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I don't understand the hate for TikTok I frequently see on HN. Is it just ordinary ageism/curmudgeonliness? I'm not in its core audience myself, but it seems t

I don't understand the hate for TikTok I frequently see on HN. Is it just ordinary ageism/curmudgeonliness? I'm not in its core audience myself, but it seems to me to be a very smartly put together app, both in its core features (practically the only video remixing/editing app for mobile that retains tolerable levels of both accessibility and expressiveness) and in its platform (particularly the recommendation engine which seems to drive pretty solid engagement).

krspykrm 6y ago
It's cognitive dissonance. America is supposed to be the good guys, but on American social media everyone is toxic and hates each other and it's all full of political and corporate AstroTurfing; China is supposed to be the bad guys, but on TikTok everyone's happy and enjoying themselves and the content is organic and largely apolitical. The easiest way to get rid of the cognitive dissonance is not to fix US social media, but to get rid of TikTok.
- garmaine 6y ago
  Or it could be that we just don’t like apps that exist to Hoover up personal information and/or be state sponsored spying endpoints, no matter who makes them.
  - MrBuddyCasino 6y ago
    Correct answer, downvoted of course since this is HN. I personally don’t care about privacy too much, but the way TikTok operates and its ties with the Chinese government is more than a little concerning. The videos are fun, too bad about the content.
    - trasz 6y ago
      It would be correct if it didn’t ignore the fact that US-based companies do the exact same thing.
      - garmaine 6y ago
        And I'm angry about that too.
    - impassionedrule 6y ago
      As someone that uses Keepass on Android, I find it extremely disturbing that it was reading my clipboard without permission. Thankfully I only had TikTok for a day (ironically copied my TikTok password to the clipboard).
- lenkite 6y ago
  That's because TikTok does pretty heavy 'auditing' - the content is NOT organic at all. Only the good-looking people and the happy videos go to the top. The others go to the bottom or are 'disappeared'
  - smallchungus 6y ago
    Congrats you just described society.
    - lenkite 6y ago
      This has little to do with "society". Its policy. 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-... https://theintercept.com/2020/03/16/tiktok-app-moderators-users-discrimination/ https://theintercept.com/2020/03/16/tiktok-app-moderators-us... https://www.businessinsider.com/internal-guidelines-show-tiktok-censors-videos-that-would-anger-china-2019-9 https://www.businessinsider.com/internal-guidelines-show-tik...
      - smallchungus 6y ago
        And the policy was written by........?
  - Barrin92 6y ago
    >Only the good-looking people and the happy videos go to the top. I don't know what problem the US has with it then, they've already assimilated, Hollywood would be jealous
shrikant 6y ago
> Is it just ordinary ageism/curmudgeonliness? I think it's probably this? I'm "on" TikTok in that I just idly scroll through the videos, and it all seems like a bit of good fun. Additionally, for all the nefarious stuff flying about, the app actually asks you for exactly ZERO permissions to use it for casual browsing.
michaelt 6y ago
60% curmudgeonliness 20% none of their friends are on it 7% they heard it captures your clipboard constantly, must be another of these spying and tracking apps 5% they heard it's got weird moderation with rules like 'no disabled people on the front page' 3% they think limited-content-length platforms prevent complex, nuanced messages and are corrosive to the national discourse 3% they heard it was all 13 year olds lip-syncing and that only perverts want to watch that 2% they only use Theora videos on FreeBSD on their OpenMoko FreeRunner
rakoo 6y ago
TikTok is notorious for siphoning as much private data as it can without being clear about that with the user. Apart from that the concept of TikTok has already been done in the past and it seems to me they didn't fail for technological or business reasons, but because they didn't have the money to fight against bigger players

krspykrm 6y ago

It's cognitive dissonance. America is supposed to be the good guys, but on American social media everyone is toxic and hates each other and it's all full of political and corporate AstroTurfing; China is supposed to be the bad guys, but on TikTok everyone's happy and enjoying themselves and the content is organic and largely apolitical. The easiest way to get rid of the cognitive dissonance is not to fix US social media, but to get rid of TikTok.

garmaine 6y ago
Or it could be that we just don’t like apps that exist to Hoover up personal information and/or be state sponsored spying endpoints, no matter who makes them.
- MrBuddyCasino 6y ago
  Correct answer, downvoted of course since this is HN. I personally don’t care about privacy too much, but the way TikTok operates and its ties with the Chinese government is more than a little concerning. The videos are fun, too bad about the content.
  - trasz 6y ago
    It would be correct if it didn’t ignore the fact that US-based companies do the exact same thing.
    - garmaine 6y ago
      And I'm angry about that too.
  - impassionedrule 6y ago
    As someone that uses Keepass on Android, I find it extremely disturbing that it was reading my clipboard without permission. Thankfully I only had TikTok for a day (ironically copied my TikTok password to the clipboard).
lenkite 6y ago
That's because TikTok does pretty heavy 'auditing' - the content is NOT organic at all. Only the good-looking people and the happy videos go to the top. The others go to the bottom or are 'disappeared'
- smallchungus 6y ago
  Congrats you just described society.
  - lenkite 6y ago
    This has little to do with "society". Its policy. 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-... https://theintercept.com/2020/03/16/tiktok-app-moderators-users-discrimination/ https://theintercept.com/2020/03/16/tiktok-app-moderators-us... https://www.businessinsider.com/internal-guidelines-show-tiktok-censors-videos-that-would-anger-china-2019-9 https://www.businessinsider.com/internal-guidelines-show-tik...
    - smallchungus 6y ago
      And the policy was written by........?
- Barrin92 6y ago
  >Only the good-looking people and the happy videos go to the top. I don't know what problem the US has with it then, they've already assimilated, Hollywood would be jealous

shrikant 6y ago

> Is it just ordinary ageism/curmudgeonliness? I think it's probably this? I'm "on" TikTok in that I just idly scroll through the videos, and it all seems like a bit of good fun. Additionally, for all the nefarious stuff flying about, the app actually asks you for exactly ZERO permissions to use it for casual browsing.

michaelt 6y ago

60% curmudgeonliness 20% none of their friends are on it 7% they heard it captures your clipboard constantly, must be another of these spying and tracking apps 5% they heard it's got weird moderation with rules like 'no disabled people on the front page' 3% they think limited-content-length platforms prevent complex, nuanced messages and are corrosive to the national discourse 3% they heard it was all 13 year olds lip-syncing and that only perverts want to watch that 2% they only use Theora videos on FreeBSD on their OpenMoko FreeRunner

rakoo 6y ago

TikTok is notorious for siphoning as much private data as it can without being clear about that with the user. Apart from that the concept of TikTok has already been done in the past and it seems to me they didn't fail for technological or business reasons, but because they didn't have the money to fight against bigger players