In CBS ’60 mins’ last week Tristan Harris, the leading researcher on Chinese high level social media strategy revealed how TikTok is designed to waste entire generations across the world, such that Chinese youth become the leaders of the future to dominate the world.
“It’s almost like [Chinese company Bytedance] recognize[s] that technology’s influencing kids’ development, and they make their domestic version a spinach TikTok, while they ship the opium version to the rest of the world,” says Tristan Harris.
“There’s a survey of the pre-teens in the US and China asking what is the most aspirational career that you want to have. In the US the number 1 was influencer (social media influencer) and in China the number 1 was astronaut,” Harris added.
Canary Trap, in April 2020, did a piece on this based on a Gateway House Report around Chinese investments in India. You can read that piece by VK Shashikumar here.
Also hear Tristan Harris and Aza Raskin explore the nature of the TikTok threat on this podcast.
Pew Research also came out with a report recently. It reveals how TikTok has established itself as one of the top online platforms for U.S. teens, while the share of teens who use Facebook has fallen sharply. You can read the report here.