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TikTok Remix Culture

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327 points demail | 1 comments | 15 May 21 00:06 UTC | HN request time: 0.215s | source
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gdubs ◴[15 May 21 01:14 UTC] No.27161363[source]▶
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.
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throwawaysea ◴[15 May 21 02:49 UTC] No.27161866[source]▶
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.
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paulv ◴[15 May 21 02:53 UTC] No.27161882[source]▶
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.
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1. throwawaysea ◴[15 May 21 04:20 UTC] No.27162331[source]▶
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.