Oh no, won’t somebody think of the influencers
"It's Silencing" - Albania Shuts Down TikTok.
Submitted 1 week ago by Tea@programming.dev to technology@lemmy.world
https://lab.imedd.org/en/its-silencing-albania-shuts-down-tiktok/
Comments
devfuuu@lemmy.world [bot] 1 week ago
cupcakezealot@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 week ago
i’d be more worried about the citizen journalism exposing much of what is happening on the ground that governments don’t want you to see (aka gaza, for example)
Bohurt@lemm.ee 1 week ago
I’d be more worried if there wasn’t any other platforms where media can be posted to broader audience
Fredthefishlord@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 week ago
There is no shortage of platforms that allow for that. Lemmy, reddit, blue sky, etc. it is not hard to adapt
joel_feila@lemmy.world 1 week ago
yeah but for every bad things social media uncovers we have a longer list of bad things it causes. It helps uncover gaza but look at the lists of ethnic cleansing and genocides facebook helped.
Arcane2077@sh.itjust.works 1 week ago
Influencers make money from the platform and in most peoples’ capitalism-riddled brain, “the government is ripping up your paycheck” is more alarming than “the government is silencing its people”.
zymagoras777@lemm.ee 1 week ago
This abomination should be banned everywhere to somewhat mitigate the current brainrot rates.
jimbel@lemm.ee 1 week ago
So true. Same goes for X, insta and Facebook.
technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 week ago
Big win for libs in albania. Ban TikTok!!! \s \s \s
Fedditor385@lemmy.world 1 week ago
The government is not wrong tbh. Young people are addicted to social media and scroll endlessly all the time, and I have myself came across, mildly put, disturbing content. I deleted most of my social media and use the bare minimum to only keep up with some remote friends.
I also don’t buy the argument that it’s censoring because it’s just one of many many channels people can freely communicate. TikTok alone does not mean democracy. Also, the same way it can support democracy, so can it be used to demolish it by repeating false claims to make them appear truthful. And if you add AI on top which can generate convincing images and videos of whatever…
Petter1@lemm.ee 1 week ago
Prohibition has never really worked for any addictive thing so far. What makes you think that it will work for social media?
In my opinion, education is the better investment.
Fedditor385@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Quite a lot of kids and teenagers have the same reaction to taking away their phone, as addicts have when taking away their drugs. I don’t think education can solve problems that are already affecting peoples mental and physical state. Not giving kids TikTok is same as not giving kids to much sugar. In small doses and controlled yes, but nothing you would give them free unlimited access to.
Fredthefishlord@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 week ago
They already have the drug. Education is going to do nothing. They need rehab;this is much more helpful, making it less accessible to future children. Worst case they get more tech literate finding their way around the bans
forwhomthecattolls@sh.itjust.works 1 week ago
in memory of this, I’m starting another Tor relay! :)
drmoose@lemmy.world 1 week ago
I hate tiktok as much as anyone else but this is not the way to do this.
They just banned it using “think of the kids” and without establishing any laws to actually protect the kids. You see how unserious and corrupt this appears? Populist drivel like this should not be applauded.
Alphane_Moon@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Can’t speak for Albanian internal politics (I will speculate the incumbent administration is almost certainly likely to use to their own benefit), but more countries need to start banning large commercial American and Chinese social networks.
huppakee@lemm.ee 1 week ago
But preferably not 2 months before the election
Alphane_Moon@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Depends how you look at it. If enemy states are actively leveraging their social networks to undermine democracy in your country, 2 months before the election may be the perfect time to ban US/Chinese commercial social networks.
unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de 1 week ago
Thats exactly when you should do it tho…
technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 week ago
Why? Don’t we live in a free society?
Not_mikey@slrpnk.net 1 week ago
This is lemmy, people hate China, America and commercial social media. Not a big fan of any of those three either so yeah, fuck em. Would be better if we banned all commercial social media but I’m not gonna cry over only some of them getting banned.
Alphane_Moon@lemmy.world 1 week ago
This might be nonsense to you, but it’s possible that I have much more experience with what we are discussing than you do.
See the following reply in this thread:
lemmy.world/post/27885728/16300020
sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 1 week ago
I strongly disagree.
That said, I think more countries should be releasing research about large social networks and recommending its citizens avoid them. The role of government isn’t to force its people to be better off, but enforce the laws the people want. A social media service should only be banned if it’s violating the laws and unwilling to comply, but otherwise the role of government should remain an advisory one.
Alphane_Moon@lemmy.world 1 week ago
I would argue your approach is narrow both in terms of pragmatic realities and broad social changes in the information age.
I mentioned earlier in this thread how I am from Ukraine and how I of course support our government banning russian social media and internet services in 2014. It’s good to talk about “government not forcing people to be better of” and so on, but when your family is forced to leave their city and sell their homes at 10% of market value due to an invasion from a large, aggressive and genocidal neighbour (that uses langauge as a key element of their imperialist policies), you start taking a more sober look at such matters. Mind you, I am talking about Donbas in 2014, not the full scale invasion in 22.
Not saying you’re American, but I would often hear similar polemics when I lived in the US; didn’t find them in the least convincing. It was clear that supporters of such polemics never really encountered any difficult situations that would test their commitment (and understanding) of their claimed beliefs. Some life experience outside of Ukraine (i.e. unrelated to invasions) also contributed to this perspective. Unfortunately, it’s not a black and white type topic as far as I am concerned.
The above mentioned points refer to real world examples. I would argue there are also more abstract arguments for my point of view.
We are currently going through massive social change due to the development of information and communication technology. We don’t yet know what the best practices are with respect to managing the externalities of the modern ICT landscape.
In 1890, much of the world was still ruled by kings and emperors. In many cases they were positioned literally as god’s messengers to humanity. In retrospect, it was clear that the imperial/colonialist model was not going to survive contact with modernity (industrialization, commoners learning to read, rise of easily accessible political messaging) and that new models had to take their place.
One could argue that the same is true of current attitudes towards information technology. It’s possible that the drivers that led to rapid ICT growth (e.g. US service providers not being responsible for the content on their platforms) also resulted in certain social externalities that at the end of the day will need to be accounted for (one example would be FB’s callousness and contribution to the Rohingya genocide).
I am not arguing for Chinese-style total control of the internet, but perhaps the optimal approach lies somewhere in the middle between US-style “no responsibility for anything” approach and excessive Chinese governmental paternalism.
Just some thoughts, I know I come off as condescending, but it is honestly not my intention.
phoenixz@lemmy.ca 1 week ago
Just commercial social networks, any country , period.