1y ago

Majority of Americans Say TikTok Is a Threat to U.S. National Security

variety.com Majority of Americans Say TikTok Is a Threat to U.S. National Security

The majority of Americans — about 59% — say TikTok a threat to the national security of the United States, according to a recent survey of U.S. adults. The findings from Pew Research Center’s…

Technology @lemmy.world

variety.com /2023/digital/news/tiktok-national-security-threat-americans-survey-1235665763/

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“Majority of Americans think dungeons and dragons is a threat to the national security”

I mean it is in the same way Facebook is.
- Yeah, but I also want to get rid of Facebook. Like I don't think every nation is entitled to their own toxic hell site.

A majority of Americans also think they’re of above average intelligence. I found this. Just now.

Roughly 70% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents say TikTok is either a minor or major threat to national security in the U.S.
Either a minor or major threat. 😂
- Polls are bullshit, both to design and to report. It's maddeningly hard to whittle down human opinions to neat little answers. It's a science and an artform, really.
  
  You're not entirely wrong, but I have a related degree and actually did polling back in the day, so I'll add some nuance.
  Most reputable political polls are surprisingly good. Pollsters get it wrong far far less than people think they do. Which is astonishing, given you're often polling a thousand people, to discover the opinions of millions. The problem is that people fail to read the small print, don't understand basic statistics or probabilities, and media misreport what they actually say.
  Best example: 2016 US election. No one who knows a bit about polling was at all surprised by Trump winning. IRC if you aggregated, he had a 1/3 chance of winning. Him winning was invariably within the margin of error of many many polls. But the media misinterpreted them and then blamed bad polling for their own mistakes.
  And that's not surprising. Polling how someone will tick a box on an election day in the near future, by asking them to do the equivalent of tick a box in a poll? Likely to be quite good predictor.
  More vague stuff like this, it's harder. You're not necessarily measuring what you're measuring, and because the media invariably misrepresents scientific studies and polls, you need to read the small print and what they actually asked.
  In any case, here's the pollsters article on it (including sample size, methodology, etc.):
  https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/07/10/majority-of-americans-say-tiktok-is-a-threat-to-national-security/
  And the questions they asked:
  https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/SR2023.07.10.23tiktoktopline.pdf
  For example, it would have been interesting if they'd asked "Is TikTok a threat to national security in the United States?" rather than "How much of a threat...?"
  Changing the answer scale would likely also have resulted in different answers.
  Also, do respondents know what national security is? It's a pretty vague term for layman.
  Hell, do all respondents know what tiktok is? Because if you asked people if the Umbrella corporation is a threat to national security, it's like that many would answer yes.
- It was bound to be one of those, sooner or later.

It is absolutely a threat to national security because it's a threat to your security, like most social media apps. It just gets more attention because it's foreign-owned here in the States.

How about all social media is a threat? Facebook and Twitter haven’t been doing anyone a favor lately with how they spin misinformation to manipulate people.
All of it should be shut down. Life was a lot better before social media.
- Agreed.
  But here we are.

Majority of Americans need a Xanax. Or maybe less Xanax. It can only be one or the other.

It is also a threat to our collective attention spans.

Well it is proprietary software from a subsidiary of a de facto state-owned government currently participating in genocide. I changed torrent clients for even less than that.

Just as big a threat as facebook

Right, now ask them what they think about rap music...
- Also a threat to National Security. Dr. Dre is a terrorist and should be held accountable for his crimes.

is there an open source alternative to Tiktok?

Threat to something or not, it’s pure cringe and should be banned nevertheless
- I see this take a lot across forum based socials like reddit/Lemmy etc, but honestly since I've started using it in 2021 it's by far the most advanced algorithm at feeding me solid reoccurring and new content I actually want to see.
  
  I only want to weigh in with the opposite experience, not trying to convince anyone or make a point. But I've had an account for over a year, a few subscriptions, just wholesome or comedic stuff, and get the most garbage or vile sewage on my feed. I am reluctant to open a link to TikTok, because I know it will show me something horrible first. Anyone else have this experience?
  
  it's by far the most advanced algorithm at feeding me solid reoccurring and new content I actually want to see.
  Well, yes, that's the problem. It's designed by psychology experts to extract as much dopamine as possible from your glands so that you continue using TikTok instead of doing literally anything else with your time, allowing them to expose you to ads and sell fucktons of your data. Algorithms good enough to be addictive ought to be illegal, they're predatory, take advantage of quirks in our brain's reward system, and steal tons of time from our lives we could be using on more fulfilling things.

39 comments