<story><title>TikTok: Cheerfulness and censorship</title><url>https://netzpolitik.org/2019/cheerfulness-and-censorship/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>pgeorgi</author><text>Their approach to moderation is unusual in that they don&amp;#x27;t even pretend to be a neutral platform and as such it&amp;#x27;s a powerful differentiator to businesses that are rooted in a &amp;quot;free speech&amp;quot; culture.&lt;p&gt;Shadow-banning individual posts (&amp;quot;Visible to self&amp;quot;) is relatively unusual and acts as a demotivator to publish controversial content because such content doesn&amp;#x27;t drive engagement, as is actively demoting entire classes of content (like critical commentary on politics) from the start.&lt;p&gt;This approach seems to help ensure that there won&amp;#x27;t ever be a subculture on their platform that grows, becomes controversial and at some point considers it their right to use the platform for their controversial content, avoiding all the outrage that late introduction of moderation brings with it. (see Twitter)</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>CPLX</author><text>I mean I’m as much a fan of free speech as the next guy, but there are some pretty key differences between the concepts of “free speech in the culture” and “a giant collection of unmoderated user generated internet content”.&lt;p&gt;I mean actual free speech would just be an endless collection of penis videos. Nobody is actually advocating for free speech.&lt;p&gt;I don’t think every app has to be about political issues. Where did that premise come from, just because it has Chinese origins?&lt;p&gt;It’s ok for there to be an app for kids to make dance videos, and to keep it light and positive.</text></comment>
<story><title>TikTok: Cheerfulness and censorship</title><url>https://netzpolitik.org/2019/cheerfulness-and-censorship/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>pgeorgi</author><text>Their approach to moderation is unusual in that they don&amp;#x27;t even pretend to be a neutral platform and as such it&amp;#x27;s a powerful differentiator to businesses that are rooted in a &amp;quot;free speech&amp;quot; culture.&lt;p&gt;Shadow-banning individual posts (&amp;quot;Visible to self&amp;quot;) is relatively unusual and acts as a demotivator to publish controversial content because such content doesn&amp;#x27;t drive engagement, as is actively demoting entire classes of content (like critical commentary on politics) from the start.&lt;p&gt;This approach seems to help ensure that there won&amp;#x27;t ever be a subculture on their platform that grows, becomes controversial and at some point considers it their right to use the platform for their controversial content, avoiding all the outrage that late introduction of moderation brings with it. (see Twitter)</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>booleandilemma</author><text>&lt;i&gt;...as is actively demoting entire classes of content (like critical commentary on politics) from the start&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;The closest app TikTok is comparable to is Vine. What kind of critical commentary on politics are you expecting on these apps?&lt;p&gt;People watch these apps for the memes and hot girls.</text></comment>