• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

TikTok is the most Effective Algorithm at Knowing your Thoughts

Excess

Member
The Wall Street Journal created over 100 bot account to watch thousands of videos to understand how TikTok digs into your deepest and darkest thoughts, and then, once it narrowed it down, it continued to reinforce those thoughts further. The psychology behind this is that if someone knows how you think, they can manipulate the message and alter what you think.

This is first example of a high-profile reverse-engineering of it's kind. We know that all social media apps do this, but TikTok appears to do it the most efficiently.




Consequences: I've often heard people say, "Well, I have noting to hide," but this is an gross misunderstanding of how personal information is being weaponized by adversaries, both domestic, foreign, private and public. And yes, TikTok is still owned by ByteDance, a Chinese entity.

 

B D Joe

Member
I noticed it came preinstalled on one of my TVs, think it was a Samsung. Don't even think you could delete it either just disable it.

Maybe I've been watching too much 'person of interest' lately but I do wonder if we're being complacent with the technology we have allowed into our everyday life.

Wasn't there a news article about how tiktok was sending clipboard data to an unknown server?
 

Excess

Member
I noticed it came preinstalled on one of my TVs, think it was a Samsung. Don't even think you could delete it either just disable it.

Maybe I've been watching too much 'person of interest' lately but I do wonder if we're being complacent with the technology we have allowed into our everyday life.

Wasn't there a news article about how tiktok was sending clipboard data to an unknown server?
It's complacency because many people don't really understand how it affects them personally.

ManaByte ManaByte may just be watching big titty videos, and this may seem harmless, but some data mining company knows this, and this data can be sold, which means it isn't free from malicious intent. He could apply for a job one day, and a background check will show that he's into "Big Anime Tiddies". It sounds funny, but it's incredibly plausible.

The clipboard thing is here: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-53223463
 

SJRB

Gold Member
That WSJ video honestly comes across as someone figuring out recommendation algorithms for the very first time.

It's being presented as if TikTok has some heinous motive but literally all that happens is that it's serving content based on what you watch, like YouTube, Twitch or even other media platforms like Spotify.

Hell, every online store uses a recommender engine based on your behavior on the website. There's nothing remotely new or interesting in this video.


Also there is no way in hell they actually created 100 bots. The way they describe that "depressed" bot's behavior is impossible to code [i.e. making objective and subjective judgement calls based on the video it is "watching", that shit is straight up not how bots work]. If they did, their algorithms are more high tech than TikTok's, lol.
 
Last edited:

ManaByte

Member
ManaByte ManaByte ManaByte ManaByte may just be watching big titty videos, and this may seem harmless, but some data mining company knows this, and this data can be sold, which means it isn't free from malicious intent. He could apply for a job one day, and a background check will show that he's into "Big Anime Tiddies". It sounds funny, but it's incredibly plausible.
 

Mistake

Member
I think these kind of algorithms are more annoying than anything else. I prefer to see new things, instead of the same type of stuff. I started going more on Odysee or logging out of YouTube because of it
 

Biff

Member
I'm really not into conspiracy theories but TikTok's continued existence within US borders is insane to me.

We know the company's confidential algorithm is designed/maintained in China by Bytedance. And we know the CCP has extreme "influence" on Chinese companies -- Jack Ma/Alibaba, Tencent anti-monopoly charges, Didi US IPO punishment, for-profit education company banishments... These are inarguable examples of overt state interference off the very top of my head with zero effort Googling.

Why does this matter? Data mining / ad-serving is bad but Facebook, Google, Amazon all do it. I'm much more concerned with rabbit-holing of a country's most vulnerable demographic. A generation of children begging to be influenced.

Imagine this scenario: One million American minors use Tiktok, and one million Chinese minors use Douyin. The Chinese users see: 50% dance videos, 30% pro-CCP/China propaganda, and 20% random content. The US users see: 20% dance videos, 40% depression/mental-health scare tactics, 30% videos ranting about US inequality, 10% random content.

And they are served this content every day. For 2 hours a day. Twenty years from now, which group of users are more likely to be patriotic, to support their government, to be highly productive members of society? Which group is more likely to wallow in self-pity instead of "pull up their bootstraps", or loot and riot against their government over perceived injustices?

Without unfettered access to the TikTok algorithm, the questions are impossible to answer. And if something like this is going on, the effects won't be understood until it's far too late.
 

Excess

Member
Hell, every online store uses a recommender engine based on your behavior on the website. There's nothing remotely new or interesting in this video.
The problem with the video article is that is does not describe why TikTok is being singled out. I'll provide some context and a hypothetical.

The reason I also linked the Braxman video is because people tend to gaslight and be dismissive about data collection. One of the scenarios described by Braxman was a US wargame scenario that used information warfare to simulate a war between China and the US. It included doxing, hacking and disinformation attacks against a US base in Japan. The wargame started by hacking the base commander, then flooding all the officers with disinformation, such as money disappearing from bank accounts, credit issues, and issues with children or girlfriends at home. This noise was enough to distract US forces from defending against islands besieged by Chinese forces within the Pacific.

War colleges and think tanks are currently publishing studies and scenarios for such attacks, as seen here: https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR4373z3.html

Now, the hypothetical, and the reason why TikTok is under the spotlight: As you may already be aware, TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese private entity, but the term "private" is a bit of a misnomer in China. No business in China operates without the consent of the government, and much of China's corporate board rooms are filled with loyal members of the CPP. Therefore, TikTok has been, reasonably, targeted.

Does this same scrutiny apply to Facebook, Apple, Google, Twitter and Microsoft? Without a doubt, but possible data collection by a foreign entity is going to catch the ire of the national security apparatus moreso than the former. The old adage, "Better us than them" applies.
 
The Wall Street Journal created over 100 bot account to watch thousands of videos to understand how TikTok digs into your deepest and darkest thoughts, and then, once it narrowed it down, it continued to reinforce those thoughts further. The psychology behind this is that if someone knows how you think, they can manipulate the message and alter what you think.

This is first example of a high-profile reverse-engineering of it's kind. We know that all social media apps do this, but TikTok appears to do it the most efficiently.




Consequences: I've often heard people say, "Well, I have noting to hide," but this is an gross misunderstanding of how personal information is being weaponized by adversaries, both domestic, foreign, private and public. And yes, TikTok is still owned by ByteDance, a Chinese entity.


humans are very easy to manipulate hence the current state of the world. How many cults are there? How many small churches are there? How many large churches are there? People following beliefs for centuries or millennia, inscribed into the very essence of their culture, from the lowliest of minds to the highest and greatest, from the garbage collector to the president.

Mind virus, set of self consistent beliefs that replicate and assimilate other beliefs. To design these, this is the key to unity.

Of course as a mind virus designer myself, my exposure to all manner of mind viruses over time has allowed me to develop a godlike level of immunity.

I like it that others are trying to manipulate humans with simple algorithms, but my algorithms are far more advanced. The viruses I design transfer immunity to other viruses. I desire unity of the world, unity of all beliefs, for united anything is possible and my desire is for the impossible.
 
Last edited:
The problem with the video article is that is does not describe why TikTok is being singled out. I'll provide some context and a hypothetical.

The reason I also linked the Braxman video is because people tend to gaslight and be dismissive about data collection. One of the scenarios described by Braxman was a US wargame scenario that used information warfare to simulate a war between China and the US. It included doxing, hacking and disinformation attacks against a US base in Japan. The wargame started by hacking the base commander, then flooding all the officers with disinformation, such as money disappearing from bank accounts, credit issues, and issues with children or girlfriends at home. This noise was enough to distract US forces from defending against islands besieged by Chinese forces within the Pacific.

War colleges and think tanks are currently publishing studies and scenarios for such attacks, as seen here: https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR4373z3.html

Now, the hypothetical, and the reason why TikTok is under the spotlight: As you may already be aware, TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese private entity, but the term "private" is a bit of a misnomer in China. No business in China operates without the consent of the government, and much of China's corporate board rooms are filled with loyal members of the CPP. Therefore, TikTok has been, reasonably, targeted.

Does this same scrutiny apply to Facebook, Apple, Google, Twitter and Microsoft? Without a doubt, but possible data collection by a foreign entity is going to catch the ire of the national security apparatus moreso than the former. The old adage, "Better us than them" applies.
CCP under threat from global energy constraints, without energy growth there can be no real economic growth, and the ability to grow the energy supply is under threat from current limitations, without this issue being solved, probability of systemic collapse is significant.
 
If that is the form the apocalypse takes....

.... well, so be it :p
The apocalypse takes the form of absolute freedom. BCI+3d bio printer+AI you can go to the matrix and hallucinate anything indistinguishable from real from sex to rape to murder matter not. With 3d bio printing you can print dogs children or women. This amount of power combined with the nations of the world trying to control your very thought, US research on mind control is ancient and lot of power behind the scenes, to enslave all minds... control of the will is what's at stake.

It will be total freedom or total enslavement to the system, thought will turn to reality, either fate worse than death for many of the current world.
 
Last edited:

jason10mm

Gold Member
There is a "not interested" button in the menu. It probably just tells them more info about you but I've been able to weed out the dumb reaction videos and lots of the pedoish young girl posing stuff that it kept trying to feed me. Tiktok kinda feels like a giant psychology test :p
 

B D Joe

Member
I'm really not into conspiracy theories but TikTok's continued existence within US borders is insane to me.

We know the company's confidential algorithm is designed/maintained in China by Bytedance. And we know the CCP has extreme "influence" on Chinese companies -- Jack Ma/Alibaba, Tencent anti-monopoly charges, Didi US IPO punishment, for-profit education company banishments... These are inarguable examples of overt state interference off the very top of my head with zero effort Googling.

Why does this matter? Data mining / ad-serving is bad but Facebook, Google, Amazon all do it. I'm much more concerned with rabbit-holing of a country's most vulnerable demographic. A generation of children begging to be influenced.

Imagine this scenario: One million American minors use Tiktok, and one million Chinese minors use Douyin. The Chinese users see: 50% dance videos, 30% pro-CCP/China propaganda, and 20% random content. The US users see: 20% dance videos, 40% depression/mental-health scare tactics, 30% videos ranting about US inequality, 10% random content.

And they are served this content every day. For 2 hours a day. Twenty years from now, which group of users are more likely to be patriotic, to support their government, to be highly productive members of society? Which group is more likely to wallow in self-pity instead of "pull up their bootstraps", or loot and riot against their government over perceived injustices?

Without unfettered access to the TikTok algorithm, the questions are impossible to answer. And if something like this is going on, the effects won't be understood until it's far too late.
Maybe its because the people in charge don't have our best interests at heart?
 

rofif

Can’t Git Gud
Man I don't even know what tik tok is... In my head it's the same thing as instagram which I also never used :p
 
Top Bottom