Forcing a Chinese company to sell TikTok won’t solve the biggest problem with #TikTok: the fact that so people get their “#news” from platforms that are designed to hijack attention for commercial gain, not to deliver reliable information.
If China wants information on Americans, it can buy data from companies since there are no effective #privacy laws.
And American-owned Facebook and X have shown themselves to be as bad or worse as TikTok at spreading #misinformation.
TikTok fears point to larger problem: Poor media literacy in the social media age
If the US wants to protect young people from misinformation and foreign influence, focusing on TikTok is barking up the wrong tree.The Conversation
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Space Wrangler
in reply to The Conversation U.S. • • •Preston MacDougall
in reply to The Conversation U.S. • • •Federal politicians will not, and *cannot* fix “the biggest problem with #TikTok “ (that it is a primary source of ‘#news ‘ for millions of #Americans ).
That’s because the ‘problem’ is lack of #CriticalThinking skills. So only fixing our failing #Education system can do that!
State politicians need to support, instead of degrade #PublicEducation. And #HigherEducation ‘leaders’ need to make #teacher preparation programs more competitive and of higher quality.
volkris
in reply to Preston MacDougall • • •@ChemicalEyeGuy no, I don’t think it’s the lack of critical thinking skills at the core here.
A more direct problem is that people noticed that well known news outlets were reporting things that they knew to be false, to the point where people lost faith in those outlets.
Platforms like TikTok rose to fill the vacuum.
We need journalism to improve, to regain the trust of the people through valuable and accurate reporting.
There is no substitute for this. Without reliable journalism everything else is up for grabs, and we need to forcefully tell journalists to their faces that they put themselves in this position, and they can fix it.
@TheConversationUS
Preston MacDougall
in reply to volkris • • •Jürgen Bischoff
in reply to Preston MacDougall • • •Preston MacDougall
in reply to Jürgen Bischoff • • •@bohnsdorfer55 I’m not a lawyer, but such a ban would probably run afoul of the #1stAmendment.
Suggestion algorithms that are self-serving have been successfully challenged in Europe, and should be here, too. But no laws will #SaveAmerica from ourselves if we don’t fix our failing #PublicEducation system. 🤷🏻♂️
Jürgen Bischoff
in reply to Preston MacDougall • • •volkris
in reply to Jürgen Bischoff • • •@bohnsdorfer55 well it’s more a 5th Amendment, takings clause issue.
You’d be devaluing the property by not allowing the company from serving its customers for profit as it sees fit.
But that sort of thing is really muddled in US law, and has been for a long time.
@ChemicalEyeGuy @TheConversationUS
Jürgen Bischoff
in reply to volkris • • •volkris
in reply to Jürgen Bischoff • • •@bohnsdorfer55 as I said, the law has become quite a mess over time.
You’re putting your finger on some of the mess that US courts now have to grapple with every day.
@ChemicalEyeGuy @TheConversationUS
Misuse Case
in reply to The Conversation U.S. • • •Omnivore
in reply to The Conversation U.S. • • •(((Jann Gobble)))🏳️🌈
in reply to The Conversation U.S. • • •Nimble Lexicon Pioneer
in reply to The Conversation U.S. • • •Marlinspike
in reply to The Conversation U.S. • • •Hunterrules
in reply to The Conversation U.S. • • •David Reinertson
in reply to The Conversation U.S. • • •There’s a difference between Truth Social’s or Facebook’s editorial policy and the Chinese government’s.
Allegedly.