Congress is right to want to curtail TikTok's power and influence - Opinion - Nita Farahany

[BootinUp]

Imagine a world where America’s foreign adversaries don’t need spies or hackers to infiltrate our society or meddle with our democracy. Instead, they can deploy a far more insidious tool: a digital platform, addictive by design, that captivates its users and then mobilizes them to influence our democratic institutions.

The scenario may sound farfetched, but something like that recently happened. Earlier this month, while the US Congress was considering a bill that would curtail TikTok’s operations in the United States, the popular, Chinese-owned social media platform confronted its users with a kind of digital ransom note calling for political action. As the New York Times reported, TikTok’s campaign sparked a deluge of calls to Capitol Hill, overwhelming some congressional offices and demonstrating the platform’s political influence.

TikTok, whose parent company is the Beijing-based ByteDance, is alarmingly addictive and has a young and intensely loyal user base. It’s so addictive, in fact, that the Chinese version of the app, Douyin, limits Chinese users under the age of 14 to 40 minutes of usage a day, and only between the hours of 6am and 10pm. TikTok introduced a similar measure in the US last year, restricting users under 18 to a default limit of 60 minutes a day, though the feature is optional; certain high-usage users are asked to accept a limit, according to ABC News, but are allowed to decide their own maximum.

TikTok’s recommender algorithm, which barrages users with an endless feed of viral, short-form video clips, has effectively exploited human psychology to ensnare a generation of users. Research, including studies funded by China’s own National Natural Science Foundation, have shown that the app undermines human self-control and encourages compulsive consumption. Its algorithms. which automatically curate content to users’ tastes and preferences, have perfected what many other companies have tried: fostering addiction through a feedback loop that continually refines content suggestions based on user interactions and profiling.

continued at the Guardian


About the author: Nita Farahany (born April 28, 1978) is an Iranian American author and distinguished professor and scholar on the ramifications of new technology on society, law, and ethics. She is the author of the critically acclaimed book, The Battle for Your Brain: Defending the Right to Think Freely in the Age of Neurotechnology. She currently teaches Law and philosophy at Duke University where she is the Robinson O. Everett Distinguished Professor of Law & Philosophy at Duke Law School, the founding director of the Duke Initiative for Science and Society[1] as well as a chair of the Bioethics and Science Policy MA program.[2] She is active on many committees, councils, and other groups within the law, emerging technology, and bioethics communities with a focus on technologies that have increasing potential to have ethical and legal issues.[3] In 2010 she was appointed by President Obama to the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues.[4]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nita_A._Farahany

[Voltaire2]

1. How are platforms controlled by plutocrats better?

If congress wants to regulate social media then they should pass legislation that does that. Instead CHINA!!!!!!

[BootinUp]

2. US companies and foreign adversaries are actually different things. nt

[Voltaire2]

3. Are they?

Would a Tik Tok owned and operated by a fascist oligarch be better than the current Tik Tok operated by Byte Dance?

[BootinUp]

4. Why don't you check out the other article I posted.

It deals with the issues you are raising.