The fact that TikTok is an incubator for social contagion has to be deliberate, and here's my argument: If there wasn't some kind of subtle hidden hand behind amplifying the crazy, why would the CCP need an entirely separate-but-identical app for use in China? 1/4

You can't get TikTok in China, only Douyin, which is exactly TikTok but without any of the content that's on TikTok. You can download Douyin in the West but cannot get TikTok in China. They would easily have the ability to run one system with a China content filter but don't. 2/4

To me, that signals that the difference is in how the content algorithm operates in both system, since it would be much more complicated to run two concurrent content algorithms depending on what content is generated. Easier to have two separate infrastructures. 3/4

Basically, my theory is that TikTok amplifies insane people and fringe, radical, society-breaking stuff, but Douyin does not. They're relabeling domestic beer and shipping it abroad laced with rat poison. 4/4

@neontaster Maybe this is part of their effort to convince people that TikTok is not controlled by the Chinese government?