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Re:Meta Ordered to Pay $942M to Address Harm to Kids from So... by hbn on Friday August 07, 2026 @12:38PM (#49213004)
I get the addictiveness of TikTok and Reels but I don't know what the solution is to the supposed insidiousness. They just figured out what you like to watch and showed you more similar stuff.

Are we gonna make laws that say "if you're running a video platform you have to figure out what people DON'T want to watch and regularly shove it in their face so the feed is bad"? That still requires building a deep understanding of every user.

Do feeds need to all be Certified Completely Random™ content?

Re:Meta Ordered to Pay $942M to Address Harm to Kids from So... by forlorn_mammoth on Friday August 07, 2026 @01:00PM (#49213311)
It is very interesting to compare tiktok in China to the US.

> In an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes,” a tech expert stated that the U.S. version of TikTok — a Chinese-owned social media platform — is different than the Chinese version of the app, comparing the two experiences to opium and spinach.

https://www.deseret.com/2022/11/24/23467181/difference-betwe...

This sounds a bit more advanced than

> They just figured out what you like to watch and showed you more similar stuff.

Re:Meta Ordered to Pay $942M to Address Harm to Kids from So... by biophysboy on Friday August 07, 2026 @12:59PM (#49213298)
Well there are much simpler “algorithms” that do not use reinforcement learning and do not have the same emergent issues at stake here (addiction, ragebait, etc). The argument would be that algorithmic curation makes you an editor, not a passive host, and you should face the risk of reasonable liability if you choose to use more lucrative extractive machine learning tools.
Re:Meta Ordered to Pay $942M to Address Harm to Kids from So... by brailsafe on Friday August 07, 2026 @06:15PM (#49216865)
> They just figured out what you like to watch and showed you more similar stuff.

> you have to figure out what people DON'T want to watch and regularly shove it in their face so the feed is bad

They did both, and figured out the perfect delivery mechanism to keep you watching; just the right amount of everything, with an interaction pattern not dissimilar to a casino.

YouTube and Instagram are dramatically less addictive if you just download discrete videos.

I'm a huge proponent of deleting all of these apps, but if you think you organically really like certain content, download it on the fly from a list of select channels.

Re:Meta Ordered to Pay $942M to Address Harm to Kids from So... by quickthrowman on Friday August 07, 2026 @06:15PM (#49216866)
> I get the addictiveness of TikTok and Reels but I don't know what the solution is to the supposed insidiousness. They just figured out what you like to watch and showed you more similar stuff.

The solution for an individual is not to consume short-form video content.

Re:Meta Ordered to Pay $942M to Address Harm to Kids from So... by globular-toast on Saturday August 08, 2026 @05:37PM (#49226130)
Just don't have a feed. YouTube etc is good when you go and search for stuff yourself. It's bad when it starts recommending what to watch next.