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Community => Science and Technology => Topic started by: Vanto on December 05, 2019, 06:30:19 pm

Title: TikTok admits to supressing content
Post by: Vanto on December 05, 2019, 06:30:19 pm
https://slate.com/technology/2019/12/tiktok-disabled-users-videos-suppressed.html (https://slate.com/technology/2019/12/tiktok-disabled-users-videos-suppressed.html)

Their claimed reasons aren't quite what you might expect:

Quote
TikTok, a social network video app with more than 1 billion downloads globally, admitted Tuesday to a set of policies that had suppressed the reach of content created by users assumed to be “vulnerable to cyberbullying.” As examples of users “susceptible to bullying or harassment,” the policy listed people with facial disfigurement, autism, Down syndrome, and “Disabled people or people with some facial problems such as birthmark, slight squint and etc.”

The admission came after the German site Netzpolitik reported that TikTok asked moderators to watch 15-second videos and decide if the creator looked like the type of person others might want to bully. If so, moderators were instructed to add flags to the accounts of these “vulnerable” users. These flags would stop their videos from being shown to audiences outside their home countries and, in some cases, would even prevent their videos from appearing in other users’ feeds. A list of flagged users obtained by Netzpolitik included people with and without disabilities, whose bios included hashtags like #fatwoman and #disabled or had rainbow flags and other LGBTQ identifiers.

Of course, since TikTok is owned by a Chinese company, and since they ban pro-LGBT and PRC-critical content (https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/sep/26/tiktoks-local-moderation-guidelines-ban-pro-lgbt-content), I have my doubts they're telling the truth about their motives.
Title: Re: TikTok admits to supressing content
Post by: Skybison on December 06, 2019, 12:39:58 am
Here's an idea, how about we suppress the content of the likely cyberbullies instead of the likely victims?
Title: Re: TikTok admits to supressing content
Post by: dpareja on December 06, 2019, 12:44:25 am
Here's an idea, how about we suppress the content of the likely cyberbullies instead of the likely victims?

Because then they'd have to ban Donald Trump. (Disclaimer: I don't know if Donald Trump uses TikTok.)
Title: Re: TikTok admits to supressing content
Post by: Kanzenkankaku on December 07, 2019, 10:26:50 pm
Easier to punish people who look funny than take care of bullying. Is there a term for weird "we just want to protect you" kind of passive-aggressive bullying?
Title: Re: TikTok admits to supressing content
Post by: RavynousHunter on December 07, 2019, 11:07:01 pm
Its also insanely patronizing and marginalizing.  They aren't protecting people, they're segregating them in the name of "protection."
Title: Re: TikTok admits to supressing content
Post by: dpareja on December 08, 2019, 01:06:12 am
Well, I mean, it's easier to look for the people likely to face harassment than it is to play whack-a-mole with the endless number of trolls who crop up.

Doesn't make it right, just easier.