Lemmy is also a propaganda machine, let’s ban this platform too then.
Comment on House panel unanimously approves bill that could ban TikTok
soloner@lemmy.world 3 months agoFuck your whatsboutism. This is good news; tiktok is a propaganda machine.
Specal@lemmy.world 3 months ago
Nima@leminal.space 3 months ago
are we going to ban youtube as well? which has more than tiktok? or lemmy for that matter? or any other forms of social media?
people who fear monger tiktok make me worry that they fail to see the bigger picture.
tiktok isn’t the problem. the fact that propaganda is monetized is the problem. and banning tiktok will fix nothing whatsoever.
CeeBee@lemmy.world 3 months ago
Propaganda is a major problem no matter what.
I mentioned in another comment that Tiktok is a massively direct pipeline to the minds of younger people by the CCP. Studies have demonstrated that the Chinese only version of Tiktok (Douyin) promotes positive content to users whereas Tiktok promotes highly negative content. To the point that a study concluded it was affecting the mental health of younger people.
retrieval4558@mander.xyz 3 months ago
How do you differentiate purposeful manipulation vs it being a natural effect of Western social media? I stopped using Facebook and Twitter because it was obviously toxic and affecting my mental health. I use TikTok a fair amount and don’t find it nearly as bad.
It’s also possible that there’s manipulation in the other direction. In their own app they could be artificially increasing positive content while allowing the natural social media toxicity and ragebait to dominate in other areas.
My personal opinion is that TikTok is a way that peer to peer information and news travels very quickly in a way that they can’t control, and they don’t like that. As with all things, they want to keep us isolated.
CeeBee@lemmy.world 3 months ago
How do you differentiate purposeful manipulation vs it being a natural effect of Western social media?
Well, Tiktok is owned by a Chinese company. Every major Chinese company, especially ones that operate outside of China, have CCP offices within the company. The “rights” that individuals and companies have in China are at best a facade. What the CCP says to do is what happens.
The major difference is tested by looking at how the algorithm promotes or suppresses certain topics. Tiktok has a Chinese counterpart called Douyin (which IIRC is the “original” Tiktok) that’s only available to people in China. The findings point to more positive content being promoted on Douyin and negative content on Tiktok.
What’s also noticed is that Douyin heavily promotes anti-west and specifically anti-American propaganda. And promotes pro-China and pro-CCP stuff, such as “China has solved homelessness and homelessness doesn’t exist there” and “China has solved poverty”. The second one is technically true on paper, because they recently reduced the poverty threshold to $600 a year.
On Tiktok huge pro-CCP campaigns have been discovered and that content is constantly being pushed. They use Western shills mostly and the propaganda aspect is cleverly veiled.
As with all things, they want to keep us isolated.
In the context of Tiktok, that doesn’t make sense. And what’s even more ironic is that Tiktok is Chinese owned, and people in China have zero access to the outside world. People are going to jail or even disappeared now for simply using a VPN. News coming out of China is almost completely censored. China has basically become North Korea with more money. And they have direct control over the content on the most widely used social media platform in the West.
Nima@leminal.space 3 months ago
do you have a link to that study?
CeeBee@lemmy.world 3 months ago
nypost.com/…/china-is-hurting-us-kids-with-tiktok…
newsweek.com/douyin-tiktok-use-link-favorable-vie…
I can’t find the study I’m thinking of. It’s been at least 6 months since I saw it. But these articles at least backup some of what I said.
Maggoty@lemmy.world 3 months ago
So you’re going to shut down YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, etc as well right? Considering they all do the same thing and FB even interfered in an election?
asdfasdfasdf@lemmy.world 3 months ago
I would 100% be for shutting those down. Doing so would probably lead us into the next Renaissance.
umbrella@lemmy.ml 3 months ago
so is instagram and facebook but you don’t see people want to ban them.
CeeBee@lemmy.world 3 months ago
Instagram and Facebook aren’t run by the CCP
bigMouthCommie@kolektiva.social 3 months ago
they are propaganda machines though
CeeBee@lemmy.world 3 months ago
To a degree, yes. But nowhere near the same context or scale.
In democratic countries people have the ability to choose their opinions and voice them loudly. This allows many different groups to hold different viewpoints and then express them to other people. And yes social media has been used as propaganda platforms by those groups. Yet none of those groups have full unilateral control of a country under dictator-like rule.
The difference is that the CCP is a single party government. Xi Jinping has recently abolished term limits, effectively making himself a defacto dictator. The I-Soon leaks also demonstrate that the CCP is actively trying to disrupt society in other countries (not just the US). They have secret police stations in places like Canada, UK, and US where they monitor and track Chinese people and even intimidate them if they do or say anything the CCP doesn’t like.
Then there’s the constant attacks on military and fishing ships from countries like the Phillipines and Vietnam. The constant threats of annihilation of Taiwan. Etc etc.
You cannot equate the two.
umbrella@lemmy.ml 3 months ago
yes they are run by the us empire, which has a more violent history.
still not seeing the point of banning one over the other
CeeBee@lemmy.world 3 months ago
You’re just spouting whataboutism. It’s not an argument, it’s a deflection tactic.
I have no love for Instagram or Facebook. IMO they should both be banned and have all data erased. The planet would be better off without them.
But that’s not the topic of conversation.
The US isn’t an adversarial country to itself. The CCP is an adversarial country to the US, and most of the world.
which has a more violent history
Ah yes, so the CCP is A-OK because you claim they have a “less violent history”. Makes perfect sense.
Tell me, how many people died during the Long March and the “Great” Leap Forward?
In any case, the bill is not about banning TikTok. The bill is about selling ownership of TikTok to a US owned firm to take away control from the CCP. And then only if a sale cannot be arranged, to ban it as a last resort.
TORFdot0@lemmy.world 3 months ago
The cyber security professional inside of me wants to agree with you. The Liberal in me doesn’t want to give the government the authority to ban speech and what citizens are allowed to watch.
Mastengwe@lemm.ee 3 months ago
It’s proven propaganda. And a proven method of spying/gathering info.
I’m fine with the government removing it.
Maggoty@lemmy.world 3 months ago
So you’re going to shut down YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, etc as well right? Considering they all do the same thing and FB even interfered in an election?
Mastengwe@lemm.ee 3 months ago
If they start stealing information for china? Yes. I’d suggest we shut them down too.
See? I’m not so reliant on social media that I’m willing to sacrifice my security for them.
los_chill@programming.dev 3 months ago
Same. Just make it so Tiktok cannot advertise to American users or monetize American views. Start with that and wait for another non-ccp app to take that market.