4 ms·
>refreshingly playful That's the kind of content that survives the crucibles of Chinese censorship, "Creative and Joyful" opiate for the masses. This is an of
by dirtyid 6y ago
>refreshingly playful
That's the kind of content that survives the crucibles of Chinese censorship, "Creative and Joyful" opiate for the masses. This is an often overlooked aspect of Chinese social media / content filtering philosophy that has coalesced over time - block out the bad and divisive while elevating mundane joys. It's how the 50c operates, it floods the airwaves with small happy platitudes and avoids debates because engaging and challenging controversial topics (especially politics) is how toxicity is produced. It's counterproductive to even try. It's why TikTok's content policy is designed to protect the status quo, often misinterpreted as being pro-Beijing when it's broadly pro-establishment. The last thing Chinese social media platforms is designed to do is to start revolutions, encourage radicalization or sectarianism among impressionable audiences, things western social media platforms are dealing with now, and why they were blocked in China in the first place.
E: IMO the style has it's place, whole of China has no choice but to live under it, but in the west, a plurality of content management philosophies calibrated for different audiences is good. There's lessons in managing toxicity to learn from TikTok even if it gets banned.
- kpennell 6y agoSorry my original comment didn't cover this. Lots and lots of the content I see in my feed is liberal, left, anti-authoritarian. I get nuanced views about the black lives matter movement, feminism, social media, etc. even blatant critiques about what tiktok is doing to young people (especially young women). Maybe every 5th video in my feed is extremely political. It's not all just la-di-da dance and cat videos.
- dirtyid 6y agoWest got their regionalized treatment and given more latitude in response to media pieces alleging political censorship last year. I surmise controversial content doesn't get promoted much outside the immediate circles. Main point is the DNA of why TikTok feels the way it does is connected to experiences learned cultivating media platforms behind Chinese firewall. Politics and toxicity exist all over Chinese internet as well, they just get filtered / harmonized over time or never reach many eyes in the first place. My hope is that TikTok sticks around at least long enough to monetize and demonstrate that social media doesn't have to primarily drive conflict to reach eyeballs. Douyin (TikTok parent app) is fairly profitable in China, but it's hard to tell if the model works unless its exported and flourishes under different cultural backgrounds.