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The US understands the threat of foreign tech companies/apps gathering data on US citizens and manipulating their behaviour and is looking to ban TikTok.
Dear @EU_Commission, here’s an incomplete list of foreign tech companies/apps gathering data on EU citizens and manipulating their behaviour:
- Meta Platforms, Inc. (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, etc.)
- Alphabet, Inc. (Google, YouTube, etc.)
- Twitter, Inc.
- Microsoft (Windows, etc.)
- Snap, Inc.
Thoughts?
@aral @EU_Commission I think the difference is TikTok is a literally useless platform that does nothing except rot your brain. It is safe to ban with literally zero negative and many positive consequences.
The whole 'spying on you' thing should be secondary to the fact that it is a platform tailor-made to cause ADHD in young people. At least other platforms are a mixed bag of good and bad, tiktok is 100% all bad because its format doesn't allow for good.
@MakBerberovic @aral @EU_Commission
meta platforms are there as well. Deliberately creatnig ADHD, not just with young people. Deliberately creating conflict. Most viral things I see out of tiktok are some musical collaborations. Most links out of facebook are some heated arguments over controversial topics.
(Might be just my problem, I don't use either usually, and I only run into those links elsewhere.)
@zlatko @aral @EU_Commission Yes but like I said, there's other functions; I can use facebook to access local communities, organize events, I can use Twitter to keep tabs on the activities of my favored artists, etc. etc. Of course all the other social media do the ADHD thing too but Tiktok does NOTHING ELSE.
@MakBerberovic @aral @EU_Commission
Probably for you. I'm saying it's personal.
For you, tiktok brings nothing. For me, I see a lot of music collaborations from tiktok (mostly because I watch videos from people like Adam Neely and they throw in a lot of examples from tiktok).
For you, Facebook is communities. For me, it's occasional link to arguments full of vitriol (mostly because I only get screenshots of ugly Facebook posts, either in fediverse as social commentary, or on Reddit).
That's what I'm saying. They use different formats for social networking. And creative groups of people will find value in either. Destructive or malicious groups will do damage via either. And the mainstream will consume.
Facebook e.g. actively contributed to rigging elections all over the world. Perhaps tiktok did too, but I'm not aware of any large scale interactions like that yet. (personally I suspect it's because tiktok users are mostly young people who don't vote as much, but i have no idea if that's true). Anyway, from my personal perspective and experience, tiktok did a lot less damage then Facebook.
But that's not the point. The point is that if you find one or the other network useful it useless, it's very personal. They all are designed so that you spend your time in them and click on ads. Primary concern for them. ADHD, as you say. And how much damage this or that did is more dependant on how you use it, not which network you're on.
Do you agree with that "personal use" angle? Or you think tiktok is a blight to be deleted, and Facebook is useful, with some flaws? And more importantly, do you believe that's a general state of things?