4 ms·

Agree. I've never used the app but I'm curious about what these threat vectors are. But it's never discussed. It's just nebulously "bad."

mrguyorama 4y ago
One concrete badness IMO is the black box algorithm of it. It's controlled semi-directly by the CCP, and they openly use a different algorithm and different filters in china vs the US, and not just for cultural reasons. Letting the CCP put it's fingers on the scale of what gets fed to millions of impressionable teens is just as stupid and dangerous as letting facebook continue to do so, with the only difference being Zuckerburg isn't a nation-state actor who is openly our rival. There is a lot of possible power for China to attempt to utilize in TikTok, do you really think they won't?
- rchaud 4y ago
  > Zuckerburg isn't a nation-state actor who is openly our rival. Zuckerberg has openly violated the privacy of millions of Americans, and been fined the largest amount in FTC history for doing so. He might not be in the Axis of Evil, but the fact that he continues to operate his division-by-doomscroll machine on American soil makes this TikTok talk sound pretty ridiculous.
boomboomsubban 4y ago
The one mentioned is that the Chinese could potentially use TikTok to control the narrative about a topic. Which is true, but it's the kind of thing everybody else does all of the time.
belltaco 4y ago
A live example https://www.theverge.com/2022/12/22/23522808/tiktok-journalists-data-accessed-bytedance-internal-audit https://www.theverge.com/2022/12/22/23522808/tiktok-journali...
lm28469 4y ago
Tiktok in China seems to provibe much bethier content, especially to teens Science VS twerking how to be a good citizen VS tide pod challenge &c. It's not a military or political threat per say, just a slow brain rot over an entire generation https://www.deseret.com/2022/11/24/23467181/difference-between-tik-tok-in-china-and-the-us https://www.deseret.com/2022/11/24/23467181/difference-betwe...
- sw104 4y ago
  Not sure why you've been downvoted. I think the dopamine receptor frying nature of apps like TikTok is more of a danger than the Chinese government getting hold of kids/teens data. We have almost entire generations hooked on a short-form media content app which is rapidly decaying their attention spans and sitting in their hands like a hardcore drug. The longer term implications of children / teenagers that can't read a short book is far more detrimental than China knowing which pop songs they like. Add to that, the moronic trends spread and perhaps encouraged on these platforms (tide pod eating, play-acting as if they're victims of the holocaust, and the sketchy sexual content on the platform). TikTok, and to be honest, all social media, are toxic products. Maybe if the US bans TikTok, they should proceed ahead and ban the rest, "for the children's safety".
noonething 4y ago
They could continuously show more traumatic events vs non-traumatic ones, or pointless stuff vs educational, etc. Not that were not already doing that to ourselves regardless.

mrguyorama 4y ago

One concrete badness IMO is the black box algorithm of it. It's controlled semi-directly by the CCP, and they openly use a different algorithm and different filters in china vs the US, and not just for cultural reasons. Letting the CCP put it's fingers on the scale of what gets fed to millions of impressionable teens is just as stupid and dangerous as letting facebook continue to do so, with the only difference being Zuckerburg isn't a nation-state actor who is openly our rival. There is a lot of possible power for China to attempt to utilize in TikTok, do you really think they won't?

rchaud 4y ago
> Zuckerburg isn't a nation-state actor who is openly our rival. Zuckerberg has openly violated the privacy of millions of Americans, and been fined the largest amount in FTC history for doing so. He might not be in the Axis of Evil, but the fact that he continues to operate his division-by-doomscroll machine on American soil makes this TikTok talk sound pretty ridiculous.

boomboomsubban 4y ago

The one mentioned is that the Chinese could potentially use TikTok to control the narrative about a topic. Which is true, but it's the kind of thing everybody else does all of the time.

belltaco 4y ago

A live example https://www.theverge.com/2022/12/22/23522808/tiktok-journalists-data-accessed-bytedance-internal-audit https://www.theverge.com/2022/12/22/23522808/tiktok-journali...

lm28469 4y ago

Tiktok in China seems to provibe much bethier content, especially to teens Science VS twerking how to be a good citizen VS tide pod challenge &c. It's not a military or political threat per say, just a slow brain rot over an entire generation https://www.deseret.com/2022/11/24/23467181/difference-between-tik-tok-in-china-and-the-us https://www.deseret.com/2022/11/24/23467181/difference-betwe...

sw104 4y ago
Not sure why you've been downvoted. I think the dopamine receptor frying nature of apps like TikTok is more of a danger than the Chinese government getting hold of kids/teens data. We have almost entire generations hooked on a short-form media content app which is rapidly decaying their attention spans and sitting in their hands like a hardcore drug. The longer term implications of children / teenagers that can't read a short book is far more detrimental than China knowing which pop songs they like. Add to that, the moronic trends spread and perhaps encouraged on these platforms (tide pod eating, play-acting as if they're victims of the holocaust, and the sketchy sexual content on the platform). TikTok, and to be honest, all social media, are toxic products. Maybe if the US bans TikTok, they should proceed ahead and ban the rest, "for the children's safety".

noonething 4y ago

They could continuously show more traumatic events vs non-traumatic ones, or pointless stuff vs educational, etc. Not that were not already doing that to ourselves regardless.