EEVblog TikTok

[EEVblog]

https://www.forbes.com/sites/emilybaker-white/2023/01/20/tiktoks-secret-heating-button-can-make-anyone-go-viral/?sh=6940f0506bfd

Heating also reveals that, at least sometimes, videos on the For You page aren’t there because TikTok thinks you’ll like them; instead, they're there because TikTok wants a particular brand or creator to get more views. And without labels, like those used for ads and sponsored content, it’s impossible to tell which is which.

OK.  How is that different from YouTube recommended/promoted videos?

For at least the third and final time I've said this, the CCP does not own or control Youtube. The problem is entirely about who owns and controls TikTok.
It's a similar reason why many countries have banned certain Huawei and other chinese brand products in certain markets.
e.g.:
https://www.androidauthority.com/huawei-google-android-ban-988382/

How can it be fine to ban chinese CCP controlled tech products like this, but allow a chinese CCP owned and controlled app designed to influence to literally be in the hands of 80M americans?

[Sredni]

It is relatively easy to audit the contents of the TikTok app. The entire binary is available for disassembly and can be examined + disassembled with any laptop. Doing an analysis to the same degree of completeness on a piece of silicon is nearly impossible, let alone doing this on every piece of every silicon part ever made that ended up in a Huawei phone.

I'm not sure how the ranking/censoring works, but my guess is that the code of the local app could be perfectly fine and you could still have malicious code on the servers the app talks to. I mean, Youtube could delete all videos of the EEVBlog without the need to install code on Dave's phone.

I agree with Dave that an app like Tiktok is dangerous, I only disagree on the tolerance towards similar apps like Facebook and Twitter (which have already shown their dark side).

[EEVblog]

It is relatively easy to audit the contents of the TikTok app. The entire binary is available for disassembly and can be examined + disassembled with any laptop. Doing an analysis to the same degree of completeness on a piece of silicon is nearly impossible, let alone doing this on every piece of every silicon part ever made that ended up in a Huawei phone.

The algorithm over what gets displayed is not in the app binary.

[EEVblog]

I agree with Dave that an app like Tiktok is dangerous, I only disagree on the tolerance towards similar apps like Facebook and Twitter (which have already shown their dark side).

I think people in power should lose their job or even go to jail for what's been revealed in the Twitter Files and other things. There should not be any partisan politics involved in the moderation of any social media. These absolutely need to be neutral platforms.
TikTok needs to be treated especially harshly because of who owns and controls it. If that appears as "tolerance" toward the other platforms then so be it.

[EEVblog]

Aliens!  I knew it. 

https://stargate.fandom.com/wiki/Battle_of_Antarctica

[RoGeorge]

Romanian George: science isn't justified by authority. It's justified by evidence. If a newer theory is supported better by the evidence than an older one, the older one can be overturned. The word "fact" is something we use to teach children the difference between an intentionally true and an intentionally false statement. I am not going to descend into Plato's cave any further with you on this one.

I didn't say that.  Why didn't you say you were having a cave in mind?
The word "fact" means something else.  Look it up in a dictionary:  https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fact
Its main meaning is "something that has actual existence".

I've explicitly wrote:  science can be questioned and should be question.  However, you'll have to come with even more accurate facts than the established ones you want to dismiss.  Claiming there are no scientific facts, and claiming that based only on philosophy, doesn't hold.

I find it much more worrying that an unqualified person can publicly question peer reviewed scientific facts with only their "feeling".

For one thing, there are no scientific facts. There are factoids and there are theories. If something cannot be questioned, it isn't a scientific thing, it's a commandment or religious symbol.

Anyway, seems I was wright those are not your own thoughts, though they were not woke propaganda, but Plato taken too literally.  The physical world, and facts, do exist.  Even if we perceive only a minuscule part of the entire physicality of this Universe, those are not factoids, whatever that would mean (I didn't read the novel that coined the word factoid).  Incomplete information doesn't imply wrongness.

Remember Plato was kind of crazy:

Plato was quite obsessed with this idea that pure thought is the highest and most noble thing in human life. In the Timaeus he elaborates on this idea in a rather amusing and poetic way. To philosophise is the purpose of life. Human anatomy is merely an appendix to the soul and the mind. “The entire body” was created “as its vehicle,” Plato says. That is to say, the body exists only to make philosophising possible.

For example, consider the intestines of the human digestive system. They are very long and winding, right? Like you roll up an extension cord when putting it away in a drawer; it looks like that in our insides. Food doesn’t go in a straight line from the mouth and out the other end. Instead the body passes it through the intestines that go back and forth, back and forth, a very long distance.

Plato thinks he knows why. Here’s how he explains it: “The intestines are wound round in coils to prevent the nourishment from passing through so quickly that the body would of necessity require fresh nourishment just as quickly, there by rendering it insatiable. Such gluttony would make our whole race incapable of philosophy and the arts, and incapable of heeding the most divine part within us.”

So the human body is just a means to an end. The only thing worth anything is philosophy. Eating doesn’t have any value in itself. The only purpose of eating is to put off the annoying needs of the body for a while, so as to give us time to think.

Source:  https://intellectualmathematics.com/blog/what-makes-a-good-axiom/

[all_repair]

It is relatively easy to audit the contents of the TikTok app. The entire binary is available for disassembly and can be examined + disassembled with any laptop. Doing an analysis to the same degree of completeness on a piece of silicon is nearly impossible, let alone doing this on every piece of every silicon part ever made that ended up in a Huawei phone.

At least you are consistence.  The intelligence units go beyond that.  MI6 has people planted in Huawei, and the Brit didn't want to remove Huawei until pressured and promised that US would foot the full bill of the replacement.  It would not be surprising that CIA and MI6 have people planted inside TikTok.  But religion need no evidences. 

The only thing that is puzzling is when a usual rational being become irrational,  is propaoganda or something else that is working.

[Bud]

Why do you guys even watch that TikTok garbage 
(No need to reply, that was a rhetorical question.)

[RoGeorge]

Aliens!  I knew it. 

https://stargate.fandom.com/wiki/Battle_of_Antarctica

Fun fact, Romania has an Antarctic Base.  Guess how?  Australia gave it to Romania.  Not kidding.
"All your base are belong to us" 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law-Racovi%C8%9B%C4%83-Negoi%C8%9B%C4%83_Station

[EEVblog]

Why do you guys even watch that TikTok garbage 
(No need to reply, that was a rhetorical question.)

I'll reply anyway. I have never used it nor installed it.
I did create a channel as I do on all platforms so that no one can steal it. And I did upload one video as a test of the supposed artifical "first TikTok" view boost, but that's it.
I have been watching a few Shorts lately on Youtube because they are always in your face. Even if you disable the Shorts bar it comes back 30 days later.
As such I can actually see the appeal of short bite-sized clips in the vertical shoe phone format. You get that dopamine hit in under a minute.

[helius]

Plato was mainly a philosopher of ethics and government; students didn't read him to learn about human anatomy. If you wanted to learn how the ancient world regarded such subjects, you would read Democritus or Aristotle. Of course their understanding is not the same as ours today, but at least they were serious about observing the physical world. Plato was not the kind of philosopher who did that.
Invoking "Plato's Cave" in the context above is confusing precisely because Plato's epistemology is so different from most modern epistemology. For Plato, the only real truth is in eternal Forms which are by their nature outside the physical world. The shadows on the wall are all that the inhabitants of the Cave ever see, because the Forms (the only real truth) are not visible objects.
Platonism is more familiar to mathematicians who are accustomed to manipulating formal axiomatic systems. And many would still aver that the theorems in mathematics are "more true" than those mere "facts" gleaned from some limited observations of the local sliver of the universe.

[BravoV]

What I don't understand is what experiment is going on there, in Australia.  It's some cleverly crafted instigation going on there, I think.  Even here, on EEVblog, I've seen once a threat to nuke China, in a fight between two keyboard warriors.  The anger levels against China seem to be very high in Australia.  It seems to me like something, or somebody, is heating up Australia against China, and that is happening at higher rates than on other continents, no idea why.

You should visit Australia to understand and believe it, they (Ozzies) are constantly being bombarded by they main stream medias, either by private and government funded/backed, on 24/7 on China invasion, China is devil, China must be eliminated etc (you get the idea), all courtesy of US (its no secret).

They are being "prepared" to fight the evil CCP until the last Ozzies. 

Thats why Australia is known to be US 1st layer of nuke shield, as they will get the 1st nuke strike, if US fight China, I guess "some" of them must be proud. 

You're Romanian, I bet you are fully aware similar scheme in Eastern Europe, like that Poles (Poland) are well prepared as 1st nuke shield for NATO and US, against Russia. Now Finland already in the list just recently.

Oh, btw, its no secret too, some of the red necks there believed those Taiwanese in Taiwan island are anglo saxon white race, not that icky yellowed skin slanted eyes "thing", that Taiwan deserved to be protected, that if needed, they will volunteer to fight there, yes, personally I heard this talk in radio talk show while I was there in Oz. 

Trust me, just try watch Australia's medias say like from Youtube to get an idea. Real life at ground zero is more ... "exciting" to experience dystopia. 

[EEVblog]

What I don't understand is what experiment is going on there, in Australia.  It's some cleverly crafted instigation going on there, I think.  Even here, on EEVblog, I've seen once a threat to nuke China, in a fight between two keyboard warriors.  The anger levels against China seem to be very high in Australia.  It seems to me like something, or somebody, is heating up Australia against China, and that is happening at higher rates than on other continents, no idea why.

You should visit Australia to understand and believe it, they (Ozzies) are constantly being bombarded by they main stream medias, either by private and government funded/backed, on 24/7 on China invasion, China is devil, China must be eliminated etc (you get the idea), all courtesy of US (its no secret).

LOL, nope.
Any anti-china sentiment here in Australia is in relation to our national religion, property, and their infulence on our economy.
Be it the endless Chinese students clogging (and financially propping up) our universities, and the subsequent taking of rental apartments and properties causing a rentla crisis here.
Or Chinese captial investment in property inflating prices out of control.
Or the chinese buying our farmland and other vital infrastructure.
etc etc
They are our biggest trading partner, and they often walk all over us.

Thats why Australia is known to be US 1st layer of nuke shield, as they will get the 1st nuke strike, if US fight China, I guess "some" of them must be proud. 

LOL, hardly.

[helius]

Recent diplomatic news is that China brokered a détenté between Iran and Saudi Arabia, promising to end the proxy war in Yemen (or at least create a frozen conflict). Comparing this achievement to those of the "West", who by all accounts wish to multiply and prolong proxy wars wherever possible, presents a very stark difference to the citizens of the world.

[zrq]

I would really like to understand why TikTok poses such a huge risk, compared to other similar platforms?

That's not to mention to general erosion of society by the crap that is on TikTok. Go to China and use TikTok and see what content is on allowed there. Hint, it's not the crap that we see.

I'm doubting this. My sibling in China have been using Douyin for a while and she shared many stories with me. I also tried it myself for a brief time and didn't manage to convince their algorithm that I'm not stupid enough to watch these. I'm pretty sure the content pushed to the Chinese by them is also crap.

I'm not going to find any excuse for TikTok/Douyin, it deserves to be banned from the earth, including China itself.

[BravoV]

Here, your beloved Australian's SkyNEWS TV .... 

Geez  ... the brain washing is so intense. 

I guess in down under there people are shouting .. How dare China be so close to US military bases! Shame on them !!! 

[Sredni]

I thought this might fit here

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-65817608

TikTok's owner ByteDance has been accused of allowing Chinese Communist Party (CCP) members to access the data of Hong Kong civil rights activists and protesters.

Users who uploaded "protest-related content" were also identified and monitored, former ByteDance executive Yintao Yu alleges in a US court filing.
The CCP members were also able to access US TikTok user data, Mr Yu says.

A ByteDance spokesperson denied the claims, describing them as "baseless".
The allegations are contained in a San Francisco Superior Court filing made this week as part of a lawsuit brought by Mr Yu.

In the filing, Mr Yu claimed that members of a CCP committee had access to a "superuser" credential, which was also known as "god user", which allowed them to view all data collected by ByteDance.
He also alleged that the committee members were not ByteDance employees but were physically present at the company's offices in Beijing.

For some reason I have no problem in believing Mr Yu. 

[SiliconWizard]

But Big Brother loves you.
 

The CCP is a fully orwellian construct. While I personally don't mean to tell other countries what they should do within their own borders - so China can be orwellian to their heart's content - I certainly won't like for them to get past their borders for this kind of uh, delicacies.

Thanks in advance.

[hneve]

I own a small coffee shop and initially didn't use social media much. I barely knew anything about TikTok, but I quickly realized how crucial it is for businesses.

When I first tried TikTok, I was completely lost. I ended up getting a TikTok SMM panel, and they took care of everything for me. This service helped me create and upload videos consistently, which boosted my visibility and engagement. The results have been impressive, with more followers and higher customer engagement.

[eTobey]

I own a small coffee shop and initially didn't use social media much. I barely knew anything about TikTok, but I quickly realized how crucial it is for businesses.

@hneve And what would happen, if TikTok, or any other media that is crucial to your business, would dissappear? Would your coffee shop dissappear with it?

[Bud]

I own a small coffee shop and initially didn't use social media much. I barely knew anything about TikTok, but I quickly realized how crucial it is for businesses.

Do you post funny videos dancing with a coffee cap in your hand and your brand logo in the background or something? Seriously, i am just curious what would be practical use of it.

[EEVblog]

I own a small coffee shop and initially didn't use social media much. I barely knew anything about TikTok, but I quickly realized how crucial it is for businesses.

Do you post funny videos dancing with a coffee cap in your hand and your brand logo in the background or something? Seriously, i am just curious what would be practical use of it.

You'd be vastly better off with an Instagram business page.