#TikTok agrees to pay at least $100M in #Alabama settlement

https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/26/tiktok-agrees-to-pay-at-least-100m-in-alabama-settlement/

#privacy #BigTech #TechAddiction

They hacked a #TikTok user’s camera, with help from free #AI

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2026/09/18/cybersecurity-experts-say-free-ai-software-is-supercharging-hackers/

#cybersecurity

#noahkahan #tiktok #corgi #cute

How #TikTok and #Google ended up with information about doctor’s appointments around the world

https://themarkup.org/pixel-hunt/2026/09/14/how-tiktok-and-google-ended-up-with-information-about-doctors-appointments-around-the-world

#privacy #healthcare

#Mastodon voice messages?

"Make social vocal" ?

#Idea #suggestion #BOOST #dev

Voice #filters added for #privacy?
(like #TikTok funny voice masks but more human sounding?)

= voice messages + #masks / filters ?

(a risk but much more #progressive #P2P)

Protection with a voice 'mask'.

What do you think ?

(Text is limited = can't cover the human expression range like voice and for some text isn't possible / too hard).

Also #Jitsi (https://meet.osna.social/) + integrated voice #masks?

#TikTok reaches $400M settlement over children’s #privacy lawsuit

https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/21/tiktok-reaches-400m-settlement-over-childrens-privacy-lawsuit/

404 Media: The Government is Monitoring Anti-Flock TikTok and Instagram Accounts. “Government surveillance centers are monitoring viral anti-Flock Instagram posts, warning local police about upcoming DeFlock events including one scheduled to start next week, and have told cops to ‘increase patrols around ALPR [automatic license plate readers]’ as backlash to Flock grows, according to government […]

The Government is Monitoring Anti- #Flock #TikTok and #Instagram Accounts

https://www.404media.co/the-government-is-monitoring-anti-flock-tiktok-and-instagram-accounts/

#privacy #surveillance #FreeSpeech #ALPR #police

Disney and TikTok have announced a new partnership!

The deal will bring select fan-made TikTok videos to Disney+.

Creators who opt in will also gain access to assets from Disney's library of movies and TV shows to use in their TikTok creations.

#Disney #TikTok

On TikTok? So are we.
Follow us here https://www.tiktok.com/@globalmuseum2026 #globalmuseum #TikTok #museums

Global Museum is also on TikTok
https://www.tiktok.com/@globalmuseum2026 #globalmuseum #TikTok

#Loops objectively has a problem with loud videos.
It's very user-hostile to be flipping through quiet scenic videos to have it followed up immediately with an eardrum-splitting attention-seeking noise video, or even a valid artistic video like loud concert.

Audio normalization should be built into the app. Also, a way to skip all videos from a particular account without blocking them. I don't want to block accounts that post annoying videos from interacting with me in the comments or whatnot, I just don't ever want to see them in the feed. It's two separate things.

Less objectively, and more of a personal opinion, I find it deeply unfortunate that Loops thinks it wise to model their UI/UX on the absolute flaming dogpoop of platforms like #TikTok and #Instagram.

Give me a [playhead], for the love of God. Don't make me re-watch the entire bloomin' three-minute video just to re-play a single word I missed. 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

Associated Press: EU finds TikTok violates its digital rule book by failing to protect privacy of minors. “The European Commission on Friday said it found TikTok had not adequately protected children’s privacy rights on its platform by allowing adults to view the accounts of minors. The action exposed children to cyberbullying, unwanted contact and predatory behavior, commission spokesperson […]

Perhaps instead of #ageverfication nonsense, those who want to protect the children should look at why these platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Youtube and the like are "bad" for them and everyone else.

Here's why:

They are TRADING PLATFORMS. Not video hosting platforms, not social networks. NO. People have to trade their attention (watch ads), data, or currency to use these platforms who make over 90% or more of their profits from these trades. Is like calling a Mall a Social Gathering Event Hall. It is not!

At least they should force these platforms to be renamed/re-labeled.

And you know what else? The harm/addiction of these platforms is not solely their incentive to make people trade more (more ads, more data trading, etc.) to keep them on the platforms is the fact that in this society pretty much everyone has a shitty meaningless life. If people were to be taken care of, and not have to trade all of their lives in a boring and stupid job, with them being worth only when they consume, then smarter and relaxed humans would give 0 fucks about these platforms.

When you are out and about, with friends, are not stressed about how to pay for your life, then why do you give much of a shit to post and scroll on these silly platforms?

How come I do not give a flying fuck about these platforms and what people post on them? Because I am busy with more relevant shit!

SO.

Wanna change something?

REPLACE.

Replace these trading platforms with trade-free ones like Friendica, Peertube and the like. If you are a government, support them!

Replace the meaningless life of most people with meaningful ones. Give people their basic needs as trade-free. Via an UBI or trade-free basic services. This way you don't even have to support those trade-free platforms. People will! The same people who do it now, but who also have to struggle to have a day job in order to keep their work on these platforms going. Imagine having millions of people able to get involved and change this world!

Free people from the Trade-Society!

This way you don't even have to fight with these big corporations. Let them fade out! Let them die.

#facebook #tiktok #TradeRuinsEverything #money #tromsite #trom #capitalism #youtube #trade-free

After #TikTok, #Snap settles #SocialMedia addiction case

https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/21/after-tiktok-snap-settles-social-media-addiction-case/

#privacy

Reminder of how dire our digital privacy situation has become...

TikTok can spy on you even if you don’t have an account.

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20260210-tiktok-is-tracking-you-even-if-you-dont-use-the-app-heres-how-to-stop-it

Collecting personal data just to resell it should be outlawed in my opinion.

But combine this with data brokers, ChatControl’s recent vote, and the global push for age verification through 'trusted private third parties', all while data theft is at an all-time high, and you start wondering if we aren’t attending a clown show with very real consequences.

#Privacy #TikTok #ChatControl #DataBroker #AgeVerification

Federal employees can download #TikTok on their work phones again

https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/18/federal-employees-can-download-tiktok-on-their-work-phones-again/

#cybersecurity #privacy

The EU will propose limits on under-16s using Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook after summer. Australia already bans them. The privacy catch: verifying every user's age can mean ID uploads or face scans for everyone, not just kids.

#ageverification #TikTok #EU #indigoprivacy

@SecondChanceLemon
After viewing #TikTok, I feel the need to take a shower.

TikTok collects keystroke patterns, clipboard contents, and device identifiers beyond what most users realize when they agree to its terms. #privacy #tiktok #tracking #surveillance #indigoprivacy

Consumer advocates demand Safety by Design for all instead of social media bans

The vzbv investigated Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and YouTube: Addiction-promoting mechanisms and dark patterns endanger minors despite the DSA.

https://www.heise.de/en/news/Consumer-advocates-demand-Safety-by-Design-for-all-instead-of-social-media-bans-11341975.html?wt_mc=sm.red.ho.mastodon.mastodon.md_beitraege.md_beitraege&utm_source=mastodon

#DigitalServicesAct #Facebook #Instagram #Netzpolitik #Snapchat #SocialMedia #TikTok #Verbraucherschutz #YouTube #news

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CA_hmtuAPTY

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Did the Algorithm Change Your Decisions? | How Your Feed Was Engineered

Right now, somewhere on the internet, a video is being uploaded.

Within seconds, a system that no one elected, no one audits, and no one fully understands decides whether anyone else will ever see it.

Sometimes, it decides no one should.

And that’s the end of it.

In this episode of Plain Meaning, we examine how the modern internet quietly transformed from a system designed to deliver information… into one that decides what information exists for you at all.

It didn’t happen all at once.

It happened step by step.

Feed by feed.

Platform by platform.

Until nearly everything you see online is filtered through a machine making decisions on your behalf.

We trace how:

• Social media moved from profile pages to infinite feeds
• Facebook’s News Feed shifted from chronological to algorithmic control
• Advertising—not user experience—drove the need to control timing and visibility
• “EdgeRank” introduced the first large-scale automated editorial system
• By 2016, every major platform—Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube—had adopted algorithmic feeds
• Recommendation systems replaced direct navigation across the entire internet

But this isn’t just a story about technology.

It’s a story about incentives.

Because once platforms controlled what you saw, they didn’t just control engagement.

They controlled attention.

And once attention became the product, the system began optimizing for something far more powerful than clicks.

We examine what happened next:

• How foreign influence operations exploited algorithmic feeds during the 2016 election
• The role of Cambridge Analytica and its parent Strategic Communication Laboratories in psychological targeting
• The scale and strategy of Russia’s Internet Research Agency
• How fake local news accounts built trust before deploying disinformation
• Why most influence content wasn’t political—but divisive
• How algorithms amplified all of it without distinction

And then we go further.

Because 2016 wasn’t the end of the story.

It was the beginning.

We look at how:

• Algorithmic systems shape not just what you see—but how you think
• Platforms reward emotional, extreme, and addictive content
• Foreign-owned platforms introduce new geopolitical risks
• Systems like ByteDance’s TikTok operate differently across countries
• The same algorithmic architecture can produce completely different realities depending on its objectives

This episode is not about one platform.

It’s not about one political party.

And it’s not about one country.

It’s about the system itself.

Because the algorithm isn’t just recommending content.

It’s acting as an editor.

And most of the time, you don’t even realize it’s there.

By the end of this video, the next time you open a social media app, you’ll understand:

Why your attention isn’t fully yours.

Why the world you see isn’t necessarily the world that exists.

And how to recognize when a machine—not you—is deciding what matters.

#Algorithm #SocialMedia #DigitalMedia #YouTube #Facebook #Instagram #NewsFeed #TikTok #Twitter

[/copypasta]