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This is why the U.S. government is so concerned about TikTok being used as a propaganda tool by the Chinese government: https://m.tiktok.com/v/6880901448872234

This is why the U.S. government is so concerned about TikTok being used as a propaganda tool by the Chinese government: https://m.tiktok.com/v/6880901448872234245.html https://m.tiktok.com/v/6880901448872234245.html Make a video about disaffected military enlistees go viral on an app filled with impressionable young teens and it’ll discourage them enlisting in the future. Then the algorithm drip feeds them more anti-American content until they become more jaded about the country as a whole. There’s certainly a discussion to be had about the way the U.S. treats its service members, but I just don’t trust TikTok being the impetus of it.

FooBarWidget 6y ago
If they go down that route, doesn't that legitimize other countries banning any app for 'national security' reasons? A lot of people are bitter about China banning Facebook and Google, and support the banning of Tiktok in order to take revenge, but what about the implications of it?
- jdeibele 6y ago
  If India, France, Tunisia, Zimbabwe and many others all have their own home-grown version of Facebook, is that a bad thing? It would reflect the local culture and keep the advertising revenue in the same country. There have been few, if any, improvements on the user side of Facebook since inception. All their attention is focused on driving engagement and advertising revenue.
  - FooBarWidget 6y ago
    I am not saying that having local versions of apps is a bad thing. I am just annoyed that so many people yell 'but China is not playing fair, so it's revenge time' at the same time. It's both disingenuous and pure spite.
082349872349872 6y ago
As an impressionable teenager my friends and I watched The Hunger, a nearly six thousand second movie, but (as far as I know) none of us ever became lesbian vampires. In fact, it wasn't until a few years ago that I even learned of the 1872 context, thanks to a second-world remake: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmilla https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmilla
- gabruoy 6y ago
  You didn't go to the theater for your news, and by your own admission you didn't assume that the movie you were watching was reality. Teenagers on TikTok believe that the things are of real people giving real stories, as they likely are. But the sense of popularity and constant repetition gives a false narrative of a vocal minority that likely isn't real, but is impossible to verify, except that the powers that be (being the Chinese government) are allowed to manipulate the recommendations for or against whatever the content is going to be.
boomboomsubban 6y ago
>Make a video about disaffected military enlistees go viral on an app filled with impressionable young teens and it’ll discourage them enlisting in the future How dare they try and counteract the billions of dollars the US military has spent making sure everyone "supports the troops" and convincing teens enlisting is a heroic act. Basically every complaint I hear about Tik Took is that it opens a path to oppose the omnipresent US propaganda. While I'd prefer getting rid of the propaganda wholesale, I don't understand the strong objection to a Chinese source while showing no concern for the US source.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- refurb 6y ago
  You don't understand why propaganda from an authoritarian system with a vested interest in the decline of the US is bad?
  - criddell 6y ago
    I think the point was that propaganda from the military industrial complex with a vested interest in eternal war is also bad for the US.
    - throwmeaway_pls 6y ago
      There are other channels for expressing that opinion. We don’t need a newsfeed from the CCP in the hands of every other teenager in the country.
      - boomboomsubban 6y ago
        We don't need every teenager exposed to countless hours of propaganda glorifying war and demonizing foreigners either but nobody is pushing for the banning of TV and movies.
- barumi 6y ago
garyfirestorm 6y ago
What happened to first amendment?
- dwaltrip 6y ago
  The first amendment doesn’t apply to foreigners outside the US.
  - retrac 6y ago
    That's an interesting interpretation. In Canada, Charter free expression rights have been interpreted to include the right to access and read information, so censorship of foreign publications generally infringes the rights of Canadians who might wish to view them. Of course I suppose that infringement is sometimes justifiable. Obviously free expression has limits and we do have probably-constitutional laws against foreign propaganda. But the government can't just ban a book because it was by a foreigner, thankfully.
ashtonkem 6y ago
Of course, this also raises the uncomfortable prospect that the disaffected enlistee content is genuine, and that the propagandists don’t like it.
- jariel 6y ago
  The issue is not the authenticity of the claim. It's easy to find anyone to have any opinion you want. The issues is the legitimacy of the popularity, targets, the censorship of opposing claims etc. etc.. It's easy to see how many press outlets bend the truth to suit their narrative, now imagine how far that could be bent by a foreign actor. 'Media' in it's classical forms is effectively a protected industry, it's less evident in the US, but it's de-facto true. TikTok content is all over the place - some of it is surely going to be problematic and those things can spike. Most things that are 'taboo' attract considerable attention, and are likely to be promoted by attention-based algorithms. In particular, I've seen a lot of young girls advertising their personal porn pages. I don't so much have a problem with that legally ... but I certainly have concerns about normalizing sex work among our 18 year olds. We actually do curate content out of social concerns etc. - it's why you don't see 'porn' on CNN, but if you want to get it, of course you can in a free society.
- bilbo0s 6y ago
  That only proves there's propaganda on all sides. No one said anyone is a good guy, only that the interest is in keeping adversarial propaganda at bay.
horsemessiah 6y ago
The U.S. military is the largest terrorist organization in the world. Everyone has an interest in people not enlisting, Americans included.
vaccinator 6y ago
I'd be ok with most wars if they took place in space with remote controlled toys.

FooBarWidget 6y ago

If they go down that route, doesn't that legitimize other countries banning any app for 'national security' reasons? A lot of people are bitter about China banning Facebook and Google, and support the banning of Tiktok in order to take revenge, but what about the implications of it?

jdeibele 6y ago
If India, France, Tunisia, Zimbabwe and many others all have their own home-grown version of Facebook, is that a bad thing? It would reflect the local culture and keep the advertising revenue in the same country. There have been few, if any, improvements on the user side of Facebook since inception. All their attention is focused on driving engagement and advertising revenue.
- FooBarWidget 6y ago
  I am not saying that having local versions of apps is a bad thing. I am just annoyed that so many people yell 'but China is not playing fair, so it's revenge time' at the same time. It's both disingenuous and pure spite.

082349872349872 6y ago

As an impressionable teenager my friends and I watched The Hunger, a nearly six thousand second movie, but (as far as I know) none of us ever became lesbian vampires. In fact, it wasn't until a few years ago that I even learned of the 1872 context, thanks to a second-world remake: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmilla https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmilla

gabruoy 6y ago
You didn't go to the theater for your news, and by your own admission you didn't assume that the movie you were watching was reality. Teenagers on TikTok believe that the things are of real people giving real stories, as they likely are. But the sense of popularity and constant repetition gives a false narrative of a vocal minority that likely isn't real, but is impossible to verify, except that the powers that be (being the Chinese government) are allowed to manipulate the recommendations for or against whatever the content is going to be.

boomboomsubban 6y ago

>Make a video about disaffected military enlistees go viral on an app filled with impressionable young teens and it’ll discourage them enlisting in the future How dare they try and counteract the billions of dollars the US military has spent making sure everyone "supports the troops" and convincing teens enlisting is a heroic act. Basically every complaint I hear about Tik Took is that it opens a path to oppose the omnipresent US propaganda. While I'd prefer getting rid of the propaganda wholesale, I don't understand the strong objection to a Chinese source while showing no concern for the US source.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
refurb 6y ago
You don't understand why propaganda from an authoritarian system with a vested interest in the decline of the US is bad?
- criddell 6y ago
  I think the point was that propaganda from the military industrial complex with a vested interest in eternal war is also bad for the US.
  - throwmeaway_pls 6y ago
    There are other channels for expressing that opinion. We don’t need a newsfeed from the CCP in the hands of every other teenager in the country.
    - boomboomsubban 6y ago
      We don't need every teenager exposed to countless hours of propaganda glorifying war and demonizing foreigners either but nobody is pushing for the banning of TV and movies.
barumi 6y ago

garyfirestorm 6y ago

What happened to first amendment?

dwaltrip 6y ago
The first amendment doesn’t apply to foreigners outside the US.
- retrac 6y ago
  That's an interesting interpretation. In Canada, Charter free expression rights have been interpreted to include the right to access and read information, so censorship of foreign publications generally infringes the rights of Canadians who might wish to view them. Of course I suppose that infringement is sometimes justifiable. Obviously free expression has limits and we do have probably-constitutional laws against foreign propaganda. But the government can't just ban a book because it was by a foreigner, thankfully.

ashtonkem 6y ago

Of course, this also raises the uncomfortable prospect that the disaffected enlistee content is genuine, and that the propagandists don’t like it.

jariel 6y ago
The issue is not the authenticity of the claim. It's easy to find anyone to have any opinion you want. The issues is the legitimacy of the popularity, targets, the censorship of opposing claims etc. etc.. It's easy to see how many press outlets bend the truth to suit their narrative, now imagine how far that could be bent by a foreign actor. 'Media' in it's classical forms is effectively a protected industry, it's less evident in the US, but it's de-facto true. TikTok content is all over the place - some of it is surely going to be problematic and those things can spike. Most things that are 'taboo' attract considerable attention, and are likely to be promoted by attention-based algorithms. In particular, I've seen a lot of young girls advertising their personal porn pages. I don't so much have a problem with that legally ... but I certainly have concerns about normalizing sex work among our 18 year olds. We actually do curate content out of social concerns etc. - it's why you don't see 'porn' on CNN, but if you want to get it, of course you can in a free society.
bilbo0s 6y ago
That only proves there's propaganda on all sides. No one said anyone is a good guy, only that the interest is in keeping adversarial propaganda at bay.

horsemessiah 6y ago

The U.S. military is the largest terrorist organization in the world. Everyone has an interest in people not enlisting, Americans included.

vaccinator 6y ago

I'd be ok with most wars if they took place in space with remote controlled toys.