TikTok Ban Bill Becomes Law, Gives TikTok 9 Months To Sell

I can't believe this is the one thing this congress has actually managed to do. We just want healthcare
- I want both.
- Healthcare!?! Who needs healthcare when Congress is giving us our god given freedom of domestic surveillance capitalism, which is the freedomist freedom that ever freedomed, you filthy communist!
  So anyway, I started violating civil liberties... PEW PEW
- You'll take your overpriced medicine from your out of network pharmacy and you'll like it. At the fake markup price. And good luck getting that ultrasound, they're going to code the billing wrong so instead of it being $40 it's $1000. That's freedom talking.
  
  And good luck getting that ultrasound, they’re going to code the billing wrong so instead of it being $40 it’s $1000.
  🎶 Ain't that America! Home of the free baby! 🎶
  Bald eagle screeches

I wonder how many of these lawmakers will be invested in the company that swoops in and saves the American public?
- For real. You know Pelosi is already investing.
  
  If she’s investing at the same time you’re getting the information, she missed the best time to buy. She might have hedged her bets and bought early
  
  Pathetic watching ancient, feeble rich people about to return to the dust from whence they came still frantically positioning to boost their ego scores.
  It's as if they believe their preferred invisible sky mommy/daddy will accept a bribe of earthly currency.
  
  Don't worry everyone, it's just pelosi's 3rd cousin doing the investing so that makes everything totally cool and totally legal.
  
  Well, as it is what her husband did for a living his entire very successful life, but sure the Lady you don't like is wrong for him doing his job well.
- Mnuchin (fmr Trump Treasury Sec) is already setting up a group to try and buy it apparently.
- The company behind tik tok said they will not sell they America is only 20% of their global market. They have refused to give their source code.
  So guess app just won't work in US. Dumb ass lawmakers only people this hurt are the US citizens that are using it to make money.
  
  I’d counter that basing your livelihood on an app that harvests your and your viewers data for an adversarial government known to use this kind of data in psyops isn’t a sound business idea.
  In fact, I’d say this bill actually protects American users who have been using the app.
  If TikTok can’t prove that they use our data responsibly, and refuse to do so to the point of just leaving the market, we are all better off. Another company will fill that void and content creators have endless options to move to.
  I don’t think “but people need to make money while our data is harvested and provided to a government that uses it against us” is a great argument.
  
  So guess app just won’t work in US
  The good ending
  
  All the folks quoting what a small part of their audience the US is, never mention what percentage of their gross the US is. CCP won't pay for eyeballs in Azerbaijan.
  
  In the U.S., we have given our third-party Trusted Technology Provider access to the code that drives the content you see - the For You feed - and we are on a path to allowing an unprecedented amount of third-party access to verify our source code and systems, something no other peer company has done.
  https://newsroom.tiktok.com/en-us/ensuring-a-safe-authentic-space-during-times-of-conflict
  
  The company behind tik tok said
  China. It's China that "said".
  
  I don't see how anyone is hurt by losing access to Tiktok. The only sad part about this is that all social media isn't banned.

- We can't solve real issues because then we couldn't keep the American populace overworked, sick, and unable to fight back.
- You don't want healthcare. Because we said so.

Its all to get around passing a real privacy law with teeth.
- lmao, they don't want a real privacy law, they want to have a monopoly in spying on Americans.
  
  Not only that, they want to have a monopoly on on what kind of media content gets delivered to americans.
- CCPA (in California) is a good first step. Ideally something similar should be enacted for the entire country.

Just as a reminder, we have been 'fighting for 15' since 2012. But when it comes to leveraging foreign companies with bans to force them to sell to US oligarchs we can move at blazing speed through the least functional congrss in recent history. There are two very different Americas depending on how much money you have.
- Least functional Congress in ~~recent~~ history

Too bad we can't ban Meta, Twitter, and Snapchat while we're at it.
- won’t happen
  Where do you think the FBI gets their domestic terrorist intel from 😂
  
  TikTok will cut a deal to send your dick picks to Greenbelt.
  
  Fuck IKR, call the cops because someone side swiped your car and you'll get no response. Get on FB or Twitter and talk about how you're planning a bombing and federal agents will show up at your house.
- This is not a ban and it was never meant to be. They just force tiktok to sell the US market to a US company. Said US company will continue the platform just like it is at the moment, just with a bit more of that sweet American propaganda mixed into it. Tiktok won't be gone, all that data will just go to the NSA instead of the CCP, that's all they wanted.
  
  China says they're not selling TikTok, which makes it a ban, which is excellent news, actually.

Even though i dont think banning tiktok is a good idea purely because of the concept, those boards are funny. "Tiktok changed my life for the better"
- They're also all printed, and with the same font. I'm assuming it's a stock photo, but if that's from a real protest I don't trust those protestors.who the hell gets a protest sign printed?
  
  Its because the company literally paid shills to stump for them in person, call Congress, etc.
  
  Lots of protests actually. It's not hard.
- A lot of people started their businesses on Tiktok. The Tiktok algorithm is actually way better than that of Instagram to reach your target niche. A lot content creators and marketing exes do realize this.
  I don’t understand the mentality of users, of course of obviously older generation here, that realize Tiktok did in fact change a lot of people’s lives. It’s not just an app for dancing.
  Let’s not forget the Tiktok Shop section.
- Imagine licking the boots of any corporate like this LOL.
- I believe they are talking about a specific community that has formed over TikTok, a very anticapitalist and cosmopolitan one, and not about the platform itself.
  If your algorithm is favoring that content, your short videos will be full of people talking about all things wrong in our global state of affairs; alternatives and temporal solutions (that happen to harm corporations, ironically because the information is becoming popular thanks to one, so I guess it's the ladder to get to the rooftop); global situations that are not talked or barely talked on regular news (like Congo, Palestine, etc.); the truth behind Western propaganda and lies, especially the ones against populations and ideologies (e.g., "this country doesn't prosper because they're [whatever]" vs "we exploited and condemn this country to scarcity for decades and lied about it"); etcetera. In my time there, I've learnt a couple things.
  I know that these content creators will find another platform if TikTok goes down. Lemmy has shown me that social media can be free of corporations, but that's something many people are not aware of yet, especially since the techy people that could explain it on TikTok are not there.
  So... yeah, TikTok has some interesting sides content-wise. There's even the rumor that this is one of the reasons they want it banned in the U.S.

Do Facebook and Twitter next.
- I mean, it isn't a ban. It requires they be owned by Americans. Those others are already compliant, unfortunately.
  
  Twitter is owned by Musk, he's from South Africa, so we can force him to sell no?
- Yes please
- Youtube, amazon & ebay then or am I just greedy?
  
  Most of these would be far better off being broken up.
  
  Yes, eBay and TikTok are the same.

- Yes US needs privacy laws, not just banning one of the many data-mining social networks.
- The data that they collect and what they use it for.

can we ban or move YouTube shorts elsewhere while we are at it?
- Just block them vua Adblock.
- Why? Just don't watch them.
  
  They're noise in the search results. If there was a "no shorts" filter, I would have used it long ago.

"The Chinese oligarchs are taking over!" - US oligarchs probably
- US oligarchs most definitely

This comment section is astounding.
If you think it’s good that congress passed a ban of a social media platform tied to a bill funding two foreign wars you’re either a fed or delusional.
- Seriously. The real solution is comprehensive privacy protection and consumer information export controls for all companies operating within the US.
  This whole thing is just going to give an American company the capability to use Tik Tok to spy on people and control information, which is barely better.
  And then they'll likely sell the data to China anyway. Data brokers exist and make a fuck ton of money on us.
  
  So you would be cool with ISIS rolling out a social media app? All profits go directly to making explosives. All user data, including biometrics is logged to help ISIS plan future terrorist attacks on American soil.
  Edit: sorry I misread what you are saying. But still, idk how you prevent China from using our data when that's the whole point of China owning TikTok in the first place. A forced sale or ban is the only option.
  That's an extreme example of course but I don't think you can just ignore who makes products and where your money (and data in this case) is going. And yes, I don't like American social media companies either. But you will remember that Facebook got into a ton of trouble for selling data to the Russians via Cambridge Analytica. At least we can try to prevent American companies from leaking data to hostile parties. Meanwhile we KNOW that TikTok is giving our data to the Chinese government and forcing a sale of the American branch of TikTok is the only thing we can do about it.
  
  It was never about American's privacy, it was because the government apparently can't control the narrative in the app while they can with the other one's which is why they are trying to force tiktok to sell to an American company or gtfo. I have seen news faster and with more accuracy in the past 6 months on tiktok than even here, and when I try to see it on the media it's either only one sided or completely absent (the farmers protests in Brussels and France is a great example, the zionist message in america and the college protests is another)
- I'm just pointing and laughing at the dopamine addicts. We've lost so many better internet things by now and the same people who thought I was weird for caring are now crying over tiktok.
- What are you gonna do about it, liberal? Fund a genocide? Restrict your own free speech?
  Why not use your security council veto to prevent the un from recognizing Palestinian statehood while still claiming to support a two state solution?
- All three of these pieces of legislation are what a Real True American would support. If you refuse to endorse these bills, we're going to have to note it on your social credit score.
  
  Real true Americans do love blowing up brown people that's true

If social media apps exist to slurp up as much user info as possible, and they do, then it makes sense to be concerned about the government that they're subject to.
- Why is it okay for domestic companies to collect the same data and sell it to China, then?
  This shouldn't just affect foreign companies if it's about data collection. It should have been an actual privacy bill. US citizens' privacy will be no better after this.
  
  It's not ok.
  But the fact is that China, North Korea, Iran, and Russia are adversaries of the United States, and the US government is justified in its concern.

I probably shouldnt be celebrating this but I am. I fucking despise Tiktok with a passion, I hate its users, its creators, I hate the short form content trend it started and its algorithm based content delivery systems that every other app copied but worse, I hate the sexualisation of minors and peddling that content to pedos, I hate the clout chasing in general, I hate tiktok trends and "challenged". and I hate the general brainrot it has caused.
- What are you celebrating, exactly? TikTok isn't going away, it's just going to be sold to American investors.
  
  At the very least they will have to split tiktok since I doubt the CCP will let them sell the whole thing, nor will they want to.
  Best case scenario they pull out of the US entirely and then maybe some other western countries also ban it.
  
  If they comply.
- I hate the short form content trend it started
  always has been, with vine.
  its algorithm based content delivery systems that every other app copied but worse
  always has been, with twitter, facebook, instagram, snapchat, youtube, uhhhhh... vine, yeah, just mentioned that one. discord, tinder. literally everything.
  I hate the sexualisation of minors and peddling that content to pedos
  Look at what the great adpocalypse of youtube was ostensibly about, then look at what it was really about. In any case, always has been.
  I hate the clout chasing in general
  Always has been.
  I hate tiktok trends and “challenged”
  Assuming you mean "challenge", you could check out the harlem shake, the ice bucket challenge, god, there's a lot of them honestly. Gangnam style. I think probably this is just like, meme culture more broadly, which, say it with me now: always has been.
  I hate the general brainrot it has caused.
  And finally, always has been.
- Also that damned Disco music!
- Yeah but that's just on YouTube and Facebook now. Nobody is going to regulate them in the slightest.
  It is a slap in the face if they want to say it is too influential to have an adversarial state control it, at the same time leaving it fine for local billionaires to do the exact same things.
- I hate its users, its creators, I hate the short form content trend it started and its algorithm based content delivery systems that every other app copied but worse
  I mean... eh? TikTok is hardly the first platform to embrace short-form video. I think the dislike for the app is overblown.
  The style is reflective of the medium. No point in making big budget audio/visual multi-hour immersive experiences for a cell phone screen with some headphones. The media has to be short because its for an audience that's stealing time in the middle of a commute or during a break at school or the office. The continuous-feed style is something we just managed to achieve with high speed mobile internet (TikTok would have been impossible on a dial-up device).
  Its a young medium. People are still learning what works and what doesn't. And its as prone to getting enshittified as every other venue, thanks to the endless need for higher profits.
  But as someone who grew up watching Albino Blacksheep and YTMND meme-tier content and owns a DVD of Super Bowl Commercials, I gotta say that we've had a lot worse.
  I hate the general brainrot it has caused
  People say this shit about every medium. And there's definitely awful pieces of individual content.
  But a lot of it just comes down to the hyper-sensationalist marketing. And its common to every conceivable media, from Comic Book style front page of print to the "Bwooooong!" they put in every new movie trailer.
  If TikToks suck, its largely because they're aping the worst aspects of all the other established media forms.
  
  The media has to be short because its for an audience that's stealing time in the middle of a commute or during a break at school or the offic
  Except most people you speak to will tell you they spend hours in bed scrolling. Short form took off because it drives higher engagement.
  And its as prone to getting enshittified as every other venue, thanks to the endless need for higher profits.
  Except its never not been shitty. I wa son it back when it was musical.ly it has much of the same problems.
  Albino Blacksheep and YTMND meme-tier content
  Which are far more creative than doing whatever the current trend is, or a thirst trap or click bait.
  People say this shit about every medium. And there's definitely awful pieces of individual content.
  But with tiktok you can feel it. I hate short form but still end up scrolling mindlessly through YT shorts or IG reels. And it really does measurably affect your attention span. And it's so noticeable that the user base openly acknowledges the brain rot.
- The people that create TikTok content are still going to exist even if TikTok goes away. They'll just move to another platform.
- Me too. I see no issue with banning it. I've said this before, but people are only outraged because they're addicted to it and may possibly lose it. Fuck tik tock. Among your examples, I will add the misinformation pounding left tok with things like autism and other mental disabilities. Plus, the way people are self diagnosing themselves and acting like it's a fashion statement is outrageous. And then you have the outrage bait videos that explicitly cherry pick information for viewers while holding back the full context of things, which is a tactic there's already far too much of in this country.
  
  pounding left tok with things like autism and other mental disabilities. Plus, the way people are self diagnosing themselves and acting like it's a fashion statement is outrageous
  [Respectfully] fuck off.
  Anyone the bemoans "self diagnosis" is just a classist dickhead.

Will there be a TikTok dance on TikTok that covers this event?
- The Tiktok dance to end all Tiktok dances. Literally.

Nooooo only I should collect data of the entire world!
They never got over Snowden.
- And they never will. They're so not over Snowden that, an Ex-CIA computer engineer was handed 40 years for giving spy agency secrets to Wikileaks.
  So, no, anything that reminds the US of Snowden, they get salty very quick.

They may just pull out of the US completely
- They'd be right to do so.
  The way this got passed was criminally sleazy. And there's no reason for a foreign company to hand over its IP to some Wall Street thugs.
  
  The can sell to non-us companies no problem. Doesn't have to involve Wallstreet.
- And nothing of value was lost. While I've railed against the unwarranted mass data collection by the NSA and other 3-letter agencies via US carriers and app creators, Tik-Tok is controlled by a foreign adversary that is actively engaging in cyber attacks and has been shown to have far-reaching data collection capacities.
  People can be mad about the US policies and celebrate the banning of Tik-Tok at the same time.
- Best thing to do if you disobey the first rule: don't stick your Tik in crazy.
  
  Trudat

I have mixed feelings. Like I’m glad we’re funding Ukraine, angry we’re finding Israel, and mixed about TikTok. I dislike the app, but that’s no reason to ban something. I think all social media has the issues associated with it except one: a foreign country controls the algorithm. Also this is standard policy for foreign companies in China and turnabout is fair play.
- TikTok is nothing but a chinese psyop program to see how they can influence the public.
  And boy howdy did it work, Look at all the absolutely monstrous, horrible shit people did in pursuit of tiktok trends and fame.
  
  Nobody did anything stupid in the name of fame before tiktok.
  
  Wtf are you talking about. I've been sparsely browsing tiktok since it's creation and have no idea about any monstrous horrible things people did or see anything relating to some psyop program.

It seems like a lot of people think moves like this are about actual national security like congress claims,
- It blows my fuckin mind now damn stupid the average American is
- I mean to an extent it is. America is mad China has a platform that's popular with Americans that they can't control. The effects of this were shown with the fact that America couldn't control the narrative over the Israel-Palestine issue after October 7th. So to increase national security and try to gain back the control they had they're getting rid of TikTok.
  
  Narrative control != National Security in a Democracy.
  
  define national security

So the next nine months will be TikTok pushing pro Trump propaganda 24/7, mobilising the youth against Biden, only to be forced to sell by Trump anyway because everyone who hops into bed with populists gets fucked regardless.
- Isn’t Trump like, famously anti-China. If TikTok was Russian I could see it.
  
  Trump is more pro-money than anti-China
  Biden has done significantly more damage to China's economy than Trump, by far. See https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2024/01/trump-reelection-china-xi-jinping/676129/ for example.
  Besides, China supports every single party causing harm to democracies.
  For instance, there's a reason the German fascist "We should reopen concentration camps for Antifa" party has more popularity on TikTok than all other German parties combined. TikTok's promotion of fascism is even worse than Musk's Twitter.

Weak, totalitarian strategy. If we’re worried about China taking over, becoming China is not the right way to fight that.
And pretending that forcing American ownership cuts out China’s influence is foolish.

Hindsight is so 20/20 in some comments.
Guys, stop focusing on the headline. Read the line underneath it. It's not being banned as in, pushed out of use. It's being severed from it's china-based parent company.
There is such a literacy issue in this country that it's sad.
- Honestly I'm not super in love with either. The internet should be one of our greatest achievements, and while I think companies like meta and bytedance are harming it for their own profit, I definitely don't want the government controlling it.
  
  Doesn't the chinese government de facto control it right now? What makes control by the american government any worse? If anything, it's a slight improvement.
- And a right wing group of investors want to buy it. Own the news.
- If people read or listened to what people actually said, they couldn't get their hit of self-righteous rage.

Is that picture AI-generated? The article claims it's from GettyImages and shot on Capitol Hill, but... The signs are too perfect. They all follow the name design, the text in crispy clear, the colours uniform, and the sign itself 1 atom thin.
- Uh yeah, TikTok 100% coordinated those signs. It doesn't invalidate the protest, many of them use coordinated signs.
- Almost like they were part of a coordinated campaign
- It’s simply photoshopped.
- Not to take a page out of tin foil hat gangs book, but paid protesters imo. Byte dance probably funded them and had the signs made / distributed amongst them.

Here comes POS billionaire like Moron Musk to buy TikTok and turn it into Nazi propaganda machine
- Nah, it'll get sold to a company registered in the US or Europe that is funded by various shell companies and private investment groups, most of which will be owned by Chinese Billionaires.

I'm convinced that US lawmakers believe that the pro-gaza sentiment is coming from TikTok. The timing, the mechanism. They see themselves as no longer able to control the narrative and are blaming 'non-US' social media.
- I'd like to point out that the US has been publicly going after TikTok since the Trump Administration so I'm unconvinced that the timing lines up.
  
  I think it's more so just about controlling narratives in general. Tiktok has a lot of real time tracking of politician corruption and trades. A lot of good useful info for political activism, etc.
  
  And yet it finally got the momentum to succeed now, during all these Gaza protests and when the US-Israeli mainline narratives have been starting to break down for the first time.

I think we're where China was in 2005--2010: a platform that can (and does) promote values that are against the interests of our nation(s) is popular with our youth. The real dilemma is "can we do better", and these days it seems not.
History suggests that the real solution to TikTok isn't banning it; China trying to block western sites did nothing save foment resentment and foster a VPN industry. Take the next step instead - make something that does TikTok better than TikTok, then push it hard. Either that or do what is being done to YouTube/Google - run it into the ground!
- No. What TikTok does is bad, and should not be continued. It's an addictive form of distraction used for brainwashing the youth. It's the worst offender of many types of social media and web content that is ruining the attention span of its users and encouraging them to prostitute their visage for the currency of Likes and Subscribes.
  People should practice reading more than ogling all those vapid videos.

Isn't this unconstiutional?
- Well sort of but not really. They can justify that the Chinese ownership makes this a national security issue. Which makes this 100% legal. Now the American shareholders of tiktok however just like last time they tried to do this with tiktok have a claim that their rights are being infringed. Last time they tried to do a tiktok ban the shareholders sued and won.
  
  So it should be easier this time cuz there's precedent right?
- I'm sure that if you squint in just the right way while driving past it at 80mph while eating a doughnut, it's perfectly constitutional.
  I do think the general mood about TikTock, the Chinese, politicians, and society will make it legal.

- Normally yeah but this was a called hit by the wealthy donor class. The same ones giving million dollar vacations to the Supreme Court judges.
- On what basis? The legal power of the US government to break up or otherwise force divestment of corporate assets is the basis upon which antitrust law is built. The only way this law could be overturned is it's found unconstitutional, and if that happens, you can say goodbye to the FTC.
  
  On the grounds that they are not breaking it up because it has monopoly but because they don't like it can be used for Chinese propaganda. Which is limiting speech.
  Also, they require it to be sold to non-chinese buyer, which is discriminatory.
  
  Lmao. Then bring an anti-trust case? That power is specifically in reference to that and requires the government to prove it's case in court. Not just make a declaration.

Yeah thatll go over well with younger more democrat voters
- Leave it to Democrats to do the stupidest thing possible
  We literally never might win like a generation of voters back. Trump had already come out against the bill. Young "rebels" are absolutely going to flock to him thinking Biden is going absolutely nuts with power - since that's already what they've been hearing
- TikTok will just be owned by a different company. It will still exist.
  
  GOOD! An 🦅American🦅 company wouldn't use people's data for nefarious purposes or sell it to the highest bidder. No sir, not a red blooded American company.

Time for some wild conjecture!
Bytedance and the CPC both know how unlikely it is that TikTok will be allowed to continue operating in the US. Despite what they're saying, I don't think they actually believe they have any chance at winning that lawsuit.
They tried to stop the law from passing but now that it's been signed they're shifting strategies. They're going to go all in on using TikTok to paint the US as authoritarian and hypocritical. Their primary targets will be young people outside the US.
Looking around the world I expect this will have a lot of traction in developing countries. If you look at wonky foreign policy publication you'll see that the diplomacy nerds have spent the last decade or so worrying about developing nations realigning with China. That will probably accelerate.
They'll probably also have some success with younger Americans. Older American's will probably be unconvinced.
It obviously won't have any affect on China's ability to buy data on US citizens from any number of data brokers. I wouldn't be totally surprised if China has at least some access to data from Five Eyes.
Chinas ability to influence opinion probably won't change much either. We used to call that sort of tactic "information warfare" or "psychological warfare". Sending messages to an opponent, adversary or rival in order to confuse or demoralize them has been going on for millennia. Nations constantly work to develop new methods to do so. Tiktok isn't the first or last of such tools and any large nation has a host of other such options at their disposal.
- Great analysis IMO, the US is only one of the countries they're using TikTok to influence.
  
  I'd go even further than that. There's a whole network of tools and organizations that many countries around the world use to influence and spy on each other.
  China has a whole portfolio of tools they can use for that stuff.
  The US has a whole portfolio of tools they can use for that stuff.
  Many of those companies are very comfortable working with both countries, or anyone else who's willing to sign a big enough check.

Tiktok helped my life for the better 😀.... LOL. Sure but it is also a Chinese company that can do things to turn your life and the life of everyone around you into living hell if the government do wishes to.
I think what I would want my relationship with the Chinese country to be like is just simple transactions... I give you this money and I buy that thing. Done, end of transaction. I would like that for all phone tech companies actually. None of this shit about updates because they sold me a shit phone. None of the here's 8 features, then an update leaves you with 3 features only.
- Twitter/x is owned by an unhinged South African billionaire and Middle East oil Barrons. We can discuss the theoretical abuse of TikTok, but X is damaging our democracy today.
  
  Fuck them both!
  Straight into the garbage.
- Meanwhile everyone has already forget when Cambridge Analytics used Meta and Facebook to influence voters into giving us Trump with the help of Russian propaganda. The hypocrisy is so blatant They just want only US oligarchs making money and they want to be able to censor things young people are seeing nowadays from around the world. Every other excuse is a screen.
  
  This is possible. But at home we don't watch TV and I just blocked YouTube altogether from my kids. That website is rancid. I wouldn't let my kids on TikTok either if I was me. And I am me.
  However you are absolutely right. How else will you move people who don't know any better to actually vote for you? And what sector of the population doesn't know all the shit you have done in the past 30 years than people who haven't lived 30 years and haven't paid attention in history class, not care much about it? Teenagers! That population lives on TikTok. So you are absolutely right. Because if TikTok was a porn site nobody would give a fuck except Texas.

TikTok is the primary source of brain-rot in 2024, please, somebody, change my mind.
- I learned how to garden, grow food, ferment food, and some plant identification. I have a working knowledge of sewing. I've watched volcanoes erupt. I saw deep space imagery from JWST and followed along the Voyager 1 communications issues. I get a stream of physicists and physicians sharing about the latest in their field.
  It helped me realize many limiting beliefs I've had about myself and I love myself more than I ever have.
  I could have done those things elsewhere, too. But just like Pandora / Spotify are a tool to discover things you like that you didn't know before, so is algorithmic video delivery.
  Is everything on any social media good? I'm sure there are corners of Tiktok that are as deplorable as anywhere else.
  
  That's great to hear, genuinely the first positive impact I've heard of TikTok having.
  I will however state the obvious, you could find most, if not all the same information with a search engine.
- Ok. Have you not heard of X, MAGA, or Truth Social?
  
  Thankfully, I'm not forced to interact with any of those, it's not a problem here. Here in Australia, TikTok is everywhere, and I feel at times as if I'm the only one here that hasn't touched it, that doesn't stop my friends from ignoring the fact I've asked them countless times not to send tiktoks to me.
  One of said friends is a nurse, one of the smartest people I know. She told me how to do CPR based on what she'd seen in a TikTok, as someone that's done the CPR training, and actually performed it, I was really upset that her knowledge had been overwritten in a very short time of her TikTok addiction. I'm finding such cases are becoming more and more common kately and it's terrifying.

Bye vertical videos you won't be missed by anybody with a brain in their head.
If only. Vertical videos suck and short form sucks harder.
- Yes, you are absolutely correct. Flush that garbage away forever, I say. It's garbage and turds.
  Tiktok style video selfie mode talking about random bullshit is the worst kind of social media invented yet. Nobody should care what your random face looks like watching some other bullshit on social media. There's no need for that level of narcissism in society, we have more than enough everywhere else.

A lot of people on Lemmy are just… old.
This thread made me realize this.
If this bill passes and any of you criticizes China/Russia for banning Facebook/Instagram/Twitter etc.. under the name of “lack of freedom of speech”. I will be laughing. A lot.
- They should have taken the harder route. Something like requiring all software that uses algorithms to manipulate their users to share their algorithms with an auditing body, or to provide a manipulation-free environment otherwise. Every time a change is made, that change must go through the auditing body. Of course Meta, Apple, Microsoft, Google would have a hissy fit, so such a thing would never fly. Or just ban algorithms that manipulate users.
  An outright ban of a particular piece of software sets a terrible precedent in an increasing Orwellian future. They didn't even ban Kaspersky when Russia attacked Ukraine, they just all said, "you probably shouldn't trust this, but keep using it if you want" and that's software that has full access to a computer at a very low level.
- I have news for you, China has already banned everything and if any western app exists in China, it must have its servers in China and it only works in "cooperation" in a local chinese company(which has complete or partial ownership of the chinese part of the app). Have you ever heard the Great Firewall of China?
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Firewall
  In fact, both facebook/instagram and twitter have been banned from China.
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_of_Facebook
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_of_Twitter
  
  That's basically what the US asked of Tik Tok. They wanted their servers in the US (so they did) and then they wanted them in cooperation with a US company (which they did, Oracle I think it was). And it still wasn't enough. And now everyone is clapping as the US becomes more and more like China.
  
  I hope this doesn't come off as inflammatory, but are you saying we should be more like China?
- They already have. Please spend some time learning about China.
- The difference is that in countries that are not dictatorships you have alternatives that don't seek to suck dry every bits of user data for profit and control.
  There are services, like tor, proton, tuta, signal, session, blair, matrix, mastodon, wikipedia, and private and secure OS like graphene, calyx etc., seek to keep user data out of their control and respect user choice.
  I have yet to see alternatives like these in a dictatorship. If so, I would have much less problem about China's GFW. It is annoying that I have to keep wechat in its own profile, because I have no way to communicate with people in China, or communicate with others outside when I visit China.
  That being said, I am not a fan of countries banning services for no good reason, but I don't know if I want to make an exception for instagram and tiktok etc, because they are very much designed to be manipulative.
  But I definitely don't think any countries should ban services that are private, essential, and don't impose manipulative algorithms, like signal, session, mastodon, tor, legitimate VPNs, GrapheneOS, etc. including wikileaks.
- this exactly. china bans those platforms for the same reasons the us is banning this one. they are the same.
  i don't know why everyone in this thread doesn't understand what you're saying. i think its clear
- So dropout, now that you’ve been informed that China has been doing this shit for, well ever really, are you going to be critical of China?
  
  I am very much critical of China. And the United States.
- Banning?
- Since you didn’t back up your statement, I’ll assign you to the category “Is generally angry and just looks for places to project anger.”

Reading through these comments... yikes guys. I use TikTok sometimes, and love the content it provides that YouTube does not provide. Seeing the straight up hate for the app, mixed with the misunderstanding of what the app CAN be if you actually use it, is chilling to say the least. If they were banning ALL social media apps, and their companies, I'd be all for this. As it is, I can not see why you would all be cheering so hard for TikTok to be sold to some American asshole, just for it to start getting enshittified, and then STILL sell your data to Russia, China, and anyone else who wants a slice. The fact you are all hating on TikTok so much, but not questioning our own American social media companies, and wanting them to be banned too, is frightening.
I've seen a few comments saying it is spyware. On iOS at least, there is an icon that pops up to let you know when an app is using your camera or microphone. Not only that, but when you start an app for the first time, it has to request to you the user if you want to allow it access to these things. I said no, of course, because when I first started using it, I fucking hated TikTok. Turns out, when you use it for like a week, it starts to get REALLY good at delivering content you want to see.
Anyway, it doesn't matter, as I'm sure plenty of you will disagree, complain, and then go on using your American owned social medias, that are still hoovering up and selling your data.
The only differences being that China wasn't making a cent out of me, nor do any of these equally shitty American social medias. Oh well, I guess we just really love our own little national narratives.
- Imagine how dumb an average person is, then realize how many people are dumber. Just because you know how to use it and can navigate through the algorithm doesn't mean everyone else can.
  It's a dumbfucking platform full of both fake news and straight up dangerous shot that can get anyone's house burnt down, killed, or severely wounded.
  That being said, do Shitter and Facebook next.
- You need to educate yourself about the US government and its corporate buddies.
  
  First, link some sources of how China/CCP is using TikTok in anyway different that Facebook to get data on its users, specifically the comparison to malware. I don't think OP is overreacting and I do think this is a slippery slope (some entity outside US jurisdiction owns a successful app - this is clearly a message to all other companies and startups outside US jurisdiction that they will meet the same fate if their idea becomes too successful). And yes, I'm sure you will "but but CCP" here, and I will say show me proof TikTok is doing something nefarious (that's any different than what current platforms are doing - all I've ever heard is fear mongering that China "could" do something something etc blah blah)
- just for it to start getting enshittified
  It's always been shit.
- it doesn't sound like you understand global politics.
  
  Okay. Enlighten me then. What benefit does this actually have then?

Me, laughing as the idiot americans will be banned from the app, and only the pure VPN users will remain:
No but seriously this is pretty dogshit stupid. The only people happy about this are the omega boomers and pick mes that hated tiktok anyways for what are basically unrelated reasons. Otherwise they'd be equally calling for a larger set of privacy enforcements that encompass all social media sites, which I agree should happen. This seems, to me, to be pretty transparently a protectionist racket. Only we shall control the data of americans, only we shall track them.
And then there's also the people saying that any social media getting banned is kind of a net positive. Fuck you mate what the hell? You're on a pretty explicitly manipulative social media platform right now, it's just one that you're able to tailor to your own biases. Probably it's a net negative to have less propaganda from a variety of sources. Both sides my ass, I guess, fuck your corporate-state disinformation, I got mine.
I dunno. I watched this guy that makes sandwiches, back when I used tiktok. I thought he was pretty cool. I think it would be a shame to see his content get disappeared, which tiktok already has a pretty huge problem with.
The benefit of tiktok and short form content is that you can watch it anywhere, and almost anyone with a phone at this point can produce it. Those of you who hate vertical video content should understand that a phone is the optimal platform on which to consume it, and you should probably be happy for that, because it's not going to outright disappear from the internet otherwise, as we saw before all of this had started. You miss the forest for the trees when you call for heavy-handed outright bans of this stuff. The corporate influence, I can understand getting rid of that, but the platforms themselves, there's legitimately value there. Twitter as a microblogging platform has been used for actual reporting, and even as it exists now, it's being used for that. If you were to get rid of youtube, you would be eliminating a frankly staggering amount of information available out there that, sure, might exist in other places, but that both takes a large risk and relies on google MORE to feed you that correctly when you use a search engine, which as we've seen recently, hasn't been the case. You could do the same with reddit. Delete reddit, and you are deleting a metric fuck ton of information on some valuable stuff, you're deleting a fuck ton of internet culture. These platforms need to be disentangled from their corporate overlords and made more free to own, browse, and use, not outright destroyed.

The kids were using the platform to talk about how the boomers got everything wrong, especially Israel, and it threatened their view of themselves.

- Is it really that far removed from what Meta was doing when they were unhappy with Canada's laws?
  
  It's the same shit
- Ever seen this? (2014 protest against net neutrality stuff)
  There's nothing wrong with companies informing their customers on how ongoing legislation will affect them.
  That being said, I approve of restricting TikTok's power and influence. I don't approve of it happening like this. This is a problem for every social media company, not just TikTok. Americans need full privacy protections and transparency behind algorithms that shape their content.
  Forcing the sale of one company doesn't do much but get it out of China's hands (which... okay fine, this is probably good. We wouldn't be in this scenario in the first place if congress could do anything to put more control in consumer's hands in regards to their privacy/content).
- Google and Facebook did the same thing when they were trying to pass SOPA or whatever it was before that made midtier services responsible for content and data of their users. Yet we don't see people up in arms to ban those companies.
  This is just about young people changing their minds about the Palestine conflict due to videos on the ground.
  
  Dude, SOPA and PIPA were objectively bad for users.
  So what if TikTok goes away, there are other short-form video platforms to replace it.
- I mean its a company alerting you to an impending loss of service and asking the only people who can turn course to do something. Its not much different to pornhub putting up a "no longer accessible, reach out to your senator" banner instead of aggressive privacy invading age checks. I think a lot of american websites did something similar when gdpr basically forced them to stop tracking us without consent.
- Facebook went out of its way to influence US elections for money, but sure it's the scary chinese who are the problem.
- Constitutional right to free expression? Lies. So many get this wrong and they don't understand its limited jurisdiction. And most of the time it's all about their narrative and suppressing the opposing view.

Not sure if the reason Biden can barely walk is because he's 1000 or because of all those holes in his foot.
- Not sure if the reason you can't leave a coherent comment is because you're a bot or just as stupid as one.
  
  Didn't realize it was so tough to infer that banning tiktok might upset big parts of Biden's base, who are already alienated by the Gaza situation, and that I was likening it to shooting oneself in the foot. Sorry.
- wHaT aBoUt biDeN?!! gEnOCidE !!1!
  "I'm a russian bot BTW Contakt kremlin@russia.con if I makfunktion"