3 ms·

This is an interesting take and I think it's a fairly common one. Is it possible that your first two sentences contradict one another? If, in this example, the

This is an interesting take and I think it's a fairly common one. Is it possible that your first two sentences contradict one another? If, in this example, the US government can't repurpose it or use it for propaganda, can it really have insane oversight over it? What does oversight mean here by your definition? Are youth always correct in their worldview and never put at odds with their own societies by external or internal propaganda tools? I can think of a few examples of this in world history, some in the US, Europe and also China - so your statement here seems particularly interesting.

someotherperson 3y ago
> If, in this example, the US government can't repurpose it or use it for propaganda, can it really have insane oversight over it? Yes. Much in the same way that the IRS has oversight over a company's financial records but doesn't have much of a say in how the company carries out its business. > What does oversight mean here by your definition? Having access to the data, having access to the content moderation policies, as well as having legal jurisdiction over TikTok's executive team. > Are youth always correct in their worldview and never put at odds with their own societies by external or internal propaganda tools? Their political positions are usually a lot more extremely conservative or extremely liberal. Although some of their opinions might be formed in the shape intended by propaganda, a lot of the opinions are exclusively rebellion (see: young people drinking, smoking, whatever). Ultimately youth on TikTok don't think Tiananmen square was a hoax or have deluded views about China's social policies. In fact they meme about China's social credit concept and would rather visit Japan or Korea. This on its own ends the idea of it being a Chinese propaganda tool -- if it really is, the Chinese are failing as miserably as the US at trying to weaponize it. Beyond this, however, TikTok is essentially giving itself up to the full control of the US government[0] so we might be on the verge on having Twitter-esque style[1] controls. But pretending that China is the reason that TikTok isn't enough pro-Israeli, or the reason why conservative views are making a resurgence in the younger demographics, or that it's 'dumbing down the Western world' (just as the radio, TV and video games did before) is just a mixture of old people yelling at clouds and propagandists not being able to manipulate a new generation. It's actually funny how the same voices complaining about it now weren't complaining when TikTok was pushing covid vaccine conspiracies a couple of years ago -- it might have something to do with their viewpoint no longer being represented. The real solution for TikTok might be to add an age limit. That is, no old people. Let kids be kids -- which is how it started when they were just singing and dancing before it was politicized. Something that republicans take issue with, of course, who want TikTok to push nationalist propaganda instead like they do on the Chinese version. [0] https://www.forbes.com/sites/emilybaker-white/2023/08/21/draft-tiktok-cfius-agreement/?sh=13b780eb112a https://www.forbes.com/sites/emilybaker-white/2023/08/21/dra... [1] https://theintercept.com/2022/12/20/twitter-dod-us-military-accounts/ https://theintercept.com/2022/12/20/twitter-dod-us-military-...

someotherperson 3y ago

> If, in this example, the US government can't repurpose it or use it for propaganda, can it really have insane oversight over it? Yes. Much in the same way that the IRS has oversight over a company's financial records but doesn't have much of a say in how the company carries out its business. > What does oversight mean here by your definition? Having access to the data, having access to the content moderation policies, as well as having legal jurisdiction over TikTok's executive team. > Are youth always correct in their worldview and never put at odds with their own societies by external or internal propaganda tools? Their political positions are usually a lot more extremely conservative or extremely liberal. Although some of their opinions might be formed in the shape intended by propaganda, a lot of the opinions are exclusively rebellion (see: young people drinking, smoking, whatever). Ultimately youth on TikTok don't think Tiananmen square was a hoax or have deluded views about China's social policies. In fact they meme about China's social credit concept and would rather visit Japan or Korea. This on its own ends the idea of it being a Chinese propaganda tool -- if it really is, the Chinese are failing as miserably as the US at trying to weaponize it. Beyond this, however, TikTok is essentially giving itself up to the full control of the US government[0] so we might be on the verge on having Twitter-esque style[1] controls. But pretending that China is the reason that TikTok isn't enough pro-Israeli, or the reason why conservative views are making a resurgence in the younger demographics, or that it's 'dumbing down the Western world' (just as the radio, TV and video games did before) is just a mixture of old people yelling at clouds and propagandists not being able to manipulate a new generation. It's actually funny how the same voices complaining about it now weren't complaining when TikTok was pushing covid vaccine conspiracies a couple of years ago -- it might have something to do with their viewpoint no longer being represented. The real solution for TikTok might be to add an age limit. That is, no old people. Let kids be kids -- which is how it started when they were just singing and dancing before it was politicized. Something that republicans take issue with, of course, who want TikTok to push nationalist propaganda instead like they do on the Chinese version. [0] https://www.forbes.com/sites/emilybaker-white/2023/08/21/draft-tiktok-cfius-agreement/?sh=13b780eb112a https://www.forbes.com/sites/emilybaker-white/2023/08/21/dra... [1] https://theintercept.com/2022/12/20/twitter-dod-us-military-accounts/ https://theintercept.com/2022/12/20/twitter-dod-us-military-...