5 ms·

I see where you're coming from, but Youtube isn't nearly as opaque as Tiktok. You can actually search for videos on youtube, typically content is longer and has

I see where you're coming from, but Youtube isn't nearly as opaque as Tiktok. You can actually search for videos on youtube, typically content is longer and has a higher production quality which reduces probability of doom-scrolling. As someone else mentioned, TikTok is intentionally designed to be addictive and gamified, much more so that youtube or facebook. And, objectively speaking, the US government is far preferable to the CCP. The US has it's issues and has made mistakes in the past, the CCP is still putting Muslims in concentration camps and exercises regular authoritarian controll over it's citizens. Militarily, the US is allied with most EU powers (including France) and generally has good intentions for it's allies. China, on the other hand, finds itself on the outside of most alliances, and considering that even their own people are treated poorly, I can only imagine that their intentions for others are not positive. American tech companies take your data and sell it to advertisers, I don't like it, but they do. The US government only accesses it if they have a reason to do so and subpoena the specific information needed. The Chinese government? I have no doubt that they're collecting data for much more nefarious purposes. Intelligence indicates that they've been improving their military forces massively in the last several decades. It wouldn't be hard for them to subtly start slipping in propaganda into the tiktok feeds of countries they intend to invade, and then they'll have local-national support. I think it's easy to look at this and say objectively that it's worse. If Youtube or Facebook were owned by France or Germany I would hold the same belief that tiktok is worse. It's not fear of some mysterious "other", but fear of a proven enemy to freedom and human rights, China.

BiteCode_dev 5y ago
> The US government only accesses it if they have a reason to do so and subpoena the specific information needed As Snowden revelations have shown, this is not the case. > It wouldn't be hard for them to subtly start slipping in propaganda into the tiktok feeds of countries they intend to invade Last time I checked, the USA were the number one warmonger in the world, sometimes by lying about WMD and going against the vote of the UN. I'm not defending China, I do think Tiktok is a dictatorship honeypot, but the USA is only good to the USA. A cancer is worst than diabetes, but I still don't think diabetes is a good thing. And google is only good to google. I'm in the good graces of neither, being in Europe, and consider both as services that will try to get as much of me as possible when I use them. And the minute our interest are not aligned with theirs, they will bite us.
- refenestrator 5y ago
  Fun fact, if you are not a US citizen, you have no 4th amendment rights against seizure of your data. No judge or legal process necessary beyond a blanket executive order.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - indymike 5y ago
    What? The courts have ruled many many times that the Constitution DOES apply to non-citizens(aside foreign combatants in wartime).
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
    - google234123 5y ago
      Only within the borders of the United States.
- angelzen 5y ago
  Nitpick: the USA is not good for the USA either.
rakoo 5y ago
> the CCP is still putting Muslims in concentration camps I don't want to enter this debate because it detracts from the main point, but the US has been putting Latino people in concentration camps. As a fellow frenchman I can only agree with what was said before: TikTok is bad, but Youtube isn't much better.
- throwaway6734 5y ago
  >I don't want to enter this debate because it detracts from the main point, but the US has been putting Latino people in concentration camps. This is a bad faith comparison
  - blitzar 5y ago
    They are afterall bad hombres, especially the children. Lets not forget the war time concentration camps in the US, or the torture camps, or the rendition programme, or gitmo. But yes, tiktok is trash. But it is the trash that the people love.
tomp 5y ago
> Militarily, the US is allied with most EU powers (including France) Wouldn’t this be an argument for preferring TikTok over YouTube? There is literally nothing China can do to me as long as I stay firmly in the West. On the other hand, I could very well be sold out by Google to the US government, which could easily have me extradited from the EU.
- zepto 5y ago
  > There is literally nothing China can do to me as long as I stay firmly in the West. If you use TikTok they can manipulate what you see.
  - lugged 5y ago
    Considering the US education system is already hell bent on turning out communists I don't really see how China could do anything worse.
    - Spivak 5y ago
      I mean the trope of colleges turning people into leftist hippie communists is older than my parents. But K-12 in the US tries to hammer so much “so misleading it might as well be false” pro-America propaganda during exactly the age that kids are generally rebelling against anything authority tells them that’s it’s not all that surprising that during a major economic downturn that’s only benefiting those with capital that people would start to have a distaste for the system that produced this mess.
      - zepto 5y ago
        > that’s only benefiting those with capital The irony of this is telling. I have to assume you are unvaccinated, and unaware that you are being publicly critical of the government.
        Spivak 5y ago
        There’s something wild about being so liberal that people assume you’re conservative. I’m very much vaccinated and also upset that our government left the out most vulnerable people with $1400 and a thumbs up, fucked over out healthcare workers, pushed people back to work rather than give any meaningful assistance and put everyone at risk, did basically nothing to control housing costs all while the stock market posted record returns for already wealthy capital holders.

BiteCode_dev 5y ago

> The US government only accesses it if they have a reason to do so and subpoena the specific information needed As Snowden revelations have shown, this is not the case. > It wouldn't be hard for them to subtly start slipping in propaganda into the tiktok feeds of countries they intend to invade Last time I checked, the USA were the number one warmonger in the world, sometimes by lying about WMD and going against the vote of the UN. I'm not defending China, I do think Tiktok is a dictatorship honeypot, but the USA is only good to the USA. A cancer is worst than diabetes, but I still don't think diabetes is a good thing. And google is only good to google. I'm in the good graces of neither, being in Europe, and consider both as services that will try to get as much of me as possible when I use them. And the minute our interest are not aligned with theirs, they will bite us.

refenestrator 5y ago
Fun fact, if you are not a US citizen, you have no 4th amendment rights against seizure of your data. No judge or legal process necessary beyond a blanket executive order.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- indymike 5y ago
  What? The courts have ruled many many times that the Constitution DOES apply to non-citizens(aside foreign combatants in wartime).
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - google234123 5y ago
    Only within the borders of the United States.
angelzen 5y ago
Nitpick: the USA is not good for the USA either.

rakoo 5y ago

> the CCP is still putting Muslims in concentration camps I don't want to enter this debate because it detracts from the main point, but the US has been putting Latino people in concentration camps. As a fellow frenchman I can only agree with what was said before: TikTok is bad, but Youtube isn't much better.

throwaway6734 5y ago
>I don't want to enter this debate because it detracts from the main point, but the US has been putting Latino people in concentration camps. This is a bad faith comparison
- blitzar 5y ago
  They are afterall bad hombres, especially the children. Lets not forget the war time concentration camps in the US, or the torture camps, or the rendition programme, or gitmo. But yes, tiktok is trash. But it is the trash that the people love.

tomp 5y ago

> Militarily, the US is allied with most EU powers (including France) Wouldn’t this be an argument for preferring TikTok over YouTube? There is literally nothing China can do to me as long as I stay firmly in the West. On the other hand, I could very well be sold out by Google to the US government, which could easily have me extradited from the EU.

zepto 5y ago
> There is literally nothing China can do to me as long as I stay firmly in the West. If you use TikTok they can manipulate what you see.
- lugged 5y ago
  Considering the US education system is already hell bent on turning out communists I don't really see how China could do anything worse.
  - Spivak 5y ago
    I mean the trope of colleges turning people into leftist hippie communists is older than my parents. But K-12 in the US tries to hammer so much “so misleading it might as well be false” pro-America propaganda during exactly the age that kids are generally rebelling against anything authority tells them that’s it’s not all that surprising that during a major economic downturn that’s only benefiting those with capital that people would start to have a distaste for the system that produced this mess.
    - zepto 5y ago
      > that’s only benefiting those with capital The irony of this is telling. I have to assume you are unvaccinated, and unaware that you are being publicly critical of the government.
      - Spivak 5y ago
        There’s something wild about being so liberal that people assume you’re conservative. I’m very much vaccinated and also upset that our government left the out most vulnerable people with $1400 and a thumbs up, fucked over out healthcare workers, pushed people back to work rather than give any meaningful assistance and put everyone at risk, did basically nothing to control housing costs all while the stock market posted record returns for already wealthy capital holders.