• PhAzE@lemmy.ca
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    7 months ago

    The issue is that China controls the algorithm for what users see. This gives them the ability to manipulate users by showing specific content to sway their opinion on things. This is specifically about China’s ability to manipulate US citizens.

    • tias@discuss.tchncs.de
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      7 months ago

      Yes but Facebook / Instagram / Twitter also do this and it has caused huge societal problems in the US, arguably much worse than TikTok.

      • PhAzE@lemmy.ca
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        7 months ago

        They do, and I’d love to see these laws expanded to include a ban against all algorithm manipulation. Manipulation coming from external sources is much more dangerous, even if local source manipulation is also dangerous.

    • TangledHyphae@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      It’s weird seeing comments that outline the actual problem getting downvoted here more than the superfluous comments that do not address the real problem at all. Bizarroworld.

      • PhAzE@lemmy.ca
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        7 months ago

        Agreed. People only hear/read what they want to read, and often tines its flamboyant claims that are not factual. :shrug:

    • Buttons@programming.dev
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      7 months ago

      The people are helpless lemming that mindlessly follow the algorithm, am I right?

      Is free speech a moral principle we believe in? I know the Constitution doesn’t apply to everyone in the world, which is why I’m asking whether we believe in it morally, not legally.

      • PhAzE@lemmy.ca
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        7 months ago

        This has nothing to do with free speech. And yes, 90% of the people out there, including kids, log into tiktok and get a hone page for whatever content China wants to sling, of that’s to turn group A more right and group B more left, or to push their own agendas. People just don’t look at thongs objectively and tend to follow what they see. This is a security risk for the entire country.

        It’s not stifling free speech, and blocking content for the sake of blocking content that they’re talking about here. Is it moral to block influence like that? Yes.

      • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        The Constitution absolutely applies to everyone within the US borders and TikTok US division is run out of Los Angeles.

    • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      As does Meta and Alphabet. Facebook famously ran a Russian information op in 2016, 2020, and looks to be starting up again this year.