5 ms·

Weird that we're still in a pandemic and the focus of government leaders is to ban tiktok.

SpicyLemonZest 6y ago
It's certainly been interesting to realize how much the world keeps turning when there's a pandemic around. I wonder if people in warzones feel the same way with the juxtaposition between a huge emergency and normal life.
- aantix 6y ago
  >It's certainly been interesting to realize how much the world keeps turning when there's a pandemic around. One life to live. Time is always ticking. And we all have individual levels of risk that we're willing to assume. Even when confronted with the same data.
- hougaard 6y ago
  Evé watched the tv series called 'Allo 'Allo?
  - SpicyLemonZest 6y ago
    I have not. Thanks for the recommendation, I'll have to give it a shot.
controlledchaos 6y ago
It is managing to be a great distraction.
- ideals 6y ago
  Seems to be working very well too! GDP down 12%, who cares, 1/3 of the country missed mortgage payments, not a real problem. Teenagers making memes on a Chinese app, shut-it-down red alarm.
kevin_thibedeau 6y ago
It's sending a message: Don't mess with my rallies or there will be consequences. Classic mafia shakedown.
- neltnerb 6y ago
  Are you talking about the thing where TikTok users got a bunch of tickets to a rally? That's a weird message to send to the company itself but I guess it's about as logical as anything else we do. Shaking down the wrong person seems par for the course at this point.
- raghava 6y ago
  Same deal here in India. Maybe Trump administration got inspired by the theater that happened around TikTok here in India, and the political undertones. TikTok had some of the rad and most creative memes that splendidly ridiculed the failures of the current government (and their principles, policies [demonetization, GST, bank busts, GDP/growth/economy crash, election theater, ultra-right-religious-discourse, absolute capitulation of mainstream media and their subservience to ruling members, lies around border conflicts, failure of central and federal systems, failure of judiciary, handling of the pandemic, the whole "light lamps and bang plates to ward off virus" etc - everything!) and also their associated right wing organizations). The ban was dressed up as "ban on Chinese products". Meanwhile, the BCCI (a sports body - whose budgets rival GDP of few nations), which is now having the son of India's Home Minister as one of the top shots in management, continues their deal with a Chinese sponsor. Now, some local app with a lot of "censoring" is what's being touted as India's answer, while it has always been control and power to shape and keep public opinion under check -as defined by Ministry of Truth here. Many birds with one shot! Summary: "We see you have a good business here, funny if something might happen to it! You know, bad things happen around these days a lot! But we can help, ya'see!" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_Shah https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_Shah https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/services/retail/indo-china-border-tensions-traders-body-blasts-bcci-for-retaining-vivo-as-main-ipl-sponsor/articleshow/77329089.cms https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/services/retai...
ericd 6y ago
Well, it supposedly has a lot of potential as a propaganda platform, and with an election coming up, at least some are worried about that. A writeup on Stratechery: https://stratechery.com/2020/the-tiktok-war/ https://stratechery.com/2020/the-tiktok-war/
- angryasian 6y ago
  You mean the same way his campaign uses facebook and twitter as a propaganda platform. Thats really the most important issue here. He can run political ads on both platforms and they do nothing about it. Tiktok reaches a gen z and millenials and he can't do anything about it.
  - ericd 6y ago
    On those platforms, ads are called out as ads. This would be more like viral marketing on those platforms, except that it doesn't have to pass your friends' sniff tests in this case, so it's much easier to push whatever you want into peoples' faces.
ejanus 6y ago
Why mixing two unrelated events?
- happytoexplain 6y ago
  Give the thread a read for the argument for how they are related (priorities, election image, etc). If you have a differing opinion, give some details.
  - ejanus 6y ago
    When he was after Huawei was it elections or pandemic?
gentleman11 6y ago
It’s to make people think about something positive he’s doing before the election. Sadly, the government was not drawing attention to the problems with China before him. Its one of the few legitimate problems he has been pushing against and will probably get him some votes
- runawaybottle 6y ago
  I doubt Trump is a psychological master, but bucketing a bunch of issues into the China bucket can help reframe the pandemic. China bad, Uighurs, TikTok, trade deals ... Coronavirus. Trump: I’m not bad, China is. Look at all that stuff in that bucket, need to do something about it, maybe I will, maybe I’m the only one that will. Standard manipulation really. Edit: I’ll add that this tactic is so effective that Biden had no choice but to parrot the rhetoric in the dem debates (said some pretty hard line stuff). Biden/Obama have had a legitimate hard line stance against China with their Asia pivot strategy, but they never used the hard-line rhetoric politically until Trump did. Bill Clinton has similar instincts to Trump. When he campaigned for Hilary in red states, he would straight up say things along the lines of ‘I never thought Obamacare was a good idea’. Trump is in full gear rallying the base, and he’s going to force Biden to mirror some of these views. If he does this successfully, Biden’s attacks on the pandemic handling will constantly be convoluted with the larger China-bad narrative.
  - grugagag 6y ago
    Sure, standard manipulation but it might work for Trump's base voters, sadly
falcolas 6y ago
This feels like "whataboutism". One can be concerned about both the pandemic and tiktok. I don't appreciate the current administration's responses to the pandemic, but that doesn't mean I expect them to solely focus on the pandemic.

It's certainly been interesting to realize how much the world keeps turning when there's a pandemic around. I wonder if people in warzones feel the same way with the juxtaposition between a huge emergency and normal life.

aantix 6y ago
>It's certainly been interesting to realize how much the world keeps turning when there's a pandemic around. One life to live. Time is always ticking. And we all have individual levels of risk that we're willing to assume. Even when confronted with the same data.
hougaard 6y ago
Evé watched the tv series called 'Allo 'Allo?
- SpicyLemonZest 6y ago
  I have not. Thanks for the recommendation, I'll have to give it a shot.

controlledchaos 6y ago

It is managing to be a great distraction.

ideals 6y ago
Seems to be working very well too! GDP down 12%, who cares, 1/3 of the country missed mortgage payments, not a real problem. Teenagers making memes on a Chinese app, shut-it-down red alarm.

kevin_thibedeau 6y ago

It's sending a message: Don't mess with my rallies or there will be consequences. Classic mafia shakedown.

neltnerb 6y ago
Are you talking about the thing where TikTok users got a bunch of tickets to a rally? That's a weird message to send to the company itself but I guess it's about as logical as anything else we do. Shaking down the wrong person seems par for the course at this point.
raghava 6y ago
Same deal here in India. Maybe Trump administration got inspired by the theater that happened around TikTok here in India, and the political undertones. TikTok had some of the rad and most creative memes that splendidly ridiculed the failures of the current government (and their principles, policies [demonetization, GST, bank busts, GDP/growth/economy crash, election theater, ultra-right-religious-discourse, absolute capitulation of mainstream media and their subservience to ruling members, lies around border conflicts, failure of central and federal systems, failure of judiciary, handling of the pandemic, the whole "light lamps and bang plates to ward off virus" etc - everything!) and also their associated right wing organizations). The ban was dressed up as "ban on Chinese products". Meanwhile, the BCCI (a sports body - whose budgets rival GDP of few nations), which is now having the son of India's Home Minister as one of the top shots in management, continues their deal with a Chinese sponsor. Now, some local app with a lot of "censoring" is what's being touted as India's answer, while it has always been control and power to shape and keep public opinion under check -as defined by Ministry of Truth here. Many birds with one shot! Summary: "We see you have a good business here, funny if something might happen to it! You know, bad things happen around these days a lot! But we can help, ya'see!" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_Shah https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_Shah https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/services/retail/indo-china-border-tensions-traders-body-blasts-bcci-for-retaining-vivo-as-main-ipl-sponsor/articleshow/77329089.cms https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/services/retai...

ericd 6y ago

Well, it supposedly has a lot of potential as a propaganda platform, and with an election coming up, at least some are worried about that. A writeup on Stratechery: https://stratechery.com/2020/the-tiktok-war/ https://stratechery.com/2020/the-tiktok-war/

angryasian 6y ago
You mean the same way his campaign uses facebook and twitter as a propaganda platform. Thats really the most important issue here. He can run political ads on both platforms and they do nothing about it. Tiktok reaches a gen z and millenials and he can't do anything about it.
- ericd 6y ago
  On those platforms, ads are called out as ads. This would be more like viral marketing on those platforms, except that it doesn't have to pass your friends' sniff tests in this case, so it's much easier to push whatever you want into peoples' faces.

ejanus 6y ago

Why mixing two unrelated events?

happytoexplain 6y ago
Give the thread a read for the argument for how they are related (priorities, election image, etc). If you have a differing opinion, give some details.
- ejanus 6y ago
  When he was after Huawei was it elections or pandemic?

gentleman11 6y ago

It’s to make people think about something positive he’s doing before the election. Sadly, the government was not drawing attention to the problems with China before him. Its one of the few legitimate problems he has been pushing against and will probably get him some votes

runawaybottle 6y ago
I doubt Trump is a psychological master, but bucketing a bunch of issues into the China bucket can help reframe the pandemic. China bad, Uighurs, TikTok, trade deals ... Coronavirus. Trump: I’m not bad, China is. Look at all that stuff in that bucket, need to do something about it, maybe I will, maybe I’m the only one that will. Standard manipulation really. Edit: I’ll add that this tactic is so effective that Biden had no choice but to parrot the rhetoric in the dem debates (said some pretty hard line stuff). Biden/Obama have had a legitimate hard line stance against China with their Asia pivot strategy, but they never used the hard-line rhetoric politically until Trump did. Bill Clinton has similar instincts to Trump. When he campaigned for Hilary in red states, he would straight up say things along the lines of ‘I never thought Obamacare was a good idea’. Trump is in full gear rallying the base, and he’s going to force Biden to mirror some of these views. If he does this successfully, Biden’s attacks on the pandemic handling will constantly be convoluted with the larger China-bad narrative.
- grugagag 6y ago
  Sure, standard manipulation but it might work for Trump's base voters, sadly

falcolas 6y ago

This feels like "whataboutism". One can be concerned about both the pandemic and tiktok. I don't appreciate the current administration's responses to the pandemic, but that doesn't mean I expect them to solely focus on the pandemic.