The interim leader of TikTok, Vanessa Pappas, has just proposed that social media companies agree to warn one another about violent, graphic content on their platforms. Specifically, TikTok proposes a “hashbank for violent and graphic content” with a special concern about suicide videos. The company believes the hashbank and subsequent cross-platform suppression of the objectionable content would “significantly reduce the chances of people encountering it and enduring the emotional harm that viewing such content can bring.”
As it happens I came near some violent and graphic content this morning. A friend sent me a link to a BBC News story about “Cameroon soldiers jailed for killing women and children.” The embedded video, whose label says it “contains disturbing scenes”, apparently depicts the murders of two women and children. The video might be a candidate for TikTok’s proposed hashbank. Using the BBC video to fix ideas, let’s examine the costs and benefits of TikTok’s proposal.
Let’s begin with where TikTok is on solid ground. Some of their users are younger people and thus may be protected from extreme speech in ways that adults should not be. But preventing adults from seeing content they wish to see is paternalistic. But there’s another wrinkle here. Tiktok mentions people “encountering” objectionable content. The dictionary tells us to encounter is “to come upon or experience especially unexpectedly.” If I choose to see risky content, it may be surprising but the risk is part of the choice even if it turns out to be more than I would have wanted to see ex ante. Encountering content seems more like being algorithmically chosen to view content than personally choosing to see it.
Read the rest of this post →