Beamer wrote on Mar 31, 2023, 14:40:
FloodAnxiety wrote on Mar 31, 2023, 14:22:
Beamer wrote on Mar 30, 2023, 16:13:
FloodAnxiety wrote on Mar 30, 2023, 13:45:
China's involvement in TikTok is massively overhyped due to typical political fearmongering.
Are you sure about that?
I've spent a lot of time with TikTok. I've been to their headquarters, I've been out to dinners with their leadership, I was just with them earlier this week, etc., and I'm not convinced at all that it's massively overhyped.
At the very least, there's an algorithm serving news and information to Americans under 24 without us knowing what or how. The average American under 24 spends somewhere between 75 and 95 minutes a day on TikTok - more than they spend watching TV. Would you have been ok with China buying ABC, or CNN, or the NYT, and now controlling the news, except without anyone seeing what they're broadcasting and being able to offer a counter to it?
"offer a counter to it". You seem to think in terms of controlling people, rather than people controlling what they consume with the choices they make. I do not choose to watch Fox News, because it is blatantly corrupt.
Like I said before, it is real simple, if this isn't about fearmongering, then they can point to facts and pass laws that will apply to all media companies equally. Fearmongering in order to pass a law to give a branch of the government near unfettered control is the path to authoritarianism. You sir, may have fallen into an echo chamber of fear if you are on the side of banning a company for no reason other than FUD.
There are counters to Fox News, though. You can go many other places and get different news biases. There are literal substitutes.
That is not true for TikTok.
I really don't think you understand how it's used. Are you a user of it, currently? Do you talk to people that use it? Regularly?
The government controls what we consume, very literally. Can you still buy Coca-Cola with cocaine? Does 7-Up still have lithium? No. More importantly, for things they do not control, they still mandate we have the full information on what is in it. None of this is true for TikTok.
Sorry, buck-o, I also am not "brainwashed" or "mind-controlled," though I find it interesting that you accuse me of such since that's what I'm concerned about TikTok facilitating. I have not read articles or think pieces on this. I am, instead, extremely familiar with TikTok as a product and as an organization. Again, I've spent hours upon hours with their executives and in their headquarters. My opinion comes not from what I've heard or read, but from what I personally know of the organization and its influence on young Americans.
I guess I'll end with a question - have you paid attention to the Jordan Petersons or Andrew Tates of the world? Do you know how they've built a following? Do you know how many young men have gone from reasonable and rational thinkers to completely radicalized by morons such as those two? Do you not see how algorithms mostly fueled that, and how someone could rig the algorithm to spread the influence of people like that to audiences they know are more susceptible? Because TikTok knows are kids better than Facebook does, and while Facebook is a heaping pile of garbage, it has exponentially less influence on our youth, more oversight, and isn't run by a country that considers itself to be in a race against us.
Your obsession with "counters" is frankly a little weird. It is more than a little creepy the way you talk about people. If you are so extremely familiar with TikTok, explain what evidence there is that they are doing something illegal? This is all I have been asking for, because when you fail to provide it, then my point is proven. Let me say that again. When you fail to provide support for your argument, then your argument is bad. Saying "the government controls other things already" as if that is an argument for them banning TikTok is silly because it ignores the fact that there may be REASONS for those other things. So give me the reason why TikTok and not others need to be banned.
Why do you think Jordan Petersons or Andrew Tates is a problem exclusive to TikTok? Why target TikTok specifically when you know those problems aren't specific to TikTok?
What you seem to fail to understand, is that people make the choice to use an app. Often times, that choice is because of how well they find the algorithm works for them. If the algorithm feeds them stuff they don't want, they are likely not going to come back. Now, what do you think happens if a government manipulates the algorithm to show people something they don't want? You seem to think that they will be like "oh, I actually wanted this after all, thank you for brain washing me". No, people will be like "wtf is the algorithm shit lately. Keeps giving me stupid propaganda. If it keeps up I'll ditch this platform.". So what is the concern really? And does your concern have any evidence to back it up? And is the evidence about TikTok and not some other social media app?