Uhhh… I don’t think you got my point for why I also included Facebook and Twitter at the end as examples of domestic companies also willingly allowing harmful societal trends.
Money being a reason doesn’t absolve and provide a convient out and let companies do whatever they want without consequence or criticism. I put them all in the camp of willingly selling out a worse society for profit, and whether a country sees that as a win for them or not doesn’t change that.
Yoruio@lemmy.ca 2 months ago
this is just how capitalism works - you have to appeal to your audience more than your competition, and guess which kind of content teenagers want to watch more. Hell, even adults want fun content as opposed to educational content.
any platform that pushes educational content in North America would just not get any customers and go bankrupt.
stardust@lemmy.ca 2 months ago
I know how capitalism works… I was just sharing my thoughts on the situation of a company knowingly adjusting the algorithm in a positive direction for one demographic but a negative for another showing a clear awareness of impact. Not sure why you are so worked up about tiktok getting criticized too. Whatever.
Yoruio@lemmy.ca 2 months ago
In the US, publically traded companies have a legal obligation to make as much money for their shareholders as legally possible (See Ford getting sued by shareholders after giving workers raises). It would be borderline illegal for a company to adjust their algorithm in a way that makes them less competitive.
This needs to be regulated by government, not the companies themselves. Thay would mean that the companies would be forced to all change their algorithms at the same time, and not impact their competitiveness.
So the government going after tiktok is a good first step, IF it does the same thing to Facebook / instagram / YouTube / snapchat. But I’m betting it won’t be because those companies spend an absurd amount of money on lobbying.
t3rmit3@beehaw.org 2 months ago
This is a false narrative that stock traders push. The fiduciary duty is just one of several that executives have, and does not outweigh the duty to the company health or to employees. Obviously shareholders will try to amuse or argue otherwise, because they only care about their interests, but they won’t prevail in most cases if there was a legitimate business interest and justification for the actions.
piccolo@ani.social 2 months ago
Maybe i was a weird kid, but i would been 100% more interested in stuff like that… Discovery channel and TLC and PBS was my jam back in the day before they went to reality garbage. (PBS is the only exception)