thelucky8@beehaw.org 1 day ago
There is a recent study on Tiktok and how it compares to Instagram and Youtube – (pdf)
An article about the study says:
The three-level study, which has now been peer-reviewed, looked at TikTok, Instagram and YouTube.
Typing in four politically-loaded key words – “Tiananmen,” “Tibet,” “Uyghur,” and “Xinjiang” – the team first looked at what content the respective algorithms delivered.
The researchers found that while TikTok might not deliver more pro-CCP content, it did deliver less anti-CCP content than the rival platforms. It also, interestingly, delivered more content that researchers say was irrelevant to the keywords.
The team next looked at engagement to see if this explained why anti-CCP content was performing less well. But it found that TikTok users “liked or commented on anti-CCP content nearly four times as much as they liked or commented on pro-CCP content, yet the search algorithm produced nearly three times as much pro-CCP content”. This didn’t happen on Instagram or YouTube.
The last element of the study looked at the impact the content was potentially having on users. The researchers surveyed 1,214 Americans to find information on their social media usage, and their opinion on China’s human rights record. What they found was that the more time users spent on TikTok, the more positive their attitude towards the CCP was.
The researchers came to the damning conclusion that “taken together, the findings from these three studies raise the distinct possibility that TikTok is a vehicle for CCP propaganda.”
Another widely ignored issue regarding Tiktok and other Chinese apps is that European digital rights organization Noyb has filed GDPR complaints against TikTok, AliExpress, SHEIN, Temu, WeChat and Xiaomi for unlawful data transfers to China.
bungalowtill@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
Can‘t find the pdf of the study under the address. Then again, is it really worth reading it: They found that there isn‘t more pro-ccp stuff on TikTok than on the American platforms but less anti-ccp content on it. I mean they tried real hard finding something, looking for the decisive keywords, yet this is the outcome? There is more anti-ccp content on American platforms that on a Chinese one! Does that tell us something about Chinese or about American propaganda?
thelucky8@beehaw.org 1 day ago
@bungalowtill
I suggest you read the study before commenting (the link works fine here, but you’ll find it also in the article).
The study finds, among others, that TikTok users exhibited significantly more positive attitudes towards China’s human rights record as reports on forced labour and other human rights violations by the Chinese government are suppressed.
The Chinese government is actively silencing the views of Americans who try to criticize the Chinese government and the Chinese Communist Party, according to the study.
Free speech doesn’t mean that foreign autocratic governments can silence Americans (nor other countries’ citizens) from expressing their opinion in public forums. This is what happens on Tiktok, and, even more so, on Red Note.
bungalowtill@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
Have you read the study?
Because: I still only get the names of the authors when I click the link to the study. In the article on the other hand there is a link to the “study that will be published” and it goes to the same rather blank archive url that you provided.
If the study has already been published, maybe you got another source?