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WTF is going on with TikTok? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by wuphysics87@lemmy.ml to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

39 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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.

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[–] eldavi@lemmy.ml 50 points 1 month ago (1 children)

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

[–] niucllos@lemm.ee 43 points 1 month ago (1 children)

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

[–] eldavi@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 month ago

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.