[an_opabinia]

TikTok just makes up the view counts. So everyone feels like they're growing an audience. Instagram could do the same. They probably will. It would probably both increase engagement and, would it be bad for mental health?

Anyway, I deleted my Facebook and Instagram accounts 5 years ago.

[crocbuzz]

Where is your source that TikTok makes up the view counts. As a developer myself, their interest graph is second to none. It has by far the best recommendation algorithm in the social media space to date. Of course they are doing it with all the data they collect, but it doesn't bother me because it shows me endless amounts of the type of content I want to see, which is not half-naked dancing teens, but lots of political commentary and real life stories.

[an_opabinia]

Facebook also made up view counts on video. What can I say? What evidence do you have the counts are real?

[emdubbelyou]

If you’re going to make a claim against what a reasonable person would expect, the burden of proof is on you to support your claim. You said tik tok like counts aren’t real and someone asked you for source. Then, rather than giving a source, you made another unsupported claim about Facebook doing the same thing. I don’t have an opinion one way or the other, but I do enjoy reading HN for lively conversation and debate. I’d prefer the debate to be in good spirit and based on fact, not conjecture.

[an_opabinia]

So you’re saying some random person on the internet has a higher burden of proof than a $55b company. In the pursuit of intellectual honesty, it also seems reasonable that for once some giant bullshit claim from a company is audited?