WTF is going on with TikTok?

The sequence of events as far as I can recall:

Trump promised to ban TikTok
TikTok was slated to be "banned" in the twilight of Biden's term
Trump says he'd give it 90 days to make a decision
Biden decides not to ban it, handing it off to Trump
TikTok goes dark
It returns, but if you search for something anti-Trump in the United States, you can't find it
Using a VPN will give you that content
Various news outlets are now calling it Trump's "Propaganda Arm"

What the fuck is going on? From a political or technological standpoint.

60 comments

Fascism from a technological and political perspective

It's clear Trump wants to control all social media within the US.
Musk took twitter and turned it into a far right hate speech platform
Zuckerberg has a private meeting with Trump. Next day donates $1m to the inaugural fund. Facebook, Instagram and Threads remove fact-checking in the US and Zuckerberg. There's some very odd fuckery afoot with left searches that are blamed on a technical glitch.
Tiktok is threatened with closure. They suddenly align themselves with Trump and the lights stay on.
Google's boss, Sundar Pichai, is lauded and given a seat of honour at Trump's inauguration. It's clear there are established links there.
Reddit - I don't know, but Steve Huffman has a /serious/ adoration of Elon Musk and is fond of money and power. If it's not already in the fold, it will be soon.
I'd put money on that we're already seeing left and anti-trump messages suppressed, and algorithms adjusted to promote division and discord - not just in the US, but globally. We'll be seeing platforms other than the above attacked and inflitrated constantly by bots and AI. We'll reach a point where you literally will be talking to yourself if you are against this. Your messages will just disappear to the point where you question your own reality. Shadowbanned online. Is Lemmy safe? No, not remotely. Decentralisation helps somewhat, but when the heavy guns are laying down suppressing fire from bot armies and destablising agendas - or even just being ruled illegal for some made-up reason, decentralisation doesn't allow you to fight.
Jim Morrison said, "“Whoever controls the media controls the mind. The media is the message and the message is me.”
The aim here is obvious, and it's not new. The method is just adjusted for modern day. And truth? Say goodbye to that sucker.
- uhh social media has been controlled by the CIA since near its inception.
  
  Yeah but they're the good guys right?
  
  At least the CIA supposedly cared about national security.
- It’s clear Trump wants to control all social media within the US.
  And he didn't even really have to do anything to do it. Capitalism just took its natural course and they all lined up to ride his Toad.

You forgot step 1: Trump promises to ban TikTok.
- Yes that is important!
- And that was also step 9, according to his comments yesterday.

i can understand your confusion: actions speak louder than words; so break it down based on what they did (not what they said) to make it make sense:
trump tries to ban tiktok and fails
biden, democrats & republicans try to ban tiktok and they succeed
tiktok goes dark because it is banned
trump promises to issue an executive order to save tiktok and follows through
tiktok is back, but now has to depend on trump for its survival so it'll do whatever trump wants
- Except it went dark before the law had a chance to be enforced, and was back up before trump was ever in office and able to use executive orders. So points 3 and 4 have nothing to do with the actual law and are decisions completely from within tiktok
  
  Biden also announced he wasn't enforcing the law. The TikTok operators saw the writing on the wall and realized they need to bend the knee to Trump.
  Don't get too hung up on specific dates. Laws are not some physical law like gravity that are present and universal. They exist within a fuzzy context of enforcement and interpretation.
  Biden made clear he wasn't going to enforce the law. Trump made clear he was going to make a decision based on how well Tiktok flattered and bribed him. So that's exactly what they've done.
  
  It went dark after the judicial review process found that the law was constitutional.
  The important thing to recognize is that the site stopped operating in the us (which it said it would do in reaction to this decision) after it was clear that it would definitely be violating a law with explicit consequences if it continued.
  One unremarked-upon aspect of the events between Saturday and Sunday was the arson of a representative’s office in retribution for the ban.
  Combined with the crappy algorithm after the shutdown (indicates they gotta actually rebuild all the recommendations), it’s likely that the company shut the site down to be in compliance, intending to go back up if possible once the law was reversed or the new administration was in power, and was offered assurances against legal action and protection against the law after the representatives office was set on fire.
  
  and only one of the app stores brought back tiktok despite trump's executive order saying that it's okay now.
  when it comes to profits & finance, they're very easily spooked and will go out of their way to ensure that they don't lose $$$; points 3 & 4 are in service to $$$ based on how they interpet the law, just like the app stores.

Fascism. That's what's going on.

~~TikTok wasn't ever actually banned.~~
A ban was signed into law. It had bipartisan support, though that may have been because it was tied in with aid for Ukraine. Biden appeared to have supported it initially but either after public backlash or them actually realizing what a massive fumble it was, Biden's administration said they would not enforce the ban and leave it to the Trump admins.
TikTok voluntarily shut down their servers, and gave users a super dickridey message about how Trump was going to save the platform. Less than 24 hours later, severs came back up with another dickridey message about how Trump promised to save their platform.
All of this happened before the inauguration.
Edit: im trying my best to make this as accurate as possible pls let me know if I fucked up.
- Pretty much summed it up.

Uh the Supreme Court approved Biden’s ban that was initiated by Trump. Which is a nice way to make Biden less popular and come out as the saviour, plus TikTok will now lick Donnie’s boots. Someone was very smart, although I don’t think it was Trump himself.
- I mean yknow, different kinds of intelligence. Guy's dumb as a rock in most things, but clearly has a deep unconscious understanding of performance and manipulation
- This is exactly the sort of deal making through bullying Trump is known for. He's crazy, not stupid.
  
  If they let him speech unattended, it goes all gobbledegook in no time, so I suspect he really is not the brightest bulb in the package.

You got "foreign influenced" like US has done it for decades to other countries. US used to call it spreading democracy or some sort.
Does that help?

He had to defend TikTok to win over youth votes for the election.
Now that he's pres again, he knows that in one year it will become very apparent that he can't lower grocery/gas prices, and isn't willing to take action on home prices, the deficit, AI, or wage inequality.
So instead he has a list of things that will prop up his approval rating, because that is the only metric that actually matters to him. Right now that seems to mean keeping TikTok, and annexing new territory (even if that just means renaming the Gulf of Mexico).
- he has a list of things that will prop up his approval rating, because that is the only metric that actually matters to him
  This almost feels overly forgiving to Trump, given what the remainder of our political body is. When judging US politicians by which metrics actually matter to them, "approval rating" puts someone way in the upper echelon.
  
  I would not agree. Every metric is subject to Goodhart's law, approval ratings is no exception. Putin has (allegedly) maintained an approval rating well over 50% for his entire career.
  I'm not saying he wants to do right by his constituents, I'm saying he wants to be told he's a winner. Trump is a narcissist. He's all the other terrible things because at the end of the day he needs to feel liked. He will only do things that he thinks will fill that void.

Trump doesn't want people to express freedom of speech as a Nazi he prefers people not know about certain things. The government wants only America propaganda. Therefore TikTok has to cater to Trump's ego to stay in the US.
I now call it trump tok because of you post anything that's anti trump or his Nazi regime you will get banned.
If you post anything about LGBT stuff or anything anti "America" you will get banned.

This is a classic mafia move. It will end with the mafia owning something that used to belong to someone else even though that person did not want to sell it.

It was always about control. They had no control over the information and now they do. All of a sudden it’s not a problem anymore.

There are rumors of Chinese regulators going after bytedance over unfair business practices in china. I think there is something to the whole affair we are not really seeing.

Democrats walked right into his trap. I don't think they're controlled opposition but they sure act like it...
- Stop giving them the benefit of the doubt. They have shown you who they are, believe them. They are a fund raising party, their only allegiance is to capital.

All corporate social media based in the US is going to turn out like this if it hasn't already. Surprised Reddit and YouTube haven't fallen yet.
- im pretty sure reddit has done that before. or at least had controversy like it

It's Trump, the Republicans, Musk, and other billionaires using the power of the government to coerce Bytedance into actions that will be favorable to them. It's kind of Trump's MO; threaten people/corporations to enrich his family or otherwise benefit him in some way. They will likely force Bytedance to sell TikTok at a large discount to the government and Trump's friends.

One word:
Shenanigans

So tiktok is censoring criticism of Trump?
I kinda wanna check that for myself, cuz I find it hard to believe
- The claims I’ve seen are that search results are censored. Like if you search for specific phrases like “Trump fraud” you will get back videos in every country except the US (unless you use a VPN). I haven’t tested this yet, but I have seen videos on TT where liberals and leftists are complaining about it and about the all the Trump dickriding around the ban. The people in my feed are now very distrustful of the app and are looking for alternatives.
- I’ve certainly had no dearth of anti-Trump content rolling through my feed. Sounds to me like people who don’t use TikTok are just making stuff up that fits their worldview.
  
  I don't have TikTok, but if you do, isn't this easily verifiable? Just go try searching one of the relevant terms.
  
  ...are just making stuff up that fits their worldview.
  Plenty of that on Lemmy and whole world
  
  Not unlikely, I'll be asking around some friends around the world and see what happens

PR stunt

Sounds like the management at Tiktok see it as politically expedient to fluff Trump to be able to continue to have access to the US market.

This is the equivalent of modern day book burning.

Uhhh I’m using TikTok with no VPN in the US and still get plenty of anti-Trump, pro-LGBT, left-leaning content. 🤷
TikTok definitely used the news hype to signal to Donald Trump that they will work with him — by giving him “credit” for making the app available again (even though he wasn’t president yet and didn’t do anything). It’s all propaganda from both the US and China.
- It’s all propaganda from both the US and China
  Well, one large company based in China that saw a PR opportunity anyway, it's not like TikTok is acting at the direction of the CPC lol

Chinese citizens still can’t use TikTok. Curious
- that's because douyin is for them
  
  And the reason for segregating in the first place?

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