I think the issues with TikTok are obvious when you compare TikTok US/ROW (rest of world) with TikTok China.

TikTok China has strict limits on how much it can be used, they promote videos about STEM subjects, and they promote government propaganda.

TikTok USA/ROW pushes the most inane and divisive content and promotes conspiracy theories.

China and TikTok know exactly what they’re doing.

China won’t allow the version of TikTok that is used outside of China to be used in China.

Mastodon is simply a decentralized version of Twitter.

It solved none of the problems that made Twitter toxic and given enough time and users, it too will descend into toxicity.

Also, since so many Mastodon servers are run by individuals, organizations, and non-profits, decentralization doesn’t mean you can’t be deplatformed.

Give it a few years and it’ll be like the email spam lists that many of the big email providers share amongst themselves.

If you get kicked off the Mozilla Mastodon server, what’s keeping them from publishing a list of users they’ve banned and all the other Mastodon servers refuse to allow accounts from people that were banned on Mozilla’s servers?

To me, a new era of social media platforms should:

Allow users to curate their own feeds. No more mystery algorithms. No more shoving content at you in the hopes of enraging you and making you comment to increase the platform’s engagement metrics.

I would love to see a platform that lets me pick to only see updates from Aunt Susan about life events instead of having to choose between reading her MAGA rants and blocking her.

Likewise, I think any future platform needs to have a social scoring system. No, not like the Chinese. I’m talking more like, someone with a PhD in physics should get more weight in a discussion about physics than some rando.

Also, people who are deemed helpful are given more weight than people who drive lots of rage engagement.

This would effectively kill trolling.

Like, on Reddit, why can’t I filter out all posts and comments by people with negative or low karma?

And why can’t I do that with all content. Why can’t I say, “You know what Reddit, I’m done hearing about Elon Musk’s latest Twitter drama, filter out all mentions of Elon Musk”?

It would allow everyone to choose to shadow ban trolls and toxic behavior.

Again, why can’t I say that I don’t want to see comments from anyone that is also a member of X, Y, And Z toxic subs?

Isn’t this how things sort of work in the real world?

If Timmy is a dick, people just quit inviting Timmy to social events.

And Timmy has to make a choice, quit being a dick or wallow at home alone because he’s a dick.