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TikTok preparing for U.S. shut-off on Sunday

reuters.com

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Re: TikTok preparing for U.S. shut-off on Sunday

#451

Post by xxr »

jjulius wrote: post #384
jdlyga wrote: post #115

"I would literally write my social security number on a sticky note and stick it to Xi Jinping's forehead than go back to using Instagram Reels" I saw this yesterday and it's hilarious but this is the feeling right now. TikTok has such a culture of authenticity and realness and Instagram is so phony and overly perfect (not to mention ads and so many bots and spam). It's like shutting down Reddit and telling everyone…

>TikTok has such a culture of authenticity and realness... LMAO

"At this point, we have to accept that younger generations—precisely the people who have been raised on quantified audience feedback for their every creative gesture—have an unrecognizable conception of authenticity."[0]

[0]https://kevinmunger.substack.com/p/in-the-belly-of-the-mrbea...

Re: TikTok preparing for U.S. shut-off on Sunday

#452

Post by crimsoneer »

cvoss wrote: post #208
jdlyga wrote: post #115

"I would literally write my social security number on a sticky note and stick it to Xi Jinping's forehead than go back to using Instagram Reels" I saw this yesterday and it's hilarious but this is the feeling right now. TikTok has such a culture of authenticity and realness and Instagram is so phony and overly perfect (not to mention ads and so many bots and spam). It's like shutting down Reddit and telling everyone…

The US gov's intention was not at all to shut down TikTok. It was to force ByteDance to sell it. The fact that ByteDance is opting for a shutdown instead is a huge PR stunt, and their unwillingness to sell under the circumstances kinda proves their whole First Amendment claims are made in bad faith. Something deeper is going on, and it's not about your social security number.

I mean, the Chinese government was never going to let the US just take their company at bargain basement prices.

Re: TikTok preparing for U.S. shut-off on Sunday

#453

Post by jrflowers »

Has anyone written up exactly how TikTok is a distinct national security risk?

The best I’ve heard is “they get your data”, which is something they surely can buy from Facebook through an intermediary, “they influence content”, which is a moderation decision that every social media app does, and “there’s a part of the report to congress that’s redacted”, that could be a recipe for tuna casserole for all I know.

Edit: I’m assuming the downvotes are a way of saying “no”? I would assume that “national security threat” would involve some sort of concrete standard of harm or risk that could be communicated beyond “just trust us”. I haven’t even seen concrete examples of what content they influence, just people assuring everyone that it happens and it’s Bad.

Re: TikTok preparing for U.S. shut-off on Sunday

#454

Post by syspec »

Rebuff5007 wrote: post #439

I'm tearing my hair out... how is the solution here not just better data privacy laws? Doesn't that solve all the issues, both domestic and international?

Because it's not necessarily about the / data privacy/, it's about the ability of a foreign adversary to influence the American populous in subtle ways over time.

By simply suppressing topics, or elevating trends they might find helpful in swaying the populous.

That's what propaganda is and it works.

Re: TikTok preparing for U.S. shut-off on Sunday

#455

Post by hengistbury »

zeroonetwothree wrote: post #304
MarkMarine wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Political pressure. There are more Americans on TikTok than voted in the last election. I think the parent company is calculating that they can draw attention to the government taking away something the users love and turn that into political pressure to undo the law. We’ll see what happens, but I’d imagine they are right. Taking away the opiate of the masses has not worked out for governments in the past.

Many of those users are not eligible to vote.

People in the US have the right to petition the Government, regardless of their eligibility to vote.

Re: TikTok preparing for U.S. shut-off on Sunday

#456

Post by NooneAtAll3 »

redactd wrote: post #442
the_sleaze_ wrote: post #427

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reddit is the exact same - just a propaganda machine

I disagree. While I think there are definitely biases on Reddit, there is a difference between users, individual moderators, or even established sub policies having a political leaning versus an algorithmically masked propaganda machine like TikTok. Call me old fashion, but I put more faith in a profit seeking US company (recently public) with light government oversight than a foreign owned black box.

I'd vouch for fake-ness of political Reddit as well

it's easier to see phrasing and logical inconsistencies when you don't share the opinion that gets forced, sadly

Re: TikTok preparing for U.S. shut-off on Sunday

#457

Post by mholm »

RiverCrochet wrote: post #171
donatj wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a casual observer, I don't understand why YouTube Shorts isn't the obvious successor? The UI is better than TikTok ever was and a lot of the most popular creators are already mirroring their content there?

Shorts is almost there. IMHO all it needed to do was be a separate app and not try to get you to sign up for YouTube Premium every 2 seconds. Reels needs to be more disconnected from Facebook for it do anything similar. Why do you say the Shorts UI is better? It seems exactly the same to me.

If it feels the same, you're not familiar enough with either app to make that judgement.

Re: TikTok preparing for U.S. shut-off on Sunday

#458

Post by EasyMark »

lenerdenator wrote: post #41

I say this as someone who was in high school as the first wave of social media sites (early Facebook, MySpace, Xanga, etc.) came up: Just get rid of all of them. They're battery acid poured on the human psyche. Or, at least, get rid of the centralized massive ones. If you have to combine your online interactions with people with the interactions you have with them in real life, you're better off, and that doesn't hap…

That can't happen, the 1st amendment protects us from that sort of overreach with lots of precedence coming before it. What can happen is severe penalties for companies and adults who allow minors to get on social media. That is the sort of regulation that can happen if the USA Congress really wants to do something. They can also regulate foreign propaganda sneaking like with TikTok, there is precedence for it. Also severe penalties and jailtime for threats (terrorism, personal) done online, they should be taken seriously and tracked down and prosecuted as if the threat was made against me if I was standing on a street corner.

Re: TikTok preparing for U.S. shut-off on Sunday

#459

Post by VyseofArcadia »

tokioyoyo wrote: post #351
VyseofArcadia wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been wondering for the past couple of years, why did Vine fail but TikTok succeed? Based on my increasingly fuzzy memories of Vine and my rough understanding of TikTok as a non-user, they appear to be pretty much the same app.

I think we remember Vine through rose colored glasses. There was nothing on vine that was addicting, other than some very famous videos, that are still treated as relics. And everyone knew about those videos, because of how the feed was organized. TikTok is way more tailored-to-the-user.

> There was nothing on vine that was addicting

Well that sounds like a selling point to me.

Re: TikTok preparing for U.S. shut-off on Sunday

#460

Post by nemothekid »

Rebuff5007 wrote: post #439

I'm tearing my hair out... how is the solution here not just better data privacy laws? Doesn't that solve all the issues, both domestic and international?

It's not about data privacy - it's about social control. I don't know why it's always lost on every commentary that the TikTok ban became a widely bipartisan issue after October 7th.

TikTok was the only large social media platform that did not overtly deplatform Palestinian users and sympathizers.

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