I wonder if they'll sell or go down in flames.
If they sell, it'll just become overly moderated like Facebook.
If they go down in flames, a bunch of overnight competitors will compete to succeed.
I see ZERO discussion about how this is obvious theatre. We are so incapable of standing up to basic manipulation tactics from the right.
trump first started using tiktok as another xenophobic boogeyman, in what was a fairly nuanced situation - trump's position being completely wrong, but ultimately some truth to the fact that companies run in China inherently have involvement of the Chinese government and thule should be reached, monitored and if abused, access should be removed.
This actual push was always meant to be something to hang on Biden admin either way (because again, some valid points to a potential ban) but in reality trump will now "save" this artificial shutdown to "restore tiktok" and millions of low information voters and non voters alike will think he did something. And in the meantime, whatever the fuck this lemon8 and red whatever apps are will likely be a huge privacy monitoring home as midst will leave things dormant in background as well after tiktok is "restored".
Again, we are just so I'll equipped for anything to do with technology.
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.
Also, part of me thinks one of his aides overheard someone talking about banning TikTok for this reason and thought to himself, "Sounds good but it's too leftist for us to peddle. This would be great to pin on the old geezer!." and pitched it to Trump as a win-win. It's absurd, don't listen to me.
It weirds me out that I can easily see a post is in lemmy.world by the comments
Ok.
(I bet tiktok doesn’t shut down, but if it does I can’t wait for my kids to tell me about all the meltdowns at middle school over tiktok shutting down. Too many parents let their kids have unfettered internet access. No, mine don’t have tiktok.)
Any social media that you isn't open and self hostable (Lemmy, Mastodon, etc) should not be used. That includes Facebook, Instagram, Twitter/X, TikTok, and more.
Most social media has, IMHO, been a net-negative for society and I am in the generation that grew up with it in its infancy.
My one wish for Fediverse would be federated identities. So I don't have to have baronvonj@ for ever single one of them.
On the plus side, it's nice that you don't need a new ID for every Lemmy instance.
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.
A lot of people are saying that the US government banned TikTok, but from what I'm understanding, that's not really what happened and what's happening. Or have I misinterpreted things? From what I understand, they were told they had to divest and sell, but they fought that and now are opting to shutdown rather than comply. Is that not the case?
Either way, I'm gonna go all "I walked to school uphill both ways barefoot in a meter of snow" on this and say that my very little experience with TikTok users seems to suggest that its not much more than pure, unadulterated brain rot. So regardless of the fact(s) (i.e. shutdown / banned / etc), there's maybe the tiniest sliver of a net positive here. Or not. It doesn't affect me one way or the other and given where this country is politically (as well as where it is headed), I don't give a rat poopoo.
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.
that being the case, doesn't that provide more merit to tiktok being a data mining operation that China uses against American interests?
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
Reminder: TikTok is not actually important. Everyone can live their lives without TikTok, YouTube, etc. There's an infinite amount of ways to entertain ourselves and there's a lot of competing apps.
This isn't the government abusing its power to shut down some small business/upstart. It's shutting down a serious national security threat and a monopoly. TikTok has abused their position many times in many ways, refused to cooperate, and has reached the, "find out" phase.
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.
Yeah, they should shut down both. Honestly, X should be on the chopping block even faster that Meta, but Zuck seems committed to racing Musk to the bottom.
Reminder: there’s an ongoing trade war between US and China and this is likely just a part of it.
Stop. Don't. Come back.
“They” say they are banning it over national security concerns I think it’s deeper then that. They can’t have a socialist like platform having an audience. Which in my opinion is why they wanted to force a sell or just ban Tiktok.
I don’t think, that they will go after Rednote if it doesn’t gain popularity the way that Tiktok did.
This guy is getting downvoted for truth. TT is the only big media platform that consistently promotes socialist policies and openly attacks western status quo. If there are any truly ideological reasons to ban TT it was because of that. We’re being ruled by the oligarchs and their interests were threatened but let’s not kid ourselves - China has their own who’d happily take their place.
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
Cool.
Cool cool cool.
Fantastic cant wait!
Just fucking get it over with already! I'm tired of hearing about this shit every single day.
That would go beyond the ban’s requirement for app stores to stop offering downloads of the app, but not immediately halt use of it.
Before the tankies get mad about the "censorship" of the US while failing to mention the LONG list of things you can get straight up arrested for in China
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
If you have $50 Billion, you can buy Tiktok.
I read that Elon Musk might buy it. But the CEO of Tiktok stated that, it isn't true.
Why would he even need another social media? Besides, dictating what he wants on that site...and make it worse?
I like when Jack Dorsey ran Twitter. It is a crap hole now on there.
As for Tiktok, it won't matter to me since I am not on there.
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
Do it. Let the US be a closed censored state like it desperately wants to be.
They'll even put the hashtag #freespeach when they deliver their ban.
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.
“Worried foreign actors use it to take advantage if the citizens” you mean like Cambridge analytica and facebook? Yet all the government did to them is go after their competitors and give them more power. How strange.
Yall are so thirsty for the boot because its currently stepping on the evil boogeyman our government has trained us to hate
Especially now that trumps coming into power its shocking so much people on here are excited for the government to shut down an app. What makes yall think they wont target lemmy/mastadon/etc once theyre the apps being used show people the genocides being commited by the US and israel
those were not foreign. that is where the US government and law drew the line.
Yeah which is just xenophobic and dumb and doesnt protect Americans. We need comprehensive data protection laws and transparent algorithms not laws that help monopolies gain even more power to manipulate us
It's a .ml tankie, they only care because it's a Chinese company, guaranteed if it was like a UK company or something they wouldn't say a word about it lmao
There will just be a new (US based) TikTok copycat that springs up, or many. Banning one social media cancer doesn't stop the others
This is all about pressuring Bytedance to sell to any of the large US companies dying to get that user base. Remember that one party is currently loaded with tech bros with no ethics.
Bytedance seems willing to play chicken and hit the wall as a gamble about coming out of this less hurt than anyone else.
If that was the case people would be using Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts but they are just bad copies that don’t understand what features made TT popular. „The Algorithm” will be impossible to copy and that’s what kept people there.
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
