Albania’s prime minister has announced the government intends to block access to TikTok for one year after the killing of a schoolboy last month raised fears about the influence of social media on children.
Speaking on Saturday Edi Rama declared the proposed ban would start in January.
[…]
The blocking of TikTok comes less than a month after the 14-year-old student was killed and another injured in a fight near a school in southern Tirana which had its roots in a confrontation on social media.
The killing sparked a debate in Albania among parents, psychologists and educational institutions about the impact of social networks on young people.
“In China, TikTok promotes how students can take courses, how to protect nature, how to keep traditions, but on the TikTok outside China we see only scum and mud. Why do we need this?”, Rama said.
TikTok is already banned in India, which was one of the app’s largest markets before it was outlawed in June 2020. It is also blocked in Iran, Nepal, Afghanistan and Somalia.
TikTok is also fighting against a law passed by the US Congress which would ban the app from 19 January unless it is sold by ByteDance - its Chinese parent
company.
A few days ago I posted an English summary of a German language article about Tiktok in Austria (see this post: https://beehaw.org/post/17463020). There seems to be a clear pattern how Tiktok’s algorithm works, and it’s not good for the users, let alone teenagers.
This is like when your parents would take away the power cable to your games for a few days because you and your sibling got into a fight.
This is like when the police take away the murder weapon and charge the people responsible for inciting murder because someone killed someone and the murder weapon is a fucking nation state propaganda machine.
Except no one involved uses tiktok
As AP reports on the same issue:
There has been increasing concern from Albanian parents after reports of children taking knives and other objects to school to use in quarrels or cases of bullying promoted by stories they see on TikTok.
Isn’t it somewhat strange that Tiktok, whose parent company is forced to closely surveill and censor each politically undesired content in its home country, while it is at the same time not only unable to suppress but reportedly even promotes obviously harmful content on its platforms outside China?
[Edit typo.]
This is like when the police throw the murder weapon in jail and avoid charging anyone because it’s easier to find a scapegoat instead of holding parents responsible for what they teach their kids.
@Kolanaki@yiffit.net
… the 14-year-old student was killed and another injured …
As AP reports on the same issue:
There has been increasing concern from Albanian parents after reports of children taking knives and other objects to school to use in quarrels or cases of bullying promoted by stories they see on TikTok.
Isn’t it somewhat strange that Tiktok, whose parent company is forced to closely surveill and censor each politically undesired content in its home country, while it is at the same time not only unable to suppress but reportedly even promotes obviously harmful content on its platforms outside China?
[Edit typo.]
It’s a huge failing by government regulators. It appears China is the only country capable of policing tech companies adequately.
Isn’t it somewhat strange that Tiktok, whose parent company is forced to closely surveill and censor each politically undesired content in its home country, while it is at the same time not only unable to suppress but reportedly even promotes obviously harmful content on its platforms outside China?
Not at all. When google operated a search engine in China it looked nothing like the Google you can access in other countries.
Why would google or tiktok handicap themselves and operate a less profitable, less competitive version of their service when that isn’t required by local regulations?
Your answer has nothing to do with my question.
Isn’t it somewhat strange that Tiktok, whose parent company is forced to closely surveill and censor each politically undesired content in its home country, while it is at the same time not only unable to suppress but reportedly even promotes obviously harmful content on its platforms outside China?
Because the tail doesn’t wag the dog.
You may as well ask why Toyota sells right hand drive cars in Japan and why it sells left hand drive cars in USA?
Why do you think that is?
Isn’t it somewhat strange that Tiktok, whose parent company is forced to closely surveill and censor each politically undesired content in its home country, while it is at the same time not only unable to suppress but reportedly even promotes obviously harmful content on its platforms outside China?
So weird, you might even think it were the tool of an authoritarian government or something
Now, if only the article explained how that killing was related to TikTok. The only relevant thing I saw was,
had its roots in a confrontation on social media.
It’s says “social media”, not “TokTok” though.
Don’t forget this line;
The social media platform told the BBC it had found no evidence the person who allegedly stabbed the 14-year-old boy, or the victim himself, had TikTok accounts.
What else would they say?
The truth, duh
https://beehaw.org/u/InevitableList@beehaw.org
A few days ago I posted an English summary of a German language article about Tiktok in Austria (see this post: https://beehaw.org/post/17463020). There seems to be a clear pattern how Tiktok’s algorithm works, and it’s not good for the users, let alone teenagers.
Everything TikTok is accused of is either just a true for other social media/ website or more so. Thanks to Edward Snowden we know for a fact that US tech companies forward your emails and data to the NSA. There is no evidence of Tiktok sharing any data with any government. Yet it’s tiktok that get’s threatened with bans rather than facebook and gmail.
Instagram is notorious for making girls feel bad about their appearance and pushing them to anorexia and self harm yet no one’s proposing to ban it.
Did you even clicked the link? Tiktok appears to be part of the Chinese Communist Party’s propaganda machine. With each of your comments you open up just the next round of whataboutism. Tankies are doing tankie things. This is waste of time.
I commented on your post so yeah I think I managed to click on it. Did you bother to read mine and think of a coherent response before typing? Nah just ignore my efforts to put this in a wider context and dismiss me as a tankie. I’ll just dismiss you as racist since you only complain when it’s a Chinese company doing it.
I’m all in favour of robust privacy protections like GDPR. I don’t support yellow peril bullshit when a Chinese company successfully operates in the same space that US companies do.
