"The platforms reduce the shared reality into a power game of who can most anger people." So true. I see this even on Substack sometimes, although not as often as on other platforms. A few days ago, I noticed that a Substack writer had misrepresented an article that she cited. Her post had some pretty inflammatory statements on it, about how biological fathers kill their children at four times the rate of stepfathers. When I read the article that she cited, it didn't say that at all. I commented that maybe she needed to re-read the article she cited. She apparently did, because she revised her own post to be more accurate. But then she banned me from commenting!
It's almost as if she was saying, "I want my posts to be as shocking and enraging as possible, and if you make me stick to the facts, I can't do that, so get out of here!"
I have also noticed that my (middle-aged and older) friends who use TikTok a lot sometimes spout absolutely crazy statements like, "We're an economic depression that's worse than the Great Depression!" Or: "Did you know that the Nazis used flouride to kill Jews?" When I try to fact-check these statements, sometimes they admit that they just heard it on TikTok and were just repeating something they heard without reflecting on it much. But they don't seem especially ashamed about that.
Excellent. The point that it may be a security risk BECAUSE they won’t sell it for $50b is pretty interesting. Presumably there is a price if this is purely a market phenomena and the fact they may not suggests it is not. That’s an observation I’ve not seen yet someone say. A lot to mull over.
I think this is one of the strongest arguments that it is a national security threat or at the very least a major geopolitical issue/tool. How can TikTok say "we're not a national security threat!" and also "Xi Jinping and the CCP say ByteDance can't sell us no matter what :/" and expect that circle to square?
Yeah I agree I think. Assuming the market price is correctly calculated which how could it not be at that level, then they’d be better off from the sale I’m guessing. The future profitability, which would have uncertainty but on both sides of the exchange is the thing, would be what the market price is measuring. So why wouldn’t they sell? It must be the price is too low but if it’s too low then what it buyers not valuing? Probably not valuing its use as a surveillance tool. Hedge funds aren’t going to put 50b into something that’s value is as spyware mainly, but a foreign power would. So that they won’t sell seems to suggest it’s under priced in ways that isn’t about profit.
If there is a price and it's just higher than $50B, then yeah, maybe. If there truly is no price, then it's pretty clear what's going on here! It's not hard to figure out why the Chinese government would consider it to be such an invaluable asset.
If there's literally not a price, then how could it possibly be anything other than spyware? Every firm has a price. And there's no shortage of groups that would line up to buy TikTok. It's not a failing tech firm; it's huge, and probably huge complementarities with others too, making the valuation probably very high. SO if they refuse, and there's already both Republican and Democratic administrations and their respective state departments explicitly saying it is spyware, then obviously this is a ruse. I don't know why this never occurred to me until this substack, but now it's very obviously sketchy enough to justify a ban. I mean it's not like we're talking about some economically productive thing in the first place. 99% of it is viral videos of people doing weird stuff, and the rest of it is influencers trying to hawk their merchandise. There's other platforms for that and anyway that doesn't justify the risks.
TikTok is part of the digital economy (content creation, e-commerce, advertising, etc.).
I can understand if someone doesn't personally find value in TikTok, but it's factually incorrect to say it's not economically productive. Last December, TikTok earned $336 million through the app stores, of which $144 million came from Americans (according to Appfigures).
We may mean different things. Just because people spend money does not mean it’s producing things. It’s producing utility I suppose? Entertainment? It’s not as thought living standards would decline substantially if we no longer had this app is my point. But some technologies literally are that. If we lost some things, like combustible engines, then society’s standards of living would decline. But if we lost the ability to look into our phones at people dancing, I’m not sure I see what lost productivity would happen.
Them not rushing to sell the #1 app in the world as a sign of wrongdoing is a bit of a strecht imo.
The US is basically racketeering them out of a cash cow and ByteDance holding their side seems more business than consipracy led decision to be honest.
I suppose it depends to what degree the asking price on the market to buy is correct. If the price is too low and can be shown to be too low, then I agree. If ByteDance cannot show that the price is too low then it would suggest there is some value not priced into the market price. What would that be?
Just here to say this was an incredibly well written piece. As someone who just wrote a lengthy piece on the ban I found myself learning quite a bit as I read through your work. Really good stuff. I enjoyed it.
Excellent piece, Shannon. I would argue, however, that we need to walk and chew gum at the same time here, understanding that a ban-or-forced divestment of TikTok is not a cure-all solution to our problems, even though it is a necessary step.
Removing a foreign adversary from controlling an American mass media platform is simple, common sense risk mitigation. Of course that does not preclude us from taking other steps, including choosing better, deeper platforms like Substack or — even better — working to reestablish real human and community connection in an era that seems to be defined by their loss (this is why I love Braver Angels).
Finally, we should also be realistic that malign CCP influence extends beyond TikTok. It has become pervasive in American society. We will need to continue to play whack-a-mole after the TikTok problem is solved to address other priority areas of risk.
Ultimately we need to do many things at once. And we can do many things at once.
Finding the right middle path is always easier with the benefit of thoughtful analysis like this. Again, excellent piece - thanks for writing it!
You have written an interesting essay but you omitted a vitally important issue. I know from direct experience that kids abuse the platform in every way possible. My grandson was among the countless numbers of young and dumb teenagers who took the TikTok challenge to swallow as much cough syrup as possible. He became disoriented and was lost wandering in a park in the middle of the night. Of course his parents became aware that he was not home when he called on his cell phone very scared. They went and got him. His life was in danger. He is now in treatment. Tik Tok, in the very least, needs to be controlled so that kids, especially teens, can be protected.
I like to think there is also a small group of Gen Z that are very excited about the potential of TikTok being banned. For me, I know I have a problem with the app, it consumes a lot of my attention and is not healthy for me. Have I done anything to fix that? No. But a ban would force me to change my ways and that excites me. I am looking forward to being free from that app because of government intervention. My friends seem to share this opinion as well, there's a sense of excitement to be away from this place that takes away so much more than it gives. (For me personally).
Like Kyla, Soupy was also one of the first people I followed on TikTok back in 2020, and I was disappointed to see her video and her thoughts on the ban. But I think her "anger" comes from the fact that she will have to figure out what to do with her life if the ban stays, and she is taking that anger and frustration out in the form of a ran against the government. She's probably scared of having the pivot her career, if I were in her shoes I would feel the same way. I've seen other creators echo similar thoughts to Soupy and I think a lot of them are scared of the unknown of creating without this app. Most will be able to figure out something else if there is a ban but others will struggle. But I don't doubt the capitalism machine will pump out a replacement in no time.
I definitely think what you said in the first paragraph rings very true. Yes, I feel bad for the creators effected, but I also think this could lead to some positives. A recent study of college students found this:
I think that at varying levels, a lot of users know that social media and infinite scrolling is bad for humans individually and has negative effects on society.
Reading about the loneliness crises, and my own experience, people have started replacing in person relationships with online ones.
I found myself in a similar position when contemplating the pros and cons of the ban (mixed emotions) but ultimately I ended up concluding the ban was not even a necessary evil but a plain good thing. What really stuck out to me in this article was the bit about how we have drastically lowered the bar for literacy on a given topic, largely in part to the false confidence given to us by short form media. This decline is an epidemic, I cannot stress enough the severity of the decline in not just media literacy but regular ol literacy in high school age/ young college age students in America. Everyone likes to feel well-read, and TikTok (along with all other social media apps that prioritize attention over individual well being) have made it so it’s users truly don’t have the attention span to actually read anything! Not only that, but I have heard first hand from those who rely on short form content for the dissemination of information actually feel like taking the time to independently research topics of interest is archaic, that short form content has actually expedited knowledge mastery. There is truly a chasm of misunderstanding of how easily information can be perverted when you lose those critical thinking skills and hand over the reigns to those who as Kyla puts it, literally make money by being intentionally inflammatory. I work with professors who are truly at a loss with the recent incoming class of university students who are showing severely lacking literacy skills and I can’t help but feel that a large part of the finger pointing needs to be done to TikTok. I’m fascinated to see what happens on the 19th, but overall I think getting rid of TikTok however fleeting it may be, is a positive.
Given that I’m rapidly closing in on age 70, I’ll readily admit that I’ve never been on TikTok and my use of social media is limited to Substack and occasionally YouTube. So everyone can feel free to ignore my comment. My support for the TikTok ban is based on the fact that it is controlled by the Chinese Communist Party (I’m quite aware that the Chinese government has largely discarded Communist ideology, but they still use the label, so I’ll use it here). Social media strikes me as the greatest propaganda tool ever invented. Kyra’s excellent point that the Chinese will not sell TikTok for $50 billion as proof as to how much the Chinese government values TikTok as a propaganda tool is well taken. The notion that we would let such a powerful tool that is used by some 170 million Americans be under the control of the Chinese Communists is utterly absurd from a national security perspective. Let’s imagine a scenario where China commences an invasion of Taiwan. I’m certain that in the weeks leading up to such an invasion the Chinese will make sure that TikTok news feeds are full of pieces citing “provocations” by the Taiwanese government and the oppression of the native population by the Chinese who came there in 1949, etc. Now let’s assume the invasion happens and the Taiwanese fight back with the same ferocity and determination that the Ukrainians have shown against the Russian invasion. Does anyone seriously think that TikTok would be an objective source of information about such a war? Clearly not. A ban is the only way of addressing this grave danger to the national security interests of the US.
> "But we also have shown such callous indifference to the privacy of Americans that specifically wringing our hands about TikTok while giving free rein to the rest of surveillance capitalism rings hollow."
Your article mostly avoids this trap, but it still pops up in a couple places. This isn't about privacy!
It's true that the idea that privacy matters to anyone is dead and gone. The Chinese government probably has other ways to get similar kinds of information on the people who are using TikTok. I think that's bad but it's just not at all what this is about.
What this is about is propaganda. It's really not acceptable for a company controlled by the Chinese government to have this easy propaganda channel into the American populace. We would have never allowed the New York Times to be owned by a German company in the 30s, or CBS to be owned by a Soviet company in the 50s.
TikTok is broadcast media, and like all broadcast media, it can be used for propaganda by the people who control it. Yes, it's already very bad when those people are wealthy and influential citizens, but it's even worse when they are foreign governments.
I think Dr Tyson has an excellent opinion about the Internet itself. He believes that when AI becomes closer to its full potential, the Internet as we know it today may die. It will bury itself under its own falsehoods. So, people will find it impossible to distinguish between real and fake. We have this happening now, sporadically. Imagine when the day comes the experts on whatever the subject is, will find it impossible to know if it's real or fake. Truth or a lie.
We may actually see a return of the book. Real books, at the library. Yes, they too can be fakes. But not in the mass quantities needed to twist Jane Q public so easily and quickly
An additional thought slightly related. Am I the only one, at 67 years of age, who seems to see a vastly different number of people sitting down in restaurants, coffee shops, and fast food. I realize COVID did a number at its peak. But I don't see the return of the numbers pre-COVID, and to a lesser degree the explosion of social media, especially used as entertainment, apps. I think this too has contributed to our society becoming more divisional as well. It's Jerry Springer rebooted in here at times.
As for the two roads, it would be interesting to see how a repeal of section 230 for algorithmically elevated content might open up even more roads. I believe Demetri Kofinas have had some interesting thoughts on how limiting retweets / vitality can change the tenor of the conversation. It will be interesting to see how this shakes out.
So many nuggets of pure goodness here, Kyla. I think a third option (removing ourselves as pawns in this game) is always available to us, if we are willing to go against the grain.
And if Elon Musk does buy TikTok I hope more Americans open their eyes to what’s really going on. Those who control the media and the narrative have absolute power. If you can convince the populace what to believe, they will play right into your evil hands.
“The fact that people are fleeing to a Chinese-owned app to give a giant middle finger to the government says a lot. Americans don’t like being told what to do.” the second sentence seems true, but the first sentence seems like a fantasy. I think very few, if any, people use TT to give a middle finger to anyone. They use it because it’s fun and/or they’re addicted. Where’s the middle finger?
I admit I gave this a scan rather than a read because I mostly agree with you. I think your second road, on navigating these existing systems, is what's more immediately practical and plausible.
Do you have any thoughts on how TikTok is also a huge e-commerce platform/how that plays into this? So much of their money comes from TikTok Shop and ads/sponcon and the algorithm is meant to keep people on the app for sure, but not just to keep scrolling, also to buy shit in-app.
Grumble. The tiktok ban should be about national security only national security and any considerations not related to this should be ignored. The intervention should be minimal and people tried.
Creativity will see us through, but it will take intentional work. Sorry they were razzing you. It was unfair and unnecessary and dumb and rude. I worry about folks with resources unleashing a pile of trash-talking angerbots.
"The platforms reduce the shared reality into a power game of who can most anger people." So true. I see this even on Substack sometimes, although not as often as on other platforms. A few days ago, I noticed that a Substack writer had misrepresented an article that she cited. Her post had some pretty inflammatory statements on it, about how biological fathers kill their children at four times the rate of stepfathers. When I read the article that she cited, it didn't say that at all. I commented that maybe she needed to re-read the article she cited. She apparently did, because she revised her own post to be more accurate. But then she banned me from commenting!
It's almost as if she was saying, "I want my posts to be as shocking and enraging as possible, and if you make me stick to the facts, I can't do that, so get out of here!"
I have also noticed that my (middle-aged and older) friends who use TikTok a lot sometimes spout absolutely crazy statements like, "We're an economic depression that's worse than the Great Depression!" Or: "Did you know that the Nazis used flouride to kill Jews?" When I try to fact-check these statements, sometimes they admit that they just heard it on TikTok and were just repeating something they heard without reflecting on it much. But they don't seem especially ashamed about that.
Excellent. The point that it may be a security risk BECAUSE they won’t sell it for $50b is pretty interesting. Presumably there is a price if this is purely a market phenomena and the fact they may not suggests it is not. That’s an observation I’ve not seen yet someone say. A lot to mull over.
I think this is one of the strongest arguments that it is a national security threat or at the very least a major geopolitical issue/tool. How can TikTok say "we're not a national security threat!" and also "Xi Jinping and the CCP say ByteDance can't sell us no matter what :/" and expect that circle to square?
Yeah I agree I think. Assuming the market price is correctly calculated which how could it not be at that level, then they’d be better off from the sale I’m guessing. The future profitability, which would have uncertainty but on both sides of the exchange is the thing, would be what the market price is measuring. So why wouldn’t they sell? It must be the price is too low but if it’s too low then what it buyers not valuing? Probably not valuing its use as a surveillance tool. Hedge funds aren’t going to put 50b into something that’s value is as spyware mainly, but a foreign power would. So that they won’t sell seems to suggest it’s under priced in ways that isn’t about profit.
They'd have zero issue probably getting any number remotely reasonable if they wanted to spin it off.
Yep I'm totally convinced now. What a roller coaster ride! It's not even remotely controversial to me anymore.
If there is a price and it's just higher than $50B, then yeah, maybe. If there truly is no price, then it's pretty clear what's going on here! It's not hard to figure out why the Chinese government would consider it to be such an invaluable asset.
If there's literally not a price, then how could it possibly be anything other than spyware? Every firm has a price. And there's no shortage of groups that would line up to buy TikTok. It's not a failing tech firm; it's huge, and probably huge complementarities with others too, making the valuation probably very high. SO if they refuse, and there's already both Republican and Democratic administrations and their respective state departments explicitly saying it is spyware, then obviously this is a ruse. I don't know why this never occurred to me until this substack, but now it's very obviously sketchy enough to justify a ban. I mean it's not like we're talking about some economically productive thing in the first place. 99% of it is viral videos of people doing weird stuff, and the rest of it is influencers trying to hawk their merchandise. There's other platforms for that and anyway that doesn't justify the risks.
I don't think it's fair to say Tik Tok is not an economically productive thing. TikTok is the highest-earning app in the world.
What is it producing?
TikTok is part of the digital economy (content creation, e-commerce, advertising, etc.).
I can understand if someone doesn't personally find value in TikTok, but it's factually incorrect to say it's not economically productive. Last December, TikTok earned $336 million through the app stores, of which $144 million came from Americans (according to Appfigures).
We may mean different things. Just because people spend money does not mean it’s producing things. It’s producing utility I suppose? Entertainment? It’s not as thought living standards would decline substantially if we no longer had this app is my point. But some technologies literally are that. If we lost some things, like combustible engines, then society’s standards of living would decline. But if we lost the ability to look into our phones at people dancing, I’m not sure I see what lost productivity would happen.
Them not rushing to sell the #1 app in the world as a sign of wrongdoing is a bit of a strecht imo.
The US is basically racketeering them out of a cash cow and ByteDance holding their side seems more business than consipracy led decision to be honest.
I suppose it depends to what degree the asking price on the market to buy is correct. If the price is too low and can be shown to be too low, then I agree. If ByteDance cannot show that the price is too low then it would suggest there is some value not priced into the market price. What would that be?
Just here to say this was an incredibly well written piece. As someone who just wrote a lengthy piece on the ban I found myself learning quite a bit as I read through your work. Really good stuff. I enjoyed it.
Excellent piece, Shannon. I would argue, however, that we need to walk and chew gum at the same time here, understanding that a ban-or-forced divestment of TikTok is not a cure-all solution to our problems, even though it is a necessary step.
Removing a foreign adversary from controlling an American mass media platform is simple, common sense risk mitigation. Of course that does not preclude us from taking other steps, including choosing better, deeper platforms like Substack or — even better — working to reestablish real human and community connection in an era that seems to be defined by their loss (this is why I love Braver Angels).
Finally, we should also be realistic that malign CCP influence extends beyond TikTok. It has become pervasive in American society. We will need to continue to play whack-a-mole after the TikTok problem is solved to address other priority areas of risk.
Ultimately we need to do many things at once. And we can do many things at once.
Finding the right middle path is always easier with the benefit of thoughtful analysis like this. Again, excellent piece - thanks for writing it!
You have written an interesting essay but you omitted a vitally important issue. I know from direct experience that kids abuse the platform in every way possible. My grandson was among the countless numbers of young and dumb teenagers who took the TikTok challenge to swallow as much cough syrup as possible. He became disoriented and was lost wandering in a park in the middle of the night. Of course his parents became aware that he was not home when he called on his cell phone very scared. They went and got him. His life was in danger. He is now in treatment. Tik Tok, in the very least, needs to be controlled so that kids, especially teens, can be protected.
I am glad your grandson is safe.
Kids did drugs before the internet.
I like to think there is also a small group of Gen Z that are very excited about the potential of TikTok being banned. For me, I know I have a problem with the app, it consumes a lot of my attention and is not healthy for me. Have I done anything to fix that? No. But a ban would force me to change my ways and that excites me. I am looking forward to being free from that app because of government intervention. My friends seem to share this opinion as well, there's a sense of excitement to be away from this place that takes away so much more than it gives. (For me personally).
Like Kyla, Soupy was also one of the first people I followed on TikTok back in 2020, and I was disappointed to see her video and her thoughts on the ban. But I think her "anger" comes from the fact that she will have to figure out what to do with her life if the ban stays, and she is taking that anger and frustration out in the form of a ran against the government. She's probably scared of having the pivot her career, if I were in her shoes I would feel the same way. I've seen other creators echo similar thoughts to Soupy and I think a lot of them are scared of the unknown of creating without this app. Most will be able to figure out something else if there is a ban but others will struggle. But I don't doubt the capitalism machine will pump out a replacement in no time.
I deleted it over a year ago.
Redownloaded a couple times... but swiftly deleted...
It's like getting off sugar.
It's hard at first. But once that drug induced need for it fades you don't miss it and it doesn't taste as good as you remember.
I definitely think what you said in the first paragraph rings very true. Yes, I feel bad for the creators effected, but I also think this could lead to some positives. A recent study of college students found this:
"Most of the TikTok users (64%) and almost half of the Instagram users (48%) were prepared to pay to be off them, so long as others were off them, resulting in average valuations across all users of minus US$28 for TikTok and minus $10 for Instagram." https://theconversation.com/would-you-pay-to-quit-tiktok-and-instagram-youd-be-surprised-how-many-would-235180?s_src=9J68Z&mkt_tok=MjUwLUNRSC05MzYAAAGUyQEnfO6tcFGs5NLjZmu_dAkqRcKgIb5F5bp9SmOg2wRCio-M95KZzPru33lkGwWYyAkMVyvoGvV92Kn6wSYhThOg2ZBVFANOUHe8XEGteQCLGQ
I think that at varying levels, a lot of users know that social media and infinite scrolling is bad for humans individually and has negative effects on society.
Reading about the loneliness crises, and my own experience, people have started replacing in person relationships with online ones.
https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/tiktok-is-just-the-beginning
This.
I found myself in a similar position when contemplating the pros and cons of the ban (mixed emotions) but ultimately I ended up concluding the ban was not even a necessary evil but a plain good thing. What really stuck out to me in this article was the bit about how we have drastically lowered the bar for literacy on a given topic, largely in part to the false confidence given to us by short form media. This decline is an epidemic, I cannot stress enough the severity of the decline in not just media literacy but regular ol literacy in high school age/ young college age students in America. Everyone likes to feel well-read, and TikTok (along with all other social media apps that prioritize attention over individual well being) have made it so it’s users truly don’t have the attention span to actually read anything! Not only that, but I have heard first hand from those who rely on short form content for the dissemination of information actually feel like taking the time to independently research topics of interest is archaic, that short form content has actually expedited knowledge mastery. There is truly a chasm of misunderstanding of how easily information can be perverted when you lose those critical thinking skills and hand over the reigns to those who as Kyla puts it, literally make money by being intentionally inflammatory. I work with professors who are truly at a loss with the recent incoming class of university students who are showing severely lacking literacy skills and I can’t help but feel that a large part of the finger pointing needs to be done to TikTok. I’m fascinated to see what happens on the 19th, but overall I think getting rid of TikTok however fleeting it may be, is a positive.
Given that I’m rapidly closing in on age 70, I’ll readily admit that I’ve never been on TikTok and my use of social media is limited to Substack and occasionally YouTube. So everyone can feel free to ignore my comment. My support for the TikTok ban is based on the fact that it is controlled by the Chinese Communist Party (I’m quite aware that the Chinese government has largely discarded Communist ideology, but they still use the label, so I’ll use it here). Social media strikes me as the greatest propaganda tool ever invented. Kyra’s excellent point that the Chinese will not sell TikTok for $50 billion as proof as to how much the Chinese government values TikTok as a propaganda tool is well taken. The notion that we would let such a powerful tool that is used by some 170 million Americans be under the control of the Chinese Communists is utterly absurd from a national security perspective. Let’s imagine a scenario where China commences an invasion of Taiwan. I’m certain that in the weeks leading up to such an invasion the Chinese will make sure that TikTok news feeds are full of pieces citing “provocations” by the Taiwanese government and the oppression of the native population by the Chinese who came there in 1949, etc. Now let’s assume the invasion happens and the Taiwanese fight back with the same ferocity and determination that the Ukrainians have shown against the Russian invasion. Does anyone seriously think that TikTok would be an objective source of information about such a war? Clearly not. A ban is the only way of addressing this grave danger to the national security interests of the US.
> "But we also have shown such callous indifference to the privacy of Americans that specifically wringing our hands about TikTok while giving free rein to the rest of surveillance capitalism rings hollow."
Your article mostly avoids this trap, but it still pops up in a couple places. This isn't about privacy!
It's true that the idea that privacy matters to anyone is dead and gone. The Chinese government probably has other ways to get similar kinds of information on the people who are using TikTok. I think that's bad but it's just not at all what this is about.
What this is about is propaganda. It's really not acceptable for a company controlled by the Chinese government to have this easy propaganda channel into the American populace. We would have never allowed the New York Times to be owned by a German company in the 30s, or CBS to be owned by a Soviet company in the 50s.
TikTok is broadcast media, and like all broadcast media, it can be used for propaganda by the people who control it. Yes, it's already very bad when those people are wealthy and influential citizens, but it's even worse when they are foreign governments.
I think Dr Tyson has an excellent opinion about the Internet itself. He believes that when AI becomes closer to its full potential, the Internet as we know it today may die. It will bury itself under its own falsehoods. So, people will find it impossible to distinguish between real and fake. We have this happening now, sporadically. Imagine when the day comes the experts on whatever the subject is, will find it impossible to know if it's real or fake. Truth or a lie.
We may actually see a return of the book. Real books, at the library. Yes, they too can be fakes. But not in the mass quantities needed to twist Jane Q public so easily and quickly
An additional thought slightly related. Am I the only one, at 67 years of age, who seems to see a vastly different number of people sitting down in restaurants, coffee shops, and fast food. I realize COVID did a number at its peak. But I don't see the return of the numbers pre-COVID, and to a lesser degree the explosion of social media, especially used as entertainment, apps. I think this too has contributed to our society becoming more divisional as well. It's Jerry Springer rebooted in here at times.
Fantastically well written.
As for the two roads, it would be interesting to see how a repeal of section 230 for algorithmically elevated content might open up even more roads. I believe Demetri Kofinas have had some interesting thoughts on how limiting retweets / vitality can change the tenor of the conversation. It will be interesting to see how this shakes out.
So many nuggets of pure goodness here, Kyla. I think a third option (removing ourselves as pawns in this game) is always available to us, if we are willing to go against the grain.
And if Elon Musk does buy TikTok I hope more Americans open their eyes to what’s really going on. Those who control the media and the narrative have absolute power. If you can convince the populace what to believe, they will play right into your evil hands.
If the only person they're willing to sell to is Musk then it means he's prolly doing backroom deals with them.
Musk can't get a security clearance. There's buildings at SpaceX he isn't allowed in.
“The fact that people are fleeing to a Chinese-owned app to give a giant middle finger to the government says a lot. Americans don’t like being told what to do.” the second sentence seems true, but the first sentence seems like a fantasy. I think very few, if any, people use TT to give a middle finger to anyone. They use it because it’s fun and/or they’re addicted. Where’s the middle finger?
The fleeing to Redbook is the middle finger
I admit I gave this a scan rather than a read because I mostly agree with you. I think your second road, on navigating these existing systems, is what's more immediately practical and plausible.
Do you have any thoughts on how TikTok is also a huge e-commerce platform/how that plays into this? So much of their money comes from TikTok Shop and ads/sponcon and the algorithm is meant to keep people on the app for sure, but not just to keep scrolling, also to buy shit in-app.
Ryan Broderick of Garbage Day touched on this yesterday: https://www.garbageday.email/p/tiktok-doesn-t-need-america
Grumble. The tiktok ban should be about national security only national security and any considerations not related to this should be ignored. The intervention should be minimal and people tried.
Creativity will see us through, but it will take intentional work. Sorry they were razzing you. It was unfair and unnecessary and dumb and rude. I worry about folks with resources unleashing a pile of trash-talking angerbots.