I’ve been very cynical about the TikTok ban, and assumed people would work around it by sideloading the APK on Android phones, after it was removed from the app stores (which, as I detailed in this comment, could theoretically get random users who share the APK with friends prosecuted by the federal government and charged with a $5000 per user fine)
but this is exceeding my wildest expectations
“oh, but it’s full of Chinese propaganda!!!” people will whine. cool. don’t care. Twitter and Facebook are full of American propaganda, no one seems to be falling over themselves to ban those apps from app stores.
if propaganda is the concern, have schools teach critical thinking and how to recognize propaganda techniques. they won’t do that, of course, because they want people to be susceptible to American propaganda.
haha class solidarity go brrr. the average American worker has more in common with the average Chinese worker than they do with an American oligarch. all of the American propaganda about how Chinese people are inherently untrustworthy and nefarious is gonna fall apart as people interact with actual Chinese people and realize “oh they’re pretty much just like me, other than the language barrier”.
and TikTok-style shortform video is very nearly the ideal medium for surmounting that language barrier. it was already commonplace to have captions in TikTok videos. start captioning videos on RedNote in both English and Chinese and bang, language differences don’t matter nearly as much anymore.
Twitter and Facebook are full of American propaganda
I see the Whataboutism Olympics are off to a good start this year.
Why is this always the only defense people have when they bend over backwards to write apologia for dictatorships like China and Russia?
Not that I care about TikTok one way or another, but one of the best arguments I’ve seen against banning it dealt with supposed protection of Americans’ data. And I’m pretty sure that’s the approach that lawmakers have taken with this; it’s not that Chinese propaganda is bad, it’s that China shouldn’t have this much private info on Americans. I believe that’s the primary angle they’ve taken to get around First Amendment concerns.
Anyway, the argument is, “Oh, but it’s OK for US tech companies to harvest data? That’s it’s OK that we have weak privacy and data protection laws? As long as US companies are doing it, then it’s not a problem?” Because, remember the laws says that the company becomes “unavailable” in the US if not sold to an American company. Presumably, if TikTok were sold to a US company, then the app could continue with no issue, tracking and collecting tons of data on Americans to be packaged and sold to the highest bidders.
I will admit, I was somewhat more pro-ban before hearing that argument. But now I’m more neutral. I don’t use it, so I’m not/shouldn’t be affected. But the government trying to hide behind data privacy and protection to ban TikTok does feel rather empty.
You say that like any of the conservative controlled courts give a single flying fuck about precedent. They will embrace this ruling to foist religious doctrine on people who don’t want it and reject it to prohibit any other material they find unsavory, in the same breath, even. The rule of law has been dead for a long time in the states.
Don’t give a shit
On the plus side pixelfed seems to be popping off. And every time one of the big companies f up, we get a slow trickle of new users. Which is much more sustainable in the long run.
Alright. I’m finally hearing enough about pixelfed to start looking into it. Are there any good resources for jumping in?
I see it’s decentralized. Do I just go to pixelfed.org and create an account, or is this like the fediverse where you have to pick an instance to get started?
It’s part of the Fediverse, so if you’re on a Pixelfed instance you can see other servers running Mastodon, et al. Pick an instance that seems like it feels nice to you.
Yeah it can be that easy. Pixelfed.social is the big one.
Or you can go with one of the others to share the load.
I personally spun my own instance up just to try it out a couple of days ago. It’s neart and very perforant.
I mean, if TikTok US were more like TikTok China, with emphasis on educational content, there would never have been a problem.
Have you ever thought about why international TikTok is the way it is?
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“… reports Chinese state propaganda branch, through western media …” 🙄
There is already a thread here: https://beehaw.org/post/18010336
sorry, I probably should have checked, I have no objection to mods deleting this thread if this violates the rules here
No big deal, you’re good.
I am not a mod, but I guess this happens sometimes. No stress I would say.
Good.
