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The times dives into an intelligence report on how TikTok’s political algorithm anomalies align with the CCP’s Geostrategic Objectives https://networkcontagion.us/wp-content/uploads/A-Tik-Tok-ing-Timebomb_12.21.23.pdf
This report highlights major differences in the prevalence of hashtags related to subjects like Hong Kong Protests, Tainanmen Square, Tibet, the South China Sea, Taiwan, Uyghurs, Pro-Ukraine, and Pro-Isreal when compared to other major social media platforms.
Additionally the times cited a Wall Street Journal analysis (https://www.wsj.com/tech/tiktok-israel-gaza-hamas-war-a5dfa0ee) which “found evidence that TikTok was promoting extreme content, especially against Israel. (China has generally sided with Hamas.)”
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This has been a known entity since the Australian equivalent of the CIA released a report saying the exact same thing (and more) in 2022. The people who don’t want TikTok banned are either in the CCP’s pocket or are addicted to the platform.
I’ve seen some discussion that selling the platform is a way to get a more pro-isreal/anti-palestine owner that will censor certain content or viewpoints.
Absolutely. Compare the kind of censorship that happens on Facebook, Instagram, and Reddit, to the kind that doesn’t happen on TikTok.
For example, I got permanently banned from Reddit (reversed after a few days’ appeal, but it took me out of the game) for pointing out others in the thread conflating ISIS with the general Palestinian public. This was, apparently, hate speech. You see people reporting similar things on all these American platforms.
I have my concerns about TikTok but the pearl clutching is very selective.
Interesting, I hadn’t heard about this Australian CIA report.
Do you have a link to what you’re talking about?
Thanks!
Here’s some more reading on the subject:
https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/why-tiktok-isnt-really-a-social-media-app/
https://www.axios.com/2023/05/13/bytedance-executive-china-government-data
Media ownership by foreign countries is indeed a worry.
Even in Holland we have this problem: 90% of the media companies (newspapers, magazines, websites) are owned by only two Belgian mediaconcerns. This is not a smart thing to do. But we never hear about that here.
Not that there’s an explicit problem at the moment but such a huge imbalance is not smart IMO.
I think there’s definitely a difference between a friendly country and an unfriendly country.
I would not have the reservations I have about TikTok if it was owned by, e.g. a EU country, Canada, etc
Well in this case it’s not really about the fact that they’re Belgian. Because unlike China there is a big separation between state and corporation here. It’s more the fact that it’s only two private concerns which is hardly competition.
Also, due them being based abroad the local legislation has less grip on them. The exact country they’re from is indeed less important as long as it can be considered friendly.
Normal times paywall (I think should) be suppressed by the gift link. I’m not sure if that has view count links.
🤖 I’m a bot that provides automatic summaries for articles:
Click here to see the summary
Parts of the debate over TikTok — about the overall benefits and drawbacks of social media, for instance — are complicated, and they would not justify the forced sale of a single company, the policymakers say.
Posts related to subjects that the Chinese government wants to suppress — like Hong Kong protests and Tibet — are strangely missing from the platform, according to a recent report by two research groups.
A separate Wall Street Journal analysis, focused on the war in Gaza, found evidence that TikTok was promoting extreme content, especially against Israel.
As Carl Hulse, The Times’s chief Washington correspondent, told me, “The fears that TikTok gives China too much of a way into the U.S. seem to be overriding any political concerns.” There is a long history of members of Congress overcoming partisan divisions to address what they see as a national security threat.
No, officer, he wasn’t drinking: A Belgian man suspected of drunken driving was instead diagnosed with auto-brewery syndrome, a rare condition in which the gut makes its own beer.
“How do you arrive at any single meaning of ‘cowboy’ when the stylistic variants run from western to modern to rhinestone to preppy to line-dancing Saturday night buckaroo to Black?” he writes.
Saved 91% of original text.
No, officer, he wasn’t drinking: A Belgian man suspected of drunken driving was instead diagnosed with auto-brewery syndrome, a rare condition in which the gut makes its own beer.
“How do you arrive at any single meaning of ‘cowboy’ when the stylistic variants run from western to modern to rhinestone to preppy to line-dancing Saturday night buckaroo to Black?” he writes.
FWIW, (if this seems unhinged) this isn’t part of the article text, it’s just kind of a “read more stuff you might find interesting” section.
