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Half of Canadians support TikTok ban, with U.S. concerns ‘trickling’ north: poll
(nanaimonewsnow.com)
this post was submitted on 29 Mar 2024
59 points (100.0% liked)
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I don't care what America is doing, ban it because it's fucking awful for society. Algorithmic short-form content is literally destroying the attention span of an entire generation, regardless of if gathers data on you or not.
Lots of things are awful for society — fast food, conservatism, detached housing. I agree that TikTok is generally detrimental to society but I think banning it is going too far, unless we can definitely established that it's being used by the CCP as a psyop.
We've mitigated some of that stuff though; with fast food we've required calorie counts to be displayed alongside the menu items, which allows you to make an informed decision, even if it's a bad one.
With TikTok there's just being forcefed without knowledge of how any of this black box algorithm bullshit works. It's like going to McDonalds and being able to have unlimited hamburgers of infinite uniqueness and getting unhealthy in the brain.
You can replace "TikTok" here with any closed-source algorithm-driven social media platform, including YouTube. You could probably even make that argument about search engines too. Hell, if you really want to stretch it, even newspapers and radio could get lumped in there, since we don't see the decisions that lead to what gets published and how it's presented.
The thing is, none of those algorithms have to be black boxes. They could be published—it's just that businesses don't want to, and so far, no government has chosen to force it.
Sure, but now this no longer has much to do with the original topic. What you're suggesting is that any software algorithm has to have its source code shared, and any media company needs to explain why it publishes what it does, and not other things. That goes far, far beyond TikTok.
That's because banning Tiktok alone is like trying to hold a gaping wound together with a band-aid. We need to force all social media companies to act like good citizens if they want to remain in the Canadian market. (Yeah, I know, not going to happen.)
I absolutely despise short vertical video as a format, but how is the lack of attention span caused by this type of media? Does the availability of books cause long attention spans? Lack of attention span is the default state of North Americans. Platforms like TikTok, Instagram and Facebook show videos that users want to watch, it's no different than Audible suggesting books or Netflix suggesting movies. I like the Audiobooks I listen to, they like the 15 second videos that they watch.
It's also not generational, there are just as many boomers, gen-x, millennials, and gen-z burning hours into these platforms.