Seems to me it's only guilty of the same data scraping for marketing purposes that Meta is... maybe even less so as I always found TikToks advertising less gross than Instagrams.

Both suck but TikTok is slightly less suck.

Is it really a security thing or is it a "We are getting pressure from US companies to remove competition" thing?

  • nandos_house_of_glues [she/her]
    ·
    21 hours ago

    They're not really trying to because a lot of that comes from in-house and isn't seen as a threat to the state. Something like ivermectin disinfo isn't perceived as a threat to the state but too many Luigi memes are. "Protecting US citizens" is not a priority. US censorship regimes on social media however, absolutely do exist but they take the form or cooperation of the business with the state to deprioritize certain content.

    exactly this, a lot of the crystal mom ivermectin flat earth secret chinese training grounds shit juxtaposed with conspiracy theorist as pejorative encourages an ideological years of lead dynamic that contributes to the political incoherence of the average disinterested american which is very much to the benefit of the military-industrial complex. as you said, the only perceived threats in this mind melting discourse are those which accurately point to capital as complicit in the average person's lack of well-being

    • pemptago@lemmy.ml
      ·
      17 hours ago

      That makes sense to me. I'm a little fuzzy on "an ideological years of lead dynamic," what do you mean by that?

      • nandos_house_of_glues [she/her]
        ·
        11 hours ago

        yeah I stream of consciousnessed that but essentially where the greater political sophistication of the italian blocs during the years of lead required the actual physical manifestation of the strategy of tension in the form consistent low-level violence, the american political landscape requires significantly less effort. the state has already successfully neutralized any nascent organization with any promise. now, a constant conflict between largely incoherent parties is waged across media, and any left-wing attempt to point to the material reality of things is easily dismissed either as fantasy or conspiracy respectively by the predominant "sides" of the captured discourse.

        • pemptago@lemmy.ml
          ·
          6 hours ago

          Understood. Thank you for the added context. I was not familiar with the "years of lead" phrase. I agree. It does not take a lot of effort to neutralize opposition. You reminded me of the Steve Bannon quote to “...flood the zone [the media] with shit.” Attention algorithms have only accelerated it. It has made it very difficult for Americans to focus on a core issue and organize around it. A new insane thing is pushed out before the previous one can be digested.