8 ms·
One of the claims I’ve read about is that there’s fear that Beijing could use TikTok to “brainwash kids”, which I thought was a crazy thought...until I read abo
by xoxoy 6y ago
One of the claims I’ve read about is that there’s fear that Beijing could use TikTok to “brainwash kids”, which I thought was a crazy thought...until I read about how the FDA had to issue a warning begging kids not to do the “Benadryl challenge” they saw on TikTok because it was sending them to the ER.
- Avamander 6y agoThere's also like a massive amount of false news, hate and vitriol being spewn. No joke, 4chan on average is milder with its "fg" and "n", than what I've seen on local TikTok. Kids can't recognize that, I am quite convinced it could be influencing someone to be worse, especially someone young.
- andrepd 6y agoI think the argument is that that's not a problem specific to tiktok, it's a problem of social media in general...
- ericmay 6y agoWhich is 100% true! But the key difference here is... we’re sitting here talking about regulating Facebook and Google, and I think you can safely say the vast majority of people working at those companies don’t want to see bad things happen to the United States.
- willis936 6y agoI agree, but what matters is the power structure and who’s in charge. I wish I could say I honestly believe Zuckerburg cared about anything. Because I can’t, and maybe just because the world can burn because of one person’s disposition, regulation is needed.
- AnHonestComment 6y agoThere’s many good people there, but it’s important to understand the FAANG cultural bias: 1. A significant portion of their staff live in just a few extremely left wing cities — two of which (SEA + NYC) are currently listed as special “zones” because of the multiple months of rioting (supported by DAs who refuse to prosecute). 2. Large amounts of their staff come from other countries who could better be described as ambivalent about the US. That said, I agree that US companies are inherently easier for the US to regulate.
- yorwba 6y ago> I think you can safely say the vast majority of people working at those companies don’t want to see bad things happen to the United States. What makes this "the key difference"? I think you can safely say the same about Chinese tech companies. VPN usage is higher among tech-literate people for obvious reasons, and while having access to uncensored information doesn't necessarily instill love for the US, wanting "bad things to happen to the United States" is a pretty extreme level of nationalism. I wouldn't be surprised if Chinese tech employees in China had a more positive attitude with respect to the US than Chinese tech employees in the US, due to "the grass is greener on the other side"-type effects.
- shalmanese 6y agoBut if we assume that employees at FANG don't want bad things to happen to the US and verifiably bad things are happening to the US on those platforms, then the null hypothesis is that a Tiktok that also doesn't want bad things to happen to the US will also have an equally large number of bad things happening to the US regardless. To disprove the null hypothesis, you would have to demonstrate that Tiktok has a statistically significant increase in the amount of badness it's causing to the US per unit of attention which is difficult to do when the baseline amount of badness is already so high. Maybe we should focus more on decreasing that baseline so we can actually figure out if foreign companies are doing bad things to the US out of malice or indifference?
- ericmay 6y agoWith respect to China and Chinese social media companies I'd rather be much more careful. There's a reason they don't let US social media companies operate in China.
- shalmanese 6y agoYeah, but many of the reasons why China doesn't want US social media companies in China are also the same reasons why the US shouldn't want those same companies in America, namely that they're unregulated loose cannons who are fine with causing social division and strife if it only increases their bottom line. Why would Tiktok need to maliciously harm the US when just their simple act of seeking profit is already doing enough work to harm the US without the need for any malintent? It's like wondering if the open sewer dumping into your town's water supply might also have gluten in it when you're gluten free.
- ericmay 6y agoWell then why should the US have yet another social media app coming into the country and causing harm?
- shalmanese 6y ago
- throwaway1083 6y agoI installed TikTok for the first time the other day. I didn't follow any accounts and this is a notification I got (trying to get me to engage) this morning: https://imgur.com/a/1TxGpgq https://imgur.com/a/1TxGpgq
- ConfusedDog 6y agoTikTok often push me TikToker's news reporting like explaining the trade deficit, pretty much blames everything on U.S. for being jealous of China's growth. I never get pushed with opposite opinions. So, yeah.
- Slartie 6y agoIs the US also banning YouTube because kids did the Tide Pod Challenge and ended up in the hospital?
- xoxoy 6y agoThat isn’t what I’m saying at all. I’m just making an observation that kids that much more susceptible to “brainwashing” or at very least mimicking stupid things they watch online than I could have suspected.
- aaomidi 6y agoI mean kids are bored af with this pandemic situation... So tiktok has become many teens only social outlet.
- stjohnswarts 6y agoThose types of stories are great fodder for the CCP propaganda engine on how stupid Americans are and we're just lucky to be the lead world power right now and are just talent-less yokels who got here randomly.
- non-entity 6y agoStories like that have existed for quite a while without any need for the CCP.