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A comment on TikTok overtakes Facebook as most downloaded app. Parent comment

Re:TikTok overtakes Facebook as most downloaded app by godelski on Tuesday August 10, 2021 @04:43PM (#28134218)
Is the network authority the only entity to blame here? Looking at the other end of the spectrum, if a popular network was fully decentralized and had zero censorship or speed bumps to control how viral something goes, then I still think that social network would be vulnerable to propaganda machines. Specifically still by those with the most money to throw at it.

I don't think Facebook and many social networks are doing a good job but I think we should also recognize that the problem is difficult and unclear how to solve. There's an issue with how information naturally flows and how that can be manipulated.

Specifically I don't think TikTok is great because the focus on short videos (we see this on Facebook too. A meme is even shorter). 30 sec to 3 min political videos are more likely to be propaganda in my experience (e.g. NowThis). Though that isn't too say there aren't longer form versions (e.g. PragerU).

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Re:TikTok overtakes Facebook as most downloaded app by AgentME on Tuesday August 10, 2021 @07:48PM (#28136254)
Generally I agree people (especially on HN) are too optimistic about zero-censorship decentralized systems, but I think it's important to point out that decentralization doesn't have to mean zero censorship / everything goes. In federated systems like Mastodon, each instance can handle their own moderation separately, allowing moderation to be done with more context by people closer to their communities and for a diversity of moderation styles to exist.
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