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.
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.
One thing I’m convinced of is that the blackout was not the result of some technical requirement such as people’s speculation that it was for an algorithm change or to switch over to meta’s servers. It was either a messy result of their compliance department playing it safe or it was a political stunt. Likely a bit of both given how much money it must have cost. Regardless of what you believe about TikTok’s “true” nature, they’re playing ball with the Trump administration.
The narrative about TikTok being Trump’s propaganda wing may just be the newest tactic to paint leftists as fascists, though. Always be critical when legacy media is in lockstep.
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.
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.
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
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
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.
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.
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.
PR stunt
One word:
Shenanigans
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 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.
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.
This is exactly the sort of deal making through bullying Trump is known for. He’s crazy, not stupid.
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
You forgot step 1: Trump promises to ban TikTok.
And that was also step 9, according to his comments yesterday.
Yes that is important!
That’s authoritarianism for you! Welcome to the club! (I’m from Venezuela)
Fascism from a technological and political perpetuation
