I agree. The problem with TikTok is less about ownership of the application, but the black box issue. While I am not a huge fan of social psychology I think it is important to bring up in the context of this debate. The challenges with TikTok is linked to an algorithm that is being trained to optimize the social contagion of underground …
I agree. The problem with TikTok is less about ownership of the application, but the black box issue. While I am not a huge fan of social psychology I think it is important to bring up in the context of this debate. The challenges with TikTok is linked to an algorithm that is being trained to optimize the social contagion of underground ideas.
We see this in mental illness social contagion spread directly though TikTok. We see this in the growth of very niche and narrow political ideas that have cropped up from TikTok. It is not about user data but rather the training of an information stream that can redirect and change interest, attention, and individual action. That is the ultimate threat posed by this app. The ability to retrain focus and real-world engagement.
It is so powerful an algorithm that it is deployed differently in China. In the youth population the app promotes wildly different content that is state approved to create its own alternative social contagion. It works in almost an opposite way by limiting niche and unpopular topics. Any American who does not understand that they are using our user base as test subjects for this research is not paying attention to what is happening in our teen and young adult population in comparison to theirs.
This is not a question of enterprise control it is a question of treating broad swaths of the US population with a psychological experiment without FDA oversight or US safeguards.
I agree. The problem with TikTok is less about ownership of the application, but the black box issue. While I am not a huge fan of social psychology I think it is important to bring up in the context of this debate. The challenges with TikTok is linked to an algorithm that is being trained to optimize the social contagion of underground ideas.
We see this in mental illness social contagion spread directly though TikTok. We see this in the growth of very niche and narrow political ideas that have cropped up from TikTok. It is not about user data but rather the training of an information stream that can redirect and change interest, attention, and individual action. That is the ultimate threat posed by this app. The ability to retrain focus and real-world engagement.
It is so powerful an algorithm that it is deployed differently in China. In the youth population the app promotes wildly different content that is state approved to create its own alternative social contagion. It works in almost an opposite way by limiting niche and unpopular topics. Any American who does not understand that they are using our user base as test subjects for this research is not paying attention to what is happening in our teen and young adult population in comparison to theirs.
This is not a question of enterprise control it is a question of treating broad swaths of the US population with a psychological experiment without FDA oversight or US safeguards.