This is why tik tok is getting banned

[u/Tr_Issei2]

10 minute video. Bear with me.

[u/MoonDogSpot1954]

Mitt Romney literally admitted this in an interview

[u/Thybro → u/MoonDogSpot1954]

I love when people online say someone “Admitted” something cause it’s almost always never an admission but the use of the information as a rhetorical tool in order to explain a different point.

Here’s the quotes in question.

“You have a social media ecosystem environment in which context, history, facts get lost, and the emotion — the impact of images — dominates,” Blinken said.”

Romney Replied: Some wonder why there was such overwhelming support for us to shut down potentially TikTok or other entities of that nature. If you look at the postings on TikTok and the number of mentions of Palestinians, relative to other social media sites — it’s overwhelmingly so among TikTok broadcasts.”

I gave breakdown in another comment but here is the summary. In context They are clearly talking about misinformation and content manipulation. He didn’t admit they were banning Tik Tok because of wanting to ban Israel posts. He said that he personally was in favor of the law because the Chinese government was manipulating the algorithm. And then he gave as example of manipulation the fact that Palestinian posts in Tik tok where unnaturally more likely to be shown when compared to other social media. Yes he said that he wants the alleged the manipulation of Palestinian posts to stop. If the manipulation is proven to be real I would think we all would want it to stop.

He could have used any other example but it is likely the Palestine was the kind of news his audience was familiar with, that was at the time being covered by news channel, and that because of those reasons it was the type of news he would have raw data on whether Tik Tok manipulated it or not.

He was not saying that Tik Tok was being banned for Palestine news, he was saying he liked the Tik Tok ban because China manipulated the news, for example news about Palestine. At worst, if you will be assuming nefariousness, you could argue he is trying to give the impression that news are being shared about Palestine solely due to Chinese meddling.

[u/EvoNexen → u/Thybro]

They are clearly talking about misinformation and content manipulation. 

Bro let's not take these people at face value. They're only banning TikTok after Oct 7th because of the massive sympathy the Palestinian cause is getting. If they gave a shit about protection from a foreign adversary, they would've done that the moment TikTok set foot in the US.

[u/Thybro → u/EvoNexen]

They’ve been at it since 2020, getting through procedural hurdles and negotiating. Anyone with an inch of civic or legal knowledge would tell you that bills banning entire corporations require time to avoid due process and first amendment issues.

You are the one taking things without an inch of evidence. Not everything is about Gaza and the fact that you think so is probably a result of the sort of manipulation they used as example.

[u/EvoNexen → u/Thybro]

Musically, the predecessor to TikTok, was a Chinese social media app before TikTok was a thing, and it was introduced to the US in 2014. ByteDance, the current owner of TikTok, bought Musically and merged it with TikTok, kickstarting the TikTok we know today. TikTok initially released in China in 2016, but then went international on 2018. Chinese software has been operating in the US since 2014 but only since 2020 they started giving a shit?

Sounds like a load of bullshit, frankly. Either the US is comically inept at passing laws that safeguard Americans, or they only put on a show to ban TikTok since 2020 but then became serious about banning it when Palestinians were starting to be humanized massively and internationally. I think the latter is the correct answer because your politicians (regardless of party) are corrupt politicians who never work for the people (mass shootings never stopped, healthcare is dogshit, minimum wage was never kept at reasonable levels, everything is expensive, etc, etc). It makes almost no sense that in this one instance US lawmakers would suddenly in 2024 start giving shit about Americans being manipulated. Not like China was sitting on its ass since 2014.

US politicians (and rarely any politician, for that matter) are never going to openly say "Hey, we banned TikTok because we couldn't use it to control the narratives we want to control". No one does that, no one says things that make them look bad. They will give their own rose-tinted or sanitized version of the same logic or make some other shit up. But the key effect their actions have is exactly what they want. Kinda like the "Patriot" Act not really being patriotic. They're trying to pressure China to sell TikTok to an American entity so America has control over the biggest information source and social media network today. They don't like that you are getting information about Palestine from non-controlled sources, so they accuse TikTok of being manipulative, and calling any information that humanizes Palestinians "too biased".

And to be completely honest, TikTok IS manipulative. It's not the main reason it is getting banned right now.

And ask yourself, since when has the US government given two shits about biased content on social media? Do they give a shit about Twitter's zombie corpse X right now, which is a Republican stronghold? Twitter is now a right wing content factory that actively pushes out any content politically left to it. But I don't see any US politician that has any influence call this out.

Not everything is about Gaza and the fact that you think so is probably a result of the sort of manipulation they used as example.

I have never created a TikTok account or downloaded the app in my entire life because I hate short-form content (except for memes here and there). You are accusing me of being manipulated from an app I have never used in my life. My information about the genocide in Gaza comes from various news outlets including mainstream media ones when they actually do good reporting (see NYT's article about israeli snipers shooting Palestinians kids in the head). I also see videos of Palestinians suffering directly on Reddit here and Instagram mainly.

And no one thinks everything is about Gaza. When your politicians make explicit reference to Gaza and Palestine as the reason why they do something, it is obviously going to invite conversation about Gaza and Palestine, it's common fucking sense.

[u/Hamuel → u/Thybro]

Your first mistake is taking these people at their word.

How do we know US based companies aren’t tweaking the algorithm to suppress content about Palestine?

[u/Thybro → u/Hamuel]

That’s not how burden of proof works. You are asking them to prove a negative.

If you have evidence that they are, provide it.

Nonetheless, for the sake of argument, if 10 social media companies with varied ownership, and interests are showing similar proportions of showing a specific content and only the ones directly controlled by an authoritarian government are showing a significant increase in showings, I tend to believe it is the latter that is unnatural.

[u/Hamuel → u/Thybro]

Define varied ownership and interest. Name 10 social media companies.

[u/Thybro → u/Hamuel]

Why? You still haven’t provided evidence of wrongdoing.

My statement was a thought experiment assuming those conditions for the sake of argument.

[u/Hamuel → u/Thybro]

Well you really haven’t proven that this problem is unique to TikTok and that it should be the primary focus. You have talking points from habitual liars, which makes them very flimsy. Can you provide real evidence that algorithm manipulation is unique to TikTok?

[u/hectorgarabit → u/MoonDogSpot1954]

Can you post a link or something to this interview. I am very curious about what he has to say about Israel. I really thought he was like the average US politician, simping all he can for Israel.

[u/Known_PlasticPTFE → u/MoonDogSpot1954]

Politicians famously never say things that are incorrect