What really makes TikTok pop over Instagram (and Youtube Shorts) is how easy and seemingly random it is for people to go viral off low effort content. It's way more difficult to just make a random post and just happen to go viral on those other platforms while Tiktok's algorithm makes the average person feel like they can go viral. Also the way the app makes it easier to get followers. Tikotok has proven that people feel good about having high follower and view counts even if they aren't actually making money. Even Youtube changed their shorts algorithm to count impressions (people seeing your thumbnail) as views in order to line up with TikTok.
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TikTok Sale Gains Momentum as Trump Signs Executive Order Approving Deal
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For all the partisans...this is a bi-partisan issue. The Biden admin was doing the same thing. THERE WAS A LAW PASSED IN CONGRESS AND SIGNED BY BIDEN saying TikTok needed to be sold. Complain about Trump implementation but realize this is an issue that has wide bipartisan support political support.
Yes they do. Because we dont have infinite resources and discretion is necessary. Think it through and then apply it to people you agree with politically and you will see it is perfectly normal.
You’re correct. It has congressional support. But the same people who tell us to not trust TikTok don’t give the US-based social media platforms a closer look.
For all the bothsides folks, signing the law wasn't the controversy. The controversy was the president ignoring the law, while using the threat of it to facilitate the sale of TikTok to his political allies.
Details matter
However, in 2024, PAFACA was proposed in Congress due to alleged security concerns. The bill was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden, setting a deadline for the app to be banned unless a qualified divestment were made before then. Following a legal challenge from TikTok, the law was upheld by the Supreme Court.
On January 18, 2025, the day before the deadline of the law, TikTok voluntarily suspended its services in the United States, even though Biden had declined to enforce the ban on his last day in office.[1] The following day, after President-elect Trump signaled that he would grant an extension to TikTok upon being inaugurated, services were restored.
This last part, done by Trump (and only by Trump) is the part where it gets unlawful.
On January 20, the first day of his term, Trump signed an executive order that halted enforcement of the ban for a 75-day period while his administration pursues a potential sale of TikTok to American owners.
Let's also not forget that the entire "ban TikTok" thing started with:
In 2020, President Donald Trump proposed a ban of the app as he viewed it as a national security threat.
Why did Trump change his mind?
He realized he politically benefits from TikTok
This app should be banned completely. It’s all over propaganda and disinformation or people looking for clicks for stupid antics. It’s only going to get worse this going thru..
With one big difference: Trump's friends are the ones now involved in this buy.
Follow the money.
Always follow the money.
And only two have been for a billion or over; Beats and Intel's modem business. Tim Cook is sitting on a mountain of cash and hasn't been using it to buy Star Wars for four billion or apps for 10 billion or anything like that. Buying TikTok for the better half of 100 billion dollars would be extraordinarily out of character for Cook.
The number-one reason the Trump administration wants American ownership of TikTok is because they are upset that numerous videos on TikTok are telling the truth about how Israel has continuously been committing genocide in Gaza since October 2023.
This is not exclusive to the Trump administration. The Biden administration was also opposed to TikTok. The Biden administration, just like the Trump administration, was extremely pro-Israel and staunchly supported Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
In addition, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) is a genocidal terrorist organization, and many IDF soldiers have posted sadistic videos on TikTok of them gleefully and nonchalantly committing war crimes. Numerous people in Israel find such sadistic humor entertaining. The Trump administration does not like that people in America can discover the truth about how purely inhumane the IDF and a large percentage of Israeli citizens are.
The Trump administration wants Americans to believe the extreme lies that the IDF and Israeli citizens are highly moral people who are acting in self-defense. They want a pro-Zionism American owner of TikTok to spread more pro-Israeli propaganda videos, as well as drastically reducing the amount of videos showing the truth about the savagery and barbarism of the IDF.
I find it highly interesting - but not wrong - that so many are scared that American ownership will bring MORE censorship than Chinese ownership… That says a lot about where the US is going right now.
One of the reasons it it’s important to have open media is how increasingly bipolar the mainstream media has become. If you criticise the genocide, you must be anti-Jew and pro-Muslim. If you criticise Hamas, it must mean you are anti-Muslim and pro-Israel.
It is entirely possible to be anti-genocide and anti-terrorism, but neither be Pro-Palestine or Pro-Israel.
This !!!!!
Destroy effective opposition voices.
Straight out of Hungary’s Orban playbook
This is government capture of the media. Donald Trump is facilitating the sale to his cronies while admitting they plan to make it into a right wing propaganda network
That’s bad for America and should be illegal, if it’s not already
That’s bad for America and should be illegal, if it’s not already
Trump was totally for getting rid of TikTok as a Chinese spy app, until they cleverly told him that he was very popular on it.
That's all it took for him to flip.
Very similar to the way that he was totally anti-EV until Musk gave him millions. Then he actually had the gall to say, "Well I guess I have to support EVs now."
As his niece has often said, Trump is always up for sale to the highest bidder.
That's all it took for him to flip.
Very similar to the way that he was totally anti-EV until Musk gave him millions. Then he actually had the gall to say, "Well I guess I have to support EVs now."
As his niece has often said, Trump is always up for sale to the highest bidder.
Question is how he's going to get Xi onboard with this?
Also, we'll cover this but not Apple's censorship? There's a pattern emerging of Tim Apple obeying Trump 2.0 - allowing TikTok back on the App Store unlawfully and then removing apps Don doesn't approve of.
What's next - scan our photo libraries for anti Trump sentiment?
Also, we'll cover this but not Apple's censorship? There's a pattern emerging of Tim Apple obeying Trump 2.0 - allowing TikTok back on the App Store unlawfully and then removing apps Don doesn't approve of.
What's next - scan our photo libraries for anti Trump sentiment?