Absolutely but I do think there is a slice of data. Unlike meta selling its data, we have no idea the full scope of what bytedance collects and sends home. My one thorn is we are so consumed with China but somehow it ignore Russia.

I think the difference between these apps is that in China the "recommendation algorithm" is that the wrong sort of people just go missing. There's less heavy lifting for the app to do. That's why people like it more, it itself has a simpler agenda: make people enjoy using it.

In the US, for the most part, the app must do both surveillance and coercion, which is why the kids prefer the Chinese app.

And how does the recommendation algorithms work? Without user data, it’d be nowhere near as potent at being addictive and dominating in the collective human attention economy.

Oil isn’t useful in its raw form either. Do you think we’d be plagued by cookie banners on almost every single website if they didn’t think collecting data was crucial to their business? Not to mention AI, where the analogy is reinforced for obvious reasons.

So data being the new oil is not a terrible analogy. However, I have to agree with you that the reasoning and justification from journalists is often fluffy and completely off-mark. I’d cut them a bit of slack, they’ve been through a complete economic massacre and talent exodus precisely as a result of this new economy.

They specifically said it was in part about preventing ppl from learning too much about the US backed Israeli gaza genocide.

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/why-people-think-us-effor...