Summary: We're going to write a lot more about why social control media/networks ought to be avoided and what can be done to eradicate this disease from civil society (it's not social; it's surveillance, propaganda and censorship)

SOCIAL control media (AKA centralised manipulation) is generally bad and "modern" socially-manipulative 'media' [sic] even more so; it is a lot worse for reasons we'll name in future posts. There are many reasons and itemising them properly takes effort. The "dosages" are increasing over time (like narcotics for the brain), not just the bandwidth. Surveillance, propaganda and censorship are among the levers (tenets?) and addiction is leveraged through gamification and "FOMO". This is no children's game.

Those who have been following our Daily Links are well aware that we're not proponents of TikTok and not even remotely apologists of the parent company; it's not "racist" or "uncool" to point out what TikTok does, probably by design (the same is true for social control media made in/operated from Europe and north America).

"Computers were meant to make life easier and safer. In practice, however, we often see it turning out to be exactly the opposite."In the coming years we're likely to write a lot more about the issue. It's not an enigma or some deep mystery why media has often sided with TikTok, seeing that budget was allocated to AstroTurfing and many in the media are themselves TikTok junkies.

Computers were meant to make life easier and safer. In practice, however, we often see it turning out to be exactly the opposite. In some cases, computers over-complicate life and put life itself at risk. That's due to the choices made by people who truly control them, and those people aren't the users who paid for these computers.

We strongly discourage adoption of social control media and we encourge people to abandon not only TikTok. The media found itself a bit of a scapegoat to distract from equally culpable surveillance and manipulation giants.

"The problems here are multi-faceted..."When it comes to tackling this problem (both TikTok and others), one must tread very carefully and not adopt a one-size-fits-all 'omnibus'-like legislation. Disdain and scepticism towards TikTok has been weaponised to "RESTRICT" a lot of things under the guise of "national security". It is super important to differentiate between a specific ban on ByteDance or TikTok and the RESTRICT Act in the Unites States. It is being discussed in Congress and the media sometimes conflates the two issues. There are a lot of things going on. A specific ban would be good -- either restriction on all social control media or just TikTok -- but the RESTRICT Act makes the old PATRIOT II look mild and benevolent in comparison. Among other things it neutralises FOIA -- i.e. the ability of the public to demand and impose transparent governance. There are many sites/paperw which are trying to confuse the topic of a TikTok/ByteDance ban with support for the RESTRICT Act.

The problems here are multi-faceted and cannot be reduced to single sentences (RESTRICT Act, for instance, is a bit of a monster made by mobsters). We'll try to come up with a concise or coherent explanation at a later date, differentiating between the different companies and listing the underlying issues associated with each. It's getting worse every year. ⬆