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Comment by Raed667 | Hacker News Reader

Yeah, this can only end well /s

Reminder: "TikTok Told Moderators: Suppress Posts by the “Ugly” and Poor"

[0] https://theintercept.com/2020/03/16/tiktok-app-moderators-us...

The last time I brought this up there was a surprising amount of people trying to defend this behavior from TikTok. Glad to see you bring this up—awful company.

Compared to traditional mass market media is it that different? Actors and actresses on prime time TV are beautiful by western standards, thin and with perfect teeth. Living in beautiful, spacious houses that most people can't afford.

edit: Not that I'm defending Tiktok, just saying that the way it distorts and portrays the world is a continuation of what media companies were already doing. I was going to make a point about how it is a lot like the Society of the Spectacle, but it looks like others have already made the connection:

https://blendertrouble.substack.com/p/now-i-know-whats-real-...

You'll have to send me these articles of other social media companies instructing their moderators to suppress ugly, poor, and disabled users.

https://theintercept.com/2020/03/16/tiktok-app-moderators-us...

I was making a comparison between Hollywood and TikTok, not between TikTok and other social media companies?

I suppose the argument would be that there's no illusion that media hiring is intended to serve actors' desires as opposed to building the image that studios want for their product. If tiktok had marketed themselves as a unique kind of curated content company instead of a social media service with democratically-determined exposure, I think the studio comparison would be apt.

um most people, including me, like to see beautiful people. It make sense to suppress post by the ugly.

You're probably downvoted because of how you articulated your message, but the initial idea is correct. We're biologically programmed to like beautiful things, people, whatever.

What is so bad about this behavior?

They publicly apologized and the policy has been changed.

It’s not like it matters, anyways - your users will suppress posts like these for you regardless.

Yeah they just built their algorithm to suppress poor and ugly people, no need for mods to do it. Not sure if that's any better.

The algorithm simply accurately reflects what people like. It turns out most people, perhaps subconsciously, actually kind of hate poor and ugly people.

I have some friends that went from overweight/obese to looking fit. Their very first reactions were “wow, I cannot believe how differently I am being treated.” Seeing the pettiness of human society, as expressed by the massive difference in how they were being treated, turned many of them into misanthropes. It is a completely different world for good-looking people.

However, solving this problem isn’t really TikTok’s job. Whether a video interview or a physical one, if you’re pretty and rich, you’ll have massive advantage regardless.

As a formerly obese person, I can absolutely confirm this. Respect is a big issue for me, because for the first ~25 years of my life, disrespect and even disgust were the default with every new person I interacted with.

Still, I mostly like videos posted by attractive people on TikTok, because I’m not about lying to myself to pretend to be woke. It’s a visual medium. Just like you don’t hire stupid engineers, it doesn’t make sense to watch ugly people. It’s about knowing your strengths, if you’re not going to maintain your appearance, maybe do podcasts instead. Or one of the millions of TikTok videos that don’t show your appearance, because that is 100% optional.

Tiktok is blamed for that, but it's pretty clear by followers metrics that people mostly want to hear about pretty and rich people foremost.

Oh no! Algorithm correctly reflects reality then.

Colour me skeptical. Things like that are organisational culture, deeply embedded in "the way we do things". I'd be very surprised if they had an actual change of heart.

People don’t like watching ugly and poor people, that’s just how the life is. I don’t see how turning TikTok into Harrison Bergeron will make the situation any better.

Don’t worry, they’re just checking for “culture fit”.

That's brilliant. It's unfortunate you're being downvoted for the sharpest comment in this thread.

Trying to find cultural fit (exactly as in product market fit) for max attention (clicks, likes, ads) is exactly what social media pandering is all about, both by the companies and the "influencers." With each post they're experimenting to reach that end goal.

I find disfigured/ disabled people livestreaming to many people on Tiktok all the time in my feed.

What % will be hired through tiktok vs traditional approaches?

In this thread - people who have never used tiktok talk shit about tiktok. Some of my favorite tiktokers are severely disabled, grotesquely disfigured, and wildly popular, and making a living telling stories that they would otherwise not be doing

Probably because it descends from Music.ly, an app known to be used mainly by tweens and predators looking for tweens.

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