Users are freaking out
Oh noo how will I manage without my daily cringe worthy bullshit videos mixed with ads
I think it's ironic this is posted here on Lemmy, which is what it is today mainly thanks to users of another service freaking out over how they will manage without their API access to bullshit aggregated content mixed with astroturfing.
Most of the people who used the 3rd party apps weren't people who just doom scrolled shit that was fed to them. Most of them had all the default shit blocked or unsubed. It was all niche stuff the majority was subed to that had very little ad revenue for reddit. It's why the protests didn't really work, reddit didn't give a shit about the million or so people who went with niche subs using 3rd party apps.
I mean, you can use that approach to denigrate pretty much any activity people spend time on.
You either never used Tiktok, or you spent too much time staring at the shit videos and that ended up as your feed.
Personally, I get gardening tips, legal analysis of the trump trials, and stand up comedy. It's great.
I loathe tiktok but if someone had banned Reddit while I was still using it I would have been hella mad. On the other hand it would have been "How will I manage without unhinged shitposts mixed with ads" from the outside
Either TikTok will win in court and overturn the law (possible), be sold (unlikely) or shut down (likely). I can't see TikTok being sold being allowed by China, and even selling part of the business just creates a new global competitor to extend out of the US.
Multiple competitors will appear in the meantime hoping to get the displaced activity. TikTok is hugely profitable and a dominant replacement in the US would make a lot of money. This will be seen as an opportunity to make a lot of money for the winner.
I can see Meta trying to make a TikTok like clone, Google trying to leverage YouTube shorts, and Elon Musk trying to revive Vine at Twitter, plus lots of startups (mostly. American but possibly from other nations) vying to win the audience.
Ironically the more interesting battle may be outside the US - TikTok versus whatever US app comes along.
The deadline is after the US election - this could also all be political grandstanding and the politicians expectation might be that the law won't stand up in court anyway.
TikTok has hundreds of millions of users outside the US, they may just pull out [and then US users will VPN to use it like we're fucking Iran]
VPNs aren't that hard, but I feel like you overestimate the technical literacy of the general public in the US.
If they banned lemmy and reddit you would be freaking out too. The difference is many people run their businesses on tik tok. Your making fun of people who are losing their livelihood.
Well, I'm freaking out a bit despite hating TikTok and believing it's harmful to the average user. I don't believe in censorship, and I think banning an app like this is a form of censorship.
That said, even if Lemmy and Reddit were banned, I would probably react similarly. I don't need Reddit or Lemmy and can do without, but I disagree very much with the censorship.
Find your voice?
Ah, the only time you’re going to hear that from the Chinese company is when they want you to prevent someone coming between them and their data feed and profits.
Nevermind the algorithms that suppress voices they don’t want to be heard.
And the fact that "their own voice" is banned in China itself. What a bunch of bullshit.
Governments banning social media based on who can use it to spy on who, instead of creating privacy regulations and enforcing them to create and regulate markets, which is kinda what they should do, to make it so it doesn't matter who owns which app. Taking an opportunity and shitting all over it for some childish standoff should be beneath us.
It wont work either, there's so many legal tricks that can change the owner of a company without actually changing who controls the company.
"TikTok was evil and controlled by China, so we banned it. Oh look, here's a totally new website called TokTik owned by a US Citizen named Mr. ILoveChina who built a TikTok replacement in 15 minutes by hiring foreign consultants for 2 cents an hour."
I think the tiktok fiasco is just another wrong solution to a problem. The problem is data collection and mismanagement of it; and no one is getting 'royalties' for their data being sold or used.
They aren't attempting to solve a problem. The political right wants to buy TikTok to control a space used by millions of young voters.
Facts. We need better data protection laws, especially now more than ever with the rise of AI
Chew responded to the latest moves in a video posted by the official TikTok account. "Make no mistake, this is a ban," Chew said in the video. "A ban on TikTok and a ban on you and your voice."
Narrator: it wasn't.
I hate tiktok. I am not from the US, but banning the app that is most popular among young people while raiding dozens of university campuses? Don't sound like a great way to get young people trust the system...
My tiktok feed was filled with videos from the protests, and has been filled w info on Palestine for the past half a year. I don't think this ban is a coincidence. Tiktok always has the fastest transmission of information from people on the scenes, kinda like Twitter back in the day.
They don't need anyone to trust the system, they just need to retain control.
Given how easy it is to create shell corporations, how does any of this prevent the CCP from running TikTok through another proxy?
I.e. is all this posturing just a colossal waste of time?
Now that it's happening, I don't quite know how to feel.
I certainly don't feel sorry for Tiktok though.
they already said they will cease operations in the us if they can't fight this off in court
I'm not for banning shit. I am for educating. We need to show people what TikTok really is, what it does and how it affects shit.
The problem, from the government's perspective, is that there's no way to only see some of the fnords. If we teach people to recognize Chinese propaganda, they'll start to recognize American propaganda too. Better to keep us stupid and then control who's allowed to talk to us in the first place.
Ah fuck it, its just the next step the US is just mad China got this privacy invader and not them. Meanwhile Meta is the internet to most of Africa.
All major social medias have been toxic and invasive and only now does it matter to the US.
It's not about privacy. China and the US have all the data on you they could want. It's about control. TikTok has successfully activated their base to contact their representatives with a notification from the app. It shows that they could use it to influence our politics.
China recognizes the danger, hence all western apps being banned. If they recognize the danger, then they must also recognize the utility. Are they using it? It's hard to say, but TikTok is what that would look like.
You can lead a horse to water but you can't make them drink. Many lack the complexity of thought to understand they are being played like fiddles.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
TikTok CEO Shou Chew has issued a rallying cry to users that the company plans to fight a possible US ban.
A foreign-aid bill passed Tuesday by the US Senate and signed by President Joe Biden Wednesday has millions of Americans who use TikTok freaking out over a potential ban.
The clip has over four million views as of Wednesday afternoon, and the comments show that users aren't ready to say goodbye to TikTok anytime soon.
Many expressed support for Chew, whose call to action hints at the pressure building against TikTok and its Chinese owners, Bytedance.
Others credited the platform for helping users find "their voice and livelihood" and providing "a sense of community here that we don't have anywhere else."
Despite Chew's defiant video and the growing outrage from the app's users, a TikTok ban won't happen in the immediate future.
The original article contains 261 words, the summary contains 143 words. Saved 45%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
They're banning it because they blame tick tok for the pro Palestinian movement. Zuck and Google have been spying on users for decades.
Talk of the Tik Tok ban predates the attack that triggered the current iteration of violence in Israel/Gaza.
Hmm brand new account, first comment, definitely no Astroturfing going on here.
The Tik Tok ban is about keeping big tech in the hands of the USA. Are my account stats better for you?
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
