thank you for informing me of a topic i no knowledge of (and my husband has a masters degree in data science!). i knew about bots, and deep fake videos, etc., but was not aware of click farms and that people are essentially forced into fake click and scam work.
our oldest son participated in a team policy debate back in 2022 regarding whether the US should ban tiktok. at that time, his research provided evidence to compare the chinese version of tiktok to the american version, saying that the chinese version was like nutritious spinach while the US version was like crack cocaine. his argument at that time was: what happens to a nation whose people have been mind-numbed and attention span-dwindled? they surely are not able to withstand psychological warfare! also, less able to think critically about the potentially fake/manipulated content they are being fed.
thanks for shedding light on this topic, for sharing your research, and for listing actionable steps i can take.
I have come to the same conclusion about TikTok, and have my concerns with it are layered for the reasons your son discovered, as well. There is a foreign policy strategy hidden in here where an entire culture is formed by the algorithm set in place by another country -- and we are allowing that control to colonize our minds.
Thanks for your thoughtful comments and reflections here!
thank you for informing me of a topic i no knowledge of (and my husband has a masters degree in data science!). i knew about bots, and deep fake videos, etc., but was not aware of click farms and that people are essentially forced into fake click and scam work.
our oldest son participated in a team policy debate back in 2022 regarding whether the US should ban tiktok. at that time, his research provided evidence to compare the chinese version of tiktok to the american version, saying that the chinese version was like nutritious spinach while the US version was like crack cocaine. his argument at that time was: what happens to a nation whose people have been mind-numbed and attention span-dwindled? they surely are not able to withstand psychological warfare! also, less able to think critically about the potentially fake/manipulated content they are being fed.
thanks for shedding light on this topic, for sharing your research, and for listing actionable steps i can take.
I have come to the same conclusion about TikTok, and have my concerns with it are layered for the reasons your son discovered, as well. There is a foreign policy strategy hidden in here where an entire culture is formed by the algorithm set in place by another country -- and we are allowing that control to colonize our minds.
Thanks for your thoughtful comments and reflections here!