Saved by sari and
TikTok May Be a Chinese Bio-Weapon
There have been hundreds of investigative reports, technical analysis, research whitepapers, statistical studies, PhD dissertations, and more about how TikTok’s secretive recommendation algorithm works. TikTok’s recommendation system is without a doubt incredibly complex and impressive, but so too are the recommenders that Facebook, Instagram, and ... See more
Eric Feng • May The Feed Be With You: how algorithmic feeds create the best content experience for users
TikTok, Terror, and Teens
youtube.comHow it’s an astonishingly effective machine to turn people against each other. And monitor people at a scale that was never possible before. And manipulate them. It’s an incredibly valuable tool for the most autocratic, oppressive regimes, because it gives them exactly what those regimes need: direct access into what people are saying from the top
... See moreSarah Wynn-Williams • Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism
It’s absolutely true that the tone and content of the videos people consume on TikTok or Instagram affect their understanding of the world around them--but so too do their non-phone experiences, their relationships, their jobs, their mental states, their social worlds, their spending habits, etc. Why do doomers and reactionaries so thoroughly domin
... See moreMax Read • The TikTok Electorate
In the end, TikTok’s biggest legacy might be less about its current moment of world-conquering success, which will pass, and more about how, by forcing social-media giants like Facebook to chase its model, it will end up liberating the social Internet.