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If TikTok didn't exist, wouldn't you expect those Pro-Palestine viewpoints to appear somewhere else? The whole thing is unverifiable because we have no test/co
by ycombobreaker 1y ago
If TikTok didn't exist, wouldn't you expect those Pro-Palestine viewpoints to appear somewhere else? The whole thing is unverifiable because we have no test/control, but it seems implausible that the platform was the only avenue for this particular speech.
- frollogaston 1y agoThe companies themselves have free speech. It doesn't really matter how those viewpoints ended up highly-ranked on TikTok, it's their right to choose what they want to display, same with Facebook. And given what happened here, I don't expect Facebook to allow this stuff high-up even if they wanted to before. Another thing we know is that the White House under Biden was pressuring FB and others to downrank anti-covid-vaccine content until a judge ordered them to stop.
- JumpCrisscross 1y ago> we know is that the White House under Biden was pressuring FB and others to downrank anti-covid-vaccine content Kind of quaint in 2025.
- School-Cotton 1y ago> If TikTok didn't exist, wouldn't you expect those Pro-Palestine viewpoints to appear somewhere else Not necessarily. It depends why they were primarily successful on TikTok, which we don't know. If it's because American platforms tend not to highly rank content that goes against the US's geopolitical ideology, then no, I wouldn't expect that.
- NLPaep 1y agoTikTok isn’t the only non-US social media platform. Why wouldn’t it show up elsewhere?
- School-Cotton 1y agoIt is the only one that's widely used in the US, as far as I know.
- Aunche 1y agoSocial media platforms rank content based on how profitable it is to them. There is no evidence to suggest otherwise. Maybe it would be unprofitable to resist censorship requests on behalf of US government, but the exact same pressure would be applied to TikTok.
- kelipso 1y agoWe forgot the Twitter files already?
- toynbee_cunt 1y ago[dead]
- TJSomething 1y agoIf the pressure is a direct bribe, then TikTok could get in hot water with China for accepting that bribe. With a US corp, the US government can make any criminal liability go away.
- Aunche 1y agoA company has to follow the local rules of a country. Was Microsoft bribed to censor the Tiananmen Square Massacre on Bing?
- like_any_other 1y ago> If TikTok didn't exist, wouldn't you expect those Pro-Palestine viewpoints to appear somewhere else? Leaked data reveals Israeli govt campaign to remove pro-Palestine posts on Meta - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43655603 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43655603 Meta: Systemic Censorship of Palestine Content - https://text.hrw.org/news/2023/12/20/meta-systemic-censorship-palestine-content https://text.hrw.org/news/2023/12/20/meta-systemic-censorshi... Facebook has severely restricted the ability of Palestinian news outlets to reach an audience during the Israel-Gaza war, according to BBC research - https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c786wlxz4jgo https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c786wlxz4jgo
- _heimdall 1y agoThis is the smoking gun of actual free speech violation rather than the US government banning a particular platform wholesale. To be a first amendment violation this would technically have to involve the US government working to censor American's speech over Palestine. Functionally, though, this is a government censoring specific speech and feels very much like a free speech issue.
- like_any_other 1y agoFree speech is a broader concept than just the first amendment, or any one specific legal code.