TikTok in China versus the United States | 60 Minutes
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN cites it in TikTok ban debates as the accessible summary of how Douyin and TikTok differ.
What it is
A 60 Minutes segment in which Tristan Harris contrasts TikTok with its Chinese counterpart Douyin. He argues that Chinese children get wholesome, time-limited content while the rest of the world gets the addictive version.
Recommended by 2 HN commenters across 2 different months, 2022 to 2025.
What Hacker News said
Recommends snozolli · 2023-03 · on “Kids Are Not Okay”
60 Minutes piece on Douyin (domestic users) versus TikTok (foreign users): [this video] tl;dw: Chinese users get more wholesome content, particularly children, along with usage limits.
Recommends tivert · 2024-03 · on “India's TikTok Ban Is a Cautionary Tale for the U.S.”
> There’s an equivalent called Douyin. Having used neither, I don’t know what’s the difference, if any. Here's a video about the differences: TikTok in China versus the United States | 60 Minutes: [this video] Douyin is much healthier. Chinese children cannot use Douyin for more than 40 min a day, and it promotes positive content like science experiments you can do at home. American kids can use TikTok as much as they want, and so are addicted. I don't use it, but I'm almost certain it doesn't just show prosocial educational content to kids, but mostly mindless entertainment and influencer ads. The result is the most popular career Chinese kids saw they want to grow up to be astronauts, but Ameri
Cites ZainRiz · 2022-11 · on “The FBI alleges TikTok poses national security concerns”
If you read the first paragraph of the article, the primary concern mentioned is not surveillance, it's influencing the American public in ways that benefits China and harms the US. Psy-ops effectively Here's a segment by 60 Minutes explaining how they show their own citizens educational, beneficial content inspiring them to be better citizens, while the rest of the world gets the degenerative content we usually associate with ticktok. And China could easily further adjust their ranking algorithm further to highlight the views it wants us to have. All social media has the power to do this, but China has both the most adversarial incentive and a demonstrated willingness to do so. [this video]
Cites gjsman-1000 · 2022-12 · on “South Dakota first to ban TikTok on state-owned devices”
So he made it up thinking it was fake - but now it has been independently shown to be likely true. In which case he made up a conspiracy theory then demonstrated to be accurate when he thought it was a joke. [LINK] [LINK] CBS 60 Minutes Interview with an IT expert just 3 weeks ago: [this video]
Cites jzmorganchase · 2022-12 · on “Bipartisan Legislation to Ban TikTok”
This is not true. The recent 60 minutes story specifically says the type of content is completely different because it is heavily moderated in China which is the total opposite of what we see in the US or elsewhere outside of China. [this video]
Cites jebby · 2024-04 · on “House approves sell-or-be-banned TikTok measure”
[this video] [TikTok in China versus the United States | 60 Minutes] This was around the time I decided that I didn't care what happened to TikTok.
Cites wyldberry · 2024-12 · on “TikTok divestment law upheld by federal appeals court”
At best this comment implies there's actual an actual smoking gun related to what functionally are nation-state capability and operations to influence populations external to their own, specifically related to TikTok/ByteDance. If you have an AP government level understanding of how China and the USA work, then you can probably understand that this is an intersection of: government laws, great power competition, and wealth seeking behaviors. When you control the algorithm, everyone downstream of it is at the mercy of the power structures and incentives of your top level leadership [0]. Consider the following: 1.) How Chinese companies interact with the CCP: they are 100% subservient with a C
Cites hagbard_c · 2025-05 · on “Why Are There So Many 'Alternative Devices' All of a Sudden?”
No, it just moved eastwards and gained a few extra stars. Compare the Chinese iteration of TT (Douyin) with the international version. Chinese children are time limited to 40 minutes per day and get presented 'science experiments you can do at home, museum exhibits, patriotism videos and educational videos' according to a 'tech expert' interviewed on the subject [1] while western girls get told they may be boys and vice-versa if they happen to feel some unease with their growing bodies during puberty. They get inundated in 'influencer' content trying to peddle them the latest make-up trends, the latest fashion fads and more such consumerist drivel. From the interview with the 'expert': “Ther