Why is anyone freaking out other than Chinese connections? TikTok will still exist, it’s just going to have a US division. I’m sure the Chinese government and company will miss the revenue and data scraping of the US, but who knows? Maybe a few shell corporations and they’ll still get what they want. Maybe Reddit could buy it, they’re owned by TenCent, right? The data and algorithms must flow.
TikTok's CEO is feeling the pressure and users are freaking out
Submitted 3 weeks ago by Dragxito@lemmy.world to technology@lemmy.world
Comments
RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
GladiusB@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
And the fact that “their own voice” is banned in China itself. What a bunch of bullshit.
charonn0@startrek.website 3 weeks ago
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.
coarse@startrek.website 3 weeks ago
It was a ban on tiktok, but not “their voice.”
The goal is to move tiktokt profits out of China and into the US.
Privacy concerns are a load of bullshit and you shouldn’t believe anyone telling you otherwise.
charonn0@startrek.website 3 weeks ago
I’ve actually read the law, so no one has to tell me that it really, actually is about privacy. I know that it is.
Emmie@lemm.ee 3 weeks ago
user banned for ‘ban evasion’ to let know if someone searches for it like me
whotookkarl@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
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.
Buttons@programming.dev 3 weeks ago
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 specifically. Oh look, here’s a total new website called TokTik owned by a US Citizen named Mr. ILoveChina who build a TikTok replacement in 15 minutes using foreign consultants.”
Audacious@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
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.
chiliedogg@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
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.
UsernameIsTooLon@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Facts. We need better data protection laws, especially now more than ever with the rise of AI
menemen@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I hate tiktok. But banning app most popular among young people while raiding dozens of university campuses? Don’t sound like a great way to get young people to trust in
whoreticulture@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 weeks ago
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.
SeabassDan@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
They don’t need anyone to trust the system, they just need to retain control.
Nom@lemm.ee 3 weeks ago
They don’t really aim for them either, it’s not like most young people would go lobby them in their preferred way(money).
SeattleRain@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
They’re banning it because they blame tick tok for the pro Palestinian movement. Zuck and Google have been spying on users for decades.
EncryptKeeper@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Hmm brand new account, first comment, definitely no Astroturfing going on here.
Sami_Uso@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
The Tik Tok ban is about keeping big tech in the hands of the USA. Are my account stats better for you?
whoreticulture@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 weeks ago
y’all are PARANOID. anyone who disagrees is a shill
nxdefiant@startrek.website 3 weeks ago
Talk of the Tik Tok ban predates the attack that triggered the current iteration of violence in Israel/Gaza.
zarkanian@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
Zuck and Google have been spying on users for decades.
Also not Chinese companies.
sailingbythelee@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
That’s ridiculous. Government doesn’t move that quickly. They’ve been thinking about how to deal with foreign interference for years. Also, I hate to break it to you, but the Palestine thing isn’t that interesting or important in the grand scheme. At best, the Palestinians, like the Houthis and Hezbollah, are pawns used by Iran to stir up trouble from time to time. This conflict has been going on for 80 years already and the overall trend in the Middle East is toward peace and economic integration with Israel. No one is going to push the Jews into the sea and liberate Palestine for the Palestinians.
Sami_Uso@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
If you don’t think Israel “that interesting or important” to the US government, you haven’t been paying attention. full stop. This isn’t about Palestine, its always been about Israel. They send way too much money to us politicians, including the one in the white house, for it to not matter “in the grand scheme”. AIPAC money alone should be enough to convince you.
whoreticulture@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 weeks ago
TikTok was also an organizing job during Black Lives Matter in 2020, this isn’t new.
h3mlocke@lemm.ee 3 weeks ago
Baby’s 1st comment 🥹
woelkchen@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
As bad as Meta and Google are in this respect, they are not under direct government control. It’s just different with the TikTok parent.
Cocodapuf@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
That seems like quite a leap.
NutWrench@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
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?
Buttons@programming.dev 3 weeks ago
I’ve been wondering the same.
What prevents a few US Citizens from forming a totally new and independent company called BitDance and then ByteDance sells them TikTok for $3.99, and then BitDance hires a company from China to help consult on the algorithms they use.
pkill@programming.dev 3 weeks ago
us be please please stop spying on our children so that WE can do that and also prevent the thoughtcrime of believing genocide (in Palestine) is bad
sunbeam60@lemmy.one 3 weeks ago
But you do realise there’s a difference between a business owning some data about its users in a well regulated democracy and the Chinese state having free access to a tonne of personal data about a vast amount of people in the West?
Also, I presume you are aware that China prohibits the export of data on Chinese citizens to western servers.
While it’s not exactly important who started it, China started it.
zarkanian@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
Why do people keep bringing up Palestine when talking about TikTok? Is this some CCP astroturfing?
mightyfoolish@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Government did not care what happened on Tiktok during the KIA nonsense. Tiktok is now more controlled and cleaned up and became a new source for young people. Now the government wants to ban it. It is much better than before and the whole time it was Chines owned. So now, you have to argue against two points.
- It was OK Asian people owned it before. Why not now?
- The content is moderated now and adults no longer complain it’s worse than Instagram, Twitter, or the racist cesspool of a comment section that is Youtube.
Dempf@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
Now that it’s happening, I don’t quite know how to feel.
I certainly don’t feel sorry for Tiktok though.
TypicalHog@lemm.ee 3 weeks ago
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.
reverendsteveii@lemm.ee 3 weeks ago
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.
Squizzy@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
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.
Cethin@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
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.
800XL@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
There are a million startups chomping at the bit to create or have their existing app become the TikTok replacement in the event it does get banned.
This is the nature of American Capitalism. A monopolistic entity is broken up for this reason or that thereby making way for competition. According to all those economists, competition is good and breeds innovation.
I don’t have a problem with this. Next go for Google, Meta, Apple, and Microsoft too.
umbrella@lemmy.ml 3 weeks ago
they already said they will ceasoboperations in the us if they can’t fight this off in court
jeena@jemmy.jeena.net 3 weeks ago
If they had the best of the users in mind they would try to sell it. But if I was the CCP I would do everything so they couldn’t sell it. Then you’d have a martyr which you could always point to that the US is also blocking, so blocking can’t be so bad.
I don’t see what the CCP would get out of selling it.
autotldr@lemmings.world [bot] 3 weeks ago
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!
KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
my master plan, of laughing at people when the government overstepping is complete is FINALLY coming to fruition.
/s for those who haven’t already discovered it.
KingThrillgore@lemmy.ml 3 weeks ago
YouTube is going to eat their audience with Shorts.
Mastengwe@lemm.ee 3 weeks ago
Good.
Emmie@lemm.ee 3 weeks ago
Can someone make a federated decentralised alternative for these fellow addicts? At least they won’t be in hands of geopolitical powers but only our local, innocent, slightly mad admins.
I realise though that it would take gargantuan servers
Wild_Mastic@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Users are freaking out
Oh noo how will I manage without my daily bullshit videos mixed with ads
FreeFacts@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
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.
SupraMario@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
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.
gothic_lemons@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Lol I feel so called out
TheFriar@lemm.ee 3 weeks ago
Reddit and TikTok are incredibly different. And most of us that came over here from Reddit were there and we all saw the quality of Reddit going downhill for a long time. And when Reddit decided to try to be more like a TikTok style company, we all bailed.
So it’s not that ironic. We all willingly left when a company made one more decision screwing us over. These people are clawing at their phones to stay on an app.
cyd@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I mean, you can use that approach to denigrate pretty much any activity people spend time on.
surewhynotlem@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
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.
Eldritch@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I get that on YouTube. (Legal Eagle, Leja etc) Just a bit less CCP manipulation. Not that there aren’t issues with YouTube. Just less than TicTok.
Wild_Mastic@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I only saw some videos on other’s phones.
Also I started using newpipe for youtube exactly because I don’t want an algorithm learning what I’m interested in. No way in hell I do it for tiktok.
Woozythebear@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
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.
Stovetop@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I would love it if the government banned Reddit.
Lemmy I could live without. If any users are making their livelihoods on Lemmy or Reddit, they should find something more productive to do.
Eldritch@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Nah. Lemmy is a software. Reddit is an entity. They could try to ban specific Lemmy servers. They’ve tried to go after torrent tracker sites with little to no success. This wouldn’t be any different.
I think it’s illuminating and hilarious that they’re actually going through with this though. I’ve long made the statement that capitalists and Leninist are kissing cousins on all the worst possible fronts. And here’s another data point.
sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
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.
zarkanian@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
How do you run a business on TikTok?
QuantumSpecter@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
no would just switch to 4chan lol
Killing_Spark@feddit.de 3 weeks ago
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
sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
Eh, I was halfway out the door for years at Reddit, I just needed a push. A ban would’ve worked the same as Reddit’s API change.
BananaTrifleViolin@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Either TikTok will win in court and overrun the law (possible), be sold (unlikely) or shut down (likely).
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 vying to win the audience.
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.
match@pawb.social 3 weeks ago
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]
OneWomanCreamTeam@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
For real.
Like a dozen social media apps already have reals or shorts or some shit that’s basically tiktok. They’re all shitty and invasive, but so is tiktok.
Maggoty@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Having used all three major ones, TikTok’s algorithm is head and shoulders above theirs.
whoreticulture@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 weeks ago
The algorithms for all those sites are way worse tho, I get much less variety of content, and much less news/politics content that interests me. Frequently those feeds area few months behind. You don’t know what you’re talking about.
unphazed@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I actually get pretty good info from TT. Lawyer insight on Trump trials, video quotes from politicians, summaries of new laws, science summaries for dummies that don’t have physics degrees, etc.
unphazed@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Then again, the algorithm knows I skip a lot of dumb shit… cept the funny cat videos.
yamanii@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
You are right, they should ban lemmy too since it’s used for propaganda by anticapitalists! /s
Katrisia@lemm.ee 3 weeks ago
lemm.ee/comment/11472049