldn't take a stretch to make a dystopian outlook where eugenics and social credit is implemented through a global tech platform. If you're not gifted with good lucks you are punished in the system.
- zeeone 7y agoLike most Hollywood productions, TikTok wants to show the healthy and the beautiful over the sickly and the ugly. This is purely driven by customer demand. The good news is that 1) TikTok a private enterprise and it can set its own rules and 2) it's in China so it won't be vulnerable to public shaming and social pressure to bend its business decisions to please fringe groups.
- keanzu 7y agoA TikTok spokesperson said the goal was to prevent bullying on the platform, tying the document to a report from December that showed that the company was suppressing vulnerable users’ videos in a misguided effort to prevent them from becoming the centre of attention that could turn sour. Now that is some fine spin! Reminds of the Oscar Wilde sketch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uycsfu4574w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uycsfu4574w
- nothrabannosir 7y agoI used TikTok for a while and saw plenty videos of actual bullying. The comments were never too happy about it, but there was clearly no effort to moderate it. TikTok doesn’t care about bullying.
- hrktb 7y agoIt seems their goal is to make the issue go away altogether by pre-censoring people so they don’t have to police bullying after. Here it’s humans taking that shortcut, in the future I’d totally imagine AIs resolving to eliminate the source of the problems when dealing with societal issues. And we sure won’t be happy about it.
- inapis 7y agoTikTok would be naive to believe that that tactic would alleviate bullying. Anyone long around knows that the internet will find a reason to take you down if they get salty for some reason. Maybe if you’re unattractive, that itself becomes a bullying point but I’ve seen plenty of youtubers/instagramers being torn to shreds for not wearing the right dress, not choosing the correct words etc etc!
- mgolawala 7y agoI can see how moderators would be instructed to surface content that is more "appealing" to the audience and beautiful people are no doubt going to be more appealing. It's like the contestants on reality TV shows tend to not be ugly as well. For some reason it _feels_ slimy but I am not sure why. Perhaps it is being confronted with the notion that the world isn't fair.
- afterburner 7y agoThese schemes only work if the participants continue to think the world is indeed fair. No wonder they're not interested in seeing people air this dirty laundry.
- jhare 7y agoNews flash: social media is garbage. What do you expect from these companies? It's just a private entity that makes its own rules about its own landfill of humanity. All of a sudden because anyone can make a post TikTok is obligated to preserve their rights? Not the case. Not that this is a good thing. It's childish to be surprised and indignant about these companies' policies and behavior like they're your buddy or something.
- everyone 7y agoSo, its like TV or films? ... or advertising, magazines.. most media come to think of it.
- kevin_thibedeau 7y agoThis is more like trickle down authoritarianism promoting Potemkin villages in all spheres of life. Old decorations just won't do there.
- continuations 7y agoTikTok has a long history of doing shady things: * TikTok's local moderation guidelines ban pro-LGBT content - Chinese-owned social media app bans such content even in countries where homosexuality has never been illegal [1] * Revealed: how TikTok censors videos that do not please Beijing - Leak spells out how social media app advances China’s foreign policy aims [2] [1] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/sep/26/tiktoks-local-moderation-guidelines-ban-pro-lgbt-content https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/sep/26/tiktoks-l... [2] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/sep/25/revealed-how-tiktok-censors-videos-that-do-not-please-beijing https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/sep/25/revealed-...
- arendtio 7y agoActually, I wondered why this article was news. I was under the impression that it was common knowledge that tiktok was doing that kinda stuff.
- virtualpresence 7y agoHahaha that's like 99% of the people on there. Great marketing tik tok. Tick tock your time is coming
- ct520 7y agomakes sense to me. Isnt this how society works at large? Cute hostess at the front of a restaurant to great you. Top sales earners are usually in decent shape and charismatic. Society segregates itself away from the poor. Sounds like tech imitating real life to me. (to be clear not saying its right, but giving my opinion on what I perceive in society and how this aligns to it)
- grecy 7y agoWhy is this a surprise? Glamor magazines and Hollywood movies have been doing this for all time. This is the natural consequence of any platform that wants to be popular and get a ton of media attention. Is it mortally wrong? of course it is, exactly the same as glamor magazines and Hollywood are.
- rvz 7y agoWell that's no fun isn't it. You warp reality to make the whole social network a complete misrepresentation of only looking at the happiest of everyone's side. There is at least someone keeping a straight face and on TikTok but still feeling ugly or depressed there anyway. It is the same nature that users of Facebook have and it isn't very healthy and promotes one-sided stories. The interesting observation and funny side to this policy is that there could be a story to be told here where the suppressed "ugly" and "poor" people become the heroes and the TikTok elite and its glamorous fans have become the super-villains.
- 8bitsrule 7y agoWhatever 'ugly' means in this century, ugly appearance is much preferable to ugly action. Another demonstration that centralization is anathema to community. It concentrates power in a few hands, and it creates single-points-of-failure. The internet is not yet routing around that kind of damage.
- matz1 7y agoIn other word, the sky is blue, most people would prefer to see attractive people, its not rocket science. It would be stupid for tik tok to do otherwise.
- runawaybottle 7y agoIt’s just verbiage right? Replace moderator with ‘casting director’, and replace website with ‘movie’ or ‘tv’. The goal is the same.
- SamReidHughes 7y agoI remember the first day a local Philz cafe opened, it was immediately filled with very attractive people. Months later, its population looked mostly interchangeable with that of the Starbucks across the road.
- cosmodisk 7y agoI only heard about TikTok probably a couple of month ago,as I 'checked out' from social media platforms long time ago. Now what they are doing is is awful, however, that's already the case across the board. The world celebrates handsome men chasing a ball, women that have more silicone and botox in them than an average lab. We somehow give more attention to someone,who's ass size falls within 9th percentile, than the scientist,who discovers cure for some nasty disease. We reward people with tons of cash for coming up with some nonse, science free absurd, while we are ready to throw stones at anyone who says that oil fried fries are bad for us. The same crap happens on youtube or instagram,where pretty faces push yet another cream from big name corp.
- PaulKeeble 7y agoIn offices, managers are taller and more handsome than the average. What we reward as a society in the west is beauty, not merit and hard work, unfortunately. Study after study shows the same trend in a huge variety of ways, from believing in social mobility to thinking job performance is about job performance despite the often opposite. But I also think this level of anti-intellectualism is temporary.
- literalanyone 7y agoSo... "Sex sells." Is this new? I feel like we want the world to be a better place in 2020, and then we are reminded the humans are basically still humans.
- tmpz22 7y agoIt's like you expect the cook at the restaurant to thoroughly wash their hands, they don't legally have to do it thoroughly, but ultimately if you knew they didn't you probably wouldn't eat there to begin with. Users deserve to know how hard they are being fucked. Informed consent, even for the naive users, basically.
- catalogia 7y ago> they don't legally have to do it thoroughly, I don't think that's an apt analogy because I don't think that's true. I've perused the health inspector reports for local restaurants a few times and I've seen businesses written up for substandard sanitation practices. It may not be the most enforceable law ever, but nevertheless I'm pretty sure the law does require them to wash their hands thoroughly.
- jimmysacks 7y ago..are we finally going to admit the Chinese government is evil?
- searchableguy 7y agoHere's my 2 cents - A. [0] Familiarity breeds attractiveness. This isn't a new concept. You can find many advocate groups who want "diversity" in workplaces and higher positions to stop systematic or perceived racism due to non familiarity. How is that different from above? Do you have a choice to be ugly or not? Do you have a choice on whether your body is deformed or disabled? Do you have a choice on being poor? To little extent, maybe but most can't be helped beyond a certain level. B. Scale Night club doing it doesn't affect society as much as a platform with 1.5+ billion users. Of those who are going to vote new policies and may get to a high position of authority later, do you really want your judge who uses tiktok to sentence you for longer? You can already find people living in echo chambers online and as more of it is moved online, will you be okay if your child is excluded from something more than a billion people use because she is a bit shorter than normal? How many of you have LinkedIn, twitter or social media crap that you despise but have to use due to others using them? What will happen then? C. Awareness Do you think users are aware that they are being censored constantly compared to real life where you can't avoid meeting different people? If you go to a bar, you will see different people in your way - few "ugly" and others pretty. <sarcasm> I propose we stop ugly people from having kids so everyone remains pretty and similarly symmetrical. Who wouldn't wanna live in a world with everyone pretty and same? It's not like we will seek more exoticism after that happens. The problem will remain solved forever. </sarcasm> 0] http://faculty.wcas.northwestern.edu/~efi614/documents/InPress-a_ReisManiaciCaprarielloEastwickFinkel_JPSP.pdf http://faculty.wcas.northwestern.edu/~efi614/documents/InPre...
- rickety-gherkin 7y agoI think the club analogy here is spot-on. From what I've seen of TikTok, if you're classically attractive then you're famous on there, and it drives the wants and trends of TikTok. A userbase that is infatuated with crushes. It's no different than any teen magazine from the 90s. I have an ignore-worthy conspiracy about this app, stop reading here if are you have a distaste for this. I think it's used as a staging environment to test mass human interactions with computer generated videos of people in a setting where there isn't pre-loaded skepticism and where the sample sets are extremely good. Mass amounts of people doing the same dance is a pretty good data set, and the information in this article makes me believe this even more. They are effectively "cleaning" the data so the sample set is attractive people in clean and presentable homes or areas with good lighting, all confined to the "For your page" stream. Might not be true, but it's a fun thought.
- tomrod 7y agoNot a TikTok user. I mean, to me, this is how things just work, ethical or not. What would we expect from "featured" things? Typically people in television (shows and commercials) or otherwise "featured" fall into more attractive territory. Is it shallow? Absolutely. Is there anything to be done about it? I mean, maybe, but is there some monetary harm coming to TikTok users?
- saltedonion 7y agoHow is this any different than having an algorithm do it for you? If human moderators use these rules, it probably means the content it lets through is correlated with high engagement. What’s the material difference to an algorithm that just favors high engagement as well?
- m3kw9 7y agoHow is this different from Hollywood filtering actors and actresses for good looks?
- robbrown451 7y agoWould we be upset if they told the moderators "try to promote things that will be shared/upvoted a lot", and tied their earnings to how good they did at picking winners? Even if the effect was precisely the same? Basically, what seems to have happened is someone worded it crassly, but they were just telling them to think like marketing people, and use common sense. Also, the word "suppression" implies censorship and heavy handedness, while "promote" seems harmless. But they can really be describing the same process.
- krick 7y agoI'm not really surprised how this is considered a huge deal once again, but, in fact, this is what the users generally want. TikTok is a quite specific platform, it's not there to share opinions and whatnot. It's to film and binge-watch hundreds of short stupid gimmicky music videos depicting what the general audience of the platform finds appealing (which turns out to be uncannily specific thing: I'm afraid by now it must be millions of hours of the same music, moves and facial expressions by 14-year old girls with awfully similar clothes and hairstyle). Videos TikTok moderators are suppressing here get to be watched and liked too, but not in some unassuming liberal manner SJWs are hoping to promote: you can find hundreds of so called "TikTok cringe compilations" on youtube. It's not what TikTok's "normal" audience wants to see in their feeds. So TikTok is doing them a service supressing this stuff. And it absolutely doesn't matter if they do it "algorithmically" or with manual labor. Essentially this is the same process, they differ only by cost and efficacy.
- crispinb 7y agothis is what the users generally want It is not the case that people entirely autonomously 'want' things. Humans have culture, which amongst other things, inculcates desires. Further, it manifestly doesn't follow that anyone is right to provide anything that people happen to have been acculturated into wanting. That brand of absurd corporate nihilism would have been literally unthinkable to any human prior to (roughly) the European Enlightenment, and is what has led our planet to the brink of oblivion.
- sneak 7y agoInstagram does this too, just algorithmically based on likes and engagement. You can’t prioritize posts in an algorithmic feed without deprioritizing others. Reverse chronological is the only non-editorializing choice, and it’s not an option on most major platforms. I encourage people not to donate content to these censorship platforms and to disintermediate their connections with their audience.
- imchillyb 7y agoThis is a wonderful example of why no speech should be allowed to be censored. Freedom of speech isn't a slogan. Freedom of speech means allowing others to say things you don't agree with or like, because it allows your own voice to be heard. Once censorship is allowed, in any form, it will always devolve into us and them. Us and them is determined by who is running things. They're the us. Everyone else is them. Us justifies their decisions and actions, but it's still the same ol' story. Power corrupts and those Us' in power, will use their influence in any way that they choose. Censorship equals tyranny.
- Ozzie_osman 7y agoGod bless the Intercept for continuously pumping out investigative journalism pieces.
- kristopolous 7y agoAlthough this ruffles sensibilities, isn't it kind of expected from an entertainment platform? Any traditional teen magazine from 20 years ago (seventeen, tigerbeat) wouldn't be scolded for heavily policing what photos go in the pages. Not only that, they heavily post processed everything. There's superficial and arbitrary gatekeepers for what is called news, what is played on the radio, basically everything. Even some of the talent shows have strict, rather low, age cutoffs. 29 is too old for American Idol (it used to be 25). Even more apparently egalitarian entertainment, such as contestants on the Price is Right aren't "truly random" and get shortlisted into energetic people who come in larger crowds in order to make better television. Most people think that's probably also fine. Some guy just standing and shrugging after being revealed a "brand new car" wouldn't really be right. So for a digital social entertainment platform to do the same kind of pruning, it's kind of expected. Content is filtered to create better entertainment for the target demographic, one that I'm not in. Maybe you think it's not the right filter system but now we're doing a target marketing debate and not one of ethics.
- stainforth 7y agoWe're moving past allowing this kind of manipulation and distortion of reality.
- billfruit 7y agoYes there is a sentiment against TV shows and magazines doing such things, but many shows and magazines continue the practises today.
- mistermann 7y agoIn some ways we are, in others not. I think there is great value discussing such things abstractly, in no small part because it can minimize personal biases and rivalries.
- kristopolous 7y agoIt's more a question of "proper" filtering, not "no" filtering. For instance, if a PhD program only accepted white male applicants, we'd find that unacceptable. If instead, they only accepted people with proper credentials, scores, and recommendations, we'd find that fine. It's not no filter, just the right one. Similarly, if we were making a movie about Jim Crow segregation and needed actors to play white racist men then our same unacceptable filter all of a sudden looks reasonable. So it's not about removing filters, it's about making them justifiable and relevant. That's why we say "there's no reason that a qualified X can't be a Y", that part, the reason part, is important.
- KorematsuFred 7y agoI am unable to see what is wrong with all of this. I wont be using tiktok if it had ugly people doing stuff I am not interested int. As someone has pointed out on this threat elsewhere, Tiktok is a night club. You gotta dress up, put up fake eye lashes, high heels and show some cleavage to get more attention. THAT IS their business model. This outrage is nothing but silicon valley hippie attitude which I think the chinese simply don't give a shit about.
- throwaway122378 7y agoWell that’s like saying Reddit suppressed pro Trump community
- LatteLazy 7y agoIf you think is is unfair, wait until they find out about Tinder and Literally The Whole Modelling and Acting Industries.
- strategarius 7y agoPeople should probably hate their lives using Chinese social network. Chinese are well-known for racism even against other Asian people, not to say all your information is being stored on servers of a communist totalitarian state.
- viztor 7y agoUnfortunately, those written document are nothing more than ugly but accurate reflection of the market. TikTok does this the same reason Hollywood does. The only difference no one in Hollywood wrote it down, but it is almost as a taken.
- overcast 7y agoReminds me of the S10E7 of Curb your Enthusiasm, "The Ugly Section"
- nojvek 7y agoUgly fat poor. 3 strong words repeated over and over in the comments. I hope people realize that there is a pretty large demographic that may identify with this. As for TikTok, it’s a Chinese app and things we consider discriminating may be a bit normalized there. I constantly get surprised how much the CPC gets away with, but asking my Chinese friends, they’ve made peace with it “it’s for the greater good”. So like Facebook’s unofficial motto “growth at any cost”, this doesn’t surprise me coming from TikTok. I wouldn’t be surprised if Facebook did/does this too.
- _pmf_ 7y agoWhy is this a problem when done by social media companies and not a problem for the rest of the media?
- aabbcc1241 7y agoTikTok (and many other social network) is a business company, it can do whatever it favor as long as it's legal. Instead of complaining it, it's more constructive to come up alternatives :)
- alecco 7y agoComments here are ~50% whataboutisms.
- strategarius 7y agoToo many comments down there. Beijing troll factory noticed the post?
- philwelch 7y agoI have to admit, my reaction is...so what? Social media is a playground for beautiful, glamorous people, because those are the personalities most people want to see. It’s true for YouTube and Instagram. If you’re a relative newcomer to the market like TikTok and your promoted content is filled with ugly people, users will notice that and assume your service is second rate.
- majani 7y agoHave people in here actually downloaded TikTok and browsed through it? It's actually pretty amazing how beautiful their creators are. It's gonna be a legitimate unique value proposition for them as a social network
- MrBuddyCasino 7y ago"TRUE JUSTICE If you really want diversity & protection of minorities suffering workplace prejudice, stop chromo-categorizing -- that fake unempirical business. Hire unattractive people. They are the one suffering the most, & deprived of attention." [0] [0] https://twitter.com/nntaleb/status/1231359316147478528 https://twitter.com/nntaleb/status/1231359316147478528
- golemiprague 7y agoSo what, people want to see pretty people, what's the problem with it? When I go to a lecture I want to see a smart person, when i watch sport i want to see athletic people and when i look at stupid tiktok videos i want them to be at least pretty because usually there is not much else there.
- mordymoop 7y agoThere’s that really really old social media platform called television that does something pretty similar.
- hurricanetc 7y agoIf you don’t like it don’t use TikTok. It’s as simple as that.
- Jonahgay 7y agoVery old news
- Sophistifunk 7y agoWhy pretend this is novel? All visual media select for prettier people, and every single company that wants to operate from (or in) China will do the rest of the slimy pro-state censorship.
- classified 7y agoRules of censorship: Censorship is OK when it helps making money. Failing that, censorship is OK if we dislike the content being censored or the people posting it. TikTok doing this is Universal Chinese that is understood all over the world. No need for translation.