9 ms·

TikTok settles just before social media addiction trial to begin

200 points by ourmandave 9mo ago

dylan604 9mo ago
It would be nice if we lived in a world where settlement money would not dissuade them from taking their case forward. I know that's the world of unicorns and rainbows though, and definitely not the world we live in.
- taurath 9mo ago
  It would be nice if we lived in a world where civil lawsuits were not the only way to gain any recompense from companies greed, as well. The law protects companies but rarely binds them, and the law binds citizens but rarely protects them. This is the only recourse, in our land where wealth and power mean more than the rule of law.
augusteo 9mo ago
The timing is interesting. TikTok settles right as jury selection begins, Snap settled last week. Meta and YouTube are the ones staying in. I wonder if the settlement amounts will ever become public. The Big Tobacco comparison keeps coming up, but those settlements were massive and included ongoing payments. Hard to imagine social media companies agreeing to anything similar without admitting some level of harm. As a parent of two kids (8 and 6), I think about this constantly. We limit screen time pretty aggressively, but it's getting harder as they get older. The "attention-grabbing design" part isn't some conspiracy theory. These apps are explicitly optimized for engagement. The question is whether that optimization crosses a legal line. Curious how the trial plays out with Zuckerberg on the stand.
- dylan604 9mo ago
  > We limit screen time pretty aggressively, but it's getting harder as they get older. Curious into what kind of example you as a parent are setting in limiting screen time for yourself. For me, it's easy as I'm an old fart that has had a longer time without devices than with one while also not participating in the socials. We now have parents that have had a device for the majority of their life having kids that will never know a time without devices. So this is an honest bit of curiosity at the risk of sounding judgemental.
- boelboel 9mo ago
  I think a major part of the difficulty is because kids (and arguably adults even more) are practically forced to use screens for schoolwork. Can't really be without a phone when they need to meet up with friends either. Completely going against smartphones and screens could end up isolating them.
OGEnthusiast 9mo ago
Why is TikTok always singled out in these social media addiction lawsuits? Instagram and YouTube are just as guilty, if not more so.
- reenorap 9mo ago
  Did you read the article? Snapchat, Meta and Google are also defendants. Snapchat and now Tiktok have settled.
- davey48016 9mo ago
  They are also defendants in the same lawsuit, but they have not settled.
- pinnochio 9mo ago
  "The defendants now include Meta - which owns Instagram and Facebook and YouTube parent Google. Snapchat settled with the plaintiff last week."
- publicdebates 9mo ago
  TikTok's algorithm is significantly better and therefore more addictive. I'm speaking from personal experience, having spent about 12-14 hours a day on TikTok for probably 360 days during 2024. Getting banned from it was one of the best things that ever happened to me. Too bad it only happened in Jan 2025. Will never get that year back, or the mental health I lost from it. (I'm not going to sue, though I could definitely win such a suit.)
  - izend 9mo ago
    "I'm speaking from personal experience, having spent about 12-14 hours a day on TikTok for probably 360 days during 2024" My jaw is on the floor... Can you provide details of your usage, were you just going through video after video for 12-14 hours or were you involved in content production or something?
    - publicdebates 9mo ago
noitpmeder 9mo ago
This case reads like a single individual suing these companies What is to stop other individuals from filing the same suit and expecting similar outcomes?
- reenorap 9mo ago
  This is the first of many lawsuits that was exactly the same.
- WarmWash 9mo ago
  Not much. Class action suites suffer immensely from bad actors freeloading on the backs of people actually harmed. I have a friend who practices law in the area on some pretty high profile medical cases, it's a chronic problem trying to weed out people who were affected from people who shamelessly want money. Basically people playing victim to steal from actual victims, and even worse, the side doing the weeding is the side who originated the harm.
- miltonlost 9mo ago
  I hope nothing. Maybe if enough people rightfully sue, then these companies will be forced into going out of business since we can't put the executives away for the crimes.
  - boca_honey 9mo ago
    That sounds like an excellent outcome. Also, I don't think executives should go to jail for something like this. Commercial social media going out of business and their executives paying enourmous fines is the best that could happen for the world IMO, but it is also extremely unlikely.
    - Revolution1120 8mo ago
      They should be in jail, absolutely they should be in jail. They provided effective tools for powerful and influential Chinese elites, a mafia-like, Satanic cult group. And the gaming companies should also be in jail.
DonHopkins 9mo ago
I'm addicted to pro-Release-the-Epstein-Files, anti-Trump, anti-ICE, and Innocent-Americans-Being-Shot-Dead-in-the-Streets-Then-Accussed-of-Being-Terrorists videos, and they just cut me off cold turkey, dammit! TikTok blocks Epstein mentions and anti-Trump videos, users claim. Alleged censorship comes after investors loyal to Trump take over social media platform. https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/tiktok-epstein-trump-censorship-ice-b2908309.html?utm_source=reddit.com https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/tiktok-epstein-trump-cens... >TikTok users in the US have reported being unable to write the word ‘Epstein’ in messages amid accusations that the social media platform is suppressing content critical of President Donald Trump. >The issues come less than a week after TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, was forced to divest a majority stake in its US operations to a group of investors loyal to President Trump, who was a close associate with the late convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
- aaa_aaa 9mo ago
  [dead]
  - johnnyanmac 9mo ago
    It indirectly involves the trump administration due to the threats of bannimg it in the US last year, then delaying it until they could find an American buyer. I don't think the recent censorship of US American policy is a coincidence when you consider these factors.
  - DonHopkins 9mo ago
    [dead]
SunshineTheCat 9mo ago
I 100% agree with the premise that TikTok is addictive and even dangerous to consume in large amounts (that's why I don't consume it at all). But I feel the exact same about cheeseburgers. Should I be able to sue McDonalds if I let my kid eat 100 of them in one sitting? Again, I get the danger here, and I don't like TikTok as a whole. I just don't really know where the line is between something that the parent is allowing kids to do (like spending a billion hours on TikTok), versus something they have no control over (like a company badly constructing a car seat, or similar).
- thinkingtoilet 9mo ago
  I'm trying to read this with the best of intentions, but you're saying you really can not tell the difference social media and a cheeseburger in terms of access, addiction, and damage?
  - SunshineTheCat 9mo ago
    Yes, of course I understand the addictive difference. The point I'm making is: does parental decision making have any bearing on this, or can they knowingly allow their child to do something harmful and then sue because it turned out poorly.
    - iamflimflam1 9mo ago
      I would say if the companies providing the service do so knowing it is harmful and cover that up then yes they can sue.
    - thinkingtoilet 9mo ago
      I think we would all agree that parents bear a lot of responsibility here. Also, if I think if we look at how we treat kids in other parts of society it's very clear it's a good thing when highly addictive things are kept away from them. It's a good thing cigarette companies can't advertise to children. It's a good thing serving children alcohol or allowing them to buy weed is illegal. And now that we have this new poison, the law hasn't quite caught up yet, but this is a poison, and it's being fed to children with a ferocity and sophistication that only modern technology can provide. A kid can't make a hamburger in their bedroom. They can sneak a phone in and use it. I think it's both. I shout from the roof tops to every parent who will listen to not buy their kid a smart phone. I also think we should hold companies accountable when the knowingly get children addicted to poison.
buellerbueller 9mo ago
Scraped from unsealed court/discovery docs about the addictive potential of various social media platforms: https://techoversight.org/2026/01/25/top-report-mdl-jan-25/?ref=dispatch.techoversight.org https://techoversight.org/2026/01/25/top-report-mdl-jan-25/?...
filoeleven 9mo ago
Remember: there was a TikTok ban that was signed into law and took effect on January 19, 2025 which said that it would be allowed back once it was owned by a US company. Trump did not enforce the ban. As soon as TikTok changed ownership last week, censorship of posts that are not in line with the Trump regime began happening.
alex1138 9mo ago
I think too much gets made of addiction in a soft sense and not enough in a hard sense If I log off Facebook and it starts spamming me with fake notifications, it's addictive in a way that's more than just "Facebook provides a great service! I'm on it all the time! It's so addictive! :)" If feeds were chronological and they didn't blatantly lie to your face, or you got messages on time (they like not sending it to you by email) it wouldn't be addictive in a lab rat style (This is Facebook, not TikTok, but still. And yes, I know TT tries to be addictive on purpose)
dankwizard 9mo ago
Not sure why poeple don't just put the phone down? We really are the most sheltered gentle generation. Oh no, this app is taking up my time, we need to BAN IT.
- aucisson_masque 9mo ago
  Tell that to a drug user. It works the same way. And when the app is developed purposely to make people addict, that’s an issue. You can’t just blame the user when their chance to have a normal app usage have been rigged.
  - Aeglaecia 9mo ago
    re adults it does fall to individual responsibility , re kids we can partially blame parents for not taking care of their kids properly , overall the enemy of our attention has quadrillions of dollars which is fairly difficult to fight against
- flumpcakes 9mo ago
  That's not how addiction works. If you could "just stop" then it isn't really an addiction.
  - dmix 9mo ago
    Huh, that's exactly the solution to addiction? Step 1 is always changing your behaviour patterns to break out of habits and avoid things that draw you into it. Make your bedroom a phone-free zone, charge it in the living room overnight, use the built in parenting and screentime controls that every modern phone OS has, don't let your kids stare at the screen all day. Etc. This isn't rocket science. Self control is one of the most important things you need to learn. It sucks and it's hard but it's basic life stuff. The only difference with social media addiction vs drugs/gambling is that it's not socially ostracized like other addictions so people ignore it.
    - NoPicklez 9mo ago
basilgohar 9mo ago
The elephant in the room of all of this is that TikTok was the social media platform that allowed for the genocide taking place in Palestine by Israel to reach audiences directly. All other major social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter) heavily censored this information or outright deplatformed and canceled accounts of prominent dissemination of information about the war crimes being committed by Israelis. TikTok, outside of the US and Zionist-controlled sphere of influence, remained the one place for this information to be available widely far beyond what was possible on other platforms. All the other platforms have the same concepts of algorithms and targeting and bubbles. TikTok was uniquely not under Western control, and thus, needed to be pressured to conform. The significant shift in young people's opinions about Israel in recent years is heavily attributed to the unfiltered information about their ongoing genocide against the Palestinians that they could uniquely see on TikTok and must not be understated, especially in light of all the major shifts in news, media, and social media over the past few years as they grapple with the fallout of losing the narrative. I don't deny that social media as a whole has many harms and negatives, but there's no action like this being taken against Meta, Google, or Twitter despite the exact same harms present, sometimes even more so, on their platforms. They're already in the same overall group that supports the narrative and have done so by self-censoring their platforms accordingly. TikTok didn't play ball and got trampled.
- kurthr 9mo ago
  I'm fully against censorship, and I don't want it covered up, but at some point profiting off of the suffering of others and distracting people with holocaust porn or influencer virtue signaling is self defeating. What did all of that social audience gain? Clicks, entertainment, dollars, while children died? That's disgusting. And in the end is there anything of value left, any documentation of what happened, or how to prevent it from happening again? Nope. That thankless unprofitable work is done by others and ignored by the same consumers.
  - basilgohar 9mo ago
    All media, newspapers, and social media networks do this. I'm not sure why you're raising this specifically in response to the fact I was stating TikTok was uniquely able to bring awareness to the issue of the genocide in Palestine. Many people were completely unfamiliar with the plight of the Palestinians over the past 100 years and TikTok (and, to a much less degree, other platforms) brought the issue to their attention. Israel is no longer untouchable and many have recognized them for what they are now - the last remaining Western imperialist settler colony. This was not the case merely 4 years ago. The transformation is stark and real. What can people do with that knowledge? That's up to them. I don't really get the rest of your comment, unfortunately.
nicholast 9mo ago
I am less concerned about addiction than i am about introducing micro targeted foreign agendas into our nation’s cultural landscape.
- codyb 9mo ago
  I mean, why not be concerned about both lol? We can do two things at once I think, and both of those things sound fairly negative.
Liftyee 9mo ago
Fundamentally, I think having a source of "free dopamine" on tap is not going to do any good. If I can get distracted from my real world tasks anytime, anywhere, the immediate incentives to work on real things disappear. Effectively, one can get stuck in a local minimum. I don't know how to solve it, but personally I've chosen to block as many feeds/algorithms as I can, so I have to make a conscious decision to search for something (making it just as hard as making the conscious decision that I'm likely putting off). The only feeds I have right now are the FT and Hacker News. Everything else is just a blank home screen with a search bar.
- echelon 9mo ago
  This is what drugs and alcohol can become if not used in moderation. Once we have the AI holodeck (the full-sensory interactive, possibly multiplayer one), can you only imagine? TikTok is only the punch card phase of this. TikTok may as well be black and white television. Just imagine what we might have in twenty years. Maybe this is why we haven't found alien life. If their biologies have attention mechanisms like ours, maybe they automate highs and turn inward instead of outward. (I do like that better than AGI gray goo taking over galaxies.)
  - Liftyee 9mo ago
    Agreed, AI/VR definitely offers nightmarish opportunities. At least drugs/alcohol are self limiting: you have to meet your dealer, go to a store, eventually run out of money... TikTok/Reels/Shorts are free, infinite, and in your pocket on a device you're now forced to use in daily life (bank/2fa/messaging apps).
    - echelon 9mo ago
      > a device you're now forced to use in daily life (bank/2fa/messaging apps). Restaurants with only QR code menus. "Let me scan your LinkedIn app." Verify your government ID on our app. "Zelle me." "Scan this code to pay." My favorite: "Scan this code for parking or you will be towed. Also, if you leave without paying, we'll tow you next time you enter any of our properties in any state because we scanned your license plate." There's no other way to pay. Apartment / condo door keys and entry systems. My battery is always at 10%. I don't know how y'all do it. This is also one of the many reasons why I think it's criminal that two private businesses are allowed to own this modern life necessity so completely.
jaimex2 9mo ago
Can anyone sue them for the same to get a payout?
penguin_booze 9mo ago
"Settling" should never be an option. When damaging behaviour comes to light, there should be no closure other than investigating and removing the underlying cause. Paying money doesn't make the crime go away.
- chrisjj 9mo ago
  It is a private suit. Settling should always be an option.
tsoukase 9mo ago
Large social media (Tiktok, Instagram, Facebook) have made me (and the world?) a great favor and need a login to scroll through their feed. Resist having an account and you are mostly free. It's like in order to get depended on drugs, you give all your privacy to the pharm company.
poopooracoocoo 9mo ago
Plenty of things are addictive. I don't think this is one that should be intervened. I wish we had more personal responsibility today. America's meant to be the country of freedom, right?

200 points by ourmandave 9mo ago

It would be nice if we lived in a world where settlement money would not dissuade them from taking their case forward. I know that's the world of unicorns and rainbows though, and definitely not the world we live in.

taurath 9mo ago
It would be nice if we lived in a world where civil lawsuits were not the only way to gain any recompense from companies greed, as well. The law protects companies but rarely binds them, and the law binds citizens but rarely protects them. This is the only recourse, in our land where wealth and power mean more than the rule of law.

augusteo 9mo ago

The timing is interesting. TikTok settles right as jury selection begins, Snap settled last week. Meta and YouTube are the ones staying in. I wonder if the settlement amounts will ever become public. The Big Tobacco comparison keeps coming up, but those settlements were massive and included ongoing payments. Hard to imagine social media companies agreeing to anything similar without admitting some level of harm. As a parent of two kids (8 and 6), I think about this constantly. We limit screen time pretty aggressively, but it's getting harder as they get older. The "attention-grabbing design" part isn't some conspiracy theory. These apps are explicitly optimized for engagement. The question is whether that optimization crosses a legal line. Curious how the trial plays out with Zuckerberg on the stand.

dylan604 9mo ago
> We limit screen time pretty aggressively, but it's getting harder as they get older. Curious into what kind of example you as a parent are setting in limiting screen time for yourself. For me, it's easy as I'm an old fart that has had a longer time without devices than with one while also not participating in the socials. We now have parents that have had a device for the majority of their life having kids that will never know a time without devices. So this is an honest bit of curiosity at the risk of sounding judgemental.
boelboel 9mo ago
I think a major part of the difficulty is because kids (and arguably adults even more) are practically forced to use screens for schoolwork. Can't really be without a phone when they need to meet up with friends either. Completely going against smartphones and screens could end up isolating them.

OGEnthusiast 9mo ago

Why is TikTok always singled out in these social media addiction lawsuits? Instagram and YouTube are just as guilty, if not more so.

reenorap 9mo ago
Did you read the article? Snapchat, Meta and Google are also defendants. Snapchat and now Tiktok have settled.
davey48016 9mo ago
They are also defendants in the same lawsuit, but they have not settled.
pinnochio 9mo ago
"The defendants now include Meta - which owns Instagram and Facebook and YouTube parent Google. Snapchat settled with the plaintiff last week."
publicdebates 9mo ago
TikTok's algorithm is significantly better and therefore more addictive. I'm speaking from personal experience, having spent about 12-14 hours a day on TikTok for probably 360 days during 2024. Getting banned from it was one of the best things that ever happened to me. Too bad it only happened in Jan 2025. Will never get that year back, or the mental health I lost from it. (I'm not going to sue, though I could definitely win such a suit.)
- izend 9mo ago
  "I'm speaking from personal experience, having spent about 12-14 hours a day on TikTok for probably 360 days during 2024" My jaw is on the floor... Can you provide details of your usage, were you just going through video after video for 12-14 hours or were you involved in content production or something?
  - publicdebates 9mo ago

noitpmeder 9mo ago

This case reads like a single individual suing these companies What is to stop other individuals from filing the same suit and expecting similar outcomes?

reenorap 9mo ago
This is the first of many lawsuits that was exactly the same.
WarmWash 9mo ago
Not much. Class action suites suffer immensely from bad actors freeloading on the backs of people actually harmed. I have a friend who practices law in the area on some pretty high profile medical cases, it's a chronic problem trying to weed out people who were affected from people who shamelessly want money. Basically people playing victim to steal from actual victims, and even worse, the side doing the weeding is the side who originated the harm.
miltonlost 9mo ago
I hope nothing. Maybe if enough people rightfully sue, then these companies will be forced into going out of business since we can't put the executives away for the crimes.
- boca_honey 9mo ago
  That sounds like an excellent outcome. Also, I don't think executives should go to jail for something like this. Commercial social media going out of business and their executives paying enourmous fines is the best that could happen for the world IMO, but it is also extremely unlikely.
  - Revolution1120 8mo ago
    They should be in jail, absolutely they should be in jail. They provided effective tools for powerful and influential Chinese elites, a mafia-like, Satanic cult group. And the gaming companies should also be in jail.

DonHopkins 9mo ago

I'm addicted to pro-Release-the-Epstein-Files, anti-Trump, anti-ICE, and Innocent-Americans-Being-Shot-Dead-in-the-Streets-Then-Accussed-of-Being-Terrorists videos, and they just cut me off cold turkey, dammit! TikTok blocks Epstein mentions and anti-Trump videos, users claim. Alleged censorship comes after investors loyal to Trump take over social media platform. https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/tiktok-epstein-trump-censorship-ice-b2908309.html?utm_source=reddit.com https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/tiktok-epstein-trump-cens... >TikTok users in the US have reported being unable to write the word ‘Epstein’ in messages amid accusations that the social media platform is suppressing content critical of President Donald Trump. >The issues come less than a week after TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, was forced to divest a majority stake in its US operations to a group of investors loyal to President Trump, who was a close associate with the late convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

aaa_aaa 9mo ago
[dead]
- johnnyanmac 9mo ago
  It indirectly involves the trump administration due to the threats of bannimg it in the US last year, then delaying it until they could find an American buyer. I don't think the recent censorship of US American policy is a coincidence when you consider these factors.
- DonHopkins 9mo ago
  [dead]

SunshineTheCat 9mo ago

I 100% agree with the premise that TikTok is addictive and even dangerous to consume in large amounts (that's why I don't consume it at all). But I feel the exact same about cheeseburgers. Should I be able to sue McDonalds if I let my kid eat 100 of them in one sitting? Again, I get the danger here, and I don't like TikTok as a whole. I just don't really know where the line is between something that the parent is allowing kids to do (like spending a billion hours on TikTok), versus something they have no control over (like a company badly constructing a car seat, or similar).

thinkingtoilet 9mo ago
I'm trying to read this with the best of intentions, but you're saying you really can not tell the difference social media and a cheeseburger in terms of access, addiction, and damage?
- SunshineTheCat 9mo ago
  Yes, of course I understand the addictive difference. The point I'm making is: does parental decision making have any bearing on this, or can they knowingly allow their child to do something harmful and then sue because it turned out poorly.
  - iamflimflam1 9mo ago
    I would say if the companies providing the service do so knowing it is harmful and cover that up then yes they can sue.
  - thinkingtoilet 9mo ago
    I think we would all agree that parents bear a lot of responsibility here. Also, if I think if we look at how we treat kids in other parts of society it's very clear it's a good thing when highly addictive things are kept away from them. It's a good thing cigarette companies can't advertise to children. It's a good thing serving children alcohol or allowing them to buy weed is illegal. And now that we have this new poison, the law hasn't quite caught up yet, but this is a poison, and it's being fed to children with a ferocity and sophistication that only modern technology can provide. A kid can't make a hamburger in their bedroom. They can sneak a phone in and use it. I think it's both. I shout from the roof tops to every parent who will listen to not buy their kid a smart phone. I also think we should hold companies accountable when the knowingly get children addicted to poison.

buellerbueller 9mo ago

Scraped from unsealed court/discovery docs about the addictive potential of various social media platforms: https://techoversight.org/2026/01/25/top-report-mdl-jan-25/?ref=dispatch.techoversight.org https://techoversight.org/2026/01/25/top-report-mdl-jan-25/?...

filoeleven 9mo ago

Remember: there was a TikTok ban that was signed into law and took effect on January 19, 2025 which said that it would be allowed back once it was owned by a US company. Trump did not enforce the ban. As soon as TikTok changed ownership last week, censorship of posts that are not in line with the Trump regime began happening.

alex1138 9mo ago

I think too much gets made of addiction in a soft sense and not enough in a hard sense If I log off Facebook and it starts spamming me with fake notifications, it's addictive in a way that's more than just "Facebook provides a great service! I'm on it all the time! It's so addictive! :)" If feeds were chronological and they didn't blatantly lie to your face, or you got messages on time (they like not sending it to you by email) it wouldn't be addictive in a lab rat style (This is Facebook, not TikTok, but still. And yes, I know TT tries to be addictive on purpose)

dankwizard 9mo ago

Not sure why poeple don't just put the phone down? We really are the most sheltered gentle generation. Oh no, this app is taking up my time, we need to BAN IT.

aucisson_masque 9mo ago
Tell that to a drug user. It works the same way. And when the app is developed purposely to make people addict, that’s an issue. You can’t just blame the user when their chance to have a normal app usage have been rigged.
- Aeglaecia 9mo ago
  re adults it does fall to individual responsibility , re kids we can partially blame parents for not taking care of their kids properly , overall the enemy of our attention has quadrillions of dollars which is fairly difficult to fight against
flumpcakes 9mo ago
That's not how addiction works. If you could "just stop" then it isn't really an addiction.
- dmix 9mo ago
  Huh, that's exactly the solution to addiction? Step 1 is always changing your behaviour patterns to break out of habits and avoid things that draw you into it. Make your bedroom a phone-free zone, charge it in the living room overnight, use the built in parenting and screentime controls that every modern phone OS has, don't let your kids stare at the screen all day. Etc. This isn't rocket science. Self control is one of the most important things you need to learn. It sucks and it's hard but it's basic life stuff. The only difference with social media addiction vs drugs/gambling is that it's not socially ostracized like other addictions so people ignore it.
  - NoPicklez 9mo ago

basilgohar 9mo ago

The elephant in the room of all of this is that TikTok was the social media platform that allowed for the genocide taking place in Palestine by Israel to reach audiences directly. All other major social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter) heavily censored this information or outright deplatformed and canceled accounts of prominent dissemination of information about the war crimes being committed by Israelis. TikTok, outside of the US and Zionist-controlled sphere of influence, remained the one place for this information to be available widely far beyond what was possible on other platforms. All the other platforms have the same concepts of algorithms and targeting and bubbles. TikTok was uniquely not under Western control, and thus, needed to be pressured to conform. The significant shift in young people's opinions about Israel in recent years is heavily attributed to the unfiltered information about their ongoing genocide against the Palestinians that they could uniquely see on TikTok and must not be understated, especially in light of all the major shifts in news, media, and social media over the past few years as they grapple with the fallout of losing the narrative. I don't deny that social media as a whole has many harms and negatives, but there's no action like this being taken against Meta, Google, or Twitter despite the exact same harms present, sometimes even more so, on their platforms. They're already in the same overall group that supports the narrative and have done so by self-censoring their platforms accordingly. TikTok didn't play ball and got trampled.

kurthr 9mo ago
I'm fully against censorship, and I don't want it covered up, but at some point profiting off of the suffering of others and distracting people with holocaust porn or influencer virtue signaling is self defeating. What did all of that social audience gain? Clicks, entertainment, dollars, while children died? That's disgusting. And in the end is there anything of value left, any documentation of what happened, or how to prevent it from happening again? Nope. That thankless unprofitable work is done by others and ignored by the same consumers.
- basilgohar 9mo ago
  All media, newspapers, and social media networks do this. I'm not sure why you're raising this specifically in response to the fact I was stating TikTok was uniquely able to bring awareness to the issue of the genocide in Palestine. Many people were completely unfamiliar with the plight of the Palestinians over the past 100 years and TikTok (and, to a much less degree, other platforms) brought the issue to their attention. Israel is no longer untouchable and many have recognized them for what they are now - the last remaining Western imperialist settler colony. This was not the case merely 4 years ago. The transformation is stark and real. What can people do with that knowledge? That's up to them. I don't really get the rest of your comment, unfortunately.

nicholast 9mo ago

I am less concerned about addiction than i am about introducing micro targeted foreign agendas into our nation’s cultural landscape.

codyb 9mo ago
I mean, why not be concerned about both lol? We can do two things at once I think, and both of those things sound fairly negative.

Liftyee 9mo ago

Fundamentally, I think having a source of "free dopamine" on tap is not going to do any good. If I can get distracted from my real world tasks anytime, anywhere, the immediate incentives to work on real things disappear. Effectively, one can get stuck in a local minimum. I don't know how to solve it, but personally I've chosen to block as many feeds/algorithms as I can, so I have to make a conscious decision to search for something (making it just as hard as making the conscious decision that I'm likely putting off). The only feeds I have right now are the FT and Hacker News. Everything else is just a blank home screen with a search bar.

echelon 9mo ago
This is what drugs and alcohol can become if not used in moderation. Once we have the AI holodeck (the full-sensory interactive, possibly multiplayer one), can you only imagine? TikTok is only the punch card phase of this. TikTok may as well be black and white television. Just imagine what we might have in twenty years. Maybe this is why we haven't found alien life. If their biologies have attention mechanisms like ours, maybe they automate highs and turn inward instead of outward. (I do like that better than AGI gray goo taking over galaxies.)
- Liftyee 9mo ago
  Agreed, AI/VR definitely offers nightmarish opportunities. At least drugs/alcohol are self limiting: you have to meet your dealer, go to a store, eventually run out of money... TikTok/Reels/Shorts are free, infinite, and in your pocket on a device you're now forced to use in daily life (bank/2fa/messaging apps).
  - echelon 9mo ago
    > a device you're now forced to use in daily life (bank/2fa/messaging apps). Restaurants with only QR code menus. "Let me scan your LinkedIn app." Verify your government ID on our app. "Zelle me." "Scan this code to pay." My favorite: "Scan this code for parking or you will be towed. Also, if you leave without paying, we'll tow you next time you enter any of our properties in any state because we scanned your license plate." There's no other way to pay. Apartment / condo door keys and entry systems. My battery is always at 10%. I don't know how y'all do it. This is also one of the many reasons why I think it's criminal that two private businesses are allowed to own this modern life necessity so completely.

jaimex2 9mo ago

Can anyone sue them for the same to get a payout?

penguin_booze 9mo ago

"Settling" should never be an option. When damaging behaviour comes to light, there should be no closure other than investigating and removing the underlying cause. Paying money doesn't make the crime go away.

chrisjj 9mo ago
It is a private suit. Settling should always be an option.

tsoukase 9mo ago

Large social media (Tiktok, Instagram, Facebook) have made me (and the world?) a great favor and need a login to scroll through their feed. Resist having an account and you are mostly free. It's like in order to get depended on drugs, you give all your privacy to the pharm company.

poopooracoocoo 9mo ago

Plenty of things are addictive. I don't think this is one that should be intervened. I wish we had more personal responsibility today. America's meant to be the country of freedom, right?