Comment by legitster

Comment by legitster a day ago

348 replies | 2 pages

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TikTok is perhaps the most impressively addictive social media app ever created. The algorithm used in the US was apparently banned in China for being too addictive.

There's a certain historic symmetry with how opium was traditionally used in China, then Britain introduced stronger, more disruptive versions, forcing a stronger social reaction.

Geopolitics aside, I think everyone is kind of aware that social media is a vice, and like it or not, this could just be the beginning of our society beginning to scrutinize these platforms.

stonesthrowaway a day ago

> TikTok is perhaps the most impressively addictive social media app ever created.

What nonsense.

> The algorithm used in the US was apparently banned in China for being too addictive.

"Apparently"? Tiktok was forced to separate itself into a chinese version and the non-chinese version by the US because we didn't want "da ccp" controlling tiktok.

> There's a certain historic symmetry with how opium was traditionally used in China, then Britain introduced stronger, more disruptive versions, forcing a stronger social reaction.

There is no historic symmetry. Unless china invades the US and forces americans to use tiktok. Like britain invaded china ( opium wars ) and forced opium on china's population.

What's with all the same propaganda in every tiktok/china related thread? The same talking points on every single thread for the past few years.

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  • tmnvdb a day ago

    "Tiktok was forced to separate itself into a chinese version and the non-chinese version by the US because we didn't want "da ccp" controlling tiktok."

    You're talking about Propaganda but you are spreading straight up fake news.

    ByteDance initially released Douyin in China in September 2016. ByteDance introduced TikTok for users outside of China in 2017.

    There was no "split", let alone one "forced by the US".

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    • stonesthrowaway a day ago

      > There was no "split", let alone one "forced by the US".

      There was no split? You wrote: "ByteDance initially released Douyin in China in September 2016. ByteDance introduced TikTok for users outside of China in 2017."

      You say there was no split while explicitly proving that there was split? You're not that stupid are you?

      Why do you think "tiktok" was created in 2017 when bytedance already had douyin( aka tiktok ) in 2016?

      Why is there a "tiktok" for china and a "tiktok" for everyone else? Because the "tiktok in china ( duoyin ) was influenced by the chinese government and to appease the US, bytedance branched off tiktok from "douyin".

      Reply View 4 replies
      • tmnvdb a day ago

        I doesn't have anything to do with "appeasing" the US, the Chinese version is heavily filtered and tilted towards CPP prefered activities and worldview, such a platform would never work on the international market and they know it.

        And it obviously is not a split if they are seperate apps from the beginning. Why do you lie so much btw?

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  • JumpCrisscross a day ago

    > Tiktok was forced to separate itself into a chinese version and the non-chinese version by the US because we didn't want "da ccp" controlling tiktok

    No. TikTok was forced to put its data on American servers [1].

    Douyin was launched in 2016 as musical.ly, and is unrelated to U.S. pressure. (EDIT: Douyin was launched in 2016, TikTok in 2017. Musical.ly was acquired in 2017 and merged into/basically became TikTok. TikTok has never been in China.)

    [1] https://www.reuters.com/technology/tiktok-moves-us-user-data...

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  • hombre_fatal a day ago

    What viewpoint is your use of “da ccp” supposed to disparage?

    Reply View 1 reply
    • whateveracct a day ago

      I think people (Americans) who view China as a geopolitical rival/enemy of the United States?

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  • herval a day ago

    how did Britain force the Chinese population to consume Opium?

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    • se4u a day ago

      I don't know if you are just ignorant about history and unwilling to Google, or if you are making the point that of course British did not force feed opium to the people.

      What is very well established is that the british fought a war , literally called the opium war by Western historians themselves with the main objective of keeping their opium distribution into China open after the emperor banned it

      Their action was akin to if some majority owner of Purdue pharma invades US and forces US government to "keep the oxy market open" while letting "people make their own decision".

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      • talldatethrow a day ago

        Tbh, what you describe sounds nothing like forcing opium on a people. If mexico invaded and started making meth in the US, or started sending even more meth into the US than they do now by totally taking over the border, I would not begin taking meth.

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      • [removed] a day ago
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    • adolph a day ago

        >> Like britain invaded china ( opium wars ) and forced opium on china's population.

  > how did Britain force the Chinese population to consume Opium?
      The Chinese government of the time had banned opium and the British worked to bypass that, eventually with governmental force.
      Reply View 2 replies
      • herval a day ago

        I'm not saying Britain didn't do something _against the will of the goverment_. I'm just questioning OP's nonsense that individuals were forced to consume Opium vs not forced to consume TikTok - in both cases, clearly nobody was forced. And in both cases, it's products made to be addictive.

        Reply View 1 reply
        • adolph an hour ago

          The specific words were “china's population” which is different from any specific person.

          Did the English strap down each individual and intravenously administer opium? Unlikely.

          To the extent that a government reflects the general sense and purpose of a population (mandate of heaven, etc), did Queen Victoria and all her subjects force people in China to accept the presence and marketing of an addictive and risky substance? Absolutely.

          Ironically, the people of Great Britain fought a war to sell opium right as there was a temperance movement within Victorian culture.

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temperance_movement_in_the_Uni...

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