News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:TikTok is scary good. It's digital crack by icelancer on Sunday March 27, 2022 @01:26AM (#30817929)
>> TikTok on the other hand doesn’t care what other people like

Yes, it absolutely does. Nonviolent social activism, LGBTQ content, and anything judged to be "subversive" is downranked/shadowbanned.

Re:TikTok is scary good. It's digital crack by laurent92 on Sunday March 27, 2022 @02:45AM (#30818272)
Oh that’s interesting. An entire platforms that hinges on not trying to social-engineer its users, and being successful.

I’ve also heard that TikTok wasn’t showing the same contents inside China than abroad. It would be flattering the dopamine receptors worldwide, while flattering nationalist values inside China. Is it true? It could easily be that the engine is personalized enough that it does behave a bit differently.

Re:TikTok is scary good. It's digital crack by icelancer on Sunday March 27, 2022 @03:02AM (#30818339)
I've heard that too, but I've never been able to verify it. If you find any sources on it, please pass them along.
Re:TikTok is scary good. It's digital crack by nopcode on Sunday March 27, 2022 @05:28AM (#30818939)
I first heard about this on JRE and subsequent articles based on JRE.

However, China did pass "Recommendation Algorithm Regulations"[0]. Not sure if enforced.

ByteDance does operate a separate Chinese app specifically for kids[1], which is enforcing the recent anti-gaming regulation (no nighttime access, 40 minutes per day only).

The app also enforces that all kids use their real name, and they stated the following about content[2]:

  In the youth mode, we have also prepared wonderful content for you, such as novel and interesting science experiments, exhibitions in museums and galleries, beautiful scenery all over the country, historical knowledge explanations, etc. I hope these contents can arouse children's interest in a certain field, and they will learn and gain something while watching the video.

[0]: https://www.china-briefing.com/news/china-passes-sweeping-re...

[1]: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-09-20/bytedance...

[2]: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/zp43DhzwanDApoPCIgCvJQ

Re:TikTok is scary good. It's digital crack by pjc50 on Sunday March 27, 2022 @06:14AM (#30819118)
Banning LGBT content is definitely social-engineering its users.
Re:TikTok is scary good. It's digital crack by Jensson on Sunday March 27, 2022 @02:42AM (#30818259)
Thinking takes effort, the goal is to make you keep watching videos and to do that the videos need to take no effort. So it makes perfect sense to downrank anything that makes you think.
Re:TikTok is scary good. It's digital crack by xvector on Sunday March 27, 2022 @05:32AM (#30818959)
They stopped doing this in 2020. Now you can easily find very popular subversive content
Re:TikTok is scary good. It's digital crack by icelancer on Sunday March 27, 2022 @03:14PM (#30823116)
Yeah? Can you post about Tienamman Square?
Re:TikTok is scary good. It's digital crack by woodruffw on Sunday March 27, 2022 @09:07PM (#30825901)
It seems like it[1], as long as you can spell Tiananmen correctly.

[1]: https://www.tiktok.com/tag/tiananmensquare