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  • TikTok Talk

    I'm curious about the boards thoughts on this topic. It's something I've been thinking about quite a bit lately. As a parent I'm not a fan of TikTok. It seems to be pretty addictive, though that's true of most forms of social media. TikTok just seems better at it.

    In terms of privacy, they seem to have made genuine efforts at giving users more control. But by default they're still a social media company and will do all they can to vacuum up user data. The difference between Twitter/Meta and TikTok is the controlling relationship they have with an adversarial government. They've made sworn statements to Congress regarding where user data is stored and who it may be accessed by, only to have those statements later undermined.

    In my view, this presents national security concerns on two fronts. First, it theoretically could give China an extraordinary view into life patterns of Americans. Essentially they have 80M+ Americans acting as human sensors. I'm not certain if this is a legitimate concern or just overwrought catastrophizing, but it's certainly something that needs to be discussed. The second concern is the platforms ability to promote narratives that may inorganic. IOW, they have a propaganda machine plugged directly into a very suggestible population. This article by Rep Mike Gallagher does a good job of illustrating this point:

    According to a Harvard/Harris poll, 51 percent of Americans ages 18–24 believe Hamas was justified in its brutal terrorist attacks on innocent Israeli citizens on October 7.

    I read that statistic at a time where I thought I’d lost the capacity to be shocked. For weeks, I’ve seen the clips and read the firsthand stories documenting Hamas’s atrocities: burned bodies, decapitated babies, raped women, children tied together with their parents, mutilated corpses. I’d seen the rallies on elite campuses celebrating Hamas’s murderous cause, the faculty letters excusing the terrorists. I thought I had grasped the extent of the moral rot. I thought I had seen the bottom.

    But I hadn’t.

    How did we reach a point where a majority of young Americans hold such a morally bankrupt view of the world? Where many young Americans were rooting for terrorists who had kidnapped American citizens—and against a key American ally? Where were they getting the raw news to inform this upside-down world view?

    The short answer is, increasingly, via social media and predominantly TikTok. TikTok is not just an app teenagers use to make viral dance videos. A growing number of Americans rely on it for their news. Today, TikTok is the top search engine for more than half of Gen Z, and about six in ten Americans are hooked on the app before their seventeenth birthday. And it is controlled by America’s foremost adversary, one that does not share our interests or our values: the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, is Chinese, and in China there is no such thing as a private company. As if to underscore the point, ByteDance’s chief editor, Zhang Fuping, is also the boss of the company’s internal Communist Party cell.
    So what to do with TikTok? India banned it. Trump tried to and it didn't happen. Biden administration doesn't seem to interested in going there. One thing that I've thought about but really haven't seen discussed is whether the US could ban TikTok on trade grounds as a retaliatory measure for China's ban on Google, Twitter, Meta, YouTube and other software companies. It seems as if the discussion is always focused on National Security, which I understand, but there seems to be a matter of fairness and reciprocal treatment that should be addressed. I'm not an international trade expert so I'm interested in thoughts on why this avenue hasn't been pursued. I feel like I'd be much more tolerant of TikTok in the US if our companies had similar access to the Chinese market.

  • #2
    Please don't ban TikTok. That's where I get my fly fishing and cooking fixes. Those alone are worth my personal info in Chinese hands.
    "...you pointy-headed autopsy nerd. Do you think it's possible for you to post without using words like "hilarious," "absurd," "canard," and "truther"? Your bare assertions do not make it so. Maybe your reasoning is too stunted and your vocabulary is too limited to go without these epithets."
    "You are an intemperate, unscientific poster who makes light of very serious matters.”
    - SeattleUte

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    • #3
      Originally posted by Northwestcoug View Post
      Please don't ban TikTok. That's where I get my fly fishing and cooking fixes. Those alone are worth my personal info in Chinese hands.
      Rest easy. I don't have that kind of authority. I can only ban people on this site with my powers as a moderator.

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      • #4
        government can't ban it but parents should. uniquely addictive source of cheap dopamine that is going to ruin a generation's ability to experience contentedness.
        Te Occidere Possunt Sed Te Edere Non Possunt Nefas Est.

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        • #5
          i had tiktok for a few months and deleted it a year or so ago. as an old geezer i didn't really get the appeal. from memory, it doesn't seem much different than a platform like IG - what are some of the key differences that make it worse and/or more addictive for kids or even adults than instagram?
          I'm like LeBron James.
          -mpfunk

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          • #6
            Originally posted by smokymountainrain View Post
            i had tiktok for a few months and deleted it a year or so ago. as an old geezer i didn't really get the appeal. from memory, it doesn't seem much different than a platform like IG - what are some of the key differences that make it worse and/or more addictive for kids or even adults than instagram?
            I'm in a similar boat. My kids tried to get me to try it and I wasn't a fan.

            I think Instagram has similar features where you can browse reels, so it can be just the same. Most of the content for reels comes from tiktok anyways.

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            • #7
              Originally posted by beefytee View Post

              I'm in a similar boat. My kids tried to get me to try it and I wasn't a fan.

              I think Instagram has similar features where you can browse reels, so it can be just the same. Most of the content for reels comes from tiktok anyways.
              much more powerful and invasive algorithm. more content on tiktok.
              Te Occidere Possunt Sed Te Edere Non Possunt Nefas Est.

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              • #8
                Originally posted by old_gregg View Post
                government can't ban it but parents should. uniquely addictive source of cheap dopamine that is going to ruin a generation's ability to experience contentedness.
                It is not installed on our daughters' phones. Our son is an adult now and probably has it on his phone (along with a lot of other crap, I'm sure).

                Originally posted by smokymountainrain View Post
                i had tiktok for a few months and deleted it a year or so ago. as an old geezer i didn't really get the appeal. from memory, it doesn't seem much different than a platform like IG - what are some of the key differences that make it worse and/or more addictive for kids or even adults than instagram?
                Originally posted by beefytee View Post
                I'm in a similar boat. My kids tried to get me to try it and I wasn't a fan.

                I think Instagram has similar features where you can browse reels, so it can be just the same. Most of the content for reels comes from tiktok anyways.
                I don't like it, either, but I'm likely not the target demographic. I think Instagram (and YouTube) added their reel/shorts capability in response to TikTok.
                "I think it was King Benjamin who said 'you sorry ass shitbags who have no skills that the market values also have an obligation to have the attitude that if one day you do in fact win the PowerBall Lottery that you will then impart of your substance to those without.'"
                - Goatnapper'96

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                • #9
                  Originally posted by old_gregg View Post

                  much more powerful and invasive algorithm. more content on tiktok.
                  I've got Tiktok. My FYP is mostly clips from TV/movies, reactions from various chefs about the horrible things TT content creators cook, and the occasional clip from someone I actually follow. So I don't know about this.

                  I will say that the GOP debaters who bragged about banning TT on day 1 are stone cold stupid. Also, TT is hilarious when it comes to ripping fatheaded politicians. See, e.g. the TT team that convinced Trump that he had a sold out rally, or who have mercilessly pounded Vivek's videos.

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                  • #10
                    My daughter makes a killing on tik tok. So I have a conflict of interest here.
                    "There is no creature more arrogant than a self-righteous libertarian on the web, am I right? Those folks are just intolerable."
                    "It's no secret that the great American pastime is no longer baseball. Now it's sanctimony." -- Guy Periwinkle, The Nix.
                    "Juilliardk N I ibuprofen Hyu I U unhurt u" - creekster

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                    • #11
                      Originally posted by Jeff Lebowski View Post
                      My daughter makes a killing on tik tok. So I have a conflict of interest here.
                      I've seen your daughter's content. It's good stuff. But even though I follow her, the algorithm never shows it to me. Go figure.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Originally posted by LVAllen View Post

                        I've seen your daughter's content. It's good stuff. But even though I follow her, the algorithm never shows it to me. Go figure.
                        I follow her on IG, so I get her content. But I deleted IG off my phone about 2 months ago. I did it one night after I fell down a doomscrolling hole for nearly 2 hours and didn't get anything done that night. Such a waste. Now I log in to IG once every couple of weeks, but only on a computer. Much less tempting. FTR, my productivity since I got rid of IG has skyrocketed. Wish I had done it sooner.
                        Prepare to put mustard on those words, for you will soon be consuming them, along with this slice of humble pie that comes direct from the oven of shame set at gas mark “egg on your face”! -- Moss

                        There's three rules that I live by: never get less than twelve hours sleep; never play cards with a guy who's got the same first name as a city; and never go near a lady's got a tattoo of a dagger on her body. Now you stick to that, everything else is cream cheese. --Coach Finstock

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                        • #13
                          Originally posted by Donuthole View Post

                          I follow her on IG, so I get her content. But I deleted IG off my phone about 2 months ago. I did it one night after I fell down a doomscrolling hole for nearly 2 hours and didn't get anything done that night. Such a waste. Now I log in to IG once every couple of weeks, but only on a computer. Much less tempting. FTR, my productivity since I got rid of IG has skyrocketed. Wish I had done it sooner.
                          I mainly doom scroll on X. It can be a problem for sure.
                          "There is no creature more arrogant than a self-righteous libertarian on the web, am I right? Those folks are just intolerable."
                          "It's no secret that the great American pastime is no longer baseball. Now it's sanctimony." -- Guy Periwinkle, The Nix.
                          "Juilliardk N I ibuprofen Hyu I U unhurt u" - creekster

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            One of the really awesome things about CS is that it is really hard to spend more than 15 minutes at a time here. None of us is like "Whoa, I got on Cougarstadium and next thing I knew three hours had passed by"

                            Congrats to all of us for building a doomscroll-proof platform!

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Originally posted by Clark Addison View Post
                              One of the really awesome things about CS is that it is really hard to spend more than 15 minutes at a time hre. None of us is like "Whoa, I got on Cougarstadium and next thing I knew three hours had passed by"

                              Congrats to all of us and building a doomscroll-proof platform!
                              "There is no creature more arrogant than a self-righteous libertarian on the web, am I right? Those folks are just intolerable."
                              "It's no secret that the great American pastime is no longer baseball. Now it's sanctimony." -- Guy Periwinkle, The Nix.
                              "Juilliardk N I ibuprofen Hyu I U unhurt u" - creekster

                              Comment

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