TikTok Remix Culture

I’m pretty blown away by how ... vibrant TikTok is. There’s so many interesting niches. Photography, film making, philosophy, humor. I love seeing random accounts with 300 likes and then they’re million-plus a few weeks later. Like the guy who asks people with fancy cars what they do for a living.

It's crazy how he (Daniel Mac) has gotten all these connections with rich people just by asking some questions for a tiktok

It’s definitely a fount of creativity! Maybe it’s all the Gen Zers but it’s also the least toxic social network around. There’s so much joyful content there.

Every niche except moderate or conservative politics. They are incredibly aggressive with censorship, along the same lines (progressive views) as the other platforms, but with even less transparency. It’s hard for me to feel comfortable with their success in garnering massive network effects when they suppress some ideologies and are okay with others.

I know a significant number of progressive users that frequently get their videos taken down or have some videos "shadowbanned" where the engagement metrics are dramatically different than even their non-popular videos.

It is probably the most heavily moderated social network. It is I think also something that must have been created by someone not from the US. Americans belief in free speech also means you get a lot of bad with the good. TikTok surgically removes the bad.

> Doesn't it get tiring constructing some imaginary victimization conspiracy?

Why are you dismissing what I have observed as a “victimization conspiracy”?

> We all know what they're talking about.

What am I talking about?

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This is Hacker News, so please don’t bring this type of confrontational dialog to the conversation. If you have something substantial to add, go ahead. But opening your comment with an ad hominem attack against me is not helpful.

One basic complaint I have about TikTok is their lack of transparency with bans. TikTok recently banned Amala Ekpunobi (https://thefederalist.com/2021/04/26/tiktok-blacklists-gen-z...) and no reason was given. The same thing happened to PragerU’s account not long ago. I know PragerU has a bad reputation and is hated by the political left, but the majority of their videos are reasonable and fully sourced - I just don’t think they deserve that kind of ban.

Ultimately I don’t like massive tech platforms controlling what information can and can’t reach the rest of society. At their scale, they have the power to propagandize by suppressing and amplifying select information, and they can’t be trusted with it.

The moderation is a definite net positive. Though those with political viewpoints opposite a given user and anti-vaxxers have abused the stringent moderation to wantonly get videos taken down or users’ live stream disabled. Growing pains.

no offense but have you considered the simpler explanation, that conservative politics on a platform of short-form video for 20-30 year olds isn't going to be very popular

> The moderation is a definite net positive.

Their moderation was effective at growing the platform, but pretty horrific in its own right.

https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/16/21181496/tiktok-ugly-poor...

You definitely have your own definition of horrific.

The car guy (Daniel Mac) is awesome but the answers make me feel like I don't understand how money works.

So many people doing things I would not have thought pay as well as software work, and they're all driving McLarens with doors that open like this!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oV4IVy8tvE