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TikTok hits 1.5B downloads, outperforming Instagram

(www.businessinsider.com)
298 points elorant | 7 comments | 19 Nov 19 14:09 UTC | HN request time: 0.841s | source | bottom
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komali2 ◴[19 Nov 19 16:04 UTC] No.21574384[source]▶
Aight, conspiracy theory time.

I'm becoming concerned about PRC influence in my country (USA). From my perspective the PRC (government) is blatantly evil, and happily engaging in cultural warfare, and nobody seems to be fighting back.

I see absurd astroturfing and shilling on social media here (Reddit, Twitter, Facebook). It's always obvious - whereas a genuine criticizer of the Hong Kong protestors might ask about violence, the shills will always use the word "ISIS" somewhere in their message.

It's everywhere and we don't seem to be fighting back. I browse Chinese social media and while my Mandarin isn't great I'm not seeing any level of AstroTurfing at all. So am I just a crazy conspiracy person? Is the PRC astroturfing not a big deal? Maybe my concerns are valid but that doesn't justify further concern about the influx of PRC messaging vectors to the USA, i.e. tiktok?

When I worked in the PRC I got to see first hand the strong-arm of the Party. Every business involved in communication had a government official whose entire job was to ensure the company "protected the social wellbeing of the people of the PRC" or similar. I can only assume tiktok has the same and I can only assume it's a matter of time before the Party starts directing the company to leverage their access to a massive US audience in a way that benefits the "social wellbeing," i.e. by disseminating PRC propaganda.

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logicchains ◴[19 Nov 19 16:21 UTC] No.21574635[source]▶
The way I see it, the Chinese government doesn't care what you do as long as you don't challenge it. The US on the other hand seems intent on enforcing its whims everywhere on the globe it can. War on terror, war on drugs, war on encryption, war on financial privacy, war on intellectual property infringement. To quote CS Lewis: "It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."
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1. dv_dt ◴[19 Nov 19 17:18 UTC] No.21575460[source]▶
I think we can criticize both the Chinese Govt as well as our own government. For instance, China sees no holdback from imprisoning and killing anyone on the thinnest of pretenses, it's basically wielding ultimate authoritarian power to ruin or end lives. On the other hand, the US actually wields a similar authoritarian imprisonment power much more frequently than China, actually more than almost any nation in the world - 10x more than other enlightened western nations, and the same or more than many repressive nations going by percentages of population in prison. The US justifications for that many in prison are just as weak a pretense as the Chinese justifications we just accept them more readily.

Wether it's an oligarchy of party elite, or oligarchy of robber barons pulling the strings makes little difference to the lives ruined.

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2. katbyte ◴[19 Nov 19 18:00 UTC] No.21575989[source]▶
> I think we can criticize both the Chinese Govt as well as our own government.

In the west we can criticize our governments and are arguably more free. in china you can't and are arguably less free. I know where i would prefer to live.

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3. goalieca ◴[19 Nov 19 18:01 UTC] No.21575997[source]▶
What!? A few thousand migrant families arrested at us border is bad. Agreed. But million minorities in re-education camps with organ harvesting is really bad. Not even close on the scale of shittyness.
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4. dv_dt ◴[19 Nov 19 18:20 UTC] No.21576242[source]▶
I think you need to read my last line a little more carefully. I did not say the US is less free - I said that ruined lives are still ruined.

That one would personally prefer to have the freedoms of the privileged class of the US is not in question. But the US ruins lives at a 3x higher rate in prisons than China does. And it's not organ harvesting, but is cruelty that is personal, financial, and petty. Medical care is routinely denied, long term imprisonment in solitary conditions is considered torture in other nations, and is common in the US. And undeniably, prison is applied more frequently and for longer terms to a minority set of races in the US akin to how China persecutes minorities. (again I agree the degree is different but point out the rate is higher in the US, and ruined lives are still ruined). Those affected in that system really don't have the freedom to opt out of it.

Edit: The robber barons cruelly end lives too...

https://twitter.com/AllOnMedicare/status/1184644551987777537

5. EsssM7QVMehFPAs ◴[19 Nov 19 18:49 UTC] No.21576679[source]▶
So much for the success of Chinese propaganda abroad. No democratic western state comes close to the totalitarian regime that is China. They attacked students with tanks a few decades ago and still have the same people in power. People should be informed about Chinese politics more, and that it does not happen via mainstream media is a telling sign of their financial leverage nowadays.
6. throw964563 ◴[19 Nov 19 18:58 UTC] No.21576786[source]▶
I think OP is referring to the Middle East.
7. dv_dt ◴[19 Nov 19 20:01 UTC] No.21577594[source]▶
Well some of those migrants families have babies who are not learning to speak or read at critical times due to intentional neglect. That's pretty horrific.

But I was referring to our in-nation prisons to clairify.