this post was submitted on 17 Jul 2024
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Did anyone actually read the whole article? These comments sorta read like the answer is no.
A better headline might have been "TikTok algorithm gamed by far-right AfD party in Germany", but I doubt that would drive as many clicks.
For more info, check out this article: Germany's AfD on TikTok: The political battle for the youth
It doesn't matter if it is intentional or not, only the result matters: TikTok gave them boost in the visibility. Whether it was "an algorithm" or any other aspect of the company is irrelevant.
Also knowing how scummy these social media companies are and how they operate inside, there could be some internal memo to the moderators to let the AfD reign free (happened with Twitter and Libs of Tiktok).
I wouldn't just lump all "social media" companies together.
In this example an important difference is that Twitter is a porn site run by fascists.
That LoTT stuff was happening under the previous ownership of Twitter too, and most higher ups do instruct their moderation team to not curb far-right extremism at the same rate.
Ideas spread between humans. On systems designed to facilitate communications between people, these ideas will likewise spread. Did AfD exploit TikTok's algorithm or is right wing populism seeing a large growth worldwide?
When the printing press come out and certain news agencies starting "Yellow Journalism" were they exploiting that system of communication for profit?
Did JFK and Nixon exploit TV for their own political purposes?
I believe wholeheartedly that every social media algorithm should be open source and transparent so the public can analyze what funny business is going on under the hood.
But is it any different from how TV channels pick what shows to play or what ads to run? Which articles get printed and the choice of words for a newspaper?
I think people are quick to jump on TikTok because of some unusual socially acceptable jingoism but I don't see how at its core is fundamentally different from other forms of media, let alone other popular social media platforms.
It definitely matters. There's a huge difference between promoting nazis and writing an algorithm that's gamed by nazis.
This headline is designed to mislead people by erasing that difference. And the motives of people who have been attacking tiktok are generally trash.
But being so big and influential as these platforms are, they should not have the option of "oops, sorry, didn't think about that". (I am aware I'm being idealistic)
We'll have to agree to disagree. I prefer nuance to oversimplification.