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Pretty much most of these large social content warehouses are spyware, and geared towards psychological manipulation of users to get them to overshare private i

Pretty much most of these large social content warehouses are spyware, and geared towards psychological manipulation of users to get them to overshare private info, to work generating high quality entertainment in perpetuity for free, and to funnel money out of users for visibility. TikTok barely even pays it's leading content creators, much less the majority of users that struggle to reach monetization. It's not until everyone learns to stop rewarding these kind of grift platforms for offering nothing business-opportunity-wise or growth-wise that this world of online exploitation will change. If TikTok goes away, something else will replace it, pedaling fear out of protecting TikTok (which barely does anything good for anyone but itself is a waste of time, and so is uploading content to TikTok.

dpkirchner 4y ago
> If TikTok goes away, something else will replace it And it'll be way worse. They'll always be able to lean on* being not-TikTok and therefore immune to criticism by the government -- there will be very little stomach for banning two platforms in a row.
- winternett 4y ago
  I think as people realize they're not getting paid for their work they'll become a lot more selective about where they contribute time... It will become hard for platforms to grow the huge user bases they had in the past. TikTok dictates and heavily moderates what gets viewed on their platform. Creating consistently winning content on the platform is a full time job for many that does not pay well... There is a lot of smoke and mirrors over what creators actually get paid, and how consistent that pay is for many reasons... One thing's for sure, the next platform to win public adoration will need to promise and deliver better and better business/financial opportunities to creators in order to grow, otherwise they'll never be able to take off. Free labor is a rapidly dying industry.
  - luckylion 4y ago
    While they're not being paid by TikTok, they are getting attention, and companies are happy to pay them for promotion/ads. You're right about the chicken&egg problem though. Who's picking up the traffic when TikTok is banned? Instagram?
    - winternett 4y ago
      Instagram has been shooting itself in the foot for a while now, people are abandoning Meta like the plague because even the content there is dry... I think it will be something out of left field that will change the entire game... Something light and responsive, free to use, and something that allows everyone an equal post playing field again...
- brokenmachine 4y ago
  Why not ban the offending behavior instead of one particular company? Oh, that's right, because the US and other western governments still want access to that sweet, sweet data for themselves... Also the US-based tech giants have deep pockets.

dpkirchner 4y ago

> If TikTok goes away, something else will replace it And it'll be way worse. They'll always be able to lean on* being not-TikTok and therefore immune to criticism by the government -- there will be very little stomach for banning two platforms in a row.

winternett 4y ago
I think as people realize they're not getting paid for their work they'll become a lot more selective about where they contribute time... It will become hard for platforms to grow the huge user bases they had in the past. TikTok dictates and heavily moderates what gets viewed on their platform. Creating consistently winning content on the platform is a full time job for many that does not pay well... There is a lot of smoke and mirrors over what creators actually get paid, and how consistent that pay is for many reasons... One thing's for sure, the next platform to win public adoration will need to promise and deliver better and better business/financial opportunities to creators in order to grow, otherwise they'll never be able to take off. Free labor is a rapidly dying industry.
- luckylion 4y ago
  While they're not being paid by TikTok, they are getting attention, and companies are happy to pay them for promotion/ads. You're right about the chicken&egg problem though. Who's picking up the traffic when TikTok is banned? Instagram?
  - winternett 4y ago
    Instagram has been shooting itself in the foot for a while now, people are abandoning Meta like the plague because even the content there is dry... I think it will be something out of left field that will change the entire game... Something light and responsive, free to use, and something that allows everyone an equal post playing field again...
brokenmachine 4y ago
Why not ban the offending behavior instead of one particular company? Oh, that's right, because the US and other western governments still want access to that sweet, sweet data for themselves... Also the US-based tech giants have deep pockets.