TikTok’s Pro-China Tilt
TikTok’s Pro-China Tilt
A bill that will force the app’s Chinese owners to sell will soon become law.
The times dives into an intelligence report on how TikTok's political algorithm anomalies align with the CCP's Geostrategic Objectives https://networkcontagion.us/wp-content/uploads/A-Tik-Tok-ing-Timebomb_12.21.23.pdf
This report highlights major differences in the prevalence of hashtags related to subjects like Hong Kong Protests, Tainanmen Square, Tibet, the South China Sea, Taiwan, Uyghurs, Pro-Ukraine, and Pro-Isreal when compared to other major social media platforms.
Additionally the times cited a Wall Street Journal analysis (https://www.wsj.com/tech/tiktok-israel-gaza-hamas-war-a5dfa0ee) which "found evidence that TikTok was promoting extreme content, especially against Israel. (China has generally sided with Hamas.)"
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I would worry about this more if the American social media networks didn't have a pro-corporate tilt.
I think there's a pretty strong argument that a pro-corporate tilt doesn't result in a difference in content promotion regarding Tibet, Tiananmen Square, Hong Kong, and/or Uyghur.
You could argue the US military industrial complex might push South China Sea, pro-Taiwan, pro-Ukraine, and pro-Isreal content; that seems distant enough from (e.g.) Facebook, but I'm not sure how we'd tell. We don't have a major social media platform in a place like (e.g.) Switzerland to study (granted, the way Proton is expanding they might try).
In any case, I do think it's pretty damning for TikTok's claims of independence that China's direct conflicts, Tiananmen Square and Hong Kong are basically suppressed to the point of being nil (EDIT: Tibet is also a direct conflict of sorts but isn't talked about as much from what I've seen on "western social media" and could be conditionally filtered ... there's still probably a fair bit of "Tibet" content that exists outside of the "bad for the CCP" space).
I think there’s a pretty strong argument that a pro-corporate tilt doesn’t result in a difference in content promotion regarding Tibet, Tiananmen Square, Hong Kong, and/or Uyghur.
How about a difference in content promotion regarding Israel? You know, the country the MiC makes a huge amount of money supporting?
Read past the first paragraph...
I did. My apologies, I saw pro-Taiwan, but somehow missed the pro-Israel next to it.
Okay, then yeah; I think we're in agreement more research would be needed (and difficult!).
I can't dissuade or dismiss your point ... but I am personally less convinced there is a correlation.
We also need to take into account how addressable the problems are in the current climate. To tackle pro-corporate biases, we're looking at a long quest that runs counter to the underlying fabric of our society. It's a fundamentally anti-capitalist proposition and we live in a capitalist society.
This issue with a foreign power is much smaller, and thus easier to crack. It's much less far-reaching, it's less important. But it should still lead to small gains in the improvement of the information sphere.