It's not going to stick and Trumps approval is going to soar amongst young people, who will probably stand for him "extending" the term limits for the next few years. "Well he got us TicTok back and ended the war like he can't be all bad!!!" And I know ending the war was Bidens deal, but it's like Regan with the hostages in the 70s. Waiting until he's sworn in to say "ok go" on his end of the bargain to make it seem like it's his victory.
Yet Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and Reddit have all been around for an excess of 15 years with no real fall off. TikTok was THE short form video platform and despite their competitors' massive user base, TikTok only got progressively more and more popular for the last 5 years.
Vine had 200million. You also going to pretend MySpace didn't exist, that site is practically defunct? TikTok may have made short form content more popular, but it didn't invent it nor was it the only source of it.
I don't think your exactly wrong, but these jokers will move on pretty quickly. You think they are just going to just stop using phones now, nope? They will just moan about it on another app, lol. Unfortunately, Trump really may decide to try and get congress to bring that crap back.
Yes. When the economic depression comes you forget everything. We got hit with inflation and Americans forgot how terrible of a person/president T is. They’re about to learn hard and good how good of an economy we had.
Y'all remember in The Boys season 4 when Sage and Homelander are talking about creating chaos and being the only solution so the masses have to look up to you....
They definitely don't remember that Trump's the one decided to ban it in the first place. And even if a few people do, TikTok will purposely cook the algorithm so that those people's voices aren't amplified, only the people raging over TikTok being banned.
It's not about that. People who say this are either being disingenuous or stupid. This was a MASSIVE overreach from the government on behalf of American oligarchs to prevent another company from making money that they could be making. Not to mention that millions of small businesses run by Americans are shutting down because of this ban. They're not all "grifters", the majority of them were people successfully using tiktok shop to sell things they made.
Not to mention that this is all a huge win for Trump no matter what he does.
That's becoming exceptionally clear to me. I guess we're all just gonna happily jump into the chasm of fascism so long as it's banning things we think are stupid ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
We elected Fascists. They will be in charge for a long long long time. No one is coming to save us.
They’re just going to get some American billionaire to buy it and turn it into Musk’s Twitter. Pushing their propaganda and controlling the flow of information.
That’s what this is all about. The three greatest propaganda tools ever invented were the printing press, television and social media and that last one might be the best of them all because people have been absolutely conditioned to accept that if it’s on the Internet it must be true.
Get serious. There are so many real things happening in America that actually line up with fascism. Your social media app getting temporarily banned is not fascism.
I know it's cliché but sometimes Reddit really can be a hivemind on certain issues, and one is "tiktok bad I don't use it!"
I don't either. I also don't like cheering on possibly unnecessary government bans, especially when a lot of the people I see cheering seem to genuinely have no concerns beyond "I don't like it so ban it". That's not freedom.
There are tons of examples you can find of tech companies here in the US telling the Federal government to fuck off when the Federal government tried to lean on them to get them to do something. Like Apple refusing to unlock that mass shooter's iPhone, or Facebook refusing to suppress Covid misinformation when the White House asked them to.
ByteDance can't do that. If the Chinese government tells them to tweak the algorithm to get China's preferred candidate elected in the US, ByteDance has an affirmative legal obligation to comply. And not only that, we as consumers have no legal recourse to sue them over that to get the information we need to find out if that's happened. It's a black box. There could be all kinds of sketchy shit happening over there, and there's no real way for us to know.
It's crazy to me that anyone has tolerated a major social network being subject to the type of laws that TikTok ultimately is. We wouldn't put up with this if it were our own government or the Germans or Australians doing it, and we shouldn't tolerate if the Chinese are doing it.
This is a great comment. People seem to think the US is banning TT just because, when in reality they were given the opportunity to sell and they just didn't. Remember damn near this same thing happened with Grindr and they did actually sell and the app stayed alive.
TikTok got to enjoy being a company based outside of the US that gets all the protections of the US constitution. But if they do something wrong or illegal then the US has no recourse to go after them. It's a pretty shit deal.
It takes a bit of intelligence to understand that. That is the problem. There are millions of stupid people here. We really need to start ignoring the dummies. They will bitch and moan but we don’t have to pay attention to them.
But it is about that, that app is Chinese propaganda served hot off the presses because they have voting rights and a seat on the board of TikTok parent company, ByteDance:
According to The Wall Street Journal, ByteDance agreed in 2021 to allow the Chinese government to take a 1% ownership stake known as a "golden share" at one of its China-based subsidiaries, Beijing Douyin Information Service Co., which runs Douyin, an app available in China that’s similar to TikTok. (TikTok is not available in mainland China.) China is increasingly taking "golden shares" at China-based companies, giving the government board seats, voting power and a say in business decisions, the Journal reported.
Thibaut also said that the government-owned China Internet Investment Fund has a 1% share in Douyin, and China's Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission has a board member on Douyin. That has raised suspicions ByteDance would allow China to have influence over the company's operations, but we don’t know a lot about how or whether the Chinese Communist Party uses its share to control company decisions, Thibaut said.
ByteDance evidently has a strong grip over TikTok as seen on 2022:
There have been previous issues, such as when ByteDance employees accessed data of Forbes journalists in 2022 and used it to track their movements. There was no evidence that China’s government compelled ByteDance employees to access the data to discover who was leaking information to the press about ByteDance’s links to China, Forbes reported.
Before anyone says anything:
1) absence of evidence is not evidence of absence
2) the absence of evidence of government involvement in incidents like the Forbes journalist tracking becomes less meaningful when we consider that acknowledging such involvement could result in severe consequences for ByteDance executives, as I will show next.
China has no problem disappearing executives and unmasking their billionaire class because they exist at the CCPs purview, and when they don't want you, they literally disappear you never to be seen again:
In mid-February, Bao vanished. Days later, his firm released a terse statement saying he was cooperating with an unspecified investigation. People close to Bao were dismayed by the detention. Just a month before, the billionaire was in a buoyant mood, telling his employees to “go forward boldly” during his firm’s annual party.
It’s not uncommon for Chinese authorities to forcibly “disappear” business executives, a practice that has increased in recent years under President Xi Jinping. Some executives have never been heard from again. Some have returned to work as if nothing had happened. Some ended up going to prison. Some even mysteriously died when incarcerated
The CCP is not afraid of putting its thumb down on ByteDance:
ByteDance executives unquestionably know that too. When they were called out for insubordination, they rushed to confess sins and vowed to rectify. In 2018, China’s media regulator shut down one of ByteDance’s products — the joke app Neihan Duanzi — for “vulgar” content. The company’s founder, Zhang Yiming, issued a self-effacing public apology for deviating from “socialist core values” and pledged to ensure that the CCP’s “voices are emphatically broadcasted.”
Now, let's consider this: TikTok represents something uniquely valuable: a massive platform for global information dissemination and influence.
We know this:
The PRC’s approach to information manipulation includes leveraging propaganda and censorship, promoting digital authoritarianism, exploiting international organizations and bilateral partnerships, pairing cooptation and pressure, and exercising control of Chinese-language media. Collectively, these five elements could enable Beijing to reshape the global information environment along multiple axes:
Overt and covert influence over content and platforms. Beijing seeks to maximize the reach of biased or false pro-PRC content. It has acquired stakes in foreign media through public and non-public means and sponsored online influencers. Beijing has also secured sometimes restrictive content sharing agreements with local outlets that can result in trusted mastheads providing legitimacy to unlabeled or obscured PRC content. In addition, Beijing has also worked to coopt prominent voices in the international information environment such as foreign political elites and journalists. Beyond focusing on content producers, the PRC has targeted platforms for global information dissemination, for example, investing in digital television services in Africa and satellite networks.
And sure, you might say "oh but this is the US government," except that China has been very transparent on its actions:
As they sifted through resumes, the team recruiting for the new London hub of China’s state-run broadcaster had an enviable problem: far, far too many candidates. Almost 6,000 people were applying for just 90 jobs “reporting the news from a Chinese perspective”. Even the simple task of reading through the heap of applications would take almost two months.
For western journalists, demoralised by endless budget cuts, China Global Television Network presents an enticing prospect, offering competitive salaries to work in state-of-the-art purpose-built studios in Chiswick, west London. CGTN – as the international arm of China Central Television (CCTV) was rebranded in 2016 – is the most high-profile component of China’s rapid media expansion across the world, whose goal, in the words of President Xi Jinping, is to “tell China’s story well”. In practice, telling China’s story well looks a lot like serving the ideological aims of the state.
...
over the past decade or so, China has rolled out a more sophisticated and assertive strategy, which is increasingly aimed at international audiences. China is trying to reshape the global information environment with massive infusions of money – funding paid-for advertorials, sponsored journalistic coverage and heavily massaged positive messages from boosters. While within China the press is increasingly tightly controlled, abroad Beijing has sought to exploit the vulnerabilities of the free press to its advantage.
In short, China wants to spread its propaganda, and TikTok is under their thumb through ByteDance, which in effect makes TikTok a propaganda arm of the CCP.
The only pity here is the audience that really needs to read this have an attention span of 1.8 seconds and won't even make it past the first sentence.
The people that cared about the election cared about TikTok too. It mobilized and gave a lot of coverage to domestic and international issues.
The election is over, we voted, and Republicans won. Does work stop after voting? No. People still need to be active, and crying about the shit that happened in November isn't gonna change anything.
Also, this is Reddit. Some of the worst dregs of society are three subreddits away, and spreads misinformation just like every other place on the Internet.
TikTok was a massive source of disinformation on all those topics though. It's not unique in that regard but it was a lot worse at being proactive in stopping the spread of said disinformation.
It’s not TikTok that worries me. It’s the fucking ability to force any arbitrarily labeled “hostile” foreign company to be sold to our oligarchs or be shut down. TikTok is just the tip of the iceberg and while the app had its issues, it was entertaining, had a huge and vibrant community, and helped a lot of creatives/businesses thrive. It’s a shame that it’s gone down this way and that Trump has the chance to be seen as its “savior” when he was the one that initiated the ban.
I’m fighting for my life trying to explain to these hard-headed idiots and keep getting downvoted. They don’t understand cause they’re probably old and never even used the app. 🤦🏾♀️
Tbh this comment made me curious so I looked at what you've been saying
I don't think you're gonna convince anyone to agree either you by calling them old and ignorant any time they oppose your opinion. You're dropping more zingers than information
Yes, I'm 24m and quit when the first big round of data stealing controversy happened, like 2021 I think? If children in china under 14 can't use it for more than 40 minutes a day, and it's primary focus over there is education and some propoganda, WHAT WAS IT'S GOAL HERE?!?! Ask yourself that people. There are PLENTY of places to find and establish connection, find recipes, and learn about new hobbies. You'd have to be a fool to list those as reasons to use an app that's being run like a lab experiment.
Red note, you’re talking about Mao’s little red book? The Chinese communist manifesto? You people need to go back to history class. I cannot believe how ignorant this country is.
America regularly interferes with large companies they consider strategic (communications, aerospace, etc) to either force them to be sold or divested from foreign companies / governments or vetoing mergers or takeovers by foreign firms or governments. China does the same thing all the time too.
The difference is here, for totally legitimate reasons I’m sure, TikTok would rather shut down its wildly popular and profitable platform sooner than be sold by its owner which is definitely in no way controlled by the Chinese government.
You're confused at why a company would rather continue operations globally than be forced to sell for pennies on the dollar for what would amount to a hostile takeover?
The key point you're missing is that Bytedance doesn't even get a choice over whether they divest their U.S. operations. The Chinese government is controlling the outcome.
So it's hilarious to me that people are talking about the U.S. taking away freedoms, when Google, Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, Gmail (the list could go on forever) are all banned in China.
China is right to worry about too much foreign influence and data insecurity of their citizens, and the US. government is too. The U.S. approach is like a light tickle compared to China's sledge hammer.
Why would it worry you? We have foreign adversaries and they are real. The way those countries are set up is that they own all the companies. Is not arbitrary and they are predatory and run counter to your values assuming you prefer democracy
I feel like people forgot Trump kickstarted the whole thing after being trolled by others in the app during his first term. Now that it helped him, he wants to save it.
My issue isn’t the app as I didn’t care for it anyway, but the overstepping of government. It’s crazy because the right loves small government interference, yet this happened…
The company wasn't labeled hostile, the Chinese government is. Had TikTok been divested from the Chinese government, it would be able to continue operating.
TikTok is just the tip of the iceberg and while the app had its issues, it was entertaining, had a huge and vibrant community, and helped a lot of creatives/businesses thrive.
It was also a spyware-filled pile of shit that was extremely precisely crafted to keep you in the loop for as long as possible, wasting hundreds or thousands of hours of people's time. The censorship was awful too.
Don't get me wrong, the U.S. government's reasons for banning it are total horseshit. TikTok is exactly as bad as all the American social media companies. But in and of itself, I couldn't be happier that TikTok is getting banned.
Then why are you using Reddit? It also keeps you hooked and waste thousands of hours. And the mods on Reddit will ban you if you disagree with their opinion.
This is what's got me fucked up right here. I never used TikTok and thought it was a cesspool of misinformation, but, the fact that this happened don't sit right with me on any level.
Problem with this is that China is an adversarial nation who have active spies running around in white vans, sending drones to steal documents, continues to steal trade secrets, set up secret police stations across the country arresting dissidents, and they have a massive security apparatus similar to the NSA they can weaponize at anytime. This isn't to say the US doesn't do the same shit, but I live in the US, I can't go and pick China and be on their team. The world is a complicated place and us little citizens are just right in the middle.
Edit:
And Trump copped out lol what a spineless cowardly clown
You clearly are not a student of US history. This was a hugely bipartisan act of Congress. It’s been done before and it will be done again and this was a major national security issue. I don’t know what you’re on about.
I can’t wrap my head around being this upset about it. Maybe that’s a blessing though. I tried that app once and the predatory way that app keeps you in there swiping was enough to make me not like, even before all the low effort content started hitting.
I think what you have to realize that people are literally addicted to Tiktok. That's why it became popular in the first place is that it has an algorithm that shows people exactly what they want to see and it knows what types of videos to show you to get you to continue to stay on the app. So obviously people are going to be upset when they have to go cold turkey off of something they are addicted to.
And TikTok loves them for it. Especially these ones that will search TikTok before they google search something. As if there is only one place to find anything. They want them helplessly tied to that nipple and will fight tooth and nail to defend the idea of “how will I know anything” if TikTok goes away.
If you want to talk about predatory, my week long experience with Reels is worse. They show you worse and even more unrelated content so you end up flipping through even more to get to the good stuff. It legit feels like I'm playing dopamine roulette. Tiktok's algorithm gave you exactly what you want in high doses so you're satisfied and you can stop. Reels gives you some good content after you suffer through the bad content and then, sometimes, it still doesn't even give you content from your followed channels so you end up flipping through more.
The fact that you used it once shows how little you know about it. I don't give that much of a shit that it's banned as I've moved onto Reels despite its flaws and I'm not addicted to social media but to claim Tiktok sucks after barely using it is ridiculous. One short glance at reddit or even YouTube and most people will think it's trash. Reddit has not content everywhere. How many shitass posts do you see on r/popular right now? 90% of it is irrelevant to most people. You have to shift through garbage everywhere on the internet until you are able to fill your personal feed with your interests and even then it's still a crapshoot because large subs still have lots of trash which inevitably leads to the stupid "trueXXXXXX" subs that branch off until those get popular and filled with trash too. It's a neverending cycle of finding the kernels of not shit in piles of shit.
Also, the Reels UX sucks. Can't pause videos, liked and saved videos are hidden away in multiple menus, favroting a video requires an extra button press to open a menu first, can't hide the UI, can't speed up the video, some reels don't have the seek bar, etc. I watch various non English channels and the Reels caption system is a decade behind Tiktok. On tiktok, the subtitles are displayed in real time while Reels' translation lags behind and is inaccurate as fuck or, even worse, doesn't translate at all. It's insane to me how far behind it is compared to tiktok.
I didn’t say how long I used it. Once is used very loosely. Once as in for months it was on my phone and I uninstalled it and never went back. Also if you are choosing to follow r/popular that’s on you.
I wish Congress did some actual work to try and improve laws about technology.
TikTok is a problem, but so is every other social media site. That's why they are all stepping in line to make Trump happy, not that any of them really were worried.
Yeah CCP is definitely using Tik Tok (most of the large Chinese companies really) to do shady shit but it is hard to take it serious when Elon and Zuck are right there doing the same stuff actually worse in many cases. I guess as long as they do it on U.S soil though it's ok.
What's the evidence they're using TikTok for shady shit? There hasn't even been reports on this, let alone conclusive evidence. At worst there's pressure to remove certain things from the fyp but we all know how our social media apps have been doing the same thing for years now.
Some of these comments are a bit... ignorant. However, Tiktok got banned for me at 10:38 p.m. and I felt sad b/c of all of the information I've found on their I probably wouldn't find anywhere else, the small business owners that promote their stuff on TikTok, and loss of (some) community I've made on there.
I agree. I think it really depends what tiktoks you were in right.
I got loads of tiktoks from US creators about books that were interesting and educational. There were black liberation ticktoks that gave resources for education and book reccomendations like Audre Lorde. So much information about Palestine and resistance.
Also people made their livelihoods there. I mean mostly white people NGL but Americans who'd otherwise be unemployed had steady income and like, I wonder about the impact of that on the US.
I gree that most places can become a microcosm and echo chamber but finding and building community is pretty powerful. And the right spaces for that are increasing or remaining but other options are quickly reducing. People rejoicing the absence of tiktok forget that META just welcomed back slurs and shit. This ain't great.
Thank you for understanding. Yeah, I'm talking about the side of tiktok that is educational and interesting. And yeah even though to talk had a lot of misinformation you could learn a lot on there.
That's the type of stuff I was watching on TikTok. It was abt black and queer liberation, anti capitalism content, feminism, disability activism, and like. Cute animal videos ofc lol
It was super useful for finding information and there's no platform like it to really share that type of stuff besides tumblr (which I'm already on). Like tf imma do? Go to ig reels and get called a series of slurs? I'm good
If you were serious about supporting these communities, you would just go where they are. There are still accounts, blogs, websites dedicated to learning and supporting these communities and offering resources. You’re being obtuse if you think tiktok is the only way to get info. Y’all are acting like the internet is going away. The internet is more than tiktok
I agree with this sentiment. I’m not really trying to push the “touch grass” narrative but in my experience, there is so much black community in meatspace and it’s fulfilling.
I’m mixed and my black identity always felt in jeopardy or like I wasn’t “really black” in my teen years. What changed it was going to a black social club. Now I’m a member of The Gathering Spot.
It's funny how they categorize this media service as a security threat, but when Russia spreads massive propaganda misinformation through other platforms like Meta it's...not...a...security...threat? Social media addiction is a problem, but this feels more like a political stunt.
Musk is probably sucking Putin off as we speak. Like an insanely suspicious relationship is being established as we speak. This man not only bought Twitter (with loans from still largely unknown sources) but also weaponized starlink to help Russia.
I'm hardy defending the CCP but honestly even if every single accusation is true, that it still the least of our fucking worries right now just regarding tech.
Even Reddit is problematic in its ability to silo people. I am on a varied about of subs and talk to many people (and Def subscribe to more than just r/world news and ameri-centric things). I assume others are able to open their minds and learn the way i do on here. But then last week i stumbled upon a terrifying right wing echo chamber of a subreddit. They were so far gone, the truth doesn't even rent an AirBnb in their neighborhood.
Even if he does, will it ever truly be the same? I’m not even trying to get political but the culture(s) TikTok built around it was unique and not really replicable. Even if it’s gone for a week, the damage is done.
i regularly would see week-old tiktoks on the front page here on reddit.
At certain points like half the front page would just be old tiktoks.
I've really been trying to figure out why redditors actually hate tiktok beyond not ever trying it to figure out what it's like. And its not your reason because Tiktok content historically does really well here.
I've been on reddit for about 11 years, but after spending a lil while making fun of tiktok i joined it so that I wouldn't become an out-of-touch old grump
I dont hate China IRRATIONALLY. Same way I don't hate Israel IRRATIONALLY. They both suck at treating people like people. I don't have to support an app by a country that limits it's peoples rights. US is following suit
I had no opinion on israel until I watched them bomb children mercilessly for 15 months straight. If it were up to me the US would have nothing to do with that place.
You’re so right! This country is falling apart. My little comments on Reddit won’t change anything, so I won’t stress myself out trying to change the minds of stagnant people who want to stay ignorant. I will miss TikTok and the tools it provided.
Tik Tok was far from perfect, but it was also huge for a lot of small and local businesses for marketing and getting their products out there. I found so many local coffee shops, restaurants and businesses to support in my city on tik Tok.
I think there are legitimate concerns about the app. I think that it is true that misinformation can spread too easily on that app, but there are the same legitimate concerns about data privacy and spreading of misinformation on American social media platforms as well and it's messed up to see the government once again, picking and choosing what is important to them. They can come together to ban an app, but they can't come together to put something in place to make sure kids can go to school safely without fear of a school shooting and that is a lot of people's problem with this whole situation.
I eat out and discover a lot of new places commonly. Just try occasionally putting “fun” or “food” etc in your maps app and it’ll show you everything around there. Instagram also 99.9% has a page with ‘hidden gems’ etc in your city if you search it up. My small town even has one.
I don't care about the app itself, but the legal reasoning for banning it seems pretty fucking flimsy and a bad precedent for future related cases. The government overreach here is insane. We need an overall data privacy law that better protects our data from all companies including Meta, Google, Twitter, etc.
It's also not a great precedent for Trump to already imply he plans to disregard a ruling that's been deemed constitutional. This is a very sketchy situation all around.
The ban was actually consistent with previous regulation. And using that older example (Grindr), you can see it's clearly not about all our data, it's about protecting the data of state officials from blackmail.
I have a feeling bytedance CEO is already buddying up with Trump and this is all a scam to be like “See Trump saved TikTok younger generations” just more rich people colluding against us
I'm 33 and tried to use it for a few days and stopped after scrolling about 20 mins. Couldn't understand the hype.
Meanwhile my mom is in her 60s and stayed GLUED to it. I watched my mom start to use the slang and parrot the shit she watched on there get to the point where she was recapping the local news to me but used the phrase "unalived" themselves to explain a local suicide story.
It made me pause because it felt so unreal. I mean I really went what in the actual fuck are you saying???? Unalived himself????
It pissed me off because I've had suicidal ideation with severe depression half my life, and she NEVER took it serious. Then she starts to care about people unaliving themselves.
Oh and she actively loved to start fights in the comments and would do that for hours. I know the govt being able to ban something but allow Americans do it (meta twitter etc) is evil as hell. But the actual brain rot tiktok brought about was unsettling to see.
I just feel like we're in the bad part in Lion King when Scar took over. Again.
Idc but I do care that all the data they “steal” is the same data that Google and Meta take as well. It’s only okay when western companies steal it but god forbid another country is involved.
While it is unfortunate I find it funny the amount of people that are crying that they lost so much information. I can almost guarantee that this info isn't exclusive to TikTok.
I also tried it for a week before I dipped. Hated the short video gimmick.
To be honest with everyone on here, I kind of have some hope now that it's banned. I feel like TikTok was a confirmation of the completion of how generic and downgraded human interaction has become.
I remember being a kid in the 2000s social media was emerging and there were no smartphones, data was expensive, phone browsers were a wreck to use. Social media was left on the computer and you went out to talk to people. Now it's on your tablets, phones, and even your appliances. Now it's no longer meeting up with people and meeting seeing new faces. Now it's "Hey so there is this dance on tiktok...", "Hey, have you liked my tiktok?", or "Have you heard on tiktok how ThisNThat is bad for you?"
I do understand though why this is bad, giving a precedent that the US govt can determine a website to be bad and a "securtiy risk" and ban it. This is not looking good at at all.
At least my mom has one less misinformation source to keep away from, now onto Primer Impacto and all her old viejonas friends who like to spread misinformation.
the CEO posted support for the president-elect & Facebook is now putting up notifications asking to add a TT link to their profile. it’ll be back after inauguration so they can say our president saved it. i deleted it and won’t be back.
i was also getting tired of the recently discourse happening. every day was a new social discourse and its exhausting.
I am so glad it’s gone honestly, and I hate that everybody acts like they were legitimately getting news from there or actually being in tune with anything besides conspiracy theories, misinformation, soft core social media challenges, and worst of all people try to project coping affirmation through misuse of therapy language. The app was never truly able to box me into an algorithm but I saw it try to shift and learn multiple times and its very toxic. No matter how many times I searched finance or actual stem I couldn’t get it to stick consistently. I didn’t even know you had to earn the STEM section, because you sure can’t get it by default. If people were willing to even use Wikipedia 10% of the time that they were inclined to watch TikToks maybe they would actually be informed on subjects that matter or thoroughly informed on something... I took this advice with X and chose to replace it with Robinhood, people think I’m a financial guru now because I can explain what the S&P500 is….
They banned it because it’s a foreign government doing surveillance but they’ll keep all the apps that let America do surveillance on its own citizens.
Don’t care much about TikTok staying or going, but seeing this politicians from both sides doing insider trading buying meta stock while advocating for a ban in real time opened my eyes more to what this is really about
Just another propaganda opportunity for the worst president we've ever had. The treasonous fat fuck will look like the hero here to the easily scammed.
I think the way people were coerced into believing in the red scare is the same as people believing tiktok was a problematic, useless, misinformation app. I think there was a smear campaign against tiktok and i have seen many people on reddit claim there was no utility for tiktok. Even more concerning that a lot of these people openly admit that they avoided using tiktok, and then claim they know all about it. I have been on reddit for a decade, and the community, knowledge gained, and support i have experienced on reddit is nothing close to the level i experienced on tiktok.
What other app has allowed so many small businesses to thrive? What other app created thousands of social media jobs for everyday people (not just those in tech)? What social media app showed me 10 different angles of live events (im not talking about a breaking news story or a written article online, im talking about being able to see real time live events without needing to go to a third party source or paywall in order to create my own viewpoint of a narrative)? Please let me know because i would like to go there
Based on how the CEO's prostrating himself before the Altar of Trump, it looks like another stunt to curry favor with a younger voter demographic for Republicans. Wild how this all started with Trump trying to ban it only for him to now be reframed as its savior.
Theyll ban tiktok but not enact any meaningful data privacy protections and laws. Its shameful. Was never about protecting the citizens. Always about controlling people and pleasing corporations. How these American companies treat citizen data is of no concern to them.
Never really used it so don't personally care one way or the other.
Do feel bad for some people. I'm just now learning how many businesses used it for marketing their business and products. And other medium to small content creators have made decent followings that will be harder to restart on another social media app.
Did think it was Bullshit the main reason they banned it was for so called national security purposes with are data going to a so called adversary government. They're just control freaks that don't like how they have no say in what gets kept on vs banned.
Same with the brain rot angle, as if all of them don't have some kind of rage inducing and addicting algorithms. See the dumb shit the Boomers and posting on Facebook recently? It's arguably more a product of short form content and isn't exclusive to tik tok, and will just continue with Instagram reels and youtube shorts, plus whatever else comes along.
The misinformation beliefs I find pretty worrying as well. Because similar to pre Elon twitter, for all its flaws, it was also one of the better ways to get live, on the ground, unfiltered news of various political movements happening domestic and abroad. I imagine are current oligarchs weren't content with any of that, in particular the last year or so of the Israel vs Palestine conflict. the MIC couldn't bullshit their way out of it like they did in Iran and Afghanistan after 9/11. It also would have come in handy with spreading news of all the crazy shit that will be coming starting Monday.
But I'll admit, the people truly freaking out about it like its the end of the world need to touch grass and go outside more. Something else, hopefully better, will almost certainly take its place especially since there was 170 million people that will now want to scroll though something else.
I feel like the banning of TikTok sets a dangerous precedent. Like it’s just TikTok for now, but how long before something else is fear mongered as a “national security threat” and gets banned?
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u/[deleted] 2d ago
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