4 ms·

It isn't a "ban" except that TikTok would rather shut down than sell, forgoing billions of dollars in the process.

iugtmkbdfil834 2y ago
From pure PR perspective, it is a win for China; sometimes it is not about the money. US used to be much smarter those kinds of optics.
- taylodl 2y ago
  US used to be much smarter in general. Now that Trump is starting a 2nd term on Monday, the world over now realizes the US is comprised of a bunch of imbeciles. We've lost our prestige, and we'd been trading on it for a long, long time.
  - scarface_74 2y ago
    I lean heavily Democratic when it comes to social issues. But let’s be honest, everyone knew that Biden was losing his mental faculties. The last time we had two smart candidates was 2012.
    - johnnyanmac 2y ago
      So the answer was... Elect in a president who long lost his mental faculties. Okay.
      - scarface_74 2y ago
        The Democrats loss fair and square. They should have spoken up a lot sooner. Everyone on the inside knew that Biden was incompetent. If they had a real primary would Kamala ever have been the nominee? The Democrats lost strongholds like Miami of all places. The dumbest thing they did was go against the tech industry who have always been their biggest supporters. Would Republicans go after Evangelical Christians or the NRA? They gave people no reason to support them.
        CryptoBanker 2y ago
        To say that Miami was a democratic stronghold is not really accurate. They've leaned Democrat recently, but the margins haven't been that high, and they've been decreasing for a number of elections now.
        ruthmarx 2y ago
        > The Democrats loss fair and square. Yes, because of how ignorant much of the population is, correlating lower grocery prices with whoever was in office at the time. > They gave people no reason to support them. Given how bad the alternative was they were the only rational choice.
        scarface_74 2y ago
        So that was there whole platform - “we aren’t Trump”? Do you think the population got more ignorant in 4 years? This is all on the DNC and Biden. Biden should have either voluntarily not run or stronger Democrats should have had a primary and crucified him. The DNC lied to the American public for years. They knew that Biden wasn’t all there. They basically tried to do a “Weekend with Bernie” on them. Not to mention that strategically for the first time in modern history they had the new industry titans in their back pocket - BigTech - and threw them under the bus. The American population doesn’t care about going after BigTech like HN does.
        ruthmarx 2y ago
        > So that was there whole platform - “we aren’t Trump”? No, but frankly if it was that should have been enough. > Do you think the population got more ignorant in 4 years? Yes, obviously. Or at least more ignorant people decided to vote this time.
        scarface_74 2y ago
        And this is why Democrats lose. They are completely out of touch with what the mainstream wants. Any other Democrat could have distanced themselves from Biden. But his own VP couldn’t.
      - misiti3780 2y ago
        Not sure why this is so complicated --- blame the DNC and party elites, not the population that voted for Trump. If the DNC was trying to win, they would have never let Biden run for re-election, and then they would have never let Harris become the candidate without a primary. The Democrats literally told the US population Trump was going to destroy democracy in America, and then created a situation that enabled him to win in a landslide.
        scarface_74 2y ago
        Supporting your argument: From a left leaning publication https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/01/12/opinion/opinion-renee-graham-president-biden-complicated-legacy/ https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/01/12/opinion/opinion-renee... And from the WSJ (I don’t know how the paywall bypass works. I pay for Apple News and read the entire article). The WSJ is right leaning when it comes to business. But I find it to be fair and not Trump worshipper https://www.wsj.com/opinion/bidens-bitterness-came-back-to-bite-him-anger-at-obama-radical-policy-a8a92176 https://www.wsj.com/opinion/bidens-bitterness-came-back-to-b... When it all comes down to it. Biden was no better than Trump. They both are old folks who put their own desires above what is best for the country.
        misiti3780 2y ago
        [flagged]
        krapp 2y ago
        The Democrats didn't lose because Harris didn't get a primary. Literally no one but Republicans who would never have voted for her to begin with cared about that. Democrats lost because they keep triangulating and trying to appeal to centrist Republicans who either don't exist, or would never vote for them regardless. If Harris had distinguished herself from Biden by taking a firm stance against the Palestinian genocide - which was the single issue much of her base cared about - she would have won. Also, Trump didn't win in a landslide. It was a close election, and Trump definitely won the popular vote, but the margins were still about 51% to 49%.
    - deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
  - cooper_ganglia 2y ago
    The world realizes the USA is no longer messing around, that's all. If anything, we've only gained prestige in the last couple months, we're finally getting stuff done...
    - iugtmkbdfil834 2y ago
      Hmm? That is a rather bold statement bordering on bluster. Could you elaborate? The move shows something, but I am not certain it can be interpreted this way.
- dralley 2y ago
  >sometimes it is not about the money. Yes, that's precisely the argument of the pro-ban faction. China doesn't allow TikTok in China. It's not about the money, it's about control over a medium that can be exploited for influence, or at the very least the effects of that platform on its audience. It's silly to pretend like ByteDance are acting on principle. Go post an LGBT meme or refer to Lai Ching-te as the "President of Taiwan" on Red Note and see how long that lasts.
  - iugtmkbdfil834 2y ago
    Sure, but parent's argument was focused on ad revenue and wondering why TikTok chose to forego that revenue ( which presumed that most US entities would bend to such demand, but failed to consider non financial considerations ). edit: << Go post an LGBT meme or refer to Lai Ching-te as the "President of Taiwan" on Red Note and see how long that lasts. China does not pretend to give lipservice to freedom of speech. US does. That is why its population needs to hold its government accountable.
kickopotomus 2y ago
You say that as if they only operate in the US. The US represents less than 20% of their user base.
curiousllama 2y ago
I mean, it was a ban when China did it to Facebook, no?

From pure PR perspective, it is a win for China; sometimes it is not about the money. US used to be much smarter those kinds of optics.

taylodl 2y ago
US used to be much smarter in general. Now that Trump is starting a 2nd term on Monday, the world over now realizes the US is comprised of a bunch of imbeciles. We've lost our prestige, and we'd been trading on it for a long, long time.
- scarface_74 2y ago
  I lean heavily Democratic when it comes to social issues. But let’s be honest, everyone knew that Biden was losing his mental faculties. The last time we had two smart candidates was 2012.
  - johnnyanmac 2y ago
    So the answer was... Elect in a president who long lost his mental faculties. Okay.
    - scarface_74 2y ago
      The Democrats loss fair and square. They should have spoken up a lot sooner. Everyone on the inside knew that Biden was incompetent. If they had a real primary would Kamala ever have been the nominee? The Democrats lost strongholds like Miami of all places. The dumbest thing they did was go against the tech industry who have always been their biggest supporters. Would Republicans go after Evangelical Christians or the NRA? They gave people no reason to support them.
      - CryptoBanker 2y ago
        To say that Miami was a democratic stronghold is not really accurate. They've leaned Democrat recently, but the margins haven't been that high, and they've been decreasing for a number of elections now.
      - ruthmarx 2y ago
        > The Democrats loss fair and square. Yes, because of how ignorant much of the population is, correlating lower grocery prices with whoever was in office at the time. > They gave people no reason to support them. Given how bad the alternative was they were the only rational choice.
        scarface_74 2y ago
        So that was there whole platform - “we aren’t Trump”? Do you think the population got more ignorant in 4 years? This is all on the DNC and Biden. Biden should have either voluntarily not run or stronger Democrats should have had a primary and crucified him. The DNC lied to the American public for years. They knew that Biden wasn’t all there. They basically tried to do a “Weekend with Bernie” on them. Not to mention that strategically for the first time in modern history they had the new industry titans in their back pocket - BigTech - and threw them under the bus. The American population doesn’t care about going after BigTech like HN does.
        ruthmarx 2y ago
        > So that was there whole platform - “we aren’t Trump”? No, but frankly if it was that should have been enough. > Do you think the population got more ignorant in 4 years? Yes, obviously. Or at least more ignorant people decided to vote this time.
        scarface_74 2y ago
        And this is why Democrats lose. They are completely out of touch with what the mainstream wants. Any other Democrat could have distanced themselves from Biden. But his own VP couldn’t.
    - misiti3780 2y ago
      Not sure why this is so complicated --- blame the DNC and party elites, not the population that voted for Trump. If the DNC was trying to win, they would have never let Biden run for re-election, and then they would have never let Harris become the candidate without a primary. The Democrats literally told the US population Trump was going to destroy democracy in America, and then created a situation that enabled him to win in a landslide.
      - scarface_74 2y ago
        Supporting your argument: From a left leaning publication https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/01/12/opinion/opinion-renee-graham-president-biden-complicated-legacy/ https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/01/12/opinion/opinion-renee... And from the WSJ (I don’t know how the paywall bypass works. I pay for Apple News and read the entire article). The WSJ is right leaning when it comes to business. But I find it to be fair and not Trump worshipper https://www.wsj.com/opinion/bidens-bitterness-came-back-to-bite-him-anger-at-obama-radical-policy-a8a92176 https://www.wsj.com/opinion/bidens-bitterness-came-back-to-b... When it all comes down to it. Biden was no better than Trump. They both are old folks who put their own desires above what is best for the country.
        misiti3780 2y ago
        [flagged]
      - krapp 2y ago
        The Democrats didn't lose because Harris didn't get a primary. Literally no one but Republicans who would never have voted for her to begin with cared about that. Democrats lost because they keep triangulating and trying to appeal to centrist Republicans who either don't exist, or would never vote for them regardless. If Harris had distinguished herself from Biden by taking a firm stance against the Palestinian genocide - which was the single issue much of her base cared about - she would have won. Also, Trump didn't win in a landslide. It was a close election, and Trump definitely won the popular vote, but the margins were still about 51% to 49%.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
- cooper_ganglia 2y ago
  The world realizes the USA is no longer messing around, that's all. If anything, we've only gained prestige in the last couple months, we're finally getting stuff done...
  - iugtmkbdfil834 2y ago
    Hmm? That is a rather bold statement bordering on bluster. Could you elaborate? The move shows something, but I am not certain it can be interpreted this way.
dralley 2y ago
>sometimes it is not about the money. Yes, that's precisely the argument of the pro-ban faction. China doesn't allow TikTok in China. It's not about the money, it's about control over a medium that can be exploited for influence, or at the very least the effects of that platform on its audience. It's silly to pretend like ByteDance are acting on principle. Go post an LGBT meme or refer to Lai Ching-te as the "President of Taiwan" on Red Note and see how long that lasts.
- iugtmkbdfil834 2y ago
  Sure, but parent's argument was focused on ad revenue and wondering why TikTok chose to forego that revenue ( which presumed that most US entities would bend to such demand, but failed to consider non financial considerations ). edit: << Go post an LGBT meme or refer to Lai Ching-te as the "President of Taiwan" on Red Note and see how long that lasts. China does not pretend to give lipservice to freedom of speech. US does. That is why its population needs to hold its government accountable.

kickopotomus 2y ago

You say that as if they only operate in the US. The US represents less than 20% of their user base.

curiousllama 2y ago

I mean, it was a ban when China did it to Facebook, no?