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I think the author is severely downplaying the threat of the CCP using the algorithm as a weapon against the US. Obviously they're not going to show banner wavi

I think the author is severely downplaying the threat of the CCP using the algorithm as a weapon against the US. Obviously they're not going to show banner waving videos of communist military parades to kids. What they will do is find relatable, young, all American creators who have ideological overlap with CCP values, then you give these creators disproportionate weight in the algo. There is enough noise on any social media platform nowadays that you just have to have control over what is promoted in order to gain traction. Take reddit for example, where bot armies are used to shape comment sections in artificially promoted stories posted by innocent bystanders. The person pushing whatever agenda doesn't have to create or post anything. The noise of the platform is high enough that any narrative can be shaped if you have enough power to push around the algorithm. All this being said, it should be clear why you wouldn't want a communist dictator who granted themselves a life term to control the country gunning to take Americas place on the world stage...control over what content people in America consume. Data privacy concerns be damned, those are secondary, far secondary.

cherioo 4y ago
And these are exactly the reason China does not want western social media, especially since US has a history of toppling other regimes. That’s not to mention social media’s role Arab Spring. CCP probably saw that and scared shitless. FWIw, I think these concerns are valid. But it is sad that US comes to the same conclusion as China. I have for a while now held the opinion that social media needs to be hyper-locally locked down to be “healthy”. However, that is practically impossible to pivot to now. That said, Nextdoor model hasn’t exactly been a role model community so maybe I’m just old now.
- Workaccount2 4y ago
  I don't even think that is a fair assessment because it places the US in the same bin as China, but functionally the US is very different. If Biden wanted to show you videos of daises on youtube, their really isn't any practical way of doing so. If Xi wanted to show you videos of daises on tiktok, you would open tiktok and get wall-to-wall flower videos tomorrow. China is functionally a dictatorship. The US is not. Hence why we even get to have a debate about a foreign adversary controlling the the most popular app on the country's phones.
- aftbit 4y ago
  >But it is sad that US comes to the same conclusion as China. Not if that conclusion is correct though. Both China and the US think the sky looks blue and the ocean is wet. Both are concerned about the power of social media to shape the narrative for millions or billions of people.
8note 4y ago
That's the same approach bill gates takes to YouTube, of course. If that actually works for the CCP, it would be a good counterweight to the capitalist propagandists that drive how the rest to of social media is incentivised

cherioo 4y ago

And these are exactly the reason China does not want western social media, especially since US has a history of toppling other regimes. That’s not to mention social media’s role Arab Spring. CCP probably saw that and scared shitless. FWIw, I think these concerns are valid. But it is sad that US comes to the same conclusion as China. I have for a while now held the opinion that social media needs to be hyper-locally locked down to be “healthy”. However, that is practically impossible to pivot to now. That said, Nextdoor model hasn’t exactly been a role model community so maybe I’m just old now.

Workaccount2 4y ago
I don't even think that is a fair assessment because it places the US in the same bin as China, but functionally the US is very different. If Biden wanted to show you videos of daises on youtube, their really isn't any practical way of doing so. If Xi wanted to show you videos of daises on tiktok, you would open tiktok and get wall-to-wall flower videos tomorrow. China is functionally a dictatorship. The US is not. Hence why we even get to have a debate about a foreign adversary controlling the the most popular app on the country's phones.
aftbit 4y ago
>But it is sad that US comes to the same conclusion as China. Not if that conclusion is correct though. Both China and the US think the sky looks blue and the ocean is wet. Both are concerned about the power of social media to shape the narrative for millions or billions of people.

8note 4y ago

That's the same approach bill gates takes to YouTube, of course. If that actually works for the CCP, it would be a good counterweight to the capitalist propagandists that drive how the rest to of social media is incentivised