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A comment on Judge temporarily blocks U.S. ban on TikTok downloads from U.S. app stores. Parent comment

Re:Judge temporarily blocks U.S. ban on TikTok downloads fro... by miki123211 on Monday September 28, 2020 @05:03AM (#24614562)
>Surely Facebook’s a bigger issue than 60 second videos since any bad actor can target messaging at susceptibile users and no one will know.

TikTok relies much more heavily on an algorithm than FB, though. FB primarily pushes content posted by your friends, while TikTok pushes anything that might interest you. They can subtly influence you. If they hate Trump, the can push joke videos about tax returns and his sexual assault allegations or something. In other words, try creating an unconscious association between Trump and evil in your brain.

Another issue is that, if TikTok becomes crucial for advertisers, we give China power over these companies. Hiring people who have publicly expressed anti-chinese opinions or donating to the wrong politicians might suddenly ban you from the platform.

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Re:Judge temporarily blocks U.S. ban on TikTok downloads fro... by nicoburns on Monday September 28, 2020 @05:29AM (#24614731)
> FB primarily pushes content posted by your friends

This used to be the case, but is very very far from the case now in my experience. Most facebook newsfeed content is algorithmically driven too (to the point that it's mostly put me off using facebook and pushed me to instagram where most content is still from people I explicitly chose to follow).

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Re:Judge temporarily blocks U.S. ban on TikTok downloads fro... by tester34 on Monday September 28, 2020 @05:33AM (#24614752)
>TikTok relies much more heavily on an algorithm than FB, though. FB primarily pushes content posted by your friends, while TikTok pushes anything that might interest you. They can subtly influence you.

I think it's very naive to think that FB is not doing that.

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Re:Judge temporarily blocks U.S. ban on TikTok downloads fro... by jonathanstrange on Monday September 28, 2020 @05:38AM (#24614787)
> In other words, try creating an unconscious association between Trump and evil in your brain.

So...like following Trump's tweets. That's indeed a great danger.

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Re:Judge temporarily blocks U.S. ban on TikTok downloads fro... by gabaix on Monday September 28, 2020 @05:29AM (#24614728)
The advertising angle is very good one. US media and sports companies are already self censoring because of the economic retribution they might face in mainland.
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