Hacker News Reader

Comment by mullingitover | Hacker News Reader

> The law doesn't ban TikTok. Rather, it bans TikTok from having Chinese owners.

My prediction: China would absolutely throw away a few billion to enjoy the chaos that results from the country that preaches free speech painting itself into a corner and banning it. Enacting a ban on the most popular app among Gen Z would cause a huge uproar.

It would be like taking away terrestrial radio from boomers. It's that popular.

View on HN

> Enacting a ban on the most popular app among Gen Z would cause a huge uproar.

Or they just move over to FAANG competitors? I've never used TikTok before since it is an app, but I use YouTube shorts and whatever that Instagram short thing is Facebook is pushing into my feed (with...erm...a lot more addictive algorithms than YouTube). Ok, I'm not Gen Z, but it looks like content providers are already hedging their bets on platforms (they often don't even remove TikTok watermarks), I don't see why consumers wouldn't follow. Its not like YouTube or Facebook is blocked in the USA.

>Or they just move over to FAANG competitors?

Currently the FAANG competitors are much worse; their recommendation engines are inferior. That's why consumers overwhelmingly prefer Tiktok currently.

This is an old misconception. Reels has already exceeded over 50% of TikTok's watch time. The algorithm is better on Reels now IMO.

Sorry but Reels is crap. Its just stolen TikTok videos mixed with some other nonsense.

Content providers are stealing their own TikTok videos, although I'm sure some providers are stealing other people's TikTok videos to make money on Reels and Shorts, especially the Chinese ones I've seen (probably ripped off by other Chinese wanting to make some quick money).

Yeah. This is really a generational thing. That's why the ban was bipartisan... nobody in Congress is of the age that uses TikTok. However, the youth in this country are going to be enraged, far more than I think a lot of people expect. I don't use TikTok but the people I know who use it are extremely passionate about the app.

I'm not genz but I use tiktok. You need to give it a try. All of the comments on here from people who don't use it are bizarre.

We can be skeptical, but not afraid of foreign owned media.

> All of the comments on here from people who don't use it are bizarre.

100% agree.

I would say this offers some insight into the real reason they want to ban TikTok.

I mean, I’m happy to see tiktok removed from app stores for the same reasons as I’d be happy to see any social media apps be removed from app stores, so from that perspective, I don’t think it matters that I haven’t used tiktok unless it’s somehow exempt from the problems that are endemic to social media apps.

I mean it's debatable whether or not social media is good for society, and there's legitimate concerns about data privacy, but do you really want the govt to remove them?

Good question! I wouldn’t trust a government aiming to remove them, but seeing them run afoul of legitimate legislation (where I’m not actually familiar enough with the US/tiktok law to really make a judgement call on) in ways that get them punished satisfies me. (Assuming those punishments are in line with principles I otherwise support - e.g. I wouldn’t support ISP-level blocking.)

Sounds like you just don't care much for free speech.

> the people I know who use it are extremely passionate about the app

It's addictive and they don't fully understand the dangers of CCP spyware and CCP controlled algorithm. It's like drugs addicts being passionate about drug use.

If I were China this is the move. I’m suspect this is the intention of the bill from the US end as well.

lol, you really think the US has "free Speech" and this is some unprecedented action that will tear us apart?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com