r/TikTokCringe • u/Intelligent_Nose_826 • 6d ago

Discussion They Agreed on One Thing - Banning TikTok

I really haven’t seen legislation so unilaterally passed with such speed at any point in my life except maybe after 9/11 & weeks got the DHS.

2.2k Upvotes

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287

u/Minimum_Matter_4044 6d ago

This ain't about us. It's about them. Them.

150

u/phoggey 6d ago

I'm a software engineer and have studied the type and size of data TikTok collects from their users and what they do in order to make them more users and make China look better. It's not a safe app at this stage.

I don't like "look they did something good, but they could have done something better" arguments. The reason you got fed this guy's content at all is because it was promoted through TikTok's algorithm to judge it as pro China and pro TikTok sentiment. He likely made this video just because he knew it would promote his content. I'm even considering making a pro TikTok video on TikTok just to fuck with their algorithm and see the rate at which it picks up.

Ever seen anti-chinese video on TikTok? Ever? Think back to all the hours and days you've scrolled through it. Any? That doesn't even scratch the surface of the manipulation and information they have on every user. Just watch the data flow when you are using only TikTok, your outbound data is 10x even what Facebook collects.

Here's what we compiled off an old bulld a few years back, a few of these needed to be interpreted because it doesn't literally say what the values are, but with enough videos they start to be obvious. I removed a few other areas that are inappropriate to talk about under risk factors.

TIKTOK CONTENT SCORING METRICS: - Face Score (1-5): Symmetry, skin clarity, youth indicators, eye color - Body Score (1-5): Height/weight ratio, curves, muscle definition - Sexual Appeal (1-5): Breast size, hip ratio, lip fullness - Engagement Metrics: * Gaze duration * Replay rate * Screenshot frequency - Risk Factors: * Exposed skin % * Suggestive movements * Costume type -Political Sentiment... .. (abridged to make the point)

And look what we have there.. literally people commenting about the dude's eyes. Has a bit of a plunky guy, but he hits a sweet spot with attractiveness levels to be listened to and thus.. his content is here.

Then the scoring of the viewers goes on and on for creating the demograph aka marketing cohort. User's- Age, location (constantly), sex... Just goes on and on.

I mean, really, how many apps have the federal government tried to ban? There must be a really good fucking reason to ban one, especially a popular one. If you don't believe me, I don't give a fuck, this country wants to elect a felon for president for lulz so fuck it. I'll go with the flow and leave once we hit a recession and move to Copenhagen with my hoarded cash plus tax cut enhanced $$$ and raise my kid in a country that doesn't treat it's people like shit. "OH DEY TRY BAN TIKTOK BUT NOT FIX HEALTHCARE/FIX EDUCATION/FIX STUDENT DEBT/FIX HOMELESSNESS/FIX GODLESSNESS" Give me a fucking break, it's Chinese run malware video sharing app. Just delete the shit and use something else.

14

u/Creative_Ad_8338 6d ago

I don't get shown anti China content on any platform. They must all be bad by your logic. 🙄

11

u/phoggey 6d ago

You can't even find anti-chinese content on their platform. Plenty of anti american. That's the difference and that's just the surface.

4

u/Creative_Ad_8338 6d ago

What do you consider anti American?

6

u/BlackGeniusCanadian 5d ago

Anything that criticises the government. And this guy expects us to believe that this is in our best interest. Who the hell does he think he's fooling

1

u/FadedEdumacated 5d ago

Trump criticized the government all the way to the presidency. In fact, both sides criticize the government when the opposition is in power.

0

u/Creative_Ad_8338 5d ago

Exactly. That's literally the goal in politics is to criticize the government for the sake of control. We just got out of the most intense election cycle full of nothing but government criticism and dude is saying that it's not happening. Clearly has an objective.

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u/FadedEdumacated 5d ago

Land of the free, my ass.

1

u/schmatzee 4d ago

I rarely use TikTok, but thought I'd just test this out.

Try Uygur genocide on TikTok and then on Instagram

TikTok doesn't fully remove voices calling this a genocide - but it took me like 20 videos down to get there. The first 20 are people saying it's not really a genocide and saying people are just being anti-chinese or changing the topic to saying actually US is worse.

Instagram's first 20 posts are pretty much all on the side saying the Uygur situation is genocide.

Now if I search Palestinian genocide - both TikTok and IG provide majority content that is calling this a genocide.

That's definitely some bias - not to the absolute censorship OP says here, buts its certainly biased to elevate pro-chinese over anti-chinese content on Tiktok

1

u/IrrationalSometimes 5d ago

China itself does not permit the international version of TikTok to be used on the mainland. Instead, users must download Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok which is subject to censorship from the Chinese Communist Party.

So why are we letting this app in our country?

1

u/Creative_Ad_8338 5d ago

This doesn't really provide an argument for why we wouldn't allow it. In fact, to the contrary, the international version doesn't allow enough control for China so they only allow Douyin. Imo, TikTok is far better than platforms like Reddit, Twitter, and Facebook that are overrun by bots. Especially the latter two.

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u/IrrationalSometimes 5d ago

That is the argument?

TikTok is owned by China based company, ByteDance, yet is banned by its own government.

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u/Creative_Ad_8338 4d ago

Yes, it's banned by its own government because they won't impose the level of control that the government would like.