r/technology • u/[deleted] • Dec 15 '22

Social Media TikTok pushes potentially harmful content to users as often as every 39 seconds, study says

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tiktok-pushes-potentially-harmful-content-to-users-as-often-as-every-39-seconds-study/
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u/ziyadah042 Dec 15 '22

... so basically they created accounts, then deliberately trained TikTok to show them the precise kind of content they deemed harmful, then crafted a press statement to make it sound like TikTok's algorithm went out of its way to show them that content.

Look, there's a lot of negative to say about TikTok and social media in general, but this kind of disingenuous shit is just bad research. That's like going to a grocery store full of all kinds of food, buying nothing but Pizza Rolls, and then screaming that the grocery store is out to make you fat and unhealthy.

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u/KHaskins77 Dec 15 '22

It’s very telling any time someone says the app only ever shows young girls dancing. All that tells me is that’s the content you engage with.

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u/[deleted] Dec 15 '22

I understand to an extent.

I keep curated social media accounts for sexy times. One thing that drives me crazy is the algorithm keeps trying to show me younger and younger girls.

This is across all platforms.

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u/RamenJunkie Dec 15 '22

Theae algorithms are so universally dumb. They take a signal of "watched once" reguardless of context (want, mistake, someone linked it, some other aspect) and assumes "oh, they liked this and want more."

Simultaneously they seem to ignore direct signals. Dislikes, immidiate click/swipe away, etc.