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July 8 · Issue #538 · View online |
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I. A recurring theme of this newsletter is that I write about TikTok, make some dark prediction about its future, and then turn out to be totally wrong. In that spirit, I thought today we could look at the particularly newsy week the ByteDance-owned video app has had, and then contribute some additional speculation that I will later have to disown or apologize for. Yesterday we talked about the audio-only social network Clubhouse, which found itself at the center of controversy after failing to take action or even make a public comment after users began to experience harassment within the app. Clubhouse took the same approach to trust and safety issues as most embryonic American social networks: do the bare minimum, and address any issues only after some portion of your user base identifies a crisis. TikTok, on the other hand, took the opposite approach: censor almost everything, and allow new types of content only after angry public pressure campaigns. This dynamic was captured beautifully on Wednesday in a story in the Wall Street Journal that charts the company’s ever-evolving content policies, which have grudgingly adjusted over the past several months to welcome such previously verboten content as political protests, MAGA hats, “more than two inches of cleavage,” and … tattoos? Here are Georgia Wells, Shan Li , Liza Lin and Erich Schwartzel: As TikTok has slowly rolled back certain restrictions, former moderators said they have been able to allow some curse words and, depending on the country, shirtless men, tattoos and alcohol. They said that although tattoos remained taboo in China, moderators in the U.S. could allow small ones, such as little butterflies. In November, Dwayne Johnson, the actor and former wrestler known as The Rock, posted his first video to the app. In January, Tommy Lee, the drummer for the band Motley Crue, joined TikTok. Both have large tattoos. Of course, it’s easy to laugh at some of the puritanical content guidelines TikTok has established. And others that have since been walked back enforced oppressive beauty standards, reflected class bias, restricted political speech, or otherwise made the app hostile to various groups. And yet when critics complain that tech executives “don’t care” about all the terrible content posted on their networks — well, this is what caring looks like! Because it was required to by the authoritarian Chinese government, TikTok took content moderation deadly seriously. The result was a stack of policies that are largely offensive to mainstream American sensibilities. One question here is whether you can take moderation seriously from the start, the way TikTok has, while still allowing a range of expression that doesn’t penalize people for having tattoos. I think you can — I’ve been hearing more lately about some new social products that are trying — but I’m not sure a single company has gotten the balance right so far. To its credit, TikTok has owned up to its overly draconian approach to the problem. “In its early days, TikTok took very blunt strategies, all in the sake of trying to keep the platform as positive as possible,” Eric Han, the app’s US head of safety, told the Journal. “That was unequivocally the wrong approach.” For future startups, though, I’d argue it was a useful effort. American startups have had very few role models for businesses that made trust and safety a foundational pillar of their companies, because Section 230 means they don’t have to. But the protections afforded by Section 230 appear to be eroding, and questions of content moderation could be on the verge of becoming existential. For future startups that want to take a more measured approach, TikTok’s frantic tattoo takedowns will make for a useful case study. II. TikTok has other problems, though. When asked in a Fox News interview if the U.S. should be looking at banning TikTok and other Chinese social media apps, Pompeo said: “We are taking this very seriously. We are certainly looking at it.” “We have worked on this very issue for a long time,” he said. The Trump administration is “looking at” a lot of things, and many previous insane-sounding proposals have come and gone without ever being enacted. Others, such as President Trump’s Muslim ban, took a few tries — but eventually became law. TikTok has made several moves designed to promote the idea that the app is firewalled off from ByteDance proper and will not share user data with the Chinese government. (The company says it never has and never will, though security experts remain skeptical ByteDance could resist a serious challenge from the Chinese Communist Party.) TikTok is registered in the Cayman Islands, for example. And after Hong Kong passed a new national security law giving vast new surveillance powers to the Chinese Communist Party, TikTok led all social networks in pulling the app from Hong Kong. On one hand, TikTok’s cultural dominance is still ascendant. Kids are spending 80 minutes a day using the app, and entire neighborhoods in Los Angeles are seemingly being taken over by “collab houses.” And ByteDance has proven to be surprisingly nimble in navigating the regulatory challenges it has faced so far. But it’s now clear that the company’s success has also made it a target. On one side there is an erratic, xenophobic American administration that relishes punitive bans; on the other is a brutal authoritarian regime. TikTok has been adept at navigating between those two superpowers to date — but I can’t be alone in wondering whether that can last forever.
Coming tomorrow: How to think about the Facebook civil rights audit.
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Today in news that could affect public perception of the big tech platforms.
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In a 100-page prepublication report, which was obtained by The New York Times, the social network was repeatedly faulted for not having the infrastructure for handling civil rights and for prioritizing free expression on its platform over nondiscrimination. In some decisions, Facebook did not seek civil rights expertise, the auditors said, potentially setting a “terrible” precedent that could affect the November general election and other speech issues. “Many in the civil rights community have become disheartened, frustrated and angry after years of engagement where they implored the company to do more to advance equality and fight discrimination, while also safeguarding free expression,” wrote the auditors, Laura W. Murphy and Megan Cacace, who are civil rights experts and lawyers. They said they had “vigorously advocated for more and would have liked to see the company go further to address civil rights concerns in a host of areas.”
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The job posting notes potential Twitter subscriptions would be “a first” for the company, but it’s not clear exactly how Twitter plans to implement a subscription service. Twitter generates the vast majority of its revenue through ad sales and data licensing currently, and a subscription service could potentially provide exclusive content in return for a monthly fee. Twitter has previously investigated offering subscriptions as a paid service for power users. The company ran a survey a few years ago to assess whether Twitter users would pay for new analytics, breaking news alerts, or information about what an account’s followers are tweeting about.
Tinder introduced its video call feature today. Face to Face, as the company calls it, is rolling out as a test in 13 countries, including in the US in Virginia, Illinois, Georgia, and Colorado, as well as in Australia, Brazil, and France. (Ashley Carman / The Verge)
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Stuff to occupy you online during the quarantine.
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Michaela Coel's cheekbones are the only structure this country has rn
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IS YOUR CHILD TEXTING ABOUT MASKS? WTF = wear that facemask IMO = indoors mask on WYM = where’s your mask CTFU = cover that face up LMAO = leaving mask always on DM = dope mask SMH = superb mask habit BDSM = bring dad some masks TYVM = that’s your valiant mask TMI = that mask is
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