If you are uninstalling, you can try the federated alternative: loops
Cool to see how much loops has grown even just in the last year. It gets more and more viable as an alternative all the time. Love seeing the fediverse continue to grow
It must be really demanding in terms of hardware and network to host video content like tiktok. I wonder if the fediverse voluntaries will be able to keep up with it if the userbase grows too much
Oof, this still isn't up on F-Droid or either main app store. That's a shame, I thought this moment would be a great time for Loops to get some user base, but it seems like it's still not ready for wider adoption.
That said, it does look a lot better now than it did a few months ago when I last tried it. Here's hoping it picks up some momentum. I finally tried TikTok last year, and was really impressed by the breadth of videos and how quickly it was able to start showing me things I enjoyed. With the recent change in ownership, I don't know that I'll revisit it much if at all. Would take quite a lot to replicate even a little bit of the zeitgeist TikTok had going. But like with Lemmy and Mastodon/Bsky, I'm hoping I can do my little part by choosing where to put my attention. Just don't know that I'm going to find much there I care to see, for now.
Good. Fuck TikTok.
This is now a right wing propaganda machine. I deleted awhile ago.
Several social media posts pointed to language in the new policy that describes the types of data TikTok may collect, including sensitive information such as “your racial or ethnic origin” as well as “sexual life or sexual orientation, status as transgender or nonbinary, citizenship or immigration status, or financial information.”
Despite the social media uproar, that language does not appear to be new. An archived version of the policy from August 2024 includes the same provisions.
I feel old every time I share that I’ve never installed TikTok and don’t have an account.
In many ways, I feel a bit like I am still forced to ambiently and peripherally use the app when interacting with the rest of social media and society. Because the damn format, and culture, and way of thinking and producing videos has seeped so deep into all aspects of our lives.
The whole mode of consuming media in an algorithmic flipbook like that weirds me out. I don’t understand how anyone can enjoy being enticed to watch videos in the way TikTok promotes.
I find it funny that millions of people had no problem with an evil foreign government like the CCP, that's well known for collecting data for military purposes and spending mind boggling amounts on propaganda campaigns, controlling the app, but now draw the line at some Silicon Valley billionaire doing essentially the same thing.
I never liked the short content format so I never had an interest downloading TikTok, but I knew that I would never, ever download it when I learned that this Chinese app is actually banned in China. They a have a separate clone of this app that's exclusive to China that uses a different algorithm that promotes positive and educational content. The fact that billions of people use this shitty weaponized piece of Chinese spyware is depressing, especially when the Fediverse exists.
Well for starters - The United States government is kicking in doors in my local area right now.
The CCP would have to travel many thousand miles to kick in my door.
That's a false sense of security. The CCP doesn't need to kick down your door to weaponize your data. It should be common sense to not trust an authoritarian regime.
OK, as an American in the USA, what is the worst China can do to me with my "weaponized data" that is worse or the equivalent of me being tracked down and summarily executed a death squad which is the worst thing that the Trump regime can do with my data (which every US corporation is willing to hand over to them). It's not that I trust the Chinese government. I just don't care about them right now because my country is being destroyed by Nazis and find it bizarre that anyone would still be trying to sell us the "beware the Yellow Peril looming in the east!" neoliberal cold war horseshit.
Remember in the 80s when scary Japan was supposedly about to morph into some sort economic singularity and wipe us out with a thousand ultra mega Pearl Harbors all at once? Kind of reminds of the shit we hear about China today.
You know back then it was perfectly fine to be cozy with the PRC even as they propped up the murderous Khmer Rouge regime. But hey they illegally invaded Vietnam and cut ties with the Soviets so we loved them then. When Vietnam liberated Cambodia the official US narrative was that Vietnam was bullying the poor Khmer Rouge and the genocide was just a smear campaign to make our friend China look bad. Vietnam was the big bad yellow peril enemy then.
And now, Vietnam, still just as communist, still authoritarian, is our friend now!
Funny how the propaganda shifts like this depending on who's befitting from it. Tomorrow it will be someone else. But go on about how this time the "Yellow Peril" threat is real this time.
Respectfully, the CCP has been less of a direct threat than the US government as of late and most dont trust the government so why would they trust the propaganda? This isnt to say the CCP isnt a problem but are they as much of a direct threat to American citizens than ICE and such?... ICE has now murdered more than one citizen in cold blood.
P.S. People need more education as to what the Fediverse is but until then they will always go with whats easier to use and access.
That's such a nonsensical take. Because you don't trust the US government, you're go to thought is to hand over your data to an opaque authoritarian regime like the CCP? What kind of a bullshit false dichotomy is that? Fuck that, my data is my data. It doesn't belong to any government, corporation, or anybody who isn't me or someone that I explicitly give consent to use my data. That's the principled take.
No, I am just explaining to you why people have used it. Humans do human things.. being upset at it wont change the why. Citizens are terrified of the current threat. Not one miles away. Humans are wired to react to immediate danger.
We will see 100% of tiktok users uninstall. Even 200%, 300% 400% up to 500% and more including 600%. Percents like no one has seen.
Meanwhile https://joinloops.org/ and https://joinpeertube.org/ keep getting better and better
Hopefully more creators will take notice and at least crosspost their content on better platforms too.
...We can't keep doing this, guys
fingers to temples
The fucking top is formatted right, then this lmao. We look like ass at first impression. I'm on a Oneplus 11. Is this fringe hardware?
Vine used to be so fun and simple.
That was fucking eons ago.
Its replacement has so many issues on many levels.
That's because Vine was designed to be fun and simple. Users only had 7 seconds to make a memorable video, and so people got really creative with it. You can't possibly convey anything of value in such a short duration, so people just used the platform for fun.
My siblings were debating issues with it and about how willing they were to just deal with it.
I'm just shocked at how addicted everyone is to it that it could probably say "Trump is watching all users' front cameras while the app is open" and kids would still be like "hmmm what are the odds he watches me though?
But everybody's a zombie.
I mean I downloaded it, back really early, to take a peek. After 15 minutes, I decided I hated the short format, and peaced out.
It seems to largely be a generational thing. Millennials are (in my perception) mostly on it just to make money, zoomers just want that crack IV drip.
Obviously this is just a trend, and there are counter examples everywhere, but that seems to be more true than not. At least from the outside looking in.
And given it's totally obnoxious censorship rules, now I have to deal with hearing about people getting "unalived", or "adult fun time", and "p 3 dee oh" from creators that multistream. Even without being there, I'm forced to experience the cancer secondhand.
That's my main problem with it. None of the other problems affect me directly much since I've always avoided it, but that is smeared all over my shit.
More enshitification. Whatever the current "administration" touches turns to shit, dies, and rots.
Boycott everything you can that's from the US. Even if you are IN the fucking US. Nazis are not your friends (and if they are, fuck you, you're a Nazi too).
MORE
Deleted it. My wife then naturally sent me a DM of a thing asking if I could build it cheaper. Reinstalled to see the video, then deleted again.
There are a lot of content creators there I enjoyed but c'est la vie.
If you’re on iOS there are add-ins and such so that the link opens in mobile view in safari without issue.
That’s what I use to view my wife’s TikTok videos she sends me still after I deleted the app.
Should be higher, save your selves
Facebook, Insta, YouTube. I know they're fun and entertaining. But they're all destroying your mental health. I promise you'll be happier if you pull the plug on all of them. Delete your account. Touch grass. Volunteer, talk to your neighbors, start a social club.
China was spying on me in case I had any useful state secrets. America is spying on me because they are actively exploiting every data point in my life for profit and control.
hahahaha that's a good one. they all are so addicted they will reinstall it in a week.
My life has only gotten worse since getting addicted to forums and social media. I've become much less productive as well. Feels bad :(
Ok, but what are the counts for uninstalls generally? 150% sounds like a lot, but if it’s only a thousand uninstalls a week then it’s only jumped to 1,500 uninstalls. When there are millions of users, that’s…not very much.
I’m not arguing against progress. I’m just saying they are making it sound like this big exodus when it might be minimal in reality.
I just recently deleted my account and uninstalled the app. I'm not going to lie, it was hard because I had finally curated my algo to some pretty decent content that wasn't just brainrot trash.
But I'd rather be bored than give Oracle anything.
EDIT: Also Loops is neat from a technical standpoint, but it feels like a ghost town coming from TikTok.
I wish I could be part of this 150% but I’ve never used TikTok
Up 150% sounds crazy... but like, what's the rate of installs vs uninstalls here? How has the rate of installs changed?
I am classically conditioned to hate autoplay videos from the era of auto play ads on websites.
I understand TikTok to be the bastion of communication and community for Gen Z.
But so much of the content is uncreative. The same songs and sound effects to some stupid reaction video.
That said, I do hope TikTok crashes and burns so the new owner loses on their bid. And I do really hope Gen Z can collectively find a new platform to communicate on freely because TikTok has been a force for them just as Twitter and Reddit was for Millenials.
Careful on your uninstall, once my wife uninstalled from her phone*, all of a sudden her account can't re-connect to delete her data. There's lots of talk about this on the forums. Delete your account and uninstall all at once.
For anyone looking for new alternatives, I'm sure most Lemmy users can suggest more open-source pubfed options, but for anyone trying to generate a bit more presence (not that there's much) I did find a YouTube video highlighting some "indie social media" sites, mostly focusing on nostalgia of simpler versions of the historically popular ones.
Having the whole world operate off of publically-owned shared systems is probably an ideal, but having them at least in tight competition, with easy destinations to abandon off to, is still quite a bit better.
I would uninstall TikTok too but unfortunately I have never installed in a first place.
Guess what, I never created an account. I just can't get into that quick content, I find it boring after 5 minutes, without substance. I tried both youtube shorts and instagram reels, boring! I prefer long talks or analysis on youtube.
I hate how percentages from 100% and up are used ambiguously.
e.g. 150% vs +150%
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
