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Article should be: "Content on TikTok is categorized, TikTok tracks the categories of content users watch. There exists a gay content category that TikTok trac

Article should be: "Content on TikTok is categorized, TikTok tracks the categories of content users watch. There exists a gay content category that TikTok tracks."

influx 3y ago
And they definitely won’t use that for potential blackmail purposes. Don’t worry guys.
- Incipient 3y ago
  They probably won't. they most likely will however flag you for a bit of extra tracking if you enter China.
  - AndrewKemendo 3y ago
    And what does that extra tracking lead to if not eventually blackmail? Sure 99.999 of cases will never get there… Its that Pesky one or two people who were disappeared as a result Most people chalk that up to “doing business” unfortunately instead of seeing it as inducing existential risk where unnecessary
- soerxpso 3y ago
  I don't see how it could be used for blackmail. All that's being tracked is that TikTok reckons that you enjoy LGBT-aligned content, based on a lot of chaotic circumstantial indicators. It's not porn, and it doesn't even mean that the user requested LGBT content. You can probably even get put into that category because you frequently argue against LGBT people in replies (the algorithm seems to heavily weight replies, since that's a deeper interaction than a like or a rewatch). The information itself is no more usable for blackmail than if a stranger on the street were to personally declare of you, "I reckon that this guy is gay, based on his typing style."
alvarezbjm-hn 3y ago
You forgot "prompting employee complaint" Regardless, the original title is much shorter.
- DoneWithAllThat 3y ago
  Who cares if employees complained? People will complain about anything. It’s not indicative of relevance or importance. I’ve found myself completely avoiding any article for which the headline is some variation of “person/people complain about something”, e.g. “activist group slams company X decision”, “politician calls out other politician”, etc. It’s lazy and pointless faux-journalism, and usually deployed because the author or editor has something the themselves want to complain about and need an excuse to do so. So “people are talking” becomes the justification.
rsynnott 3y ago
So, under many regulatory regimens (notably the GDPR, but others, too), sexual orientation and other personal data are treated somewhat differently than, say, “this user likes cat videos”. Now, that’s not to say that it is absolutely forbidden or anything, but it is _not_ the same thing as a generic “this person likes this sort of video” (even if it is inferred from precisely that) and it’s disingenuous to pretend that it is. I doubt TikTok had any particularly sinister motivations here (or at least no more sinister than any other profile-building), but that is arguably not the _point_.
- tsimionescu 3y ago
  Still, every social media out there does exactly this kind of categorization, at least for gay content. TikTok is all kinds of shady in general, but this is not a good example of them being any different from any other such org.
  - ruszki 3y ago
    That doesn’t mean that it’s all right to do it.
  - rsynnott 3y ago
    Yeah, honestly I doubt TikTok is much of an outlier here, unfortunately.
TobyTheDog123 3y ago
This rename makes it seem like a LGBTQ category is as important as categories like "gaming" or "DIY" when people are still discriminated against for the former.
- tsimionescu 3y ago
  Well, it is. Arguably even more so, especially for people who live in these types of places and need to see more supportive content to feel good about themselves.

Article should be: "Content on TikTok is categorized, TikTok tracks the categories of content users watch. There exists a gay content category that TikTok tracks."

influx 3y ago

And they definitely won’t use that for potential blackmail purposes. Don’t worry guys.

Incipient 3y ago
They probably won't. they most likely will however flag you for a bit of extra tracking if you enter China.
- AndrewKemendo 3y ago
  And what does that extra tracking lead to if not eventually blackmail? Sure 99.999 of cases will never get there… Its that Pesky one or two people who were disappeared as a result Most people chalk that up to “doing business” unfortunately instead of seeing it as inducing existential risk where unnecessary
soerxpso 3y ago
I don't see how it could be used for blackmail. All that's being tracked is that TikTok reckons that you enjoy LGBT-aligned content, based on a lot of chaotic circumstantial indicators. It's not porn, and it doesn't even mean that the user requested LGBT content. You can probably even get put into that category because you frequently argue against LGBT people in replies (the algorithm seems to heavily weight replies, since that's a deeper interaction than a like or a rewatch). The information itself is no more usable for blackmail than if a stranger on the street were to personally declare of you, "I reckon that this guy is gay, based on his typing style."

alvarezbjm-hn 3y ago

You forgot "prompting employee complaint" Regardless, the original title is much shorter.

DoneWithAllThat 3y ago
Who cares if employees complained? People will complain about anything. It’s not indicative of relevance or importance. I’ve found myself completely avoiding any article for which the headline is some variation of “person/people complain about something”, e.g. “activist group slams company X decision”, “politician calls out other politician”, etc. It’s lazy and pointless faux-journalism, and usually deployed because the author or editor has something the themselves want to complain about and need an excuse to do so. So “people are talking” becomes the justification.

rsynnott 3y ago

So, under many regulatory regimens (notably the GDPR, but others, too), sexual orientation and other personal data are treated somewhat differently than, say, “this user likes cat videos”. Now, that’s not to say that it is absolutely forbidden or anything, but it is _not_ the same thing as a generic “this person likes this sort of video” (even if it is inferred from precisely that) and it’s disingenuous to pretend that it is. I doubt TikTok had any particularly sinister motivations here (or at least no more sinister than any other profile-building), but that is arguably not the _point_.

tsimionescu 3y ago
Still, every social media out there does exactly this kind of categorization, at least for gay content. TikTok is all kinds of shady in general, but this is not a good example of them being any different from any other such org.
- ruszki 3y ago
  That doesn’t mean that it’s all right to do it.
- rsynnott 3y ago
  Yeah, honestly I doubt TikTok is much of an outlier here, unfortunately.

TobyTheDog123 3y ago

This rename makes it seem like a LGBTQ category is as important as categories like "gaming" or "DIY" when people are still discriminated against for the former.

tsimionescu 3y ago
Well, it is. Arguably even more so, especially for people who live in these types of places and need to see more supportive content to feel good about themselves.