Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/03/12/trumps-tiktok-tantrum-targets-tech-tycoon.html
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Typical ingratitude from von Clownstick. Zuckerberg delivered him the legions of racist uncles upon which he built his political career.
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You do know that billionaire and Bytedance investor Jeff Yass met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago just days before he made this post. Sort of like his reversal on Bud Lite after one of their lobbyists raised money for Trumps campaign.
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I do love a good alliterative headline. Well done.
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Trump’s being loyal - it’s just that loyalty for Trump is only “what have you done for me lately.” Now that Trump’s been most recently paid off by/on behalf of TikTok, he’s not only reversed his previous attempts to ban it, he’s suddenly against any sort of regulation of it (including forcing the Chinese government to divest from it). Being able to stick it to Zuckerberg is just a bonus, not his primary motivation at this point.
The chaos this is causing in the Republican ranks, who went from foaming-at-the-mouth trying to paint TikTok as a communist conspiracy that must be destroyed, to suddenly being unsure what their positions should be, is hilarious.
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BuzzFeed had a couple of great stories recently about what exactly TikTok and ByteDance are actually doing with their data. I’m still not convinced that a ban is a good idea (I’m with you on this one, Orange Idiot), but there is still a bunch of nefarious things that is happening with TIkTok’s user data. I just don’t think that it’s any worse than what Facebook & friends are doing.
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So, while it pains me, I have to agree: killing TikTok will only strengthen Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook and that’s not in anyone’s interest.
Does it though? Because I feel like those two user bases are different and despite FB wanting to be everything to everyone, it is not. While Reels is similar, it still isn’t the same as TikTok.
I feel like some lesser known clone would be what TikTok users migrate to - if they don’t use VPNs to just go around some sort of ban.
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I imagine that Meta could quickly whip up a standalone TikTok clone if they wanted.
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Maybe. I guess. I don’t think that they have a track record of success in that kind of thing. I assume Threads is still a thing though I genuinely haven’t heard of it in quite a long time.
Buying TikTok would be more their style.
TikTok’s intersection with Instagram is pretty big though so they could leverage that.
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They could refine reels to make it even more tiktok like, but just because they are capable of making an app, doesn’t mean people will migrate to it. See Threads.
Yes, but I don’t think they want to sell?
I was really thinking more in terms of antitrust law just not being a thing any more and how the US political classes have wanked themselves into a frenzy over TikTok such that they might push it.
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The bill would allow TikTok to stay around if it was sold to someone who wasn’t beholden to the laws and political pressures of the Chinese government, so even if the bill makes it through the Senate that doesn’t neccessarily mean the platform would go away.
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