Here’s how this works:
- Network is created that doesn’t discriminate on speech.
- The left wins debates and it becomes increasingly liberal over time.
- Far right billionaires buy it to stop those process.
That’s why decentralized platforms have to be the answer. They might not be impossible to co-opt, but they’re certainly more difficult.
I’ve been warning people about this stuff for years, and they wouldn’t listen. I’m not happy about being right. It sucks!
Loops and other fediverse platforms are more important than ever. We need independent social media - not billionaire owned platforms.
What does it take to get people to switch, though? The owner of X did a Nazi salute in front of a national audience. Twice. And most people are still on there.
They just don’t care or don’t even see it because they live in their personal bubble of like, sports news and little more.
I’m mainly talking about celebrities and other “taste-makers”.
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Yeah I just hope it kills the app, which I’m sure it will. I never began using it in the first place but seeing it take over all of my fellow Gen Z, you know, the same ones who have admitted to thinking politics don’t matter, won’t be very happy when their favorite app turns to even more utter trash
Hopefully this wins more minds away from social media and even more people can wake the fuck up here in Amerikkka.
I think people won’t care, at least this demographic fellow Gen Z. They still gonna use the app. Arguemnts such as “oh everyone uses this to send funny tiktoks to themselves it’s not that big of a deal” it will be just more shit to go through. Similar thing to Twitter. Everyone is so pissed at Elon because more bot accounts, you can’t or couldn’t block him and other shady stuff but still uses the twitter (X) because… everyone uses it.
But I also hope it will kill the app.
I’m seeing people moving to sky (or whatever it’s called). It takes time for people to switch social media platforms.
Oh yeah true. Some people switched to Bluesky (I think that what you meant). I remember the (especially artists) moved like 2-3 years ago because all this changes about feeding the AI and Twitter just being garbage (all porn bots and people being hateful about anything you do).
Unsurprising that a guy collapsing the Republic into a fascist dictatorship says that TikTok should be a mouthpiece for the Government. It’s time for someone in a country that ISN’T the US, Russia, or China to start a TikTok rival for people to switch to.
I was wondering if a federated alternative existed, neat. Short form video is not for me, but I’m glad that exists for those that like it.
Or just don’t use these stupid apps.
Any plan that starts with “if people would just”, they in fact will probably not
Russia, or China
These are the only countries you can trust to not extradite you to the US you fucking baffoon.
They’re also fascist countries where the government can and do set strict limits on content without concern for rule of law or the will of the people.
It’s already shite, but why stop there!
Trump says TikTok should be tweaked to become “100% Epstein files”
So, Trump effectively nationalized TikTok, valued at $300b. He sells it to friendly oligarchs for $15b. So far, this is basically the post-USSR playbook, and how Roman Abravmovich, Alisher Usmanov, Vladimir Lisin, etc. got so rich.
But it might piss off his oligarch buddies if he drives all the users off TikTok making what seemed like a steal into something worthless instead.
I think that just like Elon with Twitter, the value is not in revenue but controlling the narrative.
That only works if people use it.
For some reason, people have stuck with Twitter. But, the users of TikTok are not the same as the users of Twitter, so who knows, maybe they won’t stick with it.
This will be truth social again with a pre-existing user base and better algorithms. People will drop off, but they will probably boil the frog slowly to keep people around.
In ex-USSR that happened as something destructive, but in USA honestly it’s normal, using institutional pressure to help friendly businesses. Trump is unusual only in how grotesque he is in his position, but history saw Talleyrand.
And US sanctioned Japan just because some of its businesses couldn’t compete, which didn’t kill Japanese car industry, but hurt Japanese computer industry, and sent Japan into recession from which it didn’t quite recover.
About driving users off - that doesn’t really happen unless you intentionally break everything. VKontakte be the experiment showing this, except TG was later made based on VK makers’ experience with social stuff, and was very successful, and is now basically the most convenient messaging\social platform. When something FOSS manages to reproduce the experience of TG, then FOSS messaging and social systems stand a chance. So - some of the life moved from VK to TG, but it’s more of VK’s experience stagnating and being too complex and overloading, not of people fleeing it.
The open corruption, clear as day illegal and unconstitutional moves, and his overall smugness is embarrassing.
The GOP has gone insane to allow this man to continue like this. They are all sick with power and are hoping to “get theirs” next from daddy trump.
They are ALL traitors and should be charged for allowing the crimes to continue.
“Jesus this”
You voted for Trump
“Free market that”
You voted for Trump
But they don’t have the fucking power. They’re letting Trump do whatever he wants, and eroding their own authority in the process.
“I don’t want real power, because with real power comes real responsibility, and I don’t want any of that shit. I just want the money. And the illusion of power. And puss.”
We actually live in a world now in which the President of the United States explicitly states his intent to overtly violate the first amendment and the media just repeats it as if nothing of any note is going on.
Well the media is owned by them so…
I think we actually get to understand now how Hitler came to power. I remember in school, I was mystified how such an hateful man could become a leader of a country. Now I understand.
History will most likely repeat itself and humanity needs a big war to once again remember what hate leads to.
It just sucks for the ones who already learned that lesson from basic history.
Watching it unfold before me and still I’m baffled. This all still doesn’t make any sense.
Exactly. I see that it can happen, I am seeing it happen first hand. I still don’t understand why it’s happening.
Every 80 years, some country has to repeat this shit. Sucks it’s on our watch. But best to make the most of it. #NaziPunksFuckOff
Best advice: Chop wood and carry water, or in other words, prepare for hard times and be careful of which side you are on.
and the media just repeats it as if nothing of any note is going on.
Mainstream media at least. Thankfully, Arstechnica and The Verge have been shouting from the rooftops at how unconstitutional and fascist the trump regime is being.
I also heard Vogue magazine is actually not afraid to criticize as well
Teen Vogue is killing it right now. For example How ICE Raids Are Making It Easier for Civilian Men to Assault Immigrant Women
Your first amendment only applies to congress and legislative bodies at state and municipal levels. Private citizens and corporations technically can do whatever they want.
the media just repeats it
The media reports on it, attempting to do so from a neutral point of view.
I actually appreciate that the professional media is still attempting to stick to a neutral point of view. If they abandon that, you get media like MSNBC and Fox News where every single news story is discussed from a certain political point of view. That just sorts people into camps that listen to the news source that agrees with their perceived notions, which then radicalizes them even more.
If people can’t agree on a basic set of facts, then there’s no point to having a democracy. A media that covers the facts with as little bias as possible is essential to that working.
That isn’t to say that I think the media is doing a great job. The big media companies that are owned by the oligarchs are doing especially badly. When Trump does something like this, responsible media that’s attempting to be unbiased should at least connect historical dots, like other times that presidents have threatened the media, and what the results of that have been.
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Because the public, apart from maybe one kid in Utah, is just sitting there allowing it.
I’m sure it really depends on where you live, but here in East Europe I’ve noticed tiktokkers slowly turning into Z’ers who start accepting Russian disinfo as facts. Meaning, it’s already pro-MAGA
I already moved to redgifs. Goodbye Tik Tok.
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Fake and lame
When Xi is the only way to save the US.
Had to leave Twitter when it became a Nazi site, I can leave TikTok to I guess.
I never used either. Never really understood the culture of gormlessly scrolling through mind-numbing content.
But then I also gave up broadcast TV before even Netflix was popular. Just spent a small fortune on bargain bin DVDs instead.
me nervously doom-scrolling on lemmy via voyager 👀
I’ve been averse to trends like this, but I did get on Facebook and Insta this summer at the urging of some friends (I run a nonprofit so it’s useful to network). By last week I had both apps on my phone and was just numbscrolling through Insta videos. Realized my mental health had gone to absolute shit in weeks. Deleted the apps andI’m feeling myself again.
It really is dangerous what they’ve created, if I didn’t have ambition, I would be right there zombified.
It’s mainly the kids and low information adults who are on Tiktok, that’s why it’s popular.
Never really understood the culture of gormlessly scrolling through mind-numbing content.
It was less a “cultural thing” and more a functional drift. From the RSS feed to Web2.0 timelines to feed by preference to The Algorithm of ad-promoted content.
Like with email, it wasn’t always just a fountain of spam. Our systems have been deliberately and predatorially enshittified.
There’s a great deal of real news that goes through the app. It’s the majority of the content I see.
Is there though?
I know this sounds sarcastic, but I’m genuinely curious as I have never used TikTok at all. It there any way to verify the stuff that’s being shown? Do news accounts link to articles or any supporting information?
All I’ve ever really seen from people sharing stuff has been new typical meme stuff and AI generated crap that people keep sending me thinking it’s real.
How can you tell if what you’re seeing is real?
The good “creators” to follow for news generally provide a summary in Tiktok, then if you want to verify or learn more they have additional information and sources in their other locations (substack is a big one)
I can generally tell if it’s AI generated, and if I have any suspicion then I try to find other reports and real sources via Google searches and whatnot. Like I didn’t believe the gold trump statue, or the trump and Epstein statue were real.
Good to know there’s some context available if you want it. Thanks for taking the time to reply!
You know, given how exploitative and harmful TikTok has been from the start, it might have been better never to use it at all.
I’m guilty of being on TikTok too, mainly used to keep up with a few artists I listen to, but at the end of the day, the platform is just another exploitative data-harvesting machine.
I uhhh never used it to begin with so I’m good boss
nice 😆 💟
I sometimes feel like the only mf around who doesn’t and never used tiktok. From the very start it just gave off bad vibes, and then all the news started coming out about it rotting your attention span away, data collection and russian manipulation winning hearts of young people, which pretty much confirmed my suspicions. Ironically reddit feels like a much safer platform than tiktok.
