I stopped TikTok a while ago. For me it involved a lot of snake-related material, which became boring. Also it was impossible to believe any of the more serious postings there as everything seemed contrived to make $ or make a possibility deceitful point.
"Activists lost their organizing platform" is so funny. I can't think of anything more ill-suited to organizing political activism than an algorithmically driven video app. Posting is activism.
I dunno if you've been on TikTok lately, or seen some of the more politically-focused videos that exist there, but it is *absolutely working* as activism. There are communities, organizations, and movements that have been created on TikTok.
It worked so well that millions of people lobbies the Biden administration to help get universal health care, stopping a genocide, hell, even preventing tiktok for being banned...
There sure are! I don't have any links or sources at the time of this comment, only what I've witnessed happening myself. I'll go find some links and sources to support my experiences before I list them as evidence.
I think an important point is the difference between activism and education.
I would say TikTok was VITAL for educating people.
I wouldn't necessarily say it was the end all be all for action-based activism. Because that stuff is communicated and goes down in fully encrypted spaces like signal.
every time someone says "bro, muh organizing" who the hell organizes on tiktok or twitter, i would understand if this was a messange app like Whatsapp or telegram, BUT FUCKING TIKTOK?????
Activism is when you spend 18 hours a day online engaging with people who think identically to you and never leaving the house or taking any action in real life
Not to mention a lot of the "activists" on there are (far) right wing assholes as well, and they arguably outnumber any lefty organising that's going on.
I hate to say it but I think using capitalist ventures as lefty organising platforms is largely a futile effort. Occasionally a post might go viral, yeah, but for the most part it will be forgotten just as quickly because these short-form content sites aren't made for complex political engagements.
He's an internet performance artist. His whole is playing a character of an overly-online pseudo-intellectual middle-aged centrist, exaggerated to the point of absurdity.
The insight on how they overinflate the number of people who rely on social media for their income and the amount of income people earn on it has been eye opening.
They all imagine they're one viral post from being rich and never having to work a regular job.
Their brains can't comprehend that for every big account the algorithm puts in their face, there's millions that'll never take off, that go nowhere, and never monetize. And even if they monetize they might get a couple of hundred bucks which is outweighed by the effort to earn that.
After Twitter and TikTok, is bsky going to be the next activist organizing platform? I'd had hopes it would be Mastodon, but much as I enjoy it for other reasons, it has no way to spread crucial information far and wide.
I mod for a small crystal business that does a lot of sales live on TikTok and I know a lot of other small businesses and handmade artists that sell live there as well. So I'm genuinely concerned about what happens for them now.
i'm hearing that dril is a shitlib and everyone saying "haha you don't know who that is??" is also a shitlib and kissing his ass for his very real sincere opinion. today really is a school day, wow
so VPNs are not a thing people know what they are? Its not like they erased tik tok, they blocked its access to the USA IP adresses. I can still watch tik tok, not that I do, but I can...
FWIW, they didn’t block US IP addresses. They blocked access from any account that was based in the US when it was created. If your account is flagged as being a US account, you can’t log in regardless of where your IP/GPS is. My American daughter in Canada can’t log in, her Canadian roommate can
my takeaway from this: drill, either the original recipe somethingawful forum goon or whomever bought the rights to their username, is also mailing it in.
TikTok is a weapon posing as a social media app. Xi is allied with Putin. You're basically putting an axis weapon on your phone. But y'all are crack addicts with double standards.
Bluesky is almost as insufferable as Twitter since it’s 50% blue MAGA, 25% people with zero sense of humor. The only reason I prefer Bluesky is because users here are stupid but Twitter users are stupid AND racist.
Exactly. I was on both TT and Twitter. I’m mourning TT more though. It really was special. ☹️ Bluesky has helped so much in getter over the other place.
It makes me smile to read this, as I am in mourning of TT too as a middle aged man. I know it's back, but it will never be the same. That app had everything, & there's some great communities there. I learned new stuff to verify daily. It's far from the kids dance app stigma. Waiting on Neptune app.
I miss forums. There are still some around, but usually niche and populated by a small handful of the same people. MySpace killed forums, then Facebook killed MySpace. We're all just internet nomads.
Well now they know what being a federal employee feels like with constant shutdown threats. It was 12 hours. They will survive. There’s other ways to communicate
listen. we used to say that about twitter, then look what happened. turns out "this website is free" is a very powerful curse that will inevitably corrupt said website. if you say this, you'll make terrible things happen. please delete this. i am super serious.
I’ve learned that the pro TikTok argument is “I want to make short videos instead of having a job” but not actually engaging with any of the underlying arguments against. Oh well.
In Attenborough voice, "Observe the poster, displaying a vibrant plumage of wit, only to be met by the dull-feathered dullards. This delicate interaction, a testament to the growing balance of the BlueSky ecosystem."
They obviously don’t know who this is. My household is one of those households that lost our income due to the ban and you don’t see me yelling at drill
Livelihood for millions? Can I see data for that somewhere? Seems vastly inflated. But also: it does suck for the “actual humans” when online communities are dismantled.
What seems implausible about the idea that some people might get butthurt about the potential disappearance of TT? That in itself was a thing that happened. Is Joker 2019 now part of the irony-poisoned cognoscenti canon? Seems a parochial expectation, but ymmv.
The Onion hasn’t changed fundamentally (and I’ve enjoyed it since the early 90s). But, the absurdity of actual reality has taxied in its direction so that they have to work ever harder for the satire to continue seeming fully distinct from straight news. I am not the first to note this.
People have had over four years' warning to build their little empires somewhere other than TikTok. The amount of sympathy I have for people crying now is vanishingly small.
How about all of the problems with TikTok (privacy, addiction, and foreign disinformation) are present in other sites and instead of dealing with the systemic issue, democrats handed Trump and easy win? Can we agree that that is bad?
Unpopular take: Anyone who makes their income from an app that has no reciprocal obligation to host or defend their content, is an idiot.
Also, “influencer” should not be a thing, still less a job.
Personally, I never used the app. I do know a lot of peoples incomes are tied to it. But they had a really big heads up that this was coming so I hope some of them made contingency plans. My guess is trumps not gonna make any headway on getting it back. Why would China help him.
I think some people don’t realize that he takes posts he has seen and paraphrases them to the point of absurdity so when someone posts the same opinion “there’s always a dril”
Sometimes he’s like a sentiment trajectory computer.
Comments
Oh wait
I would say TikTok was VITAL for educating people.
I wouldn't necessarily say it was the end all be all for action-based activism. Because that stuff is communicated and goes down in fully encrypted spaces like signal.
Trying to get Bluesky to add Spheres (Circles or Groups) to become more organized for political activism
Contact Bluesky thru their Feedback portal and let them know that adding Spheres will streamline organization
#LetsGetOrganized
#BeTheMovement
This is the moment Bluesky achieved its potential as the new public square
Were they big on Twitter or something?
They all imagine they're one viral post from being rich and never having to work a regular job.
But I also know who Dril is so lol 😂
Psychos and maniacs rightfully recognize the Basedness of dril
!!
“It’s never funny when it happens to you.” As been said since year dot.
Fuck Russia, Slava Ukraini!🇺🇦
Bluesky convo of seemingly new user from TikTok not getting jokes & shit posting
Yet.
I miss forums. There are still some around, but usually niche and populated by a small handful of the same people. MySpace killed forums, then Facebook killed MySpace. We're all just internet nomads.
The juice is gonna flow!
Influencers
Once I learned that, I respected their art.
Also, “influencer” should not be a thing, still less a job.
Sometimes he’s like a sentiment trajectory computer.
Please respect us during this time
of mourning.