[pacamara619]

> It tells more about what kind of content you are liking and watching than anything else.

This sounds very much like victim-blaming, I don't think it's appropriate to side with TikTok on this.

[TeMPOraL]

It's not victim blaming. It's widely known that the "magic" of TikTok is that it carefully scans your interactions with content as you consume it, and seamlessly adapts your stream to what it believes you'd like to see. Algorithmic suggestions taken up to 11, and generally as close to mind reading as we've came as a species.

[wizzwizz4]

It seamlessly adapts your stream to what it believes will increase “engagement“. That's a different thing to “what it believes you'd like to see”.

[Aerroon]

I think there's a problem with this though: people aren't always in the mood for the same stuff. The easiest distinction here is 'inappropriate' content from the rest. Sometimes the user is interested in that content, but not every time they open the app. It might even be that most of the time they don't want to see that content.

I experience this with politics videos on YouTube. Sometimes I'm in the mood for that. One evening I'll watch a few politics videos. The next day, my recommendations are filled with politics. Over time my recommendations get back to normal. Then I'm struck with the politics bug again, but my recommendations don't give me an easy way to find more politics content. They're recommending the type of stuff I'd normally watch. The day after that I'm annoyed again about politics being all over my recommended lists.

It feels like I should have separate profiles based on the topics I'm interested in. The platforms don't seem to really support that though. Even different users seem to influence each others suggestions.

[xiphias2]

This may be true for people with short attention span. For me personally sure, I may click on a clickbait article or watch an attractive lady, but it doesn't mean that I want those suggestions even shown.

It's like putting a lot of chocolate with sugar in my apartment: the wise choice is to not even buy anything that contains sugar, as I can't stop myself from eating it if it's in front of me all the time.

[mola]

Maybe reptilian mind reading. While we might intuitively be very attracted to sexual and gore content, it doesn't mean that's what we want.

[rcstank]

What about when you see the content on first install?