I agree with you.

And, well, I assume everything coming from the US is ~~theater~~ entertainment from the get-go. That's why I don't even bother discussing it anymore although I have recently pointed that out about Trump is trying to divert with the Greenland fiasco and the media is being complicit. This is just another one of the pile. I think he's purposely flooding the media and pushing for Americans' mental exhaustion.

ultimately some truth to the fact that companies run in China inherently have involvement of the Chinese government

I'd say that's an understatement. The Chinese government is greatly involved in many aspects of their social media because they don't have speech protections for individuals nor the press. Xi wants absolute control, so the Chinese government is also involved in other questionable news this week about sponsoring hackers who were primarily targeting the US for gathering intelligence: Millions of Americans caught up in Chinese hacking plot - US. They had state-sponsored malware on 10,000 computers targeting civil rights activists. It doesn't seem in their interest to play fair, I wonder what their strategy would be if Trump steps in to stroke hes ego.

I'm posting the same comment in two replies here now, terrible behaviour, but yes exactly this was an attempt to force a sale and get tiktok into American ownership.

It feels very neat that America would think tiktok would ultimately choose the option where it gets more money, but that the Chinese instead choose control.

brain rot

It's a superior algorithm. You get what you engage with.

I'm going to miss the largest community of left leaning American creators, educators, and activists. I've learned so much about politics, social engagement, and community building.

But that's just my feed. I'm sure there's a lot of crap too.

how dare you bring an enlightened perspective into the Chinese brain rot on this platform! /s

I wouldn’t really say TikTok is socialist like, but yeah it’s clear it was only banned because they don’t like it and not its harms

My one wish for Fediverse would be federated identities. So I don't have to have baronvonj@ for ever single one of them.

I second this opinion. The federated applications and communities aren't perfect, but it's less toxic and better to use in general due to the lack of an all-encompassing algorithm that guides your usage to increase views for ad revenue.

This is absurd. Facebook was literally used to sow division and help elect a fascist who constantly says he wants to rule for life and wants to imprison his enemies. Facebook and instagram is wayyyyy more of a national security threat.

A congressman explicitly stated tiktok videos are swaying the opinion of people against israel and america’s genocide in palestine and now its being shut down. This is an abuse of power and its laughable you dont care because “china bad”

If its not censorship because theres alternative ways to communicate than nothing is censorship other than being killed

I don’t entirely agree. TikTok isn’t just silly dances, thirst traps, and trends—it has played a significant role in community organizing and coalition-building across social movements. Consider the university Pro-Palestine encampments or mainstream news reporting on social media reaction to the United Healthcare CEO’s killing. Neither is solely attributable to TikTok, but the scale and nature of discussion on the platform have demonstrably influenced real-world conversation and activism. Another example is Keith Lee’s viral restaurant reviews transforming the viability of small mom and pop businesses overnight.

What sets TikTok apart isn’t just its massive reach (150 million monthly active users, nearly half the US population) but also its algorithm and features that enable collaborative, asynchronous discussion. Unlike YouTube Shorts or Instagram Reels, where content is mostly one-off entertainment with fleeting comment sections, TikTok fosters actual conversations. Features like stitching allow users to directly respond to others, creating an evolving discourse where users can trace context. At times, entire feeds become dominated by discussion of a single topic—sometimes celebrity gossip, but often major events like October 7 or the United Healthcare CEO killing. This level of organic, large-scale discourse doesn’t happen the same way on other platforms. A great example of this dynamic was when TikTok users collectively decided to migrate to the actually Chinese app XiaoHongShu specifically to spite the US government. That didn’t just happen—it was discussed and coordinated.

In my view, TikTok is a national security threat not because of unproven claims about data leaks or state-authored propaganda, but because it provides an already restless and dissatisfied population with a real platform to discuss issues and organize. If a decentralized, open-source alternative existed at scale, TikTok itself wouldn’t be necessary. I acknowledge that TikTok—like any centralized platform—has real issues, particularly around privacy and censorship. But until such a decentralized alternative gains traction, TikTok remains important. And even then, I doubt the US government would be any more comfortable with a decentralized version, since it still wouldn’t give them control over what discussions take place.

There is a false dichotomy on Lemmy, that the government should shut down Meta due to security threats too because of this. They can both be bad.

Reminder: there’s an ongoing trade war between US and China and this is likely just a part of it.

The theory is the tiktok "ban" was an attempt to force a sale on favourable terms , but tiktok has called the bluff.

you can buy TikTok

Not if they're not selling

Or have a "tea drinking" session:

When I was able to speak to Ms. Wu about the "tea drinking" session (euphemism for police harassment), she sharply conveyed her sense of vulnerability due to the lack of interest in her stepping away from her popular Twitter account, stating,

Literally the only thing that was keeping me online for the past few years was they were worried it would make China look bad if they cracked down on me. Now that they know that I could be dead in a ditch tomorrow and no one would give a shit or say a word I’m 1000x less safe here.

[...]

Wu added,

After years of doing this without anyone saying anything, on June 30th, out of the blue, they send plainclothes thugs to my house. Surprise! They were real cops.

Why? because she's LGBTQ+, has a Uyghur partner, and has some friends in Western nations.

reference: https://www.hackingbutlegal.com/p/naomi-wu-and-the-silence-that-speaks-volumes

https://x.com/RealSexyCyborg/status/1177145458503737344

Free speech means the government will let citizens criticise them or communicate other political opinions without sanctions. It does not mean they can't ban one channel of communication when they are worried foreign actors use it to take advantage of the citizens. There are plenty other channels through which the citizens can communicate their opinions.