Totally agree with @great_pillow08 . I have no interest in Tiktok, but being a college student, I see tons of bored people spending their time on it (sometimes at max volume in a study room, or on the bus). It's rare that those I see are watching educational material. All I see is silly memes and humor, cats and makeup/beauty products. I imagine tough, that with its popularity it's important for many businesses... at least until another new app comes by in 5 years or so. At least, Instagram still seems like a popular alternative in 2025.
I have never posted before… but now am going to because I am stunned by the lack of understanding and the paranoia related to “intelligence gathering” by China. TikTok does collect a lot of personal information. However our information is collected all over the internet. Social security number, credit cards, location, names, addresses, key strokes, buying habits…. You name it. If one thinks that TikTok is a danger because it gathers this info… then you are very narrow minded. Many apps and sites gather this info…. From many countries… adversarial countries or not. All foreign countries gather this info in one way or another. The ToS of TikTok does indicate much of this. But the paranoia because it’s Chinese owned is remarkable. So much data is collected with out ToS. This is more about China phobes and privacy sensitive people… when again, your personal data is out there already… TikTok or not. And as for mind rot… or whatever you want to call it related to Gen Z or any Gen… that too is out there. It can take many forms. YouTube Shorts as an example… there are many examples. Are we to start shutting down sites and content due to convenient but not unique circumstances just because it’s someone’s or some political parties target of the day? The flavor of the day is anti China… anti this, anti that. Ok fine. Society dictates given the time and the current circumstance what is acceptable and not… so ok fine. I guess that’s what is happening here. But what concerns me is the lack of knowledge and understanding… and most of what I am hearing is based on lack of knowledge and lack understanding. And what people “heard” from someone else who is equally misinformed or doesn’t grasp the realities of todays world. Think holistically people. Be a realist. I don’t have all the answers. I don’t pretend to. But I am stunned by the misinformed opinions who have a forum to declare their “fact” and amplify it via that forum or a blog… or whatever platform. That to me is the real danger. Not that everyone has say… that’s a good thing. But that people who don’t know “shi? about shi?” get a stage and platform to pontificate about things they know little about and then it’s amplified and equally misinformed people pile on… welcome to our social media society. lol. I’ve gone off the rails here. Lol. But the argument I’m making isn’t that TikTok is good or bad overall… but that people just all know what is best.. when they really dont know much and social media just amplifies the good, the bad and the ugly. Again… I don’t pretend to have the answers. I don’t. I just have observations. And now I am using this platform to express my opinions as others have. Should I be able to? I dunno… prob no more or less than others. And that is the real point. Who am I to say? Who are you to say? Just more BS out in the blogosphere to us to go around and around on…. With heightened sense of self importance. I’ll go shrink back into the background… and let you all have at it as you all need to do for some reason.
@Eliezer- I PROMISE, NOT everything is about racism!! 🙄
I am quite devastated by the possibility of TikTok being banned. I have been a content creator on TikTok for nearly three years and have been closely following the development of TikTok being banned since 2023.
On a personal level I am struggling to fathom life without TikTok. I am admittedly an addict. Last week I spent 27 hours an 33 minutes on TikTok according to my screen time. It’s where I get the majority of my news, I do also read the new york times and apple news but I find the journalists on TikTok to be superior and more unbiased than the main stream media and they often come out with stories sooner than the main stream media. I am probably a little to well informed for my own mental health but I feel it is imperative to know what is going to happen and be prepared.
When it comes to my business TikTok has definitely put me on the map. I have been featured in several news articles due to some videos that went viral and I have my largest following on TikTok compared to other platforms that I am on. Many clients initially find me other places but often times they it’s my TikTok videos that make them feel comfortable moving forward with me. While my videos are on instagram and I am still trying to get everything uploaded on to you tube, I have far less followers and their algorithms are inferior when it comes to finding a relevant audience. So while I don’t solely rely on TikTok like some businesses do it will most likely have a negative impact. I know my business will survive because I will continue to find new and innovative ways to market myself. I am going to keep an eye out for whatever the next big platform is and be an early adopter. I’m already on Bluesky, Clapper and Fanbase and am waiting for Neptune’s launch this spring. I am also looking to break into the podcast space. I am worried about how I will make videos without TikTok since they make it so easy to film and edit videos and have helpful special effects like green screen so there will be a frustrating learning curve
In terms of my thoughts on the government banning TikTok I believe the government doesn’t like how uncensored it is and how it brings people together and gives them financial independence. Compared to Meta platforms and You Tube, Tik Tok is far less censored, especially when it comes to news. There are worse offenders so I don’t think this is about date or national security. This video pretty much sums up my thoughts on the matter: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTYEv9d55/
I’m also not sure how Instagram reels and YouTube shorts will survive since they only exist because of TikTok and are mostly content reposted from TikTok. So everyone who says oh I don’t like TikTok I just watch Instagram and YouTube. Well guess what? You’re mostly watching reposted TikTok.
My proposal is that we come up with a new app just like Tik Tok and name it Free Speech so if they government tries to ban it they will literally have ban Free Speech.
I feel like TikTok is the modern day soul train every time there’s someone dancing 🤷🏻♂️😂
It's hard to read some parts of this thread without envisioning old man (or woman) yelling at clouds meme
More and more we're having to import our engineers because everyone here wants to be a media star, instead.
The law they passed is only banning companies owned by adversarial countries like China, Iran, Venezuela or Russia
Do you ppl not know Zuckerberg is buying TikTok? lol. It’s not going anywhere 🤪
Edit to add: Added an emoji to indicate This is a sh*tpost.
TikTok used to show me big booty hoes but my wife changed the algorithm and now it shows me puppies and kitties 🤣
China phobes? Yeah I’m Chinese, the CCP is an evil regime that is manipulating young people’s minds. No thanks! Ban away, unless it’s owned by legit people! Mr Womderful from Shark Tank is leading a group of investor to buy it! Good luck to Mr O’Leary.
@brownglucose Marck Zuckerberg lobbied congress to ban Tik Tok even though on 2018 Facebook was exposed for selling our data and being a threat to national security. ByteDance is saying they won’t sell and even if they did it wouldn’t be with the algorithm which is what makes TikTok, TikTok and not instagram reels or You Tube shorts. It is likely that the suggested content won’t be as good and smaller creators and business will not have the same reach.
@brownglucose since when is he buying it? He looked at buying it back in 2019 but failed to close the deal. ByteDance recently has said it had no plans to sell. 🤷♀️
Zuck isn't buying TicTok... where did you get this from?
I never had an account but I'm happy it's going away. 💜🤷♀️😈 Buahaha. Lol 😅 My friends spent too much time on that app themselves plus allowing their very young kids to be raised by it. 🙄 I don't dig it. 🚮
@great_pillow08
I PROMISE, NOT everything is about racism!! 🙄
💯 agree
@brownglucose
Do you ppl not know Zuckerberg is buying TikTok? lol. It’s not going anywhere
Source? I did a search and didn’t find anything. I would also be surprised if the Federal Trade Commission and the Antitrust Division of DOJ would allow Zuckerberg to purchase TikTok because of the massive social media market share he would control.
To anyone interested - PART of the risk from TikTok is the amount of data it Hoovers up but as was previously pointed out, that is certainly NOT unique to TikTok. The other major risk is comes from the potential for “weapons grade” propaganda.
This is a link to an article written by researchers at Facebook and Cornell about “Emotional Contagion” experiments Facebook conducted on unsuspecting users (without their knowledge or consent) back in 2013. Emotional contagion is defined as “a phenomenon of an automatic adoption of an emotional state of another person”. Facebook’s research, published in an academic journal, demonstrated “Experimental evidence of massive scale emotional contagion through social networks”.
https://www.pnas.org/doi/pdf/10.1073/pnas.1320040111
@Midnight01
Perhaps she got that from the same source that told her the LA fires are due to lawmakers not taking the climate crisis seriously enough?
Just a guess.
Everyone knows that the forest fires started because no one was raking up the leaves.
@brownglucose zuck pushing reels. Idk if it's worth it for meta to buy tiktok.
Zuckerberg a different person since he's started training jiu jitsu. Feels like he's pushing back on a lot of nonsense.
And playing with blowtorches.
whoosh
I'm excited.
It's extremely effective at supporting someone's existing perspective. Instead of creating opportunities for someone to learn about how other people think and live, IT IS DESIGNED (algorithm) to only give you more support of what you already know.
It's like a personalized Fox News. Just validating how you already think and feel.
Never used it. Few fun app steal data from devices .., it’s safe if that’s the case but also good to come with counter attack shield on mobile to secure mobile data than putting a ban.
BRely touched it. Not a fan really. I watch reels on YouTube, Instagram & Facebook. Feels more user friendly there.
I personally use it because I am a painter so I like to post videos of the painting process. So I’m super upset I will lose all of those videos.
Removed TikTok account (no off-site contact methods can be posted) [CharlieBear]
I feel like there are many people in denial about the personal information gathering on many apps and websites by companies in "friendly" countries. As Caesar found out, manipulation and betrayal by a friend are easy because it is not expected. The timing of the TikTok ban seems like a diversion to many. Like a magic trick, while we're focused on the magician, the real question becomes, what are we really missing?
@pmvines Same.
You are welcome to join me on my porch and howl at the moon with me.
I’ve got couches!
@TxTom Aren’t you that one dudebro who believes climate change is solely about global warming, even though climate change encompasses a wide range of weather changes, including extreme winds? Bless your heart XD
If TikTok is banned, facebook will be the primary source of misinformation.
@IronLemon
This is precisely why Zuckerberg is sucking up to the incoming administration.