152
submitted 1 year ago by L4s@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

The Billionaire Keeping TikTok on Phones in the U.S.::Financier Jeff Yass made a big bet on the app, and he’s a top donor to lawmakers who support it.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] HaggierRapscallier@feddit.nl 5 points 1 year ago

If you mean that they intentionally show you content to make you unbalanced and angry, we don't have evidence for Tiktok doing that.

But we do know that Facebook does that! As well as Twitter to an extent even before enshittification commenced.

[-] Number1SummerJam@lemmy.world -4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Unfortunately this is a newer theory so studies are limited right now- even studies proving otherwise are inconclusive or nonexistent. I'd love to see more official research put into this or for Tik Tok to release their source code. I don't mean to come across as pushing a political agenda or spreading inconclusive information, but in my experience Tik Tok shows much more toxic content than other short form video platforms. I believe this is why the bill to ban Tik Tok got so much bipartisan support, but they can't release the information about it being a cognitive weapon due to it being classified defense information (I'm sure the US has it's own operations)

Here's a study from a British advocacy group against online hate and misinformation: https://counterhate.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/CCDH-Deadly-by-Design_120922.pdf Tik Tok allows content promoting eating disorders: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0267997
Here's the opinion piece that got me onto this tangent: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/mar/25/tiktok-china-cognitive-warfare-us-ban Here's my favorite read, some brainstorming from a few years back by NATO about the future of information warfare: https://www.innovationhub-act.org/sites/default/files/2021-01/20210122_CW%20Final.pdf

I've also seen with my own eyes teenage relatives using Tik Tok and having a video of a gruesome dead cat, self harm or content promoting opioid use being thrown into their For You feeds (otherwise nothing but overstimulating slime videos and sped-up influencer drama).

Even if the current studies are inconclusive, why wouldn't they? They have the organization of the CCP, the short form video format to keep viewers addicted, the data collection technology, the algorithms, and the objective of getting an edge over NATO countries long term.

As for Facebook and Website formerly known as Twitter, their platforms are designed for discussion instead of a video feed. It makes financial sense for them to push controversial content that promotes a reaction- users stay on the site longer and look at more ads. They definitely need to be prosecuted for allowing the 2016 (still ongoing?) Russian Election disinformation campaign so they could churn a profit.

this post was submitted on 25 Sep 2023
152 points (92.2% liked)

Technology

59438 readers
5146 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS