It's not unclear at all. It's Chinese data harvesting software. They'll do token public appeasement to avoid negative pressure, but every feature in the app is designed to collect biometrics and behavioral data.
China is not a good faith operator. Given the data needed to influence public opinion and voting, they will engage in manipulation favorable to their interests. That alone is sufficient to run tiktok at a loss, but the market manipulation possible, advertisement platform potential, and other monetization makes it look like just another app.
Google's been caught red handed deliberately manipulating political content.
https://mygoogleresearch.com/
The idea that tiktok isn't used for the same type of manipulation is dangerously naive.
There's a need for social media manipulation watchdogs that can monitor content being delivered to different users so the companies and countries involved can be held accountable.
It's sad that a massively scaled invasion of privacy can only be countered by more surveillance. Because of the ephemeral nature of tiktok interactions, the only way to combat manipulation is to surveil the content being delivered to user feeds and compare subsequent opinion poling and purchases.
China is not a good faith operator. Given the data needed to influence public opinion and voting, they will engage in manipulation favorable to their interests. That alone is sufficient to run tiktok at a loss, but the market manipulation possible, advertisement platform potential, and other monetization makes it look like just another app.
Google's been caught red handed deliberately manipulating political content.
https://mygoogleresearch.com/
The idea that tiktok isn't used for the same type of manipulation is dangerously naive.
There's a need for social media manipulation watchdogs that can monitor content being delivered to different users so the companies and countries involved can be held accountable.
It's sad that a massively scaled invasion of privacy can only be countered by more surveillance. Because of the ephemeral nature of tiktok interactions, the only way to combat manipulation is to surveil the content being delivered to user feeds and compare subsequent opinion poling and purchases.