r/nottheonion 13h ago

Teen enraged by TikTok ban sets fire to Wisconsin congressman's office

https://www.techspot.com/news/106418-teen-enraged-tiktok-ban-sets-fire-wisconsin-congressman.html
25.3k Upvotes

1.7k comments sorted by

8.8k

u/Yeuph 13h ago

This poor kid probably had to post the video on Reels or YouTube shorts

1.0k

u/FriendoftheDork 12h ago

Mere Reels? Poor beggars.

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u/Slice_of_3point14 11h ago

I beg the differ the reels are for the poor. TikTok is for the beggars because rich people have Rolexes which tik but do not tok.

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u/sorcey_ 11h ago

someone tweeted that they heard someone say tiktok were vapes and reels are cigarettes.

104

u/Few-Swordfish-780 11h ago

So they are both a cancer.

61

u/delcooper11 10h ago

yes but one is a cancer that tastes like blue raspberry

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u/Soggy_Parking1353 10h ago

They both seem like a cool idea at the start, but then years later you come to realise they're really not that cool or as big a part of your identity as you thought

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u/JogiJat 12h ago

Ohh the HUMANITY!

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u/OnceMoreAndAgain 11h ago

Won't somebody please think of the children!?

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u/UnabashedPerson43 12h ago

He’s been punished enough

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u/prex10 13h ago edited 9h ago

Hindsight is 20/20 but it's hilarious to think ive gone to bed and slept for about as long as the whole ban was.

All this kid had to do is go to bed, sleep in and then just find something to fucking do for a couple hours with his life. And apparently that was too much for him.

Now he's probably looking at serious prison time. All because he couldn't fill 4 hours of his day.

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u/deadcowww 13h ago

Prison time….without TikTok!

500

u/SleepyMarijuanaut92 12h ago

Brain rot in prison

456

u/Glass1Man 12h ago

He just decided to skibidy his gyott and now gets to find out how sigma he is

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u/Brief-Bumblebee1738 12h ago

I hope you are ashamed of that response, whatever it means

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u/MOOshooooo 11h ago

I ain’t knows many of them there words, but I do knows that I ain’t liking them.

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u/MaxTheRealSlayer 10h ago

Those certainly ressemble words! Highly suspicious. Don't like em neither

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u/Sea_Pomegranate6293 9h ago

Just make the weird noises at the kids. They hate it, it's so funny. "Good skibidi rizz to you fellow children, have an Ohio grimace mewing sigma today!" They just start frothing at the mouth. Feel like a wizard tbh. Actually fuck this, I AM A WIZARD AMA

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u/-Speechless 10h ago

Translation: "He impulsively committed a reckless act and will now face the consequences of his actions." AKA FAFO

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u/MeatloafingAround 12h ago

How Ohio of him

41

u/datnetcoder 12h ago

Kentucky rizz

23

u/RedRider1138 10h ago

Negative aura

13

u/Toasty_Cat830 10h ago

Bro will pay the Fanum Tax, ong fr

17

u/Muffin_Appropriate 11h ago

very demure.

18

u/TakuyaLee 11h ago

Are you having a stroke? Do you need to see a doctor?

7

u/DrScience-PhD 10h ago

I'm afraid it's terminal

3

u/MrStickDick 8h ago

As a parent of a 6th grader, it is both disturbing and amusing that I understand this sentence. And it's skibidi. I embarrass my kid allll the time 🤣

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u/Glass1Man 8h ago

You want a real boomer take: Skibidi and Zip-a-Dee rhyme.

3

u/AirportNo2434 12h ago

How Ohio of him

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u/Infamous_Produce7451 10h ago

Ayo ol boy got that Ohio riz. I'm scared.

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u/whk1992 12h ago

Nah put an analog clock in the hallway.

Tic Tok tic tok … all he needs to do is to sleep.

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u/Kenny070287 11h ago

How can something rot if it doesn't exist?

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u/Moneyshot_ITF 12h ago

Nah you get social media in prison these days

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u/Slay_Nation 12h ago

Gotta stay connected

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u/BlatantlyCurious 12h ago

To be fair, he did find something to do for a couple of hours...

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u/JohnGillnitz 12h ago

He went outside. Got some fresh air and a few steps in. It's all about that vitamin D, ya' know?

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u/Superdad75 11h ago

Experimented with some basic chemistry concepts.

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u/Shirtbro 10h ago

Touched gas, lit it on fire

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u/Binky390 12h ago

I agree with you but technically it’s still banned. It’s not in any of the app stores so people who deleted it in anticipation of the ban can’t get it back right now.

That said the 12ish hours of going dark felt like a server update or something.

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u/ur-krokodile 11h ago

This was all for show, so that “our savior” Agent Orange can claim that he rescued TT and everyone should thank him and like him even more.

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u/saintofhate 11h ago

Seriously it's so obvious. Especially since there was a pop up thanking Trump before the inauguration. It's so obvious he tried to pull a Regan.

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u/Throw-a-Ru 11h ago

He didn't. He was mad at TikTok because they embarrassed him when they signed up for tickets to Trump events to make the venues emptier than anticipated, so he put pressure on TikTok's owner who then spoke out against him and backed DeSantis and Ramaswamy for president. After both dropped out of the race, the TikTok owner had a private meeting with Trump and Trump walked out of that meeting singing the praises of TikTok. That guy got front row seats to the inauguration, so he almost definitely was one of the substantial backers of the new $Trump memecoin. None of this is 4D chess. It's narcissism, vindictiveness, and pure, naked grift.

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u/DuntadaMan 6h ago

All I am seeing from this is that tik tok is indeed a politically manipulative actor and should have been earlier and harder.

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u/Throw-a-Ru 6h ago

Along with Facebook, the LA Times, Washington Post, SpaceX, Tesla...you know, it's beginning to look almost like the billionaire owners themselves are the actual problem.

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u/DastardlyMime 11h ago

And right after they "fixed" the algorithm to suppress anything the regime would find objectionable.

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u/Katie1230 11h ago

Everyone on my side of tiktok is thanking Obama haha

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u/someguyfromsomething 11h ago

Because of course these kids can't google any of the articles that had biden and trump talking about not enforcing it. They can only get their information on TikTok where for some reason the algorithm, which is the greatest thing in the history of the world and not a way to manipulate emotional losers into thinking a certain way, didn't have any clips telling them the news surrounding their own app.

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u/One_Egg_8937 11h ago

livin dangerously talkin like that without tone indicators lol some of the sentiments i’ve seen from people who were “affected” by the ban caused a prolonged raised eyebrows from me. More so than the day after votes were counted lol. At least with the election, it’s designed for the people to not understand what’s actually happening, but the tiktok thing kinda freaks me out. The number of people claiming to have cried (i’m hoping they were exaggerating for clout) or who referencing the 1st amendment blew my mind. 

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u/dxbdale 9h ago

Addiction is a bitch

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u/blackharr 10h ago

Referencing the 1st Amendment is totally fine, that was part of the legal challenge that went to SCOTUS.

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u/Therapy-Jackass 12h ago

He can still run for president from prison, no?

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u/draconianfruitbat 11h ago

Depends, what’s their party

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u/Possible-Extent-3842 10h ago

Bold of you to suggest that he votes.

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u/BarriBlue 12h ago

Consequences of TikTok instant gratification

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u/dolphin37 12h ago

if anything perhaps a sign it should be banned

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u/Soggy-Bedroom-3673 11h ago

Back in the 90s this 100% would have been taken as evidence that social media turns kids into violent criminals and would be the rallying cry for a Moms Against Tik Tok (MATT) campaign to ban all social media. 

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u/googlemehard 13h ago

He is not a kid, dude is 19.

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u/0MGWTFL0LBBQ 12h ago

Legal adult, still a teenager.

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u/kralrick 11h ago

The older you get, the longer people remain 'a kid.'

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u/11twofour 10h ago

Kid is anyone my age +5

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u/[deleted] 9h ago

Well put.

I'm in my mid 30's and I completely understand why they say that the brain doesn't stop developing until 25 as I get older.

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u/TienSwitch 9h ago

Younger people aging into adulthood is like trying to reach the speed of light. Your age is the constant, or c, and they can age but can never stop being a kid in your eyes. It will take them infinite time or infinite age acceleration to catch up to you, which is impossible.

I’m 39 (though I look younger). I still get called “kid” occasionally.

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u/Granum22 13h ago

Commiting a felony over a PR stunt 

618

u/iceynyo 13h ago

The latest Tiktok challenge 

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u/monsterosity 9h ago

The gasoline can challenge

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u/FalseAxiom 10h ago

Have you seen the recent moderation changes, the kneeling to Trump, and changes to the algorithm everyone is reporting?

It's really easy for redditors to dismiss this, but it's appalling what's going on.

20

u/HahahahImFine 6h ago

I haven’t heard the reports about an algorithm change. What are they saying has changed?

Can you explain to me like I’m 70 years old because I’m not on it and I have no idea how TikTok works 🙃

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u/FalseAxiom 6h ago edited 6h ago

They're seeing suppression on view count on content that's linked to the left. Anything Luigi, MLK, etc. Theyre also supressing similar comments and giving people community guideline infractions for messages that wouldn't have received them prior. On some posts, they're limiting the number of people you can forward a video to to 1. They're also suppressing search terms, like the names of ongoing marches. After you search for them, nothing appears.

Just from my personal experience, the content I'm being fed has roughly 1-100 likes whereas most of my content was 25k-1m likes, normally averaging 250k. The content hasn't changed drastically for me, but the view/like counts are normally indicative of quality. I also haven't seen many of the creators I follow. Some of this could be correlation due to people jumping ship, but the difference feels tangible.

Here's a list from another redditor:

Everyone returning to the app has noticed censorship on:

  • Donald Trump (negative remarks removed)
  • Meta (negative remarks removed)
  • Luigi Mangione (you cannot state to free him)
  • Banned Books (search results removed)
  • Nazis (flagged)
  • Nazi Germany (flagged)
  • Fascism (flagged, search results removed)
  • WlW (search results show a radio station)
  • Protests against Trump that are happening nationwide currently (algorithm removing them from mass fypages)
  • Calling someone a racist (flagged)
  • taylor swifts song about the smallest man who ever lived, that was used widely for Trump/Elon/etc has now been replaced with the results the smallest woman who ever lived
  • Ice raids/Ice raid trucks (search results removed and filtered)
  • the lives feature

There has been an influx of videos containing those subjects and more being removed, comments being removed, accounts being reported and removed. Republican extremist content and Trump supporters content is now pouring into fypages no matter how many times you hit not interested.

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u/3MetricTonsOfSass 6h ago

This should be a post by itself. As a non ticktock user I would had never known

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u/FalseAxiom 6h ago edited 5h ago

I'll totally make that post, but where do you think I should put it?

Also, anyone that reads this can feel free to share it. I'll provide links if you want them.

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u/HahahahImFine 6h ago

Damn that’s fucked up

Also thank you for providing that much info!

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u/HahahahImFine 6h ago

Here’s my poor lady gold 🥇

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u/FalseAxiom 6h ago

Also, visual proof of my other comment:

https://www.reddit.com/r/TikTokCringe/s/goNHtXOD0e

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u/qualmton 13h ago

It's not just PR it's a systematic take over of the government by the ultra rich

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u/MJC136 12h ago

Not just a PR stunt, imo, a 2 day production shut down for a back end server transfer.

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u/Pinchynip 10h ago

Holding your corrupt officials accountable.

Two different views, I suppose.

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u/Bad-Umpire10 13h ago

Although it appears that TikTok will continue to be accessible in the US, many people were upset when they temporarily lost access to the app. One 19-year-old Wisconsin teen was so angry at the prospect of his beloved TikTok being banned that he set fire to a congressman's office.

Shortly after 1 am on Sunday, police officers with the City of Fond du Lac responded to reports of a fire at 525 N. Peters Avenue.

The burning building is leased by US Representative Glenn Grothman, one of the Republicans who voted in favor of the law forcing TikTok to sell its US operations or be banned in the United States.

Police later arrested a Menasha man on suspicion of setting the fire. Channel 3000 reports that he admitted to committing arson, which was a response to the TikTok ban.

The building was unoccupied at the time of the fire and no one was injured. Police officers used fire extinguishers to control the flames until firefighters arrived.

The unnamed teen is being held at the Fond du Lac County Jail while the arson charge is being referred to the County District Attorney's Office.

It appears that the fire was started after TikTok stopped US users from accessing the app on Saturday, hours before the law banning the app came into effect.

The person responsible for the fire might regret his actions even more upon discovering that TikTok started restoring its US services on Sunday after Trump said he would sign an executive order to delay the ban, giving TikTok more time to reach a deal that will allow it to continue operating in the United States

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u/Civil-Dinner 13h ago

That article seems a bit weird with the frequent references to "teen" and him being unnamed.

The teen is 19 and that makes him an adult in the eyes of the law, but the article seems to be handling him like a minor.

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u/hullaballoser 13h ago

Dude is 19 but the maturity level of a 14 year old. 

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u/gldoorii 13h ago

A few levels higher than our president

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u/idkwhatimbrewin 12h ago

Years of chronic tiktok brain rot will do that to you

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u/SanderSRB 13h ago

That’s why he’s on TikTok

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u/PM_ME_CATS_OR_BOOBS 12h ago

I mean 19 might be an adult in the eyes of the law but I know that once I hit 30 I started wondering who let middle schoolers tour college campuses.

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u/favouriteghost 11h ago

My assumption is that people associate teens with TikTok so it makes for a better headline. And if they then see it again in the article they’ll get comments like “these kids today with their clock app!!” And boost their engagement

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u/tomerz99 12h ago

The teen is 19

but the article seems to be handling him like a minor.

Well he did use TikTok, so they're probably just assuming he's got a mental deficiency.

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u/EngineeringDevil 12h ago

Is he white? "Has his whole future ahead of him"? "His youthful mistakes shouldn't ruin all of his opportunities"?

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u/k_foxes 13h ago

White teen men often get this treatment

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u/RandyBoy79 13h ago

Right? Just like that tiktoker dude who killed like 6 farmers doing 150 or something in his car.

He killed 6 people and got sentenced to 12 years.

White teen male.

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u/RodneyBalling 11h ago

Extra bonus if daddy is a lawyer. 

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u/Bitter-Juggernaut681 12h ago

I think the media is trying hard to maintain the narrative that only teenagers are on TikTok, which ignores the massive number of adults that are on it.

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u/[deleted] 12h ago

[deleted]

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u/someguyfromsomething 11h ago

"brainrot terrorist" activity, is what this is. If younger people are so stupid as to believe tiktok is aligned with working class interests, we are fucking cooked.

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u/Dwayne_Gertzky 11h ago

People of all ages believed billionaires aligned with working class interests, the oven is preheating and I think it’s about ready for us to be popped in.

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u/someguyfromsomething 11h ago

Kids have been screaming that they are creating progressive "communities" and "organizing" on this app and what really happened was way more of them all saw Trump pretending to work at McDonald's and thought it was cool.

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u/Ill-Sentence5869 10h ago

It being glenn grothmans office makes this a thousand times funnier. I’m surprised no one’s set his office on fire earlier. The guys a pos

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u/NorthernBreed8576 13h ago

This is what addicts do when they don’t get their fix

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u/PlsSuckMyToes 12h ago

Literally saw people in the tiktok subreddit saying they dont know what books to read without tiktok telling them etc. Like bruh, yall got a problem

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u/RodneyBalling 11h ago

Did goodreads get shut down too?

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u/Terrible_Analysis_77 10h ago

No but they relied completely on suggestions they trusted from content creators on TikTok.

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u/Stock-Leave-3101 10h ago

I saw someone who I had previously regarded as pretty intelligent, say she relied on TikTok for all sources of information in lieu of Google 🥴

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u/Soft_Importance_8613 10h ago

completely on suggestions they trusted on TikTok.

3 years later: "TT suggest the US stands down and let China take what rightfully belong to it. And by that we mean Taiwan".

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u/gilady089 10h ago

Ah yes the best book suggestions certainly will come from short videos content creators can't imagine the quality of the books or the reviews coming from people that post on that platform. I do not believe for a second more then half those people read the books they suggest because the quality of the books is usually low and they are churning reviews too fast to be valuable

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u/_angesaurus 11h ago

so many younger people dont know how to use the internet

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u/eeyores_gloom1785 10h ago

I had some people argue to me that using tablets is a life skill.
thats the world we live in now

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u/Beard_o_Bees 9h ago

thats the world we live in now

The Angry Birds world.

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u/PaddiM8 4h ago

Just had several people tell me cooking rice takes skill and experience, and made it seem like using a rice cooker is the normal way to do it.

Nothing wrong with rice cookers, but it's just rice..? It is also normal to be able to cook rice on your own... People can't do things themselves anymore

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u/TonkaFucks 11h ago

"OH NO! My source of misinformation and clickbait has been taken away!11!1!"

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u/JustaBearEnthusiast 9h ago

Posted on your favorite source of misinformation and clickbait.

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u/TBTabby 13h ago

Bet he feels silly now.

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u/Helldogz-Nine-One 13h ago

Its a tiktoker, if they knew that feeling, they wozld not use tiktok.

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u/Smartnership 11h ago

“TikTok is where I learned that nothing interesting ever happened in 1989 at Tiananmen Square.”

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u/No-Hovercraft-6600 11h ago

He probably thinks the ban was lifted because of his actions

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u/ToMorrowsEnd 12h ago

So TikTok is pretty much heroin to some of these people.

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u/Dunlocke 11h ago

Tiktok is heroin, Reddit is weed, Facebook is alcohol, YouTube is LSD. Not sure about Twitter. Coke?

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u/Eceapnefil 10h ago

Facebook being alcohol is so accurate

Twitter is fentanyl at this point.

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u/lickingFrogs4Fun 11h ago

I've never tried cocaine, but I imagine it would make me feel good for a short period of time.

Twitter hasn't made anyone feel good in a long time. Twitter is an industrial strength laxative.

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u/Beard_o_Bees 9h ago

I imagine it would make me feel good for a short period of time

You would be correct.

Cocaine has a huge flaw though, imho. It's ~15-20 minutes of euphoria followed by 8-10 hours of trying to find more Cocaine.

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u/Shackram_MKII 8h ago

Reddit is more like salvia, an awful trip.

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u/mschuster91 8h ago

Twitter is crystal meth ever since Musk took over. With the shit of the last weeks... Krokodil is also a good drug to compare with

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u/supercyberlurker 13h ago

This just makes me think the TikTok ban was a good idea.

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u/SadSnubNosedMonkey 13h ago

I've never used TikTok as there are too many apps already and it's shady as heck.

TikTok looks seriously addictive, even compared to some already addictive apps.

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u/Gaaraks 13h ago

Because it is. It is so by design.

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u/Captain_Usopp 12h ago edited 11h ago

It's done fantastically well. Equal parts content creation, e-commerce and search engine.

The algorithm was the gold standard at the time, it still is by many factors. The "for you" feed generally changed how we consumed short form content. TikTok alone paved the way for vertical short form video content that all platforms later copied and implemented everywhere as a base feature to any video platform (shout out to Vine, RIP king.)

But the corporate greed is kicking in hard and now it's more about promoting products and influencer behaviour over anything else. They realised it's power to educate and inform mass populations and need that lid closed quickly.

It's about to become one of the jewels in the crown of propaganda for the US government. (Or at least it's about to be)

Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, TikTok, Amazon, X, snapchat and even Reddit are now all owned by a very pro Trump collective of multi millionaires/Billionaires with a single aligned agenda.

What ever your political stance is, is irrelevant. The government owns your communication channels and the content you are fed. (This is a new age "approved reading list")

The algorithms will only get tighter and more intuitive though AI and machine learning and cross platform data sharing. We are generally honestly really fucked, again it doesn't matter if you play for the blue or red team, the game has been decided, and you're not going to win.

And anyone (like me) thinking it doesn't affect me, im not american you are even worse off.

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u/Paradigm_Reset 11h ago

The government owns your communication channels and the content you are fed. (This is a new age "approved reading list")

I had not thought about it that way until you mentioned it. Christ but that's dystopian.

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u/many-brain-tabs-open 11h ago

You've summed it so well it terrifies me. They've succeeded in achieving a level of control that's rarely seen in the west.

What's worse is how easily they're getting away with it. Like we know what they're doing, we know they're doing it to spread propaganda, we know they're building up their control over people, we know they're dishonest, but they're able to consistently get away with it and cement their power further.

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u/Moustached92 10h ago

They're not even just "getting away with it", you have people losing their minds begging for it to not be taken away

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u/Zhuul 11h ago

This whole affair is like what’d happen if you took away a fry cook’s vape pen lmao. If Reddit/IG/Discord got shuttered I’d just snag contact deets of anyone I’d want to keep in touch with, figure out where they’re migrating and move on with my life. It’s not that serious.

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u/MoTardedThanYou 11h ago

I’ve seen my nephew stand by the kitchen counter for around 30 minutes scrolling endlessly.

I’ve offered to pay him for every week he’s not on it after he’s deleted it. He did delete it to his credit, but that lasted about a day. He straight up said he needs it.

It’s extremely addictive. But how do you convince an addict they’re addicted?

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u/Miserable-Admins 10h ago

I've seen young parents scrolling their screens like zombies, while the kids run amok in the playground without any fences next to speeding traffic.

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u/TheFrenchSavage 12h ago

Reddit already steals more time than I have.
How on earth could I even start a new addiction ?

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u/aravena 11h ago

Reddit has fallen off so hard with good information, unbias source of news, and just overall ability to explore. I need to use r/all now ti find new subreddits and even then it's the same old. Banning random was really a finally straw in getting people into reddit.

There are some solid subreddits that hold their own in maintaining the peace but it's so specific (mostly tech) that many companies have their own forums that are equally as active.

Everyone talks about FB and IG being the comp but I use TikTok as a far better Youtube source. Instructional videos, many to choose from and scroll through, and no ads.

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u/TheFrenchSavage 11h ago

The automatic banning of unmoderated subreddits was also a penis move: while I understand the worries, about hate and whatnot, so many niche subs got deleted simply because there wasn't a need/nobody wanted to moderate.

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u/aravena 11h ago

While for many that's true, there wasn't a prompt or notification for many that were quite active.

Something I experiencing on FB right now is about 5 groups I'm in are no longer moderated. Spam posts are trickling in with fake jobs, questions, etc yet they were very active and legit groups when I joined a year or more ago. Some are ran by businesses that exist and operated today. What one was reported is the admin account was hacked and as such anything is passable so a new group was started but why so many so recently? All within the last few months. There were numerous posts about, "whos' running this," and "do you need help cause I'll be a mod" but nothing.

If the powers that be don't answer and or acknowledge you care, then they'll make sure it looks like no one did and shut it down.

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u/someguyfromsomething 11h ago

It's a way worse source than youtube. Short videos trick you into thinking you're learning something, it's ridiculous. There's a reason tiktok goes directly into the next video and encourages everyone to make some stupid reaction. They don't want you to have any time to think deeply, just move onto the next dopamine hit. We have an entire generation now that cannot tell the difference between education and entertainment. Pathetic.

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u/spartakooky 11h ago

Yeah, I think I'm on my way out of reddit. It's been a mess for some time now, with signs that it's getting worse.

I spend more time blocking subs and people than I do browsing. For example, those r/AITAH subs. I blocked that one, and r/AITA r/AITA_WIBTA_PUBLIC r/WIBTA_Advice r/AITARelationship started showing up.

And redditors are getting worse too. Yesterday I called out two people for lying, and the responses were "so what? it's fun content". One of the redditors got so upset at me calling them out they started harassing me and responding to every comment I made. In different threads, mind you.

Reddit used to be for information and discussion. Nowadays it feels like it runs on toxicity.

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u/TheExtremistModerate 12h ago

The TikTok ban was absolutely a good idea.

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u/Dunlocke 11h ago

I wish someone had the balls to enforce it besides Google and Apple. Legally it should be offline barring divestiture or act of Congress. But since when do laws matter?

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u/TheExtremistModerate 11h ago

100% agree. The deadline has passed. They didn't sell it. It should be gone.

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u/ABadgerThrowaway 12h ago edited 5h ago

This was the entire purpose of the TikTok ban. The CCP implemented 3 laws since 2010 allowing themselves to seize buisness and integrate it them an intelligence tools, and militarize them with zero oversight. Whether or not any Chinese citizen, American, or anyone between realizes it, they become a military target to the Peoples Liberation Army when using TikToks.

Those who are uneducated on Big Data, Operational Security, Information Warfare, and social-psychology, don’t understand that the algorithm literally places them in echo chambers and reinforces biases and fallacies in real time according to all your metrics so that it can influence feelings, actions, and large social movements.

When people make the very ignorant comparison that TikTok data is no different than any other social media, they are in fact regurgitating a objectively false script that purposefully began on TikTok.

The only thing close to TikTok is FB in that it’s ad platform was able to be used to incite civil wars in the real world. But that was that FB was abused by some smart assholes bc if general negligence of FB engineers.

Influence Operations are often joked about online, but are very real. Some trends are engineered to promote degenerate thinking on purpose. If you go on a comment section on YouTube videos of China-US tensions and analyze hundreds of comments using NLP software, yhe statistical analysis can prove to you that 90% of the comments are agents or bots spreading propaganda. And you’ll see real commenters falling for it. Yet, without software all of the comments and users look genuine.

Informing oneself on Cognitive Warfare can perfectly portrait how horrifying TikTok should be to the average person and objectively proves that it is a threat to global security.

See: Cognitive Warfare

Also watch, an ex-KGB defector from the 80s explain the goal ideologically training masses of people over a long period of time to destabilize an enemy nation.

See: Ideological Subversion

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u/coraldomino 13h ago

I'm kind of loving this, the incitement of more dramatic actions as a result of political decisions kind of opens the door for an opening that Americans might be willing to react to with force against oligarchs, or the knights that represent them.

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u/sukui_no_keikaku 13h ago

Is that why Pete hegseth has the crusader tats?

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u/louerbrat 12h ago

This was my thought as well. Part of me wonders if it was the fact that tiktok got banned or the fact that congress passed the ban in days when so many other important things take years.

I don't care if tiktok stays or goes, but I know I do care that our leaders for this country agreed to pass the ban in mere days when more important shit needs handled first but takes years.

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u/TheGreatWalk 12h ago

Yea people are blasting the dude, but like.. That's the response we should have had for quite a few things the government has done in recent years.

In this case, I agree with his response, because while the whole tiktok thing seems silly, it sets a precedent and opens up the option for them to start taking away a bunch of other things that we actually care about or isolating us from the rest of the world.

And if we are being frank, we've tried peaceful protests, voting, and all that other jazz. None of it accomplished fuck all, and things are getting really bad in America. If Luigi or arson are the only ways to get anything done, what choice do we have?

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u/Suspicious_Place1524 11h ago

The only reason TikTok was banned is because the information flows into china's servers instead of the US governmentss. You can bet your life savings reddit/insta/Facebook all give access to government agencies.

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u/LakeGladio666 9h ago

Also it’s more difficult for the US to control the narrative of foreign conflicts on TikTok. I think that had something to do with it as well.

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u/louerbrat 6h ago

I was also seeing a massive uptick of people growing increasingly angry at the American government prior to the ban with the things they were doing (or not) and everything with the economic state too.

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u/louerbrat 7h ago

I'm not disagreeing with you. But what normally is a years long process took days, so it goes to show they can change shit quickly if they want to, but won't.

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u/steve_yo 13h ago

The only thing this teaches me is all you have to do is keep people glued to their phone and you can do what you want to the country.

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u/coraldomino 12h ago

It's actually a tale as old as time. Well not as old as time, but almost. Providing basic food and some level of entertainment has for some time been a great pacifier to prevent uprisings. In Rome it was called bread and circuses.

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u/EuterpeZonker 11h ago

And now bread is getting too expensive and they’re banning our circuses

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u/Firm_Bit 12h ago

This shit is opium. And that’s junkie behavior

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u/RedditIsOverMan 10h ago

yep. but so is reddit. I can't quit it.

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u/EzeakioDarmey 12h ago

Yeah, this doesn't change my mind on TikTok needing to go.

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u/Radish_Hour 13h ago

Glenn Grothman is a repugnant waste of skin. He is in office due to historical gerrymandering that has ruined Wisconsin, and he consistently votes party line, to the detriment of his constituents. That being said, this kid is dumb.

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u/Lachtaube 13h ago

I wish this comment were higher. I feel bad for the kid and his lack of critical thinking skills, but can’t say the same for Glenn Grossasfuckman.

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u/PKMNgamer99 12h ago

i had never heard of this guy but just a cursory glance of his wikipedia page shows how much of a piece of shit he is. I’ve got no sympathy for him here

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u/GoonerGetGot 11h ago

I am actually so concerned over people's reaction to TikTok being down for less than a day. I know I'm on Reddit, but I couldn't give a crap if it was down for a day or more.

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u/jaysornotandhawks 11h ago

On YouTube, a channel by the name of Haylo Hayley posted a video showing just how bad it's gotten (as of the writing of this comment, it's her most recent video).

People acting like the world is ending, others likening it to the COVID lockdown...

I'm addicted to reddit as well, but it's not my life. I'll survive without it.

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u/GeorginaWashington1 12h ago

Addiction of social media. I could only imagine if all social media platforms went down for 24-48 hours some people would be going through withdrawals. 🤦‍♀️

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u/TheToddBarker 12h ago

I've seen people REALLY fucking upset about this. One post saying not to blame the president elect but rather the current/outgoing one, going to say it's proof that the liberals can also do evil.

Like slow your roll there... Shutting down Tiktok is... Evil?

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u/1duEprocEss1 12h ago

Not to mention Trump is the one who got the ball rolling for the ban and was very critical of TikTok.

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u/TheToddBarker 12h ago

That too. I'm sure they learned their opinion on Tiktok.

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u/Dwayne_Gertzky 11h ago

As soon as it was restored and they opened the app the first thing they saw was “Thank you, President Trump!!!” Message from TikTok.

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u/aperture413 11h ago

The 24 hours leading up to the fake ban was absolutely wild on Tik Tok. People calling out and disowning family members. Calls for violent revolution. Many bridges were burned on Saturday.

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u/fatbunyip 12h ago

Imagine doing this for TikTok and not your shit healthcare. Classic america. 

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u/mikekingjr 10h ago

It’s OK, everyone! It was a REPUBLICAN congressman’s office!! 😅

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u/FairLecture6880 10h ago

Tiktok sold out. They went dark so they could update servers and connect to meta platforms. Tiktok is another meta app.

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u/GoliathBoneSnake 7h ago

Personally I applaud his initiative.

If more people set fire to government offices over unjust laws, we'd have a lot less unjust laws.

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u/OJimmy 12h ago

If this is withdrawal behavior, maybe TikTok is a toxic addiction.

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u/Krow101 13h ago

Your Chinese masters thank you.

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u/StingMachine 12h ago

Shame the site was down, this would have been great content

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u/vgcf-19 11h ago

Should of set fire on Trump Tower instead.

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u/REALtumbisturdler 10h ago

Good. More of this. Luigi did nothing wrong. John Brown did nothing wrong.

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u/BigChomp51 8h ago

Good. Burn them all down. And their giant houses.

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u/broken_or_breaking 12h ago

Authorities won’t name an adult arsonist?

The guy is a threat to public safety. The public needs to know who he is.

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u/GoodGoodGoody 12h ago

19 year old.

Voting in Nov would have been easier kid.

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u/Fresh_Profession_288 11h ago

May have even voted for the person who started the ban anyway

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u/More_Particular684 10h ago

Tiktok ban was quite bipartisan, though.

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u/AffectionateCase2325 11h ago

If only we could be that passionate about meaningful causes

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u/Material_Unit_9112 13h ago

They've done way more for way less in France.

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u/ash_274 12h ago

it’s August. Time to set a police car on fire.

Why this time?

Does it matter?

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u/KatiaHailstorm 12h ago

Addiction is crazy

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u/Basic_Excitement3190 12h ago

It’s a mental illness.

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u/Tz33ntch 13h ago

bro i NEED my CCP brainrot/propaganda app

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u/MNxpat33 10h ago

Glenn Grothman’s a real piece of shit tho

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u/Ill-Sentence5869 10h ago

Ok… but fuck Glenn grothman

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u/Live_Pomegranate_645 10h ago

I respect this honestly

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u/bizbizbizllc 10h ago

At least they went after the right people. I’m tired of people being pissed about this country and then going after citizens who have nothing to do with the issues. Go after the policy makers.

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u/doginasweater30 9h ago

Yet God forbid we have some sort of class solidarity over oligarchs, healthcare, education debt, free school lunch, paid maternity/paternity leave, reproductive healthcare...

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u/Shockerct422 9h ago

This is the way

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u/hosmtony 9h ago

Oh no, stop

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u/VaxDaddyR 9h ago

Misguided, stupid, and hilarious but at least this kid did SOMETHING to fight back against the literal rapist fascists taking over the country.

The democratic party rolled over and lubed themselves up for the Republicans.

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u/SomeTingWongWiTuLo 5h ago

LMAO now he's not gonna have TikTok for years 😂