I once won a million Robux from my dad, but when I tried to collect them while unrelatedly hiding under a blanket, he got mad and banned me from Roblox, his credit card, and later from talking to that helpful woman at his bank. Some bans are entirely unfair.
Everything spys on us, not just tiktok. Yes, steps can be taken to lessen the spying, but in the end of the day we are just self censoring ourselves from other platforms.
Social media is here to stay and the masses use it as a way to get information/entertainment.
Making burner accounts are a thing, share information that goes against the status quo, I think that is admirable.
Only way people are exposed to certain viewpoints is by joining that bubble and going against the narrative.
In the end this gets complicated for various reasons, what do y'all suppose is the best course of action to go against the status quo?
TikTok is particularly problematic for a number of reasons.
Researchers showed that it collected images, videos, text history, contacts, etc. In fact, they noted that more of the program's software was used for spyware than actually running the app itself.
It's a military operation for a hostile foreign dictatorship.
TikTok also is not great for "expanding your bubble and seeing other viewpoints" because it's heavily monitored and filtered. Recently users reported getting permanently banned for speaking out about the ongoing Gaza Strip genocide, though TBH that was probably just the algorithm picking up on the word Genocide and shutting them down just in case they were talking about China.
Don't get me wrong, though! Fuck Google and Facebook/Meta, never give them any of your data either. But at least they wouldn't profit from the complete destruction of western civilization.
This is true, and it's not one or the other. We can try to do the best we can to protect our privacy and also improve it further (with new tools, practices etc.)
I would rather that good people don't completely abandon the platforms where so many people are. Both to share positive messages and promote good things, but also because good people deserve those social connections too.
I saw this page a while back and it's something we don't talk about enough in privacy discussions: https://www.socialcooling.com/
I also don't like when the only advice given is "uninstall and delete your account, you deserve it otherwise". We can do better
My advice for tiktok:
promote other platforms to people
see how much you can do from the mobile site (they limit it intentionally)
If you really have to install it, check out Shelter to sandbox the app away. It will still track a lot, but it will be somewhat boxed away
Good for you, right ? I mean no TikTok sounds awesome to me. Now get rid of Twitter, Instagram and the other stupid social media stuff and you're pretty much living the dream!
None of the others come close to tiktok in catering to nice & niche stuff. It's algoritme sure works and is enjoyable with incredible amounts of daily new interesting content. Sorry, not even reddit nor lemmy come close
It would have had to been WAY more than Israel/Palestinian issues. Ive seen absolute shit tons of content condemning Israel and supporting Palestine and vice versa. with no filtering of content.
Actually, part of the deal that allowed TikTok to stay in the US required their US branch to have some US leadership. The leadership that was picked was mostly former intelligence agency people.
I doubt thats the only video. My entire feed is 80% videos about israel committing war crimes, history of palestine, how israel is funded by the US for its interests in the middle east and to build a canal to no longer rely on egypt