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TikTok goes dark in the US

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Re: TikTok goes dark in the US

#151
post #132

It's a shame that it's come to this. I feel that all arguments that TikTok is unhealthy or spyware and bad for our general public are valid, but the same arguments also apply to Instagram/Twitter/Whatever. Rather than have some sort of further regulation for what data any application can collect and present to Americans, we've just brought the hammer down on the millions of people that use this application for their…

To an extent, yes, some of the arguments absolutely apply to other platforms as well. But others don't. You never saw such platforms directly impact elections as much, having Russian operations have as big as an impact as they have had on TikTok in e.g. Eastern Europe. Of course they tried running campaigns in the past on Facebook as well, but not with as high of an impact, and after they got caught the platforms hav…

>> having Russian operations have as big as an impact as they have had on TikTok in e.g. Eastern Europe

I suppose you refer to this: https://theconversation.com/why-romanias-election-was-annull...

"The Romanian constitutional court annulled the country’s presidential election on December 6.

This decision is unprecedented in Romanian history. It followed the declassification of documents by Romanian intelligence services that exposed evidence of voting manipulation through social media platforms, illegal campaign financing on TikTok, cyber-attacks orchestrated by external forces and suspected Russian interference."

Re: TikTok goes dark in the US

#152
It’s funny watching this TikTok ban unfold. Trump went hell on Earth against TikTok before he lost to Biden. Biden got what he wanted done, but now Trump is back and seems to have a special "warm" spot for TikTok.

Every politician flip-flops, but Trump is something else.

Re: TikTok goes dark in the US

#153
post #57

I'm really curious and somewhat worried about what the economic effect of this is going to be. There are a number of legitimate small businesses that saw a lot of, if not all of, their business and customer base through TikTok. Business that just will not be able to make the move to somewhere else. I personally know musicians, actors, and artists that got a lot of work through TikTok. People who actually create thing…

There's nothing inherently special about TikTok. It just happens to be the hot social media platform right now. There were plenty before it and there will be plenty after it. There will be a short period of adjustment and eventually everyone will move on to something else. People aren't going to stop listening to music or buying things.

But that's not the point. There's nothing inherently special about Facebook either. But the disruption is expensive and many would argue unnecessary.

Re: TikTok goes dark in the US

#154
post #14

This'll be a pretty interesting psychological experiment. Tomorrow a whole lot of addicted people are going to be experiencing withdrawals at the same time. I have to assume nothing major will come of it, but still, there's not too many instances of this occurring in society, right?

Most people will just use Instagram Reels or YouTube shorts. They’re identical.

Strangely, Meta doesn't allow Reels longer than 3 minutes (90 seconds prior to a couple days ago). Why they don't match TikTok exactly is beyond me.

Re: TikTok goes dark in the US

#155
post #71

I'm really curious and somewhat worried about what the economic effect of this is going to be. There are a number of legitimate small businesses that saw a lot of, if not all of, their business and customer base through TikTok. Business that just will not be able to make the move to somewhere else. I personally know musicians, actors, and artists that got a lot of work through TikTok. People who actually create thing…

Did nothing to India with its 1B+ users when it was banned there 4 years ago. They just either used a VPN or just moved on. While I disagree with the ban, I'd rather have a sensible fine just like the ones for Meta, Google (YouTube) and others. At one point it also might have temporarily saved someone's chronic addiction to the platform, then they'll just find another platform to get hooked on. But for now nature is…

Indian users are very well versed in and used to circumventing government bans. It's a different audience

Re: TikTok goes dark in the US

#156

It’s funny watching this TikTok ban unfold. Trump went hell on Earth against TikTok before he lost to Biden. Biden got what he wanted done, but now Trump is back and seems to have a special "warm" spot for TikTok. Every politician flip-flops, but Trump is something else.

People want politicians to say they will do something something, but have nothing ever change. And then they punish politicians who change anything at all.

Re: TikTok goes dark in the US

#157

i’m not normally a conspiracy theorist but i had in mind what trump announced earlier today. he’s going to parlay this into a way to being the millennial/gen z savior and it will work with great success. my gen z kids are already compromising their progressive values and throwing themselves at the feet of their lord and savior donald trump.

Not a bad thing to learn some conservative/libertarian values too. Going by the spying argument, every US social media company should be banned elsewhere because all data is siphoned by US gov.

Re: TikTok goes dark in the US

#158

It's a shame that it's come to this. I feel that all arguments that TikTok is unhealthy or spyware and bad for our general public are valid, but the same arguments also apply to Instagram/Twitter/Whatever. Rather than have some sort of further regulation for what data any application can collect and present to Americans, we've just brought the hammer down on the millions of people that use this application for their…

how can the US government just ban an app? has this ever happened before in US history? what gives the government the right to tell US citizens what apps they can and can't use? this is some North Korea tier behavior you expect to see from authoritarian governments panicking when they lose control over the narrative

There's nothing special about being an app.

And the right comes from their Constitutional power to regulate foreign commerce. The US has banned American companies from doing business with various foreign entities for a while, though it really picked up after 1990.

Re: TikTok goes dark in the US

#159

I hope trump will reverse this action. I don't want government to decide what I am allowed to watch.

Luckily they don't, the first amendment is very strong, they just say the PRC cannot control social apps in the US.

Re: TikTok goes dark in the US

#160
post #148

It's a shame that it's come to this. I feel that all arguments that TikTok is unhealthy or spyware and bad for our general public are valid, but the same arguments also apply to Instagram/Twitter/Whatever. Rather than have some sort of further regulation for what data any application can collect and present to Americans, we've just brought the hammer down on the millions of people that use this application for their…

None of those arguments are the salient one, which is that a geopolitical adversary has control over a major influence vector on US public opinion. They could simply have divested.

Was that happening or was it just something we were worried about? Maybe we could have just banned it when there was evidence it was actually occuring?
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