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Comment by starfezzy | Hacker News Reader

> Any of the short form videos from TikTok can be hosted on several other video platforms, if the creators care to upload it.

Sure, you can repost TikTok content anywhere, but what people really notice when they recognize that tiktok's algorithm is unique—without realizing it—is that it's apolitical by default, and not-western when politics come into play. It actually shows you what you're interested in, instead of force-feeding western progressive/consumerist messaging and banning half its users for wrongthink.

So yeah, post the same content on Reels/Shorts if you want, but if it doesn't align with the western narrative, good luck with the shadowbans and downranking.

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The algorithm's advantage could disappear in an instant. It is not a real moat, and if TikTok weren't banned I definitely think we'd see that play out in the next 2 years.

LoL, the algorithm is the only reason TikTok was able to dethrone both Meta and Alphabet in short form content (also Snap but who gives a damn about that loser).

TikTok even put their algorithm workings out there in the internet, as part of public presentations, yet Google and Facebook being unable to replicate something that's anywhere close to performant compared to TikTok is evidence of the moat ByteDance has.

Algorithms can and have been copied and improved. It is human nature.

For years people would wax about Spotify's algorithm never being dethroned, but the anecdotes I'm seeing lately are that YouTube Music's algorithm is now far ahead of the pack.

If the algorithm is all TikTok had, they'd lose long term. See also Snapchat and Instagram Stories.

> Algorithms can and have been copied and improved.

Tiktok's algorithm can't be copied in the West. What makes it "so good" isn't some technical secret—it's that it starts apolitical and remains politically non-committal. If you're not into politics, it won't push political content at you. If you are, it won't suppress conservative views or force-feed you western progressive narratives. If you change your political interests it won't continue to nudge you towards western progressivism or Conservatism™ or some mainstream "safe" brand of political discourse.

Western corporations won't replicate this because they're committed to embedding specific messaging in everything at all times to astroturf and force national culture shifts.

This understanding is sufficient to explain the motive behind the Tiktok ban as well as why no extremely well funded and highly motivated, intelligent corporations in the west can repeat tiktok's algorithm success.

Algorithmic content, and how that can be used to shape a chosen narrative, is an important issue. However, it's much more closely related to propaganda rather than censorship.

Of course, yes.

The west is committed to their own propaganda narrative, which explains the tiktok ban and the "inability" (unwillingness, really) to replicate the algorithm.

I'm not saying china is perfect. They do their own propaganda and narrative control. The west trying quite successfully to replicate THAT algorithm—authoritarianism and narrative control, corporations acting as arms of the state propaganda agencies, etc.

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