TikTok Stacking Algorithms in Chinese Government’s Favor with Pro-China Content Originating from State-Linked Entities, Study Claims
TikTok Stacking Algorithms in Chinese Government’s Favor with Pro-China Content Originating from State-Linked Entities, Study Claims
The report from the Network Contagion Research Institute at Rutgers University heightens concerns about how Beijing influences content on one of the most popular social media platforms with Americans under 30.
cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/1814468
Here is the stuy: The CCP’s Digital Charm Offensive
TikTok Stacking Algorithms in Chinese Government’s Favor, Study Claims
A study published on Thursday asserts TikTok’s algorithms promote Chinese Communist Party narratives and suppress content critical of those narratives, a claim the embattled company forcefully denied to KQED.
Titled “The CCP’s Digital Charm Offensive,” the study by the Rutgers University-based Network Contagion Research Institute argues that much of the pro-China content originates from state-linked entities. ByteDance, a Chinese technology company, owns TikTok.
Institute co-founder Joel Finkelstein wrote that includes media outlets and influencers, such as travel vloggers who post toothlessly about Chinese regions like Xinxiang, where the government has imprisoned more than 1 million Uyghurs and other mostly Muslim minorities.
“This manipulation is not just about content availability; it extends to psychological manipulation, particularly affecting Gen Z users,” Finkelstein wrote.
[...]
An NCRI analysis published in December looked at the volume of posts with certain hashtags — like “Uyghur,” “Xinjiang,” “Tibet” and “Tiananmen” — across TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. That report found **anomalies in TikTok content based on its alignment with the interests of the Chinese government. **For example, researchers wrote, hashtags about Tibet, Hong Kong protests and the Uyghur population appeared to be underrepresented on TikTok compared with Instagram.
You're viewing a single thread.
"TikTok does what every social media company does but this time it's Chinese so it's bad" is what this headline should really say.
From the Encyclopedia Britannica:
Whataboutism, the rhetorical practice of responding to an accusation or difficult question by making a counteraccusation, by asking a different but related question, or by raising a different issue altogether. Whataboutism often serves to reduce the perceived plausibility or seriousness of the original accusation or question by suggesting that the person advancing it is hypocritical or that the responder’s misbehavior is not unique or unprecedented.
Whataboutism is typically also an admission of guilt. When the CCP normally use it, they aren’t disagreeing with the accusation, they are justifying their actions.
In this case ByteDance specifically denies the allegations. It doesn’t mean whataboutism can’t be used without a ‘even if’, but the user you are responding to is admitting TikTok is doing things TikTok says they aren’t doing. Doesn’t mean they are a representative of TikTok or the CCP, but definitely not helping their cause.