TikTok and Meta risked safety to win algorithm arms race, whistleblowers say

Drop it all together, show them you don't want what they are selling.

Tik tok is government surveillance and meta should be sued into oblivion for ai training and being ok with helping kids become addicted to social media.

There's no way Meta would have ever won the algorithm race given their priority was always shoving as many ads as possible to people.

Tiktok was better under china.

Social media algorithm = automated manipulation model. They are competing over who can manipulate and get you addicted to content better/faster/longer and bleed more money from you.

I decided to quit FB for a few years, came back, most of the people I knew haven't posted in several years or more. So it was 7-20 ads before I see an old associate post. At first the ads were half interesting (video game vids/card games), then I click one link and suddenly the algorithm went full culture war, from "western devs can't make a pretty woman" to "woke this woke that", or something political with warhammer40k. On top of that, I remember old Facebook used to tell you not to add people you don't know, now I am getting bombed with "50 people you know and should add..." Including the private profile of HR recruiters that I might have spoken with once 2 years ago. The whole thing just reek of desperation. Can't do it.

I'd love to say that I dont care, but this competition started showing in our daily lives enormously. And I don't mean annoying reels when I open the app. People in public spaces, work, school swiping. On top of having digitalisation rushed into schools and childhoods, we are faced with this. Ask any school that has 1:1 devices - the proliferation of short form that happened is several levels worse than just smartphone under the desk.

What do they “win” if people keep leaving their platforms because the algorithms suck?

No, no not these two bastions of user rights and safety! Say it’s not so.

I've said it before, but these algorithms and short form content, we will look back as bad as cigarettes one day. Almost confused how we let it get so bad.

No shit. I've never used either and could tell you that.

You mean water is wet and the sky is blue? Oh wow!