Too lazy to look up who said it, but there's a quote I like that goes something like "conservative seeks to have an in group who the law protects but does not bind, and an outgroup who the law binds but not protects"

I agree that would be problematic.

However I'm not willing to allow the government to ban a social media platform that a lot of people enjoy and rely on for community building (or even their livelihoods, in a lot of creators' cases) on a "what if".

Think about the precedent this sets. What could it be used on next?

I'm not here to be pro-china, and I definitely believe that they're putting those things in douyin. I'm just not convinced they're purposefully putting negative things in TikTok purposefully to harm mental health.

This is anecdotal and my personal experience, but I haven't noticed any pro-ccp things on my personal algorithm. What I do notice is anti-US and anti-capitalist content by Americans. Whether or not they are shills, I can't say for sure, but it feels like it would border on conspiracy theory thinking to suggest that many of them are.

To clarify the isolation comment, I mean that TikTok is a place where community building and the spreading of ideas or news (not necessarily good or bad ideas/news) spreads rapidly, especially among young people, in a way the people who run traditional media can't control. Taking away this tool makes us more reliant on forms of media that they do control.

This may sound like a rhetorical question but I promise it's sincere.

Why would I be more concerned about China having my data than when the US has the potential to collect that same data AND MUCH MORE through surveillance that we know they do? My own government has a much higher potential to do me harm than one on the other side of the world.

How do you differentiate purposeful manipulation vs it being a natural effect of Western social media? I stopped using Facebook and Twitter because it was obviously toxic and affecting my mental health. I use TikTok a fair amount and don't find it nearly as bad.

It's also possible that there's manipulation in the other direction. In their own app they could be artificially increasing positive content while allowing the natural social media toxicity and ragebait to dominate in other areas.

My personal opinion is that TikTok is a way that peer to peer information and news travels very quickly in a way that they can't control, and they don't like that. As with all things, they want to keep us isolated.

Throw enough shit at the wall and see what sticks I guess

I was having A LOT of issues with it earlier this evening but it seems to be back to normal now

1. I think telegram is more secure than discord. Could be wrong.
2. I wouldn't get torrents off discord either.

Yeah my answer was "our Most Recent Common Ancestor"

Hmmm I'll have to look into it, thanks. It's been a few years since I did research on it, but there may have been phone compatibility issues iirc. I'll recheck in case I'm misremembering or it's changed.

Science Thor himself

Thanks for answering! I'll do some reading on how package managers work.