KD

Father, advocate, entrepreneur. ⁣ Not as funny as I used to be. In fact, I’m usually not funny at all. Can’t snap my fingers.

[KD @meetkd12]

@Pittsburgh if you can’t be troubled to fix the roads, then start paying for the tires that are destroyed because of this trash

[KD @meetkd12]

You’re the best

[extra.email @extradotemail]

@meetkd12 because you asked so nicely... try code SOEXTRA. just dropped 10 more spots!

[KD @meetkd12]

@extradotemail so I’m a big app guy. I actually have an app to store a collection of apps that I want to check out and feed my app-etite.

I say all that because two reasons #1 I have severe ADHD.
#2 how about we let me get an invite

[KD @meetkd12]

@heynavtoor When you guys do this, especially on the same day, you know destroys any credibility you’ll ever have right?

[KD @meetkd12]

@heyalexmoore When you guys do this, especially on the same day, you know destroys any credibility you’ll ever have right?

[KD @meetkd12]

@SharkNinja can you guys make Cole’s honor this coupon? They gave me they won’t let me use it on a new shark vacuum. And it’s very frustrating because I want it. Please.

[Nav Toor @heynavtoor]

If you use TikTok, you should read this once.

In October 2024, a court clerk in Kentucky uploaded the lawsuit against TikTok with the confidential sections still visible. NPR downloaded it before anyone caught the mistake. By the time the court resealed it, the internet had a copy.

What was inside was TikTok's own engineers, in their own words, describing what their app does to a human brain.

Not a critic's brain. Yours.

Here is what they wrote down.

— TikTok ran the math on how long it takes to develop "compulsive use" of the app. The number is 260 videos. With 8-second videos played in rapid-fire succession, that works out to roughly 35 minutes. The company's internal documents call this the compulsive-use threshold.

— TikTok's own research describes what compulsive use causes: "diminished analytical ability, impaired memory, contextual reasoning, conversational depth, empathy, and heightened anxiety." That is not a quote from a critic. That is TikTok's own language, in its own internal documents.

— A team inside the company called "TikTank" wrote in an internal report that compulsive use on the platform was "rampant."

— After 30 minutes of continuous use in one sitting, the company's own documents state that users are placed into "filter bubbles" — algorithmic loops the user did not choose and cannot easily escape.

Then there is the screen-time tool — the one TikTok publicly markets as proof it cares.

— TikTok ran an experiment on the 60-minute screen-time prompt. Daily teen usage dropped from 108.5 minutes to 107. A reduction of 1.5 minutes.

— Internally, the screen-time tool was not measured by whether it reduced screen time. Its top success metric, in writing, was "improving public trust in the TikTok platform via media coverage."

— A project manager wrote in internal chat: "Our goal is not to reduce the time spent." Another employee added that the goal was "to contribute to daily active users and retention."

— A TikTok executive approved the screen-time feature only on the condition that its impact on the company's "core metrics" was minimal. The lawsuit alleges the company planned to "revisit the design" if the tool ever reduced usage by more than 10%.

The "Are you still scrolling?" break videos? An executive admitted in an internal meeting they were "useful talking points" for lawmakers, but "not altogether effective."

Then there is the algorithm itself.

— An internal report flagged that the For You feed was showing what the company called "a high volume of not attractive subjects." TikTok then retooled the algorithm to suppress those users. Kentucky authorities wrote: "By changing the TikTok algorithm to show fewer 'not attractive subjects' in the For You feed, [TikTok] took active steps to promote a narrow beauty norm even though it could negatively impact their Young Users."

That sentence is the entire pitch of the platform, said out loud.

— Internally, TikTok also acknowledged that its publicly reported content moderation metrics were "mostly misleading," because they only measured the content the company successfully moderated — never the content it missed.

Now read those bullet points again as one continuous case.

The company knows the addiction threshold. The company measured it. The company ranked engagement over mental health in writing. The company built a screen-time tool whose internal success metric was PR. The company suppressed people it deemed unattractive to keep you scrolling. The company called its own moderation numbers misleading.

None of this is a leaked rumor. None of this is a journalist's interpretation. This is a court filing. The documents are TikTok's. The words are TikTok's. The math is TikTok's.

The 14 state attorneys general who signed onto this lawsuit aren't fringe activists. They're a bipartisan coalition.

Sources at the bottom: NPR, CNN, AP, Mashable, OPB, The Independent. All citing the same accidentally-unsealed Kentucky filing from October 11, 2024.

The next time the company tells you it cares about your wellbeing — the screen-time prompts, the break videos, the safety features, the careful PR statements — remember that its own engineers wrote down, in court-admissible language, that the safeguards were never meant to work.

The app is not broken.

It is performing exactly as designed.

You were the spec.

[KD @meetkd12]

@Pittsburgh a couple years ago, while parked at a red light a fire truck literally hit the side of my car

The brain trust at City Hall told me, even though I was seated and not moving and then sideswiped by a fire truck it would take six months minimum to have my car fixed

[KD @meetkd12]

@HistoryCenter @Pittsburgh Could’ve just dropped a couple of those bucks into these big ass craters that are on the roads. Maybe that would’ve lessened the impact.

[KD @meetkd12]

@Pittsburgh @PghDOMI Wanna hire more crew to fix these fucking roads?

I am goddamn tired of blowing out Tires because of the incompetence of Fat assholes down there at City Hall. 14 tires in three years you guys owe me.

[KD @meetkd12]

@CoreyOConnorPA if my children are ever hurt because of the negligence on the repairs of these roads, I will proceed to hurt someone there in front of their kids.

Just fix the fucking roads

[KD @meetkd12]

@CoreyOConnorPA @PghDOMI @PGHDPW All these bike lanes but no dollars to pay for the damage these roads have caused to cars. Thanks for reminding me why I want to move

[KD @meetkd12]

@CoreyOConnorPA fix the roads or fix my tires

#2 flat tire in Pittsburgh this year.

Total 3 year count of Pittsburgh road damaged tires : 14.

Total reimbursement from Pittsburgh: $0

Can’t wait for the campaign donation pleas though

[KD @meetkd12]

@CoreyOConnorPA #3 this year!

Does someone have to actually die for you all to care about the road conditions in this fucking area? I wouldn’t invite you to my house or anything that I was in charge of and then kick your legs out and say pay for it yourself.
#pendotpayme

[KD @meetkd12]

@FellMentKE Every night I do it

[KD @meetkd12]

@doritmi Any & all references to thorough and unbiased testing is destroyed by the opioid epidemic. The system quite clearly can be manipulated by $$$

[KD @meetkd12]

@highbrow_nobrow Or we could blame the lack of education. BOE had millions to spend on that didn’t they?

[KD @meetkd12]

@fuqekgs You know a lot of newborns who brush their teeth & shave their legs?

[KD @meetkd12]

@DrNeilStone Real quick that your social intelligence is in the bottom 20% of the US & your marketing strategy is abysmal. You don’t understand how to relay a message a person will remember positively. You’re basically stupid beyond 12 books

[KD @meetkd12]

@DrNeilStone I have zero degree and have the ability to spebd more than 12 minutes on average diagnosing a persons full medical history before suggesting a drug 94% of the time. Your college degree messures your discipline in your 20s not your intelligence. If it did you would have learned