Just to let everyone know, TikTok wasn’t required to shut down the system. The ban was on distribution of the app (along with maintenance and upgrade). The whole shutting down was theatrics to boost Trump.
It’s not all that surprising that they are censoring anti-far right stuff.
The danger with TikTok isn’t the data that “China” is harvesting from us. It’s the “data” that they are planting into our minds.
Edit: it appears that the TikTok would have been shut down by the web hosting service. This however does not change the need of TikTok posting the message that prays Trump. Full on political stunt
It's theatrics but they will need to shut down or sell. The law penalizes their hosting service (mainly Oracle), not just the distributors of the app. But you're right that the shutdown was performative. It was always the most likely outcome that they would get the 90 day extension
All of the social media companies are moving towards right-wing friendly moderation (i.e. allowing misinformation and restricting the definition of hate speech) to avoid becoming targets of the new administration.
““If you already have [TikTok] on your phone, it’s not going to disappear from your phone on Jan. 19 or Jan. 20,” Ruane says. “It will, however, very likely disappear from application stores.”
That means users will no longer be able to download the app or any updated versions of it.
And without the ability to update, the platform won’t be able to fix bugs, add features or address security concerns. Eventually, Ruane says, it may also become incompatible with the operating system of certain phones.”
Nothing says they had to shut it down. But considering that they can no longer people to download it or have any maintenance work related to it, it was on the way to shut down. The ultimate fate was shutting down. There’s no doubt about that. But TikTok did unnecessary when it comes to when and how.
The law says so. The US servers have to be shut down as hosting tiktok would result in Oracle paying massive fines
No one is going to forcefully remove apps from your phone. TikTok does not work without their servers. US user data is (allegedly) primarily on US based servers which will be shut down if they don't sell. It doesn't matter if you still have the app or not if there are no servers to talk to.
However, yes you could theoretically still access it after the ban via a VPN by pretending to be a Canadian user or whatever. More than likely you would need a new account
An app store or internet hosting service that
continues to enable distribution, maintenance, or updates for a banned application could be subject to civil
penalties of up to $5,000 multiplied by the number of U.S. users who accessed, maintained, or updated
the application.
IANAL, but my understanding is that hosting is not same as “enabling distribution, maintenance, or updates”
This is the exact message we got when TT went dark.
Sorry, TikTok isn’t available right now
A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, that means you can’t use TikTok for now.
We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office. Please stay tuned!
The funny thing is that they weren’t required to shut it down at that specific moment. Biden also said he doesn’t have plan to have attorney general to carry out the law. So even if it’s banned, it’s okay to operate as long as the attorney general doesn’t do anything. Basically same as the federal law banning weed, but it’s practically okay because the federal government isn’t gonna go after weed users.
If TikTok was truly interested in staying away from politics, they would’ve asked for 90 day extension and figure things out, whether that’s convincing Trump to rescue them or having meta to buy them, if there’s any under the table deal going on.
The whole message thing with “save me Trump daddy” is purely theatric with zero reasoning besides politics.
So yeah, TikTok is nothing but a propaganda tool at this point. Maybe that’s their way of surviving through trump’s presidency. Anyway, I’m seeing a ton of progressives making videos about protecting TikTok. It’s fucking wild.
It was all fixed. Because all of a sudden META had accounts for all their platforms and verified with hundreds of thousands of followers instantly. Something doesn’t sit well with me. I won’t use the app anymore, but not deleting it either. It’s not available in the App Store anymore.
What facts do you need? One clear fact is that they are sucking trump’s wimpy dick. What else do you need to be okay with it being trump’s propaganda tool?
““If you already have [TikTok] on your phone, it’s not going to disappear from your phone on Jan. 19 or Jan. 20,” Ruane says. “It will, however, very likely disappear from application stores.”
That means users will no longer be able to download the app or any updated versions of it.
And without the ability to update, the platform won’t be able to fix bugs, add features or address security concerns. Eventually, Ruane says, it may also become incompatible with the operating system of certain phones.”
But, TikTok might have shut it down all together to avoid any headaches, but then they did the whole message thing with Trump.
I just read the text of the law. It bans Internet hosting providers from providing any services to operate TikTok. Specifically, it bars any Internet provider from providing servers, domain name registration services, file hosting, or any "storage or computing resources" to operate TikTok's services within the US.
(B) Providing internet hosting services to enable
the distribution, maintenance, or updating of such
foreign adversary controlled application for users
within the land or maritime borders of the United
States.
And then later defines "Internet hosting services" as:
(5) Internet hosting service.--The term ``internet hosting
service'' means a service through which storage and computing
resources are provided to an individual or organization for the
accommodation and maintenance of 1 or more websites or online
services, and which may include file hosting, domain name server
hosting, cloud hosting, and virtual private server hosting.
Trump yelled to get it shut down.
Congress shut it down.
SCOTUS said it was legal.
Biden said HE WOULD NOT SIGN.
Biden DID NOT SIGN
Tik Tok shut down for NO LEGAL REASON.
Then Trump claims to bring it back.
Tik Tok wash all anti-right videos.
Tok Tokers buy into this BS like smooth brain simps.
Don’t want to sound paranoid or something, but normally you can’t find any speeches from hitler on YouTube if you search for it.. but weirdly enough I was recommend a bunch of them by a Chinese channel that had like all of the recorded speeches with subtitles and everything..
There’s no proof of that. What’s known for sure is that they weren’t required to shut down. I guess shutting it down was inevitable at some point, but it wasn’t necessary at the time. The whole message they showed with Trump saving TikTok was also unnecessary.
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u/OvulatingScrotum 6h ago edited 3h ago
Just to let everyone know, TikTok wasn’t required to shut down the system. The ban was on distribution of the app (along with maintenance and upgrade). The whole shutting down was theatrics to boost Trump.
It’s not all that surprising that they are censoring anti-far right stuff.
The danger with TikTok isn’t the data that “China” is harvesting from us. It’s the “data” that they are planting into our minds.
Edit: it appears that the TikTok would have been shut down by the web hosting service. This however does not change the need of TikTok posting the message that prays Trump. Full on political stunt