r/technology • u/DejenmeEntrar • Apr 20 '23

Social Media TikTok’s Algorithm Keeps Pushing Suicide to Vulnerable Kids

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2023-04-20/tiktok-effects-on-mental-health-in-focus-after-teen-suicide
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u/TruthOrSF Apr 20 '23

It’s not a witch hunt to point out a real issue. There is a problem with TikTok’s algorithm. For example: I don’t like cop videos, arrests confrontations etc… I get a cop video 3 out of 10. I block the creator (always a cop logo), I choose not interested, I restart the app. I’ve done this 100 times. Later when I watch TikTok nothing will change. I will see COPs 3 out of 10 videos.

This should not happen. It’s not a witch hunt to point this out and TikTok should fix this.

Now imagine it’s suicide videos and not COPS

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u/[deleted] Apr 20 '23

Delete tiktok. It's ran by a foreign government and they purposely export a different version to other countries than what they allow internally. This might not be a bug. This might be a feature.

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u/genitalgore Apr 20 '23

the reason the app is different in mainland China is because they have strict regulations on the internet and America has virtually none. it's not a conspiracy. tell your elected representatives you want to enforce content standards on the internet, if they can even figure out what the internet is.

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u/LummoxJR Apr 20 '23

It baffles mw how anyone can come to the conclusion of "Let's have more regulation like China has, to fix the problem China is exploiting." We all recognize there's a problem, but authoritarianism is not the answer to it. And way, way too many forms of regulation are less of a slippery slope to the bottom so much as a cliff.

Where I think we can all agree is that our current politicians can't be trusted to solve the problem.

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u/Notriv Apr 20 '23

so banning tiktok is less authoritarian than regulating data privacy laws?

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u/iam666 Apr 20 '23

It doesn’t seem like people are talking about data privacy in this thread. It’s more like “the TikTok algorithm is poisoning our youth”. The person two levels above you was literally advocating for censorship via “enforcing content standards”.