This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
The NYPost (low-quality tabloid) is just echoing an actual article at Forbes, which can also be accessed in archive form here.
In general, when a low-quality tabloid site merely reports on the existence of research done by actual reporters, it's better to follow the links and post the researched article instead of the tabloid one.
See that other article on the NYPost next to this one? A guy turned himself into a border collie? He's a dog now and it only cost $20,000.
Great news source. No problems here. Not click bait garbage at all. Nope, not meant for maximum sharing. Thanks L4sBot for your contribution.
$20,000 to become your fursona would be a fucking steal to most furries, they would sell everything for that.
In the first paragraph:
TikTok has flooded millions of Europeans with ads from Chinese state propaganda outlets on topics like COVID-19 and tourism in the troubled Xinjiang region, according to an analysis of a recent ad library conducted by Forbes.
Breaking news! Chinese company runs ads paid for by Chinese government! Did anyone think otherwise? All governments pay for ads. Who in their right mind would think a Chinese company would refuse their government as an ad customer?
Yeah well Orwell's 1984 was way off then. The government does not even have to force people to install devices in their homes that blare government propaganda 24/7. They are doing it willingly, enthusiastiacally even, and they don't even have to be citizens of that government lol
Who would have thought?
TikTok is garbage, but perhaps we should look at all the ridiculous right wing propaganda pushed by YouTube, Facebook and Twicough X
YouTube is absolutely dreadful for it. I have literally zero interest in American politics, I'm interested in world events but frankly couldn't care less about another country's domestic politics yet it's pushed almost every time I load the site.
I mostly watch things like travel vlogs and trip reports, yet get endless spam about right wing American politics. There's nothing in my search history that would suggest I'd care about it.
There is no currently no actual evidence that TikTok is a threat to national security, but consider this:
have you seen what videos are posted there? Fucking social media like this, reddit, twitter, instagram and facebook is a huge issue for everyone 😅
we definitely would be better off without them
And American social media does the same for America. Every dog barks for its master.
You're not necessarily wrong in all respects, but this comment is peak whataboutism. Western tiktok is targeted mostly at children and young adults who are obviously highly impressionable, so I would argue that regardless of whats happening on any other social media platform, this is unwanted and harmful and therefore shouldn't be accepted.
The difference is there is American federal policy being put in place around TikTok specifically that is not being done against other social media apps.
Whataboutism is the correct and logical answer to hypocrites. There is nothing that Tiktok is guilty of that Twitter or Instagram aren't.
Are children and young adults really more impressionable than Fox news, and thereby Facebook's, audience?
I also don't know that I agree with "targeted mostly at children and young adults". There are very large parts of TikTok that would be wholly unappealing to your average kid. Not to mention that American social media started out very much targeted at children and young adults. Or have we already forgotten what the main demographics of Facebook and myspace used to be?
The problem with whataboutism here is that these conversations pretty much always involve TikTok and rarely other platforms until it's brought up in comments where it can be dismissed as whataboutism.
Either they're all a problem (it's this one) or none of them are. We need to stop drawing arbitrary lines between offenders. It's just giving a bunch of shit bags freedom to continue being shit bags.
Moreover, how is anyone sitting in America (or a country with American bases) primarily concerned about the Chinese government? We have endless military and culture war/ propaganda barriers erected against them; we're basically untouchable, unless we plan on physically going to China.
(The answer is related to the propaganda barriers themselves -- it's acceptable / encouraged to criticize China).
Not saying it's a lie, but sourcing from NYPost is automatically a huge red flag.
I'll put more stock in this when it's reported by reputable outlets.
It's literally linked in the first paragraph.
TikTok has flooded millions of Europeans with ads from Chinese state propaganda outlets on topics like COVID-19 and tourism in the troubled Xinjiang region, according to an analysis of a recent ad library conducted by Forbes.
Propaganda is alive and well in the USA too, especially if you consider it in the most liberal sense.
There's an incredible amount of advertising in the media telling me what I need to think about any issue you can imagine. Most people just ignore it, but it annoys the crap out of me. I'll make up own damn mind, thank you.
This is a modern development, you never saw that crap forty years ago. I'm old enough to remember the before time. Most of it I can avoid simply by not watching commercial TV and blocking ads on the internet. Though sometimes it squeaks through on the TV and it makes me want to throw a chair at it.
When I do have the misfortune of seeing that garbage it's usually on TV and has an Ad Council logo on it. Who are these people and how are they able to egregiously spend the large amounts of money it takes to repeat ads on TV like that. That's a lot of money consumed in a futile attempt to brainwash me through repetition.
They could take that same ad money and actually use it to provide relief for some important social issues, like starving children. Instead they'd rather use it to try and influence my opinion in a futile way. Man that is really fucked up when you think about it.
Yeah, yeah, it's Chinese government propaganda, but isn't all advertisement basically propaganda? "Everything is rosy in Xinjiang" is a harmful lie, but so is "if you buy a big-ass truck you'll be a manly man" and frankly I think the latter is causing a lot more damage because it's one that people act on.
From the original story in Forbes: „Both Meta and Google label content posted by state media outlets, and in January, TikTok announced that it would join them in doing so. (Twitter formerly labeled posts by state media outlets, but discontinued the labels under Elon Musk.)“
I watch a lot of historical travel sites and they were sending propaganda that certain areas were China when I knew it wasn't. It has been doing things like that for awhile in the US as well. Judging by our education system, a lot of our youth are screwed.
Are you worried about your rising cost of living, decreasing living standards, wages and the total global catastrophe that is climate change?
Don't worry about that prole, worry about aliens and tiktok!
gasp
No big surprise here. It's been their agenda since the start. Only consumers are fucking stupid for taking it in.
Isn’t that what Hollywood did for America and democratic values?
"I cannot belive it!" - said no one ever
