How about not using a platform that supress information about dissent?
This is super shady, how can people trust this app?
The platform choices of the general public tend to be like this. Whether the platforms becoming large leads to them being shady, or whether the results of them being shady is what draws people to them, I have no idea.
Either way, a lot of people use TikTok, and there’s no changing that, at least easily.
In Tiktok’s case, it has been shady for years.
There were already reports Tiktok censoring dissent in 2019 when it started gaining popularity internatinally:
- Revealed: how TikTok censors videos that do not please Beijing
- TikTok’s Beijing roots fuel censorship suspicion as it builds a huge U.S. audience
And even before that, Tiktok’s parent company always operated and had its headquarter in China, so it’s forced to comply with the Great Firewall of China, and participate though their own moderation/algorithm.
Relying on a media that operate (in part) in a totalitarian state with heavy handed censorship is foolish. Even if they have some infrastructure elsewhere, it’s sowned by and answering to ByteDance management. Like all media companies from that country, it’s under pressure from the local and/or central government.