As with all social media, as soon as grandma and grandpa get on, it all goes down hill.
Trump says TikTok should be tweaked to become “100% MAGA”
Submitted 5 months ago by tonytins@pawb.social to technology@lemmy.world
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/09/trump-says-tiktok-should-be-tweaked-to-become-100-maga/
Comments
tehn00bi@lemmy.world 5 months ago
explodicle@sh.itjust.works 5 months ago
It’s gone full circle. Grandparents are the only reason I even have a Facebook account anymore.
zephiriz@lemmy.ml 5 months ago
I’ll just leave this here.
wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Goebbels
cerebralhawks@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 months ago
TikTok was never good. Have at it.
Though, he is always free to start his own MAGA-themed video service, much like he did with Truth Social. I think the problem is — and if he doesn’t know it, he’s been advised, with crayons and hand puppets — that running a server serving video is orders of magnitude more expensive than running a server hosting a text-based social network.
MangioneDontMiss@feddit.nl 5 months ago
i really think you are minimizing how bad this is. This is the government weaponizing social media, much like elon musk weaponized twitter. Only this time, the social media is directly own by a fascist government regime. This is a massive massive conflict of interest which is going to 100% turn tik tok into a propaganda machine.
cerebralhawks@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 months ago
TikTok was run by a fascist regime: China. It’s just, most Americans are not of much interest to Beijing. Their intelligence probably wants to know what is trendy in America so it can better appeal to us and influence our elections to serve their interests, but Beijing is probably not concerned at all with you or I as individuals. But if they can get us to vote for a candidate they support by showing us the parts of that candidate that we agree with, we can be used as a tool by Beijing. Now Washington wants that power.
I don’t like it either way.
3abas@lemmy.world 5 months ago
TikTok and Instagram were never good, but they provided a platform for people on the streets to provide real time updates on current events that countered the state narrative/propaganda on main stream media.
TikTok and Instagram exposed the truth about the American empire to a significant portion of the population. They want to make sure it’s all controlled state approved content, they want to eliminate our ability to reach eyes and ears.
So sure, have at the Chinese propaganda platform, but not without an alternative that allows us to reach wide audiences… And we don’t have an alternative… Not enough people are on the fediverse and the learning curve is pretty massive.
cerebralhawks@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 months ago
Eh, I’ll “have at” TikTok for being shit because historically, it has been. It’s driven by memes and trash.
That said, over the past couple years I’ve heard lots of good things. “BookTok” and other -Tok’s being communities within the service — I admit I don’t know how it is because I’ve never used it — but also, the rapid decline of YouTube has made me seriously consider getting on TikTok just to have something different. My resolve to be anti-TikTok has greatly reduced over the last couple years, as an “old guy” who does not like “social media”.
So yeah, credit where it’s due.
I’d love for the Fediverse to have a strong alternative, but again, the costs of running a video server that is anywhere close to being “widely used”…
MangioneDontMiss@feddit.nl 5 months ago
they’ve made protest illegal by classifying antifa as terrorist, now they’re coming after social media to make sure there is no outlet for protest online either. I don’t think people are making a big enough deal about this. This is extremely bad.
Fedditor385@lemmy.world 5 months ago
I know a different guy from history who also has seen great potential in media for propaganda.
vacuumflower@lemmy.sdf.org 5 months ago
And it’s going to be governed by uncle Larry’s company.
You know, actually this is so grotesquely American that I’m enjoying looking at it from far away.
And it might look nice when you over there are done with the circus and then done with killing each other.
roserose56@lemmy.zip 5 months ago
Another interesting news! I’m blessed! Like they already do missinformation.
the_wise_wolf@feddit.org 5 months ago
NoodlePoint@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Makes me rage that millions died defeating that megalomaniac, only now several of his ilk have sprung up with viciousness in the last two decades.
MangioneDontMiss@feddit.nl 5 months ago
Goddamn this is dark. Just when can i expect people to ever start actually fighting back in any sort of tangibly productive manner? We are so fucked.
gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 5 months ago
Just when can i expect people to ever start actually fighting back in any sort of tangibly productive manner?
Never. Fighting takes strength and the typical american is chronically burned out.
UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml 5 months ago
Democrats just wanted to ban it for going against their narrative. Fick the two party system.
buttnugget@lemmy.world 5 months ago
I’m not quite following you. First, I never heard about Democrats wanting to ban it for their narrative; I only know about the bipartisan ban. Is that what you mean? Second, what are you talking about with the thanking the DNC thing? What does that have to do with this?
Lastly, I strongly disagree that we deserve Trump. Nobody deserves right wing lunacy, especially not a large society that did not uniformly support his candidacy in any way. Do you think Germany deserved Hitler?
LittleBorat3@lemmy.world 5 months ago
There seems to be some correlation between lemmy.ml and shit takes. So strange…🤔
DFX4509B_2@lemmy.org 5 months ago
One more step towards the US becoming an NK clone.
BrainInABox@lemmy.ml 5 months ago
Scavenger_Solardaddy@lemmy.ml 5 months ago
No, not North Korea clone but a Nazi Germany clone.
MangioneDontMiss@feddit.nl 5 months ago
Nazi Germany unraveled itself by attacking its neighbors. Do you think thats ever going to happen?
bender223@lemmy.today 5 months ago
Just another day of trump being a dumb bitch.
Siegehammer85@lemmy.world 5 months ago
MAGA youth recruitment and education platform
NotJohnSmith@feddit.uk 5 months ago
Genuinely, how would it be any different to Twitter and Truth Social then? I’ve not used any of them so maybe I don’t understand the distinction between each
Kissaki@feddit.org 5 months ago
TikTok is a short video social platform. People post only videos. The two you mentioned are short public messaging social platforms, with the capability to post/include videos.
That’s not really what this is about, though. TikTok was not under their control, so they’re trying to take control and follow their script of media and social control.
NotJohnSmith@feddit.uk 5 months ago
Ah, got you, apologies - I thought they were all capae go sharing a video
UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml 5 months ago
Short video format focus?
cyberwolfie@lemmy.ml 5 months ago
A much bigger young audience?
Rcklsabndn@sh.itjust.works 5 months ago
[deleted]UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml 5 months ago
Just a heads up, the "in Minecraft " defense has been tested in our “justice” system and it will not protect you.
Rcklsabndn@sh.itjust.works 5 months ago
Noted. Thanks.
titanicx@lemmy.zip 5 months ago
Kill it kill it!
queueBenSis@sh.itjust.works 5 months ago
and that is what we call another piece of their propaganda machine
mojofrododojo@lemmy.world 5 months ago
hope he does it and it’s the thing that kills tiktok.
sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 5 months ago
And Larry Ellison’s investment with it. Lol!
mojofrododojo@lemmy.world 5 months ago
yar
Sam_Bass@lemmy.world 5 months ago
MegaloMANIAC just wants to take over the world
UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml 5 months ago
MAGAniac
Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Well, this is one way to kill tiktok
slaacaa@lemmy.world 5 months ago
It didn’t kill twitter. It might be shit, but still used by hundreds of millions, and is a popular public communications outlet
explodicle@sh.itjust.works 5 months ago
It is on the decline though, preserved more by switching costs than by user preferences. It’d be interesting to see if Trump can cause an even faster rate of decline than Elon has.
sturmblast@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Trump is fucking delusional
maxwebster93@lemmy.zip 5 months ago
Also a fucking idiot…
neuromorph@lemmy.world 5 months ago
So desperate to propagandize the youth.
Kissaki@feddit.org 5 months ago
You see them as desperate? Above anything, I see them as oppressive.
The actions seem similar, but their intentions are very different. They’re not scared or anxious. They’re enabled, demanding, and oppressive.
neuromorph@lemmy.world 5 months ago
They can be both
interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.ml 5 months ago
MAGA youths !
TwinTitans@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Man these people are so un American.
themurphy@lemmy.ml 5 months ago
I dont think your definition of “American” matches with the rest of the world if this is “un-american” for you.
1rre@discuss.tchncs.de 5 months ago
Nah, as a European this is pretty un-American
Their propaganda is usually much more subtle
blattrules@lemmy.world 5 months ago
I never used it because of the Chinese government affiliation. I’d feel even less inclined to use it with maga affiliation.
dickalan@lemmy.world 5 months ago
It being outside of the United States and outside of United States control was an absolute benefit for me, What was your reason for hating it while it was under Chinese control?
blattrules@lemmy.world 5 months ago
There are multiple reasons for me. First and foremost is the data collection that they’ve been accused of; I know American companies do the same thing, but there’s something more nefarious about a state run data collection scheme than a public company collecting data to sell you ads, which I’m also trying to avoid as much as possible. Next, I don’t support their labor practices - using child, slave (Uyghurs) and cheaper labor is a big deterrent. I realize that some level of that is unavoidable with the way our society is based, but I don’t really need another social media outlet in my life anyway, so it’s a really easy cut for me.
Zannsolo@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Trump creams in his pants thinking about having the control the Chinese government has.
Armand1@lemmy.world 5 months ago
The perfect way to kill a platform
Bogasse@lemmy.ml 5 months ago
To be fair, I don’t think Xitter is really dead? It certainly took a hit though 🤷
_cryptagion@anarchist.nexus 5 months ago
yeah, because it’s bankrolled by one billionaire now, so it doesn’t matter how badly he runs it, as long as he decides to keep it up. it could never make a single dime ever again, and he could run it for as long as he wanted because he makes vastly more than twitter costs.
back when it was public, if it had lost this many advertisers when it wasn’t profitable to start with, it might have been a very different situation for them. they had to convince investors to keep giving them money back then.
DrDickHandler@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Twitter is 5% nutjobs, 95% bots. You really need a mental illness to be able to browse Twitter unironically.
atrielienz@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Rofl. If you expecting anything else except this from Trump, I’ve got some public landmarks for sale.
BetaBlake@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Bye bye tiktok then, fully right spaces never thrive
UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml 5 months ago
Thanks for reminding me that voat doesn’t exist anymore. The internet’s butthole wart has been removed.
Tigeroovy@lemmy.ca 5 months ago
Oh sure, but it’s the lefties who are in their echo chambers.
littletranspunk@lemmus.org 5 months ago
Sure, it’ll just kill the app in the US because fascists lack any creativity so it’ll become a stale echo chamber before people just leave
Deflated0ne@lemmy.world 5 months ago
And there it is.
Precisely as WE FUCKING TOLD YOU SO.
Joeffect@lemmy.world 5 months ago
He also said Americans won’t have enough to worry about China spying on them anymore or something like that… right before saying this
isVeryLoud@lemmy.ca 5 months ago
He also said Americans won’t have to worry about voting again
RagnarokOnline@programming.dev 5 months ago
Is it bad that I agree? Eff TikTok
LoafedBurrito@lemmy.world 5 months ago
The open corruption, clear as day illegal and unconstitutional moves, and his overall smugness is embarrassing.
The GOP has gone insane to allow this man to continue like this. They are all sick with power and are hoping to “get theirs” next from daddy trump.
They are ALL traitors and should be charged for allowing the crimes to continue.
explodicle@sh.itjust.works 5 months ago
“Jesus this”
You voted for Trump
“Free market that”
You voted for Trump
chiliedogg@lemmy.world 5 months ago
But they don’t have the fucking power. They’re letting Trump do whatever he wants, and eroding their own authority in the process.
LoafedBurrito@lemmy.world 5 months ago
“I don’t want real power, because with real power comes real responsibility, and I don’t want any of that shit. I just want the money. And the illusion of power. And puss.”