There has been bipartisan flip-flopping, hypocrisy, and ulterior motives when it comes to TikTok, with the (current) end result that the app is now being openly used to promote Trump to as many as 170 million Americans as he prepares to take office.
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And the best part: fearing Chinese influence, legislators drove TikTok users onto an explicitly Chinese app with Chinese citizens where they're being flooded with videos about how cheap Chinese groceries are and how much they misunderstood China. Also a lot of gay Chinese guys being thirsty.
Should the Democrats have seen this coming? Well, lots of people have been screaming that this was going to happen. So they certainly could have figured it out in advance. But remember, most of the political power players involved don’t really understand social media. Trump included.
"But remember, most of the political power players involved don’t really understand social media."
OK, but it is their job to find these things out. They have the time, the money and the resources to do so, if they choose. Don't let them off the hook that easy.
Dems have been incredibly bad at communication, and worse at formulating and conveying a message. TickTok is just the latest example where Trump & co have gotten out ahead of event w/ their take. Is there no outstanding strategist or successful PR practitioner in the Dem fold?
The party needs a full reset but it won't happen yet. It is very likely that there will be a massive landslide loss for the Dems in the 2026 midterms, and perhaps there will be a change in the party.
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We’re in a dangerous time when it comes to social media. When it’s good, it’s great. But we’ve seen it weaponized to further anti-democratic agendas, while the people at the wheel to stop it don’t even understand what’s going on. We’re at the mercy of a toppling house of cards.
Also, my prediction, FWIW: Now that the path to “save TikTok” is in Trump’s hands, I have started to think my “worst case scenario” back of mind thought is more likely. Which is that we get an “Elon Musk buys Twitter” situation with a much bigger and more influential platform.
China’s MOFCOM has to approve any cross-border M&A and TikTok exists as an e-commerce platform, I don’t understand where “selling it to Musk” gets any traction from ByteDance and MOFCOM.
I don’t necessarily think they’ll sell it to Musk, but maybe someone with a similar agenda. I also don’t see how Trump can “save TikTok” any other way besides some kind of sale going through. And TikTok seems to think it’s getting saved.
I figure an EO stating non-enforcement and then tacking on a “ignore the ban” on to the next spending bill. I don’t think it’s that hard to give them enough cover to keep running.
Jeff Yass, billionaire Trump buddy, already owns a huge chunk of it and Bytedance, its parent company. And until Elon made a major donation Yass was the single biggest GOP donor this election cycle.
It is ALREADY another X or Meta but with scarier tech and Chinese psyops issues.
All 3 branches (including 1 FOTUS, 1 POTUS) agreed TikTok poses a national security threat with serious espionage risks. But for a price, Trump now no longer wants to prevent foreign actors from accessing sensitive information to target specific individuals, dissidents, and critics within the US? 🇨🇳
And my favorite bit about the TT whiners, is a TON of them are Anti-Israel, "I didn't vote over Gaza" influencers. And Jeff Yass, he guy who owns $billions of TT and Bytedance is not just one of the biggest GOP donors, but also a major supporter of Israel and donor to anti-Muslim orgs. Just stupid.
So if the ban gets repealed, what are the chances that now folks can once again go full bore on pro-Palestinian support/anti-Tangchurian Candidate™ commentary since "well, YOU (the TC™) approved the site coming back, dumbass, don't complain about it!"?
Hasn't TikTok been very openly hostile to the idea of selling, though? I thought their position was basically "we get that you want us to sell to an American, and unfortunately you're just going to have to ban us because that's not happening"
I think Meta and TikTok will merge or something to that effect. IG changed its thumbnails to tall rectangles (like TT) and FB has been promoting ways to connect it to TT the last few days
To even delay the shutdown for 90 days requires, under the law, that progress has been made toward finding another owner. From what I’ve read there’s been zero progress there. So Apple, Google, etc, would not be protected against fines unless a new bill passed next week.
I never used TikTok, but I can't get over the feeling we need to stop building on top of other people's platforms. Building a community or movement or a business may be made easier by it, but what you give up for that convenience rarely feels worth it in times like these.
Once I saw that message praising Trump I deleted the app. It’s just becoming a video version of X at this point and I refuse to support a platform that caters to that egotistical puppet of a president. I hope it crashes and burns.
I'd agree, if it weren't for the fact that so many people use Tiktok to promote their small businesses and pay their bills. There are people scared and not knowing what to do next because their sole source of income is being ripped away from them
My worry is that millions of people are so desperate for its content that they are ready to celebrate any reversal of the ban no matter how undemocratic.
Yes, this is my worry, too. I have (adult) family members who spend 6+ hours a day on the platform, and whose communication/thinking have completely changed in the last few years. While I value much of what happens on the app, for some folks it’s an absolute addiction.
I downloaded the app then deleted it after 3 days. Day 1: “Cool! Space videos!” 2: “Why is my entire feed saying the Challenger explosion was a hoax?” Day 3: “9-11 was a hoax?”
That's my fear. I won't go back to TikTok if control changes hands in that way. I hope others stand by that too. The move to the U.S. servers was already rough & pretty horrendous.
An American buying TikTok (even a detestable oligarch if it must be) would "literally" be the best outcome. This is because the REASON for the ban is a legitimately good one. As long as a Chinese citizen owns TikTok,
they have to abide by Chinese law. The Chinese law at issue here is that the "ruling party" in China (which is the same ruling Communist Party its always been) gets to access ALL of TikTok's users' metadata with absolutely no oversight at any given time...
There's a good chance Zuck tries to buy it, with all the lobbying money he spent and how much he's been cozying up. Or Trump is just going to undo the ban with right leaning censorship stipulations and proclaime himself gen Zs saviour.
Maybe a mix of the 2 where he tries to somehow give it to Zuck
Good thread. This entire debacle is a great example of the abuse of power and ignorance of elected officials. There are no heroes in this story and it should serve as an example of why we don’t want DC trying to solve all of our problems. Not this team, not that team.
Definitely, and they are all so old they basically live in a different world. AOC and the younger politicians get social media, but Pelosi, Schumer, Gary Connolly, and Hoyer are all much too old.
These people have been serving since before the internet was widespread so of course they don’t understand social media. Yet another reason why we need term limits ASAP
The fact that the ban went in earlier than necessary combined with this message makes me think it’s all a farce so Trump can claim a win. Same old tactics, he breaks something, blames it on democrats, and then takes the credit for fixing the thing he broke.
Not just Americans, I've seen heaps of people from elsewhere saying that suddenly they're getting a ton of Trump, Ivanka etc in their feeds that had never come up before.
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OK, but it is their job to find these things out. They have the time, the money and the resources to do so, if they choose. Don't let them off the hook that easy.
It's just that their goals and beliefs are shit
It is ALREADY another X or Meta but with scarier tech and Chinese psyops issues.
https://thehill.com/policy/technology/513376-mark-zuckerberg-pushed-anti-tiktok-message-to-officials-lawmakers-report/
https://readsludge.com/2024/04/23/meta-shatters-lobbying-record-as-house-passes-tiktok-ban/
The CEO of tiktok was an intern at Facebook.
Article dated 2020
https://thehill.com/policy/technology/513376-mark-zuckerberg-pushed-anti-tiktok-message-to-officials-lawmakers-report/
Now, we watch his revisionist shenanigans begin...
Maybe a mix of the 2 where he tries to somehow give it to Zuck
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/03/14/trump-tiktok-billionaire-donors-00146892