Comment by twoodfin 4 days ago
All that is great, except for the part where the algorithms that collect your reactions to content and then choose new content for you in a feedback loop—which as you point out, can produce valuable effects as well as harmful ones—are a black box under some approximation of direct control by the CCP.
I keep seeing this stated as a reason for banning tt but I've yet to see any evidence. During the supreme courts oral argument last week they referred to a sealed appendix with more info, when they were passing the legislation they also referred to secret evidence that Americans can't see. I don't want to give in to conspiratorial thinking but if its as bad as they claim then we as the public have a right to see the evidence and decide for ourselves.
Evidence as to CCP control? Or evidence to another thing?
Because something that is very important to understand about China, or any other totalitarian regime, is that the people in charge don't let something like TikTok happen without having a fairly good grip on the people running it. That's just authoritarianism 101.
If you catch someone planting bombs under all your bridges, you don’t need evidence that they’ve detonated any to take them down.
I laid out in another comment how this works, but the gist of it is that the CCP can use the populace as dumb actors to achieve their goals.
China has secret agents they need to move through an area. Why not have an asian hate awareness rally in that area at the same time?
Nobody attending that rally would have any idea they are acting as decoy agents. None would report seeing CCP propaganda on tiktok.
Here's a study showing TikTok tilts toward positive views on CCP and away from negative ones, unlike trends on other socials.
https://networkcontagion.us/wp-content/uploads/Peer-Reviewed...
Think of it this way:
"TikTok would rather shut itself off from the U.S. market than divest its ownership from the CCP.
That is not the action of a rational corporation and really tells you who calls the shots at TikTok."
Should I feel better or worse about it being the CCP instead of a tiny group of billionaires? From where I'm standing the cabal of tech billionaires appear to be a bigger threat to me as a normal american. Do you think this is naive?
And it would be better if "the algorithm" were under control of some unelected managers in a billion dollar company owned by finance capital?