For years, TikTok has described its powerful For You Page as a personalized feed ranked by an algorithm that predicts your interests based on your behavior in the app. But that’s not the full story....
I'll have to give some more thought to how nefarious this is.
Cory Doctorow seems to think it exemplifies the awfulness of all sorts of things: "Tiktok's enshittification."
Here is how platforms die: first, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Then, they die.
I call this enshittification, and it is a seemingly inevitable consequence arising from the combination of the ease of changing how a platform allocates value, combined with the nature of a "two sided market," where a platform sits between buyers and sellers, hold each hostage to the other, raking off an ever-larger share of the value that passes between them....
ADDED: I had to go out for my encounter with the sunrise, so I didn't add one last observation, which is that I've observed Spotify doing something like this. For a long time, Spotify has been foisting Nick Drake's "Pink Moon" on me. Does it relate to other things I've listened to or is the Nick Drake industry paying off Spotify? The single-minded focus on "Pink Moon" makes me think it's not the usual algorithm and there's some alternate route into my ear. And a few days ago, out of nowhere, Spotify suddenly and repeatedly pushed J.J. Cale at me. That's just not natural!, I think... as if any of this is natural. But I want it to feel natural, natural within artificiality, and not like somebody paid for this access to me.
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Since TikTok is Chinese spyware...
Nothing to see her...
Heating for some.
Cooling for everyone else.
From each according to their ability.
To each according to their need.
I expect nothing less from Beijing.
No wonder women love tiktits so much.
And "enshittification, enshittified enshitted, ad naseum " makes it into the lexicon. Is the English language wonderful or what?
The button man pulled his heater. The influencer filled his pants, then began to cry.
"Tik Tok, Tik Tok," said the button man and smiled.
Wait… you didn’t already know about this?
The fake video of Biden hearing an off-screen ice cream truck and leaving the frame during Jill's speech was great. I don't know if that was Tic-Toc.
@Jason Is your position that Forbes had nothing new to report?
Cory never met a workable business model he didn't hate, though. In his world, based on everything I've ever read of his, the only proper way to run a business is - as I think it was RSM above said - from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs, with a special emphasis on the welfare of the employees as a top-level goal. "Be good to users" tends to come down to not charging them, plus not doing anything that points out to them that since they're not paying, they're the product. "Be good to business customers" tends to come down to continuing to charge them introductory rates even after proving the value of what they're buying. "Clawing back more and more of their value" or whatever he said tends to mean turning a profit commensurate with the value of the service or product, as demonstrated by what people (advertisers in this case, I gather) are willing to pay for it.
At least, that's how I interpret all Doctorow's work that I've encountered. It's been a while since I read him, but that's how he was when I was reading him, anyway. He's an interesting guy but I don't understand why so many people believe that incentives are ineffective in one direction and perfectly effective in another.
I'm agnostic-to-anti-TikTok, but it didn't shock or horrify me that they have ways to promote certain content providers over others. They're providing a platform, and they're "selling" it to content providers (as well as actually selling it to advertisers) as a way for those content providers to capture eyeballs - if they see something especially entertaining, why wouldn't they want to promote it, thus keeping the eyeballs stuck firmly to the screens for longer? (It being a Chinese product, I'm perfectly willing to believe that their intent is not just to turn a profit.)
the only new thing i'm seeing, is that Professor Althouse's love affair (business arrangement) with her Chinese masters seems on the wane. Or, at least she wants us to think that
at least sometimes, videos on the For You page aren’t there because TikTok thinks you’ll like them; instead, they're there because TikTok wants a particular brand or creator to get more views.
well, i guess that VERY OFTEN, or USUALLY, both fit into the category of "at least sometimes"
Certainly not a surprise.
Every single UI change every made by FaceBook enables them to push the content they want you to see. See also Google, Twitter .. etc.
staff — including those at TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance.. exercise considerable discretion in deciding which content to promote. A document called TikTok Heating Policy says that employees may use heating .. but also to “push important information”
“push important information” Meet the new boss.. The same as the old boss
To this ignorant observer, it appears that we are witnessing how these algorithms have captured and preserved the filters that have been operational in our media and governmental apparatus for many decades. Perhaps I've watched way too much Adam Curtis, but all this does is further personalize the trend that has been embodied in our technology for my seventy year lifespan to date. The heirs of Edward Bernays have their hands on the dials and keyboards behind the curtain of our digital Emerald City, and the receipts are starting to emerge from the churn they have created.
Why are those receipts emerging now? That's my question.
Well, what did we all think would happen? Did we think it was like a roller-coaster ride, where you get on, and get off again at the end, and the little thrill we paid for is all there is, time for a snack? If a thing can be manipulated to make more money, or (these days) to accomplish a social objective, the rules of human behavior say it will be. They are all corrupted in this way, all interactive media - that's the default. Buy the ticket, take the ride.
"TikTok and ByteDance initially turned to heating for a mundane, legitimate business purpose: to diversify TikTok’s content away from lip synching and dancing teens, and toward videos that would interest more users."
In other words, that famous algorithm doesn't work without human intervention.
The problem we have in Tech in the United States (particularly "social media") are a plethora of companies where the perceived purpose of their product is fairly benign, but most people don't know the REAL purpose of them. And often the real purpose is not benign.
If you attempt to look up "what is Tik Tok" on Google, you'll be told that it's a video sharing service. Benign.
But that's not its real purpose. It's real purpose is deliberately opaque. (You can argue amongst yourselves what the real purpose is.)
Our national leaders should not be allowing foreign countries to infiltrate our country using these applications. It is a national security threat of the first order. That they are allowing it is a dereliction of duty. One that we will come to haunt, but we'll never know, because by the time we realize it, our fate will be accompli.
"the only new thing i'm seeing, is that Professor Althouse's love affair (business arrangement) with her Chinese masters seems on the wane...."
True. I don't find myself opening that app so often or staying there as long when I do, and I feel very little urge to share things. Just a loss of interest.
I don't find myself opening that app so often or staying there as long when I do, and I feel very little urge to share things. Just a loss of interest.
That cheap Chinese heater button must be on the fritz again.
Whare’s Bob’s commie videos?
Whare’s Bob’s commie videos?
Finely!
I dint wanna say nuthin'. I ain't one ta complain, but thasa zakly wut I bin awundrin over here, Meade. Thot I'uz all alone. I toll muhself, she's busy, be patient, but ever day there's at damm sunrise pitchur and no commie vid-yos. "Jus wut in thee hell is agoin' awn over ta the headquarters there?" is wut I'd say to the wife.
Reminds me of many products found to be superior quality and then they are not, but for some reason we keep buying. It happened with Dawn dishwashing soap.
I think there are some bands who have negotiated a lower per-play rate than the standard, so that when Spotify, Amazon, and other streaming services give you the continuous "radio" feed they have an incentive to push those on you as it reduces their marginal cost. I can find no other reason for me to be given so many choices from Spyro Gyra songs.
I don't find myself opening that app so often or staying there as long when I do, and I feel very little urge to share things. Just a loss of interest.
Personally, I welcome the epiphany...
"But I want it to feel natural, natural within artificiality, and not like somebody paid for this access to me."
Would you be willing to pay extra for that feeling?
“Jus wut in thee hell is agoin' awn over ta the headquarters there?" is wut I'd say to the wife“
Meade: I know how you feel. A lot of people are going to tell you that. Whether it's truth or not, I don't know. But I know it's true when I say it. I've sat right where you're sittin', thinkin' the same thing. Thinkin' I don't want to live without them vidyos. Don't see the point. Still do most days. But here I am, livin' without 'em.
Boyd: Why?
Meade: Well, my reasons be different than yours. I don't have any commies left who love me. You do. I'll tell you a secret. I'll tell you why I'm still suckin' air today. I'm headin' to the ocean.
Boyd: The ocean?
Meade: An Apache scout told me once when you love commie videos you trade souls with 'em. They get a piece of yours; you get a piece of theirs. But when your source dries up a little piece of you dies with 'em. That's why you hurt so bad. But that little piece of commie video is still inside you, and it can use your eyes to see the world. So, I'm takin' my eyes to the ocean, and I'm gonna sit on the beach and look west real hard. All the way to China. And who knows — maybe a commie vidyo or two’ll just sorta float my way.
(Meade walks off in sunset)
Roll credits.
Whatever. Spotify does the exact same thing. It's one of the things that these people do. Who is going to leave to chance the distribution of millions and millions of dollars? It's why I spend time curating my own playlists, "Inna Godda da Vida" is not going to end up in my song queue by itself!
"Stacking"... the deck. There are other other terms-of-art common in a hustler's world.
A Chinese internet giant - Imagine a tech company that is unencumbered by the usual levels of ethical behavior and moral restraint which govern American technology companies.
It has been said that if you are not a paying customer, you are the product.
I hate involuntary web advertising and mentally avoid buying anything I see in an ad on the internet. I am being sold above the value point.
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