Live data from Hacker News

TikTok is officially US-owned for American users, here's what's changing

9to5mac.com

61–70 of 76 posts

Re: TikTok is officially US-owned for American users, here's what's changing

#61

What is the point of using short form content platforms as a consumer really? Just put the political stuff aside, they are often too short for any details over any topics if not straightly brainrot, ending up making people get distracted and lost patience easily. I never a fan of YouTube shorts and instagram reels either because of the same reason. Perhaps they are good for promotion, but as a user perspective, can a…

I used TikTok a few times and then uninstalled it because it’s very addictive. It’s a lot of nonsense like dances, and bits of cooking episodes, travel and destination clips, punchlines from TV shows and cartoons, memes etc. It’s a really sad thing to use honestly, makes you feel dirty for wasting all that time.

This is also my usual understanding to TikTok although I know some people found new hobbies with it like the other replies, but the contents don’t click me because they are way too flashy and stimulating, and these really make me visually and mind fatigue.

Your situation is similar to why I have quit Pinterest. Memes and jokes are fun, and some of the images are inspiring, but it simply wastes too much valuable time which I can learn something new or take a deep rest.

Re: TikTok is officially US-owned for American users, here's what's changing

#62
post #34

What is the point of using short form content platforms as a consumer really? Just put the political stuff aside, they are often too short for any details over any topics if not straightly brainrot, ending up making people get distracted and lost patience easily. I never a fan of YouTube shorts and instagram reels either because of the same reason. Perhaps they are good for promotion, but as a user perspective, can a…

It has 200M users in the US (I'm not one of them), which is about half of all citizens. Do you really think it's possible they have no point? For most people, it's a distracting little jolt of dopamine and a way to get quick news or commentary. It's definitely not good for our brains for that to be the main kind of content we consume, but it's not useless.

It could be.

You don’t need something to have a point at all, just make something apparently cool or trendy, and there always a crowd rush into the trend. Could you find the point of Labubus or Stanley cups besides its popularity?

I am not going to against the news part, as you could see my other replies from someone who find niche hobbies with it.

Re: TikTok is officially US-owned for American users, here's what's changing

#63
post #21

Good. now that it is done, can EU and the rest of the world push for regional ownership of Instagram, WhatsApp and Youtube without the US complaining unfair practices. Chinese ownership as a security threat is currently in between reality and conspiracy realms but the US govt meddling as a threat is a proven reality worldwide.

>Good. now that it is done, can EU and the rest of the world push for regional ownership of Instagram, WhatsApp and Youtube without the US complaining unfair practices.

>Chinese ownership as a security threat is currently in between reality and conspiracy realms but the US govt meddling as a threat is a proven reality worldwide.

There is nothing stopping any country from doing the same to US companies' local operations five years ago, today, or next year. The difference is that the US is not China. Your comment assumes that a US company is as dangerous as a Chinese company. As felipeerias said, China is (among other things) actively backing Russia in Ukraine.

US law did not require TikTok's divestiture to a US owner. If TikTok were a Canadian, British, French, German, Korean, Japanese, or Taiwanese company, the US government wouldn't have intervened in the first place.

Conversely, if TikTok were a Canadian, British, French, German, Korean, Japanese, or Taiwanese company, American would not have to fear a hostile government silently gathering data on American users, or a company repeatedly shown to be lying about using its app to do so.

Re: TikTok is officially US-owned for American users, here's what's changing

#64

What is the point of using short form content platforms as a consumer really? Just put the political stuff aside, they are often too short for any details over any topics if not straightly brainrot, ending up making people get distracted and lost patience easily. I never a fan of YouTube shorts and instagram reels either because of the same reason. Perhaps they are good for promotion, but as a user perspective, can a…

It's wild to watch someone critique the utility of short-form content in a 4-sentence essay.

Re: TikTok is officially US-owned for American users, here's what's changing

#65

What is the point of using short form content platforms as a consumer really? Just put the political stuff aside, they are often too short for any details over any topics if not straightly brainrot, ending up making people get distracted and lost patience easily. I never a fan of YouTube shorts and instagram reels either because of the same reason. Perhaps they are good for promotion, but as a user perspective, can a…

It's wild to watch someone critique the utility of short-form content in a 4-sentence essay.

I am not sure if it is a good thing when you see a question as an essay. It could goes in both way, so you better explain it.

Re: TikTok is officially US-owned for American users, here's what's changing

#66

What is the point of using short form content platforms as a consumer really? Just put the political stuff aside, they are often too short for any details over any topics if not straightly brainrot, ending up making people get distracted and lost patience easily. I never a fan of YouTube shorts and instagram reels either because of the same reason. Perhaps they are good for promotion, but as a user perspective, can a…

What is the point of medium / long form content when you can get 80% of the dopamine for 5% of the commitment. Most "content" is mediocre, condensed short term doesn't waste your time. Most "content" TLDR down to a couple minutes pretty well, variety doom scrolling is spice of life and all.

Re: TikTok is officially US-owned for American users, here's what's changing

#67

I don't get why they sold it. If the Chinese government really had a say, simply refusing would have been a better option, as Trump would have never dared shutting off an app loved by hundreds of millions of voters.

PRC veto = no algo transfer = bytedance/tiktok US can't be "sold" / total divestiture. New "sale" basically US conceded to PRC JV model, i.e. US companies operating in PRC has local data warehousing requirements, company gets to keep algo and ip, country gets technical custody over data. That's basically extend of thumb on skills PRC had to apply, they're fine with sovereign cloud etc, they weren't with forced divestiture (trying to coerce entire PRC company to flip).

Re: TikTok is officially US-owned for American users, here's what's changing

#68

So.. US intelligence agencies and data brokers are going to mine it and US interests are going to pump it full of human and bot sockpuppets to manufacture the consent of users to be more aligned with ideas that work best for the Ellisons' interests.

Yes, this is terrible. Before now it was fine, just Chinese intelligence agencies and data brokers mining it and Chinese interests pumping it full of human and bot sockpuppets to manufacture the consent of users to be more aligned with ideas that work best for the CCP's interests, but now it's just ruined.

The difference to end users is they changed their technofedual overlords. No lasting freedom can be had using apps owned by profit-extractive corporations.

Re: TikTok is officially US-owned for American users, here's what's changing

#69

What is the point of using short form content platforms as a consumer really? Just put the political stuff aside, they are often too short for any details over any topics if not straightly brainrot, ending up making people get distracted and lost patience easily. I never a fan of YouTube shorts and instagram reels either because of the same reason. Perhaps they are good for promotion, but as a user perspective, can a…

I’m in my late 50s, and I’ve been using TikTok for over six years. Before that, the only social media I used was Facebook—not Instagram, not anything else—but TikTok pulled me in from the very beginning. At first, it was all about the novelty: lip-syncing and dance videos. Over time, though, my interests evolved. I started following creators for travel vlogs, occasional financial advice, health tips, yoga and exercis…

[dead]

Re: TikTok is officially US-owned for American users, here's what's changing

#70
post #27
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My wife loves TikTok. It introduces her to new fashion, new restaurants, new places to visit. Local, hyper local and hidden, and her favorite travel destinations. It's full of bite size tutorials. Tips and tricks. Genuinely useful stuff. Blogs and websites you'd find this stuff on are not as visual, not as well edited, and are hard to find or full of SEO spam. It's introduced her to all kinds of hobbies. Gen Z is all…

> The news breaks almost immediately on TikTok Not arguing against the rest of your comment, but I find the concept of "breaking news" to be generally terrible for society. News outlets should wait until they have enough information to present an event as accurately as possible, but the rush to be the one that gets there first means this is often not the case. And I expect this goes double for randos publishing on Ti…

My girlfriend used to be hooked on TikTok for political stuff until I started pointing out how much of it is comprised of half-truths if not straight up lies.

For example, one day she came over and showed me a short where this lady was warning women the Rs were starting their discrimination campaigns up, because Kentucky was looking to pass an amendment making women get certified doctor letters on if/the status of their pregnancy.

I called out how ridiculous that was pretty quickly and she told me this is 100% real and the lady in the video wasn't lying. I looked it up, and it was a real proposal[1]... Made several years earlier by a Democrat as a satire bill that was never under true consideration.

[1] https://www.reuters.com/article/fact-check/kentucky-democrat...

Post reply on HN