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I find this quite strange and short sighted. I see my kids look at TikTok all the time. I don't really see how you could spread propaganda through 5 second dan

I find this quite strange and short sighted. I see my kids look at TikTok all the time. I don't really see how you could spread propaganda through 5 second dances and jokes. Especially since peers are doing that. I would think the Party influence on Hollywood and other entertainment such as Computer Games would be way more disturbing. Injecting propaganda into a real story seems way more effective. Especially when you fully control the medium.

throwawayforce 6y ago
I don't mean to be hostile but I think you are clueless. A lot of what shows up on tiktok and gets promoted can have a massive influence on what it's users begin to deem ok. And as kids grow they are far more likely to form opinions based on their peers than parents. Dances may have been tiktoks start but the shift to shortform videos on a specific topic in rapid succession meets the criteria of propaganda. Particularly if they are humorous or provide a dopamine response. China much like twitter and facebook and youtube has complete control over what their supposedly "unbias" algorithms direct users to. It is trivial to push propaganda between dances and jokes. Swaying public opinion has never been easier than in the social media age.
OwlsParlay 6y ago
I've been using TikTok on and off for the past six months, at first because I was interested in seeing what you can find on the site. It's mostly teenager dancing stuff, yes. If you start liking political content you'll get political content too. I've found there's a lot of pro-China, both soft-power "look how pretty the countryside is" stuff and straight up Uyghur denial. There's also a decent amount of anti-China activism on there as well, though.
stjohnswarts 6y ago
1. It can be used as propaganda to make Americans look stupid an capricious. 2. They can get information on kids now to be used against them in the future as blackmail (and similar) when those same kids become politicians. Say what you want about the Chinese but they are great at long-term 5, 10, 20 year plans.
pandaman 6y ago
Most communist propaganda I've seen is not 1920s "agitprop" style posters with workers and farmers waving red flags and inviting you to impale your capitalist boss on a bayonet. IMHO, that only exist to make the target audience believe that anything else is not propaganda or is not effective as such. E.g. several people at my work (engineers with degrees) seem to absolutely trust everything they hear on "comedy" talk shows. And not only trust, but eager watch all new episodes and discuss between themselves at work. Those cannot be propaganda because it's just a joke, dude?

throwawayforce 6y ago

I don't mean to be hostile but I think you are clueless. A lot of what shows up on tiktok and gets promoted can have a massive influence on what it's users begin to deem ok. And as kids grow they are far more likely to form opinions based on their peers than parents. Dances may have been tiktoks start but the shift to shortform videos on a specific topic in rapid succession meets the criteria of propaganda. Particularly if they are humorous or provide a dopamine response. China much like twitter and facebook and youtube has complete control over what their supposedly "unbias" algorithms direct users to. It is trivial to push propaganda between dances and jokes. Swaying public opinion has never been easier than in the social media age.

OwlsParlay 6y ago

I've been using TikTok on and off for the past six months, at first because I was interested in seeing what you can find on the site. It's mostly teenager dancing stuff, yes. If you start liking political content you'll get political content too. I've found there's a lot of pro-China, both soft-power "look how pretty the countryside is" stuff and straight up Uyghur denial. There's also a decent amount of anti-China activism on there as well, though.

stjohnswarts 6y ago

1. It can be used as propaganda to make Americans look stupid an capricious. 2. They can get information on kids now to be used against them in the future as blackmail (and similar) when those same kids become politicians. Say what you want about the Chinese but they are great at long-term 5, 10, 20 year plans.

pandaman 6y ago

Most communist propaganda I've seen is not 1920s "agitprop" style posters with workers and farmers waving red flags and inviting you to impale your capitalist boss on a bayonet. IMHO, that only exist to make the target audience believe that anything else is not propaganda or is not effective as such. E.g. several people at my work (engineers with degrees) seem to absolutely trust everything they hear on "comedy" talk shows. And not only trust, but eager watch all new episodes and discuss between themselves at work. Those cannot be propaganda because it's just a joke, dude?