cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/59392382


TikTok wants users to believe that errors blocking uploads of anti-ICE videos or direct messages mentioning Jeffrey Epstein are due to technical errors—not the platform seemingly shifting to censor content critical of Donald Trump after he hand-picked the US owners who took over the app last week.

However, experts say that TikTok users’ censorship fears are justified, whether the bugs are to blame or not.

Ioana Literat, an associate professor of technology, media, and learning at Teachers College, Columbia University, has studied TikTok’s politics since the app first shot to popularity in the US in 2018. She told Ars that “users’ fears are absolutely justified” and explained why the “bugs” explanation is “insufficient.”

    • @chaogomu@lemmy.world
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      116 minutes ago

      Ah, but that’s the thing. There are always new platforms.

      The current winner seems to be a new one called Upscrolled.

      The guy behind it is a Palestinian out of Jordan, with Australian citizenship?

      Anyway, that’s all I currently know about it, the app is being hugged to death by tens of thousands of new users over the last day or two.

  • AmbitiousProcess (they/them)
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    22 hours ago

    Wow, a bug that specifically automatically chose keywords like “ICE”, and “epstein”, then blocked them from appearing, while leaving literally all other content unharmed??? How conveniently specific and well-timed! /s

  • YappyMonotheist
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    53 hours ago

    This is TikTok in America as managed by Larry Ellison and the US government btw. They Iron Curtained y’all.

      • YappyMonotheist
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        2 hours ago

        Everything to do with it because TikTok is bad for Western imperialist optics and radicalised the youth as the genocide in Gaza was getting livestreamed. Nothing religious or ethnic though, this is just a money move. 🤷

  • Chozo
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    157 hours ago

    Weird timing these bugs seem to have, eh?

  • @reddig33@lemmy.world
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    579 hours ago

    Find. Another. Service.

    TikTok is dead — just like Twitter. I don’t understand people who cling to these services. Might as well post on MySpace while you’re at it.

  • EbbyA
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    10 hours ago

    Yeah. Right.

    “If you get caught, call it a bug.” seems to happen a lot this administration.

    • BurgerBaron
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      86 hours ago

      My bet is they tweak the backend instead to derank content they don’t like softly next.

      • @chaogomu@lemmy.world
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        111 minutes ago

        They’re already doing that. There are reports that content from the DNC isn’t being served anymore, even to subscribers.

  • @Telorand@reddthat.com
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    3510 hours ago

    Maybe—and I’m going out on a limb here—just maybe, using centralized media to document State-sponsored domestic terrorism is a fucking stupid idea. Especially since the very same platform is co-owned by the State.

    Y’all, we already went through this with Xitter. Sorry you fell for it again, but this won’t be the last time if you continue to cling to platforms owned by the very people who want to censor you.

  • artyom
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    1310 hours ago

    Okay good so they’re going to fix it then?

  • @WhyIHateTheInternet@lemmy.world
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    09 hours ago

    So people are upset that they can’t get the info or propaganda they want on tick tock…

    Which tells me that these people think that tick tock is a reputable place to get this kind of information

    I have heard more about this tick tock bullshit than I have heard about the ice bullshit today and that should say a lot about nature of our society here in America.