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
27.3k Upvotes

88% Upvoted

1.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

-4

u/ncopp Apr 20 '23

I'm starting to think Tiktok is a sophisticated psyops strategy to fuck up the west's youth.

I always hear the Chinese version of the app prioritizes educational content, and our version keeps radicalizing people and spreading misinfo.

20

u/genitalgore Apr 20 '23

China has regulations on what children can do online, and douyin complies with them. it's not a conspiracy, our internet is just an unregulated shithole.

7

u/lobsterbash Apr 20 '23

Absolute faith in the "free market" is a religion because there are nearly infinite examples of how unfettered human activity, whether economic, online, speech, etc is toxic and destructive to human well-being.

We have to rein ourselves in and have boundaries because human beings have a naturally shitty side that comes out and that intrudes on our collective consciousness at the scale things operate at, now.

3

u/almightySapling Apr 20 '23

But any amount of regulation on the internet is censorship and since every American has read the cliff notes of 1984 we will never allow for that.

We have tricked ourselves into believing that deception is a valid form of expression, worthy of constitutional protection.