3d ago

Trump Makes It Very Clear They’re Going To Turn TikTok Into A Right Wing Propaganda Machine

www.techdirt.com

News @lemmy.world

BeBopALouie @lemmy.ca

3d ago

Trump Makes It Very Clear They’re Going To Turn TikTok Into A Right Wing Propaganda Machine

www.techdirt.com /2025/09/30/trump-makes-it-very-clear-theyre-going-to-turn-tiktok-into-a-right-wing-propaganda-machine/

23 comments

They're trying to turn it into truth social. I want to say people won't fall for it, but I'm sure some will
- Most probably don't care or don't know, and hence, will fall for it.
  
  That's why this is so terrifying. Twitter at least had a politically engaged userbase, so people noticed the changes. Tiktok users get political content only incidentally, and has far fewer actual journalists. They are going to get manipulated beyond reason.
If that happens, what is the current alternative that everyone will migrate to?
- Some may use some work around to use the international version which will be free of us control.
- There is Loops and Skylight.
  
  I tried loops. Its not possible to post content. I sent a bug report and got no response
- I guess people will just use rednote, Chinese tiktok which is also Chinese but like Rednote has Chinese userbase idk I know that's what they used when tiktok got "banned" for few days or hours.
  
  And what happened was hilarious.
  Chinese users were asking US ones if it was true about potentially going bankrupt from a medical emergency as they thought it was Chinese govt propaganda.
  Then were asking about maternity leave, housing, workers rights and being similar aghast that the truth wasn't propaganda!
  
  Rednote is pretty different vibes, I'm on it but not nearly as much as TikTok. It's pretty interesting for what it is but it's not a replacement and it's not competing to be a replacement either.
  I would guess they'll probably move to Bytedance's other app, Lemon8, or probably Skylight Social as Bluesky is generally pretty popular with the particular part of TikTok I'm on, so everyone already have ATproto accounts and follows.
- I’ve never had a TT account but have been on Rednote for months. I don’t use any other social media outside of it, except Bluesky. Rednote is fun and folks are nice. It’s very focused on learning and sharing, so you get content that’s actually interesting, as opposed to the onslaught of hateful, vitriolic bullshit US-based social media loves to force into your feed alongside the 50 ads.
So nothing changes.
So far in Spain as of now, talking of Vox (right wing) gets your content shadow banned (it's been the case for a month or so)
but that's now, maybe if that happens the censorship will flip sides
Behind the fig leaf, the argument was never "China's surveilling our kids!" but rather "China's getting data about kids that rightfully belongs to the U.S., to slice and dice how we see fit. This evil must be stopped!"
Well, at least it matches most of the other corporate social web.
Wonder if it'll start heavily promoting the new EA game, Battlewoke.

23 comments