How China Got Our Kids Hooked on Digital Fentanyl
There’s a good reason for this success. TikTok has developed one of the most powerful machine-learning algorithms ever one that is able to reveal people s unknown desires to themselves.
Every day, every hour, every waking minute, TikTok is hoovering up seemingly infinite bits of information about its users their tastes, hobbies, political views, sexual preferences, their facial structure, the sound of their voice. Ostensibly, all this is meant to provide a better product. It should also be noted that this information can be used for spying, influencing millions of users even waging war. Every time we swipe for the next video, every time we post videos of our own, we are helping the world s most sophisticated police state learn more about us.
If you’re reading this blog, you’re probably not a big TikTok user. But the thing really is pernicious. Try it a few times and you’ll see. Legislation that says something like, you can’t market apps in the US that hoover up users’ information and funnels it to a giant police state, should do the trick. Of course, anti-TikTok legislation will be used by those who want no First Amendment either. Inevitably, we’ll have to get lawyers involved.