TikTok ban in the US - what’s the aim here?

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I couldn’t see another thread on this. If there is one, please link it as it’d be interesting to read.

Is this genuine concern over harvesting of data? Or a play to pull all social media in the US under government control? Musk already owns X, if he was to buy TikTok then surely you’re looking at large swathes of social media being run by the government?

Trump may try and overturn the ban as there’s a Republican donor called Jeffrey Yass whose trading firm owns 15% of ByteDance, which owns TikTok. It might be a battle of the billionaires between him and Musk, who has more sway over Trump.

Lots of US tiktokers have fled to Red Note (a Chinese owned similar app) and now lots of American and Chinese citizens are having direct contact with each other and sharing realities of every day life.

The Chinese are in shock that Americans have to pay for their own ambulances, that food and rent takes up so much of their income, and basics like medical care and education are so hard to access for some people. Chinese people are posting their restaurant and grocery receipts and what would be hundreds in US costs just a few dollars.

Some people comment on the fact that the Chinese are not 'free' and live under a dictatorship, but is the US any better right now? How will it look in 10 years? I'm finding the whole thing fascinating.

They don't like the amount of foreign news that Americans have access to on TikTok

I think it will be back by the end of the week. 170 million are on TT from the US, many who are making a living out of the app - there will be the horrible side from the US too but my algorithm picks up what I want to see and I very rarely get anything inappropriate. I think it’s all a game to be honest. It will be back.

1. its stupid
2. its making kids stupid
3. its making adults stupid
4. tiktokers need to get a real job and contribute to society

I enjoy posting on TikTok but mine is home interior content. It’s a good app if you stay on the right side of it and away from the begs.

How are the GCSE maths revision videos on there that my DD is watching making her stupid? How are the brilliant excel tips that I've learnt on there making me stupid? How are the delicious healthy recipes that I found on there to cook for my family making me stupid?

It's no more stupid than a pile of adults that don't know each other writing on an anonymous forum what they are having for dinner tonight.

Ban one, ban them all I think.

Fabulous. I am stupid then! I wouldn’t call
a widowed mum earning a living from TT by baking and supporting her 2 young kids, not contributing to society. She’d be on benefits otherwise.

And then said adults abusing others for committing the cardinal Mumsnet sin of feeding their children UPFs for tea. Now that's stupid if you ask me.

It's no worse than all the grown adults posting on here

TikTok is a tool. If it's used in a reckless way with no regard for consequences then it'll do damage but if it's used purposely with an outcome in mind then it's incredibly useful, much like the rest of the internet. It can help people feel less isolated, can put scattered communities in contact with one another, can educate, unite, entertain, and more.

This is how modern society works, despite your luddite opinions.

And also, just adding in I have several autoimmune conditions and use TT to get more information on them and talk to others from across the world on their experiences but hey, I am stupid.

I agree this has little to do with national security, but would be pleased to see tiltok and the likes of snapchat banned.

Valid and valuable content such as homework support and decent recipes can be easily accessed anywhere.

However, these cannot be used as justification for the very real (& increasing) potentially lethal impacts on our young people.
It baffles me we are able to develop these apps and other tech at the speed of light, but that no platforms are able to restrict use from young vulnerable people to date.

Equally I don't accept that a platform operating in this way should be allowed to continue purely on the basis of people deciding to upload videos and call themselves an influencer-we can all do better.

We need change and proactivity from these companies,along with some responsibility.

This has been striking, and quite moving.

Lots of Americans waking up to the realisation that their freedom and their great nation is not what it seems. And also maybe an opportunity to learn more about a communist regime without the extreme capitalist propaganda that we inevitably hear.

Interesting times.

It is a huge security risk. If you have it delete it from your phone. I’ve heard a lot of bleating saying it helps small businesses. What utter BS. The last thing I saw on there before I wised up was some guy trying to flog a computer that reads error codes on your car for £8. He was claiming it was the same as the readers that mechanics use for £6/7000. He was encouraging people to just delete error codes rather than getting your car actually fixed. He blocked me when I pointed out most error codes will come back if you don’t fix the issue.

If TikTok bans mean all this crap goes away where does the uk sign up?

I've also seen on twitter at least one video of a tearful American talking about how she didn't realise that in other countries she wouldn't have to work as long hours or pay as much money for groceries which has been community noted pointing out that Chinese people work more hours than she has claimed and pay a greater percentage of their salary on groceries than she has claimed,

So the propaganda has already started working if people are believing everything they see.

It’s stupid if that’s what you want it to be. For many of us it’s educational.

I agree children shouldn’t be on SM full stop.

It’s giving many adults a chance to have fun again, live lives in a completely different way that bucks the whole expectations of work and behaviour. If you can earn money through this where’s the problem?

Your last point though, this is now a real job that contributes to society in so many ways.
Many people earning money on tiktok are disabled or have disabled children and can’t go out and get a “real job” (whatever you consider that to be). This is one of the most incredible things that TikTok has done for millions of people. Of course there are down sides, but every industry has its fair share of pricks, that’s part of being human.

It’s likely that in 10 years there’ll be jobs that exist that we can’t even dream of right now, and plenty of people then will refuse to see the value in it because it doesn’t fit their view of how people should be working, which seems quite a limited mindset.

At the end of the day if you don’t like it don’t watch it 🤷🏻‍♀️

20% of US youth had a wholly positive opinion of Osama bin Laden when surveyed, because his Letter to America went viral on TikTok, as I posted on the other thread.

Except it probably wasn't his letter (which is dreadfully written offensive antisemitic drivel) that they were reading, but seeing 'reaction' videos where people were crying saying they'd read it and it had changed their entire view of the US and how they were now sympathetic to terrorists that was changing their opinions.

People really don't seem to understand that there is a war going on here.

Banning TikTok is really disturbing to me. I don’t see the issues with it at all. Social media is what you make it. I don’t use TikTok much but I’ve made a few crafting TikTok’s and that’s what I tend to see if I go on there. If things like TikTok are banned then what next? The main reasons given seem to just be the effect on young people. While do understand that it can be quite detrimental in some ways, the way to deal with those issues is proper parenting because if TikTok goes, something else will come in its place. We need to work with the world we live in. We can’t turn back the clock to the 80s. We live in a world filled with technology and that is never going to stop developing.

If that’s your example of why it’s a security risk then perhaps you’d better stay of the internet entirely We all need to take responsibility for ourselves when it comes to questioning obvious scams!

Scams like this are as old as advertising. Getting rid of the whole internet wouldn’t stop it!

The actual risk is in data harvesting, but TikTok isn’t that bad for this. There are far worse examples for it - Meta for instance (FB and insta), Airbnb, plenty of them. It’s so obvious this is not the issue for billionaire Americans.

But banning it completely smacks of burning books - we don’t want you reading that - which history shows again and again makes people wonder what is being hidden and why, and leads to fascist governments who go on their ideological merry power trips taking control over the people.

Nothing should be banned, the focus now should be on bringing education up to scratch and taking out any ideology so that children can learn critical thinking skills and learn to make their own minds up.

Edited to add: if a population is so hell bent on questioning their government and increasingly distrusting them, that points to a bigger problem that needs to be addressed. No one would believe a fake letter on the internet if there wasn’t so much smoke leading it to appear to be valid.

Exactly. All the repeated ‘good, because social media is bad!’ Are terribly missing the point, because that’s not why it’s being banned

Meta is still thriving, and people seem to have forgotten Cambridge Analytica

I buy a lot of toiletries from TikTok shop, also there's a lot of good revision stuff on there for my students

I don’t have tik tok anymore but the facebook reels and instagram reels are exactly the same do can’t see how banning it would help.