TikTok has been pushing Chinese propaganda to millions of users in Europe: analysis::More than 1,000 ads from Chinese state media outlets have run on European users’ TikTok feeds since October 2022, according to the platform’s latest ad library update that was analyzed by Forbes.
And American social media does the same for America. Every dog barks for its master.
You’re not necessarily wrong in all respects, but this comment is peak whataboutism. Western tiktok is targeted mostly at children and young adults who are obviously highly impressionable, so I would argue that regardless of whats happening on any other social media platform, this is unwanted and harmful and therefore shouldn’t be accepted.
The difference is there is American federal policy being put in place around TikTok specifically that is not being done against other social media apps.
Yea when people organize an attempted coup on Chinese tiktok, your point may hold more water. Not saying it’s a good thing, but it’s clear that Facebook et al’s primary motive is not promoting nationalistic goals; domestically or aboard.
The right-wing pipeline is well documented in both Facebook and YouTube.
Bro Youtube is still very often full of grifting, hawkery and other disgusting stuff.
Whataboutism is the correct and logical answer to hypocrites. There is nothing that Tiktok is guilty of that Twitter or Instagram aren’t.
For sure. Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts are all functionally identical and equally concerning as TikTok in every way, and Xitter is trying to jump onto that too.
Moreover, how is anyone sitting in America (or a country with American bases) primarily concerned about the Chinese government? We have endless military and culture war/ propaganda barriers erected against them; we’re basically untouchable, unless we plan on physically going to China.
(The answer is related to the propaganda barriers themselves – it’s acceptable / encouraged to criticize China).
Can you describe what “propaganda barriers” means? From my perspective, it’s absurdly easy for foreign governments to bot-farm posts in an attempt to sway public opinion in the US.
And of course it’s acceptable/encouraged to criticize China. But it’s also acceptable/encouraged to criticize Joe Biden, Donald Trump, AOC, DeSantis, Obama, and on and on. There’s not really a shortage of hateful and divisive content out there right now. The rage-bait about what The Other Team just did and how America is in terminal decay are the biggest propaganda wins of all time. And news orgs, desperate for revenue in an age of digital media and ad blockers, will chase whatever is stuck in people’s heads so they fuel it even more.
Well, even still, the US government and corporations have by far the upper hand. They control or heavily influence the school curriculums, for starters, in addition to most news media. Essentially, the lion’s share of information that reaches most people throughout most of their lives.
Any social media -based sway from a foreign actor will be comparatively marginal, and will be at very best at an even keel with domestic.
Facebook ran ads paid for by Russian propagandists which IMO is far worse than a Chinese company running Chinese ads.
Both are bad, so prosecute and ban them both.
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China is markedly worse than the US, though.
China did not invade Iraq or Afganistan
As an American, I can say that my government sucks for invading Iraq and Afghanistan and face no repercussions. I did so before those wars and have done so repeatedly since.
As a Chinese citizen, I can be arrested for singing a song about Hong Kong. Or saying that Tibet isn’t China, or that Taiwan should be left alone. God forbid I ask about what’s happening in Xinjiang. Or what happened in Beijing in 1989, or why the Great Leap Forward resulted in so many deaths of my countrymen. Or practicing Flaun Dafa, or whatever else.
Nobody is saying the US is perfect: the US has its problems, we can and should be better. But China is never honest about their shit and punishes people who are. China’s markedly worse than the US.
They let you complain about Iraq and Afghanistan because your complaints are irrelevant. You have no power to change policy.
I have free speech rights under the constitution. That’s not the case in China.
Don’t shift the goal posts - there’s a huge difference between the countries, and China is strictly worse.
China did not destroy the city of Fallujah, America did. All those speech rights did not save those people who were murdered by American soldiers.
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