(This post is referring to tiktok, instagram reels, youtube shorts type content)
So it’s no secret that for half a decade now we’ve had short form video content get increasingly popularised. To the point where your uncle probably watches them on some platform and so does your 6 year old.
Now in terms of addictiveness, privacy falling through the roof, advertising down your throat, etc. we’ve reached new records. But that isn’t what this post is about.
I never used this format much, except in 2020 during the pandemic, but I can’t help but notice when I do. Even if I make a brand new VPN’d account for it. Every 5-10th post or so wil be some kind of culture war propaganda.
The kind of stuff that made me an edgy right wing bigot as a teenager because I got influenced by it on youtube. Luckily, I grew and changed. Unfortunately, many former friends, not so much.
On a completely new account you’ll get bombarded with videos like:
- “This is why women NEED real MEN”
- “How to piss of a cyclist”
- ”If a climate activist is blocking the road, you should be allowed to run over them”
- ”When MEN were thrown a grenade, they reacted quickly, WOMEN got confused and scared. That’s why we NEED men in the army”
- Wholesome looking video — homophobic caption: “This is why children need both a mum and a dad”
These are all examples I got today when I decided to make completely new accounts on a new device with a VPN. I tried youtube shorts and tiktok for this and scrolled 20ish videos on each without liking anything.
It scares me how much there is a strong rightward shift amongst the younger population. To the point where 18-24’s in recent german elections have voted the most for the borderline neo-nazi AFD party. I know these parties are by far the most active and very popular on tiktok.
I know to some people these examples might seem anoying but trivial. But you are forgetting how impressionable children and teenagers are. There really is this thing called the alt-right pipeline. One very specific example which impacted me at a younger age, was you start with “mad karen” type videos, then after a couple you get recommended “mad SJW” videos, I think you see where I’m going with this, after a while you’re on “feminism debunked” and watching peterson/crowder/shapiro. I know many childhood friends who went down this pipeline and became insufferably racist bigot adults.
I wonder what others think on this?
Alt-right fuckos have unfortunately been targeting impressionable kids for decades now.
Tiktok is just where the kids are today, a few years ago it was the YouTube alt-right pipeline and before that it was basically just weirdos on 4chan
That’s not to say it’s not alarming or something to drag your friends away from, but it’s not new and it’s not going away.
No one rational can possibly support their ideology, so they need to find easily manipulated people to dupe in order to remain relevant.
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Greedy rich distracting us with culture war to avoid a class war. Russia, China, North Korea trying to sow discord. Conclusion: Make lying illegal. Tax billionaires to extinction to avoid societal collapse.
I’ve somehow managed to completely miss all of that. I rarely see any right wing content anywhere. I almost never watch videos filmed in portrait rather than landscape. Maybe that has saved me?
I watch lots of gun related content on YouTube, no right-wing crap to be seen. Guess they know me?
Same here for the most part. Every now and then I’ll see something recommended that may be on the edge but I’m not clicking it to find out.
I should note that I’m not talking about shorts so I guess I’m off topic here. They wouldn’t stop nagging me so installed a plugin to permanently hide it :)
I agree and I wish I knew how to stop it or counter it for larger numbers of people.
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I’m guessing the content offering algorithms are looking at your IP, browser profile, etc. and throwing stuff at you that it assumes you and “people in your area” want to see. Even with brand new accounts, they always try to figure this stuff out. It often gets it wrong, but that never stops them from trying.
I’m worried about short form video because it sucks.
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it’s a problem that normal, responsible adults immediatly know these apps are problematic or at least a waste of time. this creates a loop making them more problematic and shitty every iteration.
Out of curiosity do you see similar results without the VPN? A well known VPN provider might already be flagged to show certain types of content.
Of course that’s all secondary since this is a problem with most of these services (and not just short form content). I don’t see a situation where we can ensure people don’t see this sort of content. Plus it would be impossible to properly categorize “good” vs “bad”. I think you’ve just got to make sure that the opposing content is available and that friends/family can help direct people. People who found their way in need to find their way out, but they can have help.
I had noticed this trend in the past few years. And recently I got a completely new device so I thought that’s a perfect blank slate, without all the who knows how trackable device stuff and cache and everything to test it on, so I set up just vpn on my current location, windscribe VPN; and got those results. But I get similar ones without VPN too.
That’s good(?) to know. I asked because I didn’t get those results, I got stupid food, Harris/Trump stuff, kids dancing and obvious ads. Who knows with algorithm stuff how they decide to start.
