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.
Fascism from a technological and political perspective
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.
uhh social media has been controlled by the CIA since near its inception.
At least the CIA supposedly cared about national security.
Just because fans of CIA information think it means national security, actual term is preventing the homeland from being invaded. Internalizing hatred information to support war and destabilization of other countries is the CIA mind controlling you.
It’s clear Trump wants to control all social media within the US.
And he didn’t even really have to do anything to do it. Capitalism just took its natural course and they all lined up to ride his Toad.
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
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.
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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.
The constitution stopped mattering to these people a long time ago.
This is key. Trump’s executive order can’t override the law. Executive orders can only interpret the law. With the courts saying the law is valid, TikTok and US hosting companies are understandably hesitant to resume operations just on Trump’s word (which is worthless anyway) that the ban won’t be enforced.
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.
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Fascism. That’s what’s going on.
You got “foreign influenced” like US has done it for decades to other countries. US used to call it spreading democracy or some sort.
Does that help?
He had to defend TikTok to win over youth votes for the election.
Now that he’s pres again, he knows that in one year it will become very apparent that he can’t lower grocery/gas prices, and isn’t willing to take action on home prices, the deficit, AI, or wage inequality.
So instead he has a list of things that will prop up his approval rating, because that is the only metric that actually matters to him. Right now that seems to mean keeping TikTok, and annexing new territory (even if that just means renaming the Gulf of Mexico).
he has a list of things that will prop up his approval rating, because that is the only metric that actually matters to him
This almost feels overly forgiving to Trump, given what the remainder of our political body is. When judging US politicians by which metrics actually matter to them, “approval rating” puts someone way in the upper echelon.
I would not agree. Every metric is subject to Goodhart’s law, approval ratings is no exception. Putin has (allegedly) maintained an approval rating well over 50% for his entire career.
I’m not saying he wants to do right by his constituents, I’m saying he wants to be told he’s a winner. Trump is a narcissist. He’s all the other terrible things because at the end of the day he needs to feel liked. He will only do things that he thinks will fill that void.
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Trump has all these companies by the balls.
Which happened because they unzipped their pants and placed their scrotums in Trump’s tiny hands.
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well in some cases they were on the verge of being regulated or in the case of Google being threatened to be broken up. So a lot of this seems like self preservation which is just sad.
US does US things.
Inevitable commenter: This is just like in China!
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.
Democrats walked right into his trap. I don’t think they’re controlled opposition but they sure act like it…
Stop giving them the benefit of the doubt. They have shown you who they are, believe them. They are a fund raising party, their only allegiance is to capital.
I think that’s loosely true of the party in general, especially the higher-ups. But it’s worth pointing out that at least some people within the party, e.g., Ilhan Omar, who differ from the mainstream and who are genuine leftists.
It was always about control. They had no control over the information and now they do. All of a sudden it’s not a problem anymore.
It’s Trump, the Republicans, Musk, and other billionaires using the power of the government to coerce Bytedance into actions that will be favorable to them. It’s kind of Trump’s MO; threaten people/corporations to enrich his family or otherwise benefit him in some way. They will likely force Bytedance to sell TikTok at a large discount to the government and Trump’s friends.
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PR stunt
Chinese citizens still can’t use TikTok. Curious
that’s because douyin is for them
And the reason for segregating in the first place?
Well there wouldn’t be much point to the Great Chinese Firewall if lots of uncontrolled information was flowing in and out through social media.
