Unless I go to china, download the app on a chinese phone and use it, I cannot see for myself.
For what it's worth. Four out of the first five videos I saw on Douyin were sexualised in some way, the first was of a train driver. I scrolled through 20 or 30 of the videos on TikTok's website and didn't find anything close.
It's not proof of what is being claimed, but they are variables that would need to be controlled before being confident that Douyin is or is not adjusting content to foreign or domestic users.
The original claim is that Douyin promotes "wholesome" educational content, whereas TikTok is manipulating the west with pornography and other depravities.
Anecdotal observations gathered through the web UI of each app, as an anonymous user, were that Douyin presented "pornographic" content, whereas TikTok did not.
The original claim only stands if we accept that ByteDance is:
* Allowing a vast quantity of sexually explicit content to be posted to Douyin.
* Not showing that content to their users in China but only to western users of Douyin, despite being presented entirely in Chinese.
While also:
* Targeting western users of TikTok with pornography and explicit videos.
* Not showing any of that content in their web UI, despite it quickly becoming the entirety of the Douyin one.
I find it hard to believe that this would be the case. A sanitised Douyin and depraved TikTok, or both being depraved, would have supported the idea. The behaviour that was observed runs entirely counter to the claim.
Frankly, the opinion does not appear to be grounded in reality but comes instead from a place of insecurity regarding our social values. Consider whether any western platform promotes science and engineering over pornography, Twitter and Instagram allow much more explicit content than TikTok, and then ask why TikTok seems to have been singled out.
By checking douyin.com from my device, my ip and my advertising fingerprint, I cannot have any clue how douyin behaves if I download it from a chinese phone, in china.
The base claim was that ByteDance was pushing sexualised content on TikTok while policing it on Douyin. This makes zero sense given that TikTok's web content was sanitised. Douyin being awash with sexualised content implies an audience for that content in China, further weakening the argument that this is some sort of targeted attack.
The alternative is that Douyin thirst traps are some sort of co-ordinated attack on the west. Despite not being available in the western app or translated in any way.