TikTok has no competition? Reels for Instagram, Shorts for Youtube.
They copied TikToks format, because it does that format very well.
TikTok is not competing for your wallet. They are competing for your influence and from the sound of it, it’s working.
You’re just wrong. It’s an app, dude. The most influence it has had on my life is show me things I’m interested in. Get a grip.
I don’t use the app, do you get to pick each video like you do on YouTube or does it automatically find videos for you?
You can do both. I usually just let it show me videos, because they’re usually really interesting. There will always be videos that get through that are like little tests to see if you’ll like the content or not.
For example, I’m more interested in world affairs and technology. I get plenty of videos about those subjects. Then, once in awhile, they’ll throw a car mechanics type of content at me because I thought one video was interesting and liked it (stuff to make sure you keep your car in the best shape it can be, etc.) so it throws those videos at me and sometimes it is hit or miss.
You can always tell when someone has not used the app, because their opinion is always that it must be harvesting SO MUCH DATA! When (on iPhone at least) it asked me for my camera and location once and has not ever asked me since. I denied it of course because fuck that, and I also used Apple’s hide my email feature to create a dummy email for the app because I too used to shit on the TikTok because I too thought it was just a bunch of people doing stupid shit and dancing or whatever. Turns out I was wrong! It’s almost like if you used it, you could form a better opinion than TikTok = China = Bad
Well, China = Bad. No contest there. Uyghurs concentration camps, Tibet, South China sea conflicts, conflict with India, illegal policing in other countries, Taiwan. The list is literally endless.
If TikTok is rolled into that is what we are discussing.
Letting them show you videos they think you want to see is fine. If TikTok was a traditional corp not owned by the CCP.
Now, by default, it seems like they are curating videos to interest you.
WHAT IF the CCP decided to influence your thoughts by giving you a style or tone of a video that starts hinting its OK for China to invade Taiwan. Maybe you like history and they gave you a video showing how sad the CCP when KMT was ruthless animals.
Or you like car videos and they start showing you videos on how Chinese cars are superior to American cars and then conveniently tell you that the US government has a 100% tariff on all foreign electric cars and how you can never drive one unless you vote for X party.
It will seem innocent on the surface, and my example might actually be more intentional than what they will do to the American people.
The thing is, China already weaponized TikTok. A couple of journalists was stalked with data they obtained by TikTok. Why were they monitored? Because these journalists exposed that TikTok was sending data to the CCP. Another example. Tiktok sent a regional notification to users about the upcoming ban and got hundreds of people to call into the representatives, which they did, but without knowing the context. They literally didn’t know why they were calling.
Well, no. Chinese government = bad, but the Chinese people themselves are not the issue. They are victims in their governments plots. You are preaching to the choir, my friend.
I think the Chinese government, much like our own here in the USA, is fucking garbage and should be completely reworked from the ground up BY THE PEOPLE. I feel more saddened for the Chinese people, as they have even less rights than we do (for now, since it seems like we want to be China/Russia SO BAD here in the states) and for Taiwan as the protest (which I saw on TikTok by the way!) for not wanting to become a part of China by force, which is absolutely fucking stupid and way way overreaching. Safe to say, I think all governments around the world are starting to get too confident, and think they can push little people like us around, when we vastly outnumber them. Anyway.
Not once have I seen anything that makes China look like any sort of good guy. Not one single time. I’ve seen plenty of videos about China, France, and even Canada and the USA all doing dumbass shit because our world is ran by little kids instead of adults. If it did show up, do you know what I would do since I am a sane person with a functioning brain? I would tell their little algorithm that I think the video/message is garbage, and move on to the next one. If they repeatedly kept showing me that kind of stuff, I would use the app less and less.
Do you have a source that isn’t based with America’s own narrative about the journalists stalker point? You see, here in the states, we also have a narrative to push just like the Big Bad China, so I wouldn’t just thrust my trust into them either. Funny how journalism is well and alive, except for when it comes to pointing out the numerous amounts of shit that is god awful here that we do, like trying to take away food from kids in a building that is mandated by the government for them to be there! Why are no journalist interested in how Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are overran by quite a lot of Chinese and Russian bots that are actively influencing our own government and our own people? Just find it odd that we attack the Chinese so easily (as we should of course, but only with logical reasoning) but the unfettered data collection of our own companies here in the states is COMPLETELY fine!
TikTok did not send me any notification at all. The only reason I even heard of the ban, is from one of my favorite creators on the app itself, who actually took the time to print the bill off, give you the source of where he printed it (from the actual bill that is hosted by the government no less! and then read it off and explained why it was so fucking stupid to ban this singular app instead of, I don’t know, banning them all together or restricting ALL apps equally so that we don’t have ANYONE harvesting our data, which is by and large what is preferred by EVERYONE except the elite fucks who run our great little country, USA.
All I’m really trying to get across to you here, is that it sounds more like to me that you are the one propagandized, while I am just sitting here enjoying learning new and interesting things about the world and it’s inhabitants, thanks to some silly little Chinese based app. Oh, and the funny videos are also pretty damn funny.
