China Discusses Sale of TikTok US to Musk as One Possible Option
bloomberg.com
bloomberg.com
Too much Content chasing limited human Attention is causing very very similar issues.
It took centuries to connect the fact that increasing or decreasing the money supply at a faster or slower rate than goods arriving in the market causes all kinds of chaos. The chaos made it hard to see the connection.
Central banks finally emerged to manage money supply and target a healthy inflation rate.
Handing Attention management off to the platforms is very similar to the state of affair when Kings and individual Banks printed their own money. That provided funding for wars. And created panics, bubbles, bank failures all the time which lead to the reluctant handing over of money printing to Central Banks world wide.
Today thanks to similar dynamics in the Attention Economy we are probably in a hyperinflationary state. As content keeps exploding, it gets harder and harder to be seen or heard unless you "buy more ads", win ad bidding wars, or "pay for visibility".
And guess what?
China can easily "buy more ads", win ad bidding wars, or "pay for visibility" to make things worse. They can/will also just flood the platforms with content via GenAI. Business will be pushed to spend more, Politicians have to raise more and individuals will struggle to focus on anything. Everyone will get exhausted or loose their minds. China or whoever won't have to fire a single shot to trigger collapse.
It doesn't matter who owns platforms if the way platforms manage Attention does not change.
We either need a Central Attention Bank that measures and targets healthy Attention extraction/consumption rates across different content types or Regulation placed on platforms on how Attention is managed (time limits, limits on ads volume, limits on marketing budgets all broken down by different content types (long term value/short term value/no value ie entertainment with individuals deciding the breakup just like they do with money - investments/savings/current etc etc).
Platforms like TikTok--or more accurately, their algorithms--as ersatz central banks of attention is a fascinating concept.
> we are probably in a hyperinflationary state. As content keeps exploding
More content chasing limited attention means the content's value is inflating. Sure enough, we see a secular decline in ad prices from 2010 to 2020 [1]. (They have increased since 2020.)
It also raises the question of whether TikTok, under any ownership, can ever truly escape concerns about data security and political influence. Hmmm. Perhaps the bigger story here is the global power shift reflected in how tech companies are wielded as strategic assets.
The decisions will be to promote China and to never criticize the Chinese government.
Musk thinks China rocks and America is complacent and entitled, especially New Yorkers and Californians: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/31/tesla-ceo-elon-musk-china-ro...
Musk advocates for the submission of Taiwan to China: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/oct/08/elon-musk...
Musk claims to be a free speech absolutist but mysteriously has nothing to say about the lack of free speech in China. In contrast, Musk is happy to ridiculously call Western governments "fascist" and "tyrannical":
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jan/11/majority-...
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/elon-musk-doubles-down-o...
Like all oligarchs, Musk is authoritarian by nature and sympathetic to authoritarian regimes.
* By freedom of speech here I basically mean the usual social norms about what things are generally not prohibited. I say this to avoid being misinterpreted as my position being one of "all speech is permitted no matter its content" because that's not what society has decided.
Nobody is going to care about the invasion of Taiwan when Musk puts his finger on the algorithm’s scale as a quid pro quo to sell more Teslas abroad.
I vote for "Dick Talk".
While Chinese developers are focused on building great products, US developers are focused on pushing politics. As a result, the Chinese apps are clearly more desirable for users.
What specific features does Rednote have that beat US competitors?
Where do you think that US users heard about Rednote? If you are not a TikTok user, then you would had never heard of this app. Clearly, TikTok used their algo to "raid" Rednote, like a Twitch stream raid.
1. A government/center of power imposes a unilateral decree to deprive many people of something they used to have a right to
2. The affected hear: "shut up about your rights"
3. This act of deprivation itself becomes the uniting common issue for the affected, and then they become a self-organizing body politic
3. The body politic then naturally becomes suspicious of any solution that appears to comply with the government's wishes
If you're surprised that people in this country protest when they feel their right to protest has been encroached upon - or if it seems surprising that using Instagram Reels or YouTube Shorts would not be interpreted as protest but using Rednote would be (or, and this also seems very likely: if news organizations would ever NOT pick up the story of some number of users flocking to yet another Chinese app WITHOUT making it seem like a big protest) - I don't know what to tell you.
TikTok is the most popular platform for the youths. They make waves everywhere.
People choosing to go there makes my head explode. The world is a big joke, and I ain’t laughing.
I disagree. I believe Chinese developers have more problems due to CCP's censorship. For example, the new NetEase game, Marvel Rivals, has censorship built in.
also, please explain in detail what politics is being push by US developers.
https://gamerant.com/marvel-rivals-censorship-chat-messages-...
>As a result, the Chinese apps are clearly more desirable for users.
A quick Google search shows that Instagram has over 2 billion MAUs, while TikTok has 1.6 billion.
PAFACA (seriously?) already empowers the President to designate "applications owned and operated by other companies" as "oreign adversary controlled applications" [1].
If a deal is forthcoming between Musk and Bytedance, RedNote will almost certainly be designated in Q1.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protecting_Americans_from_Fore...
The domains aren’t blocked. The apps are just blocked from app stores and hosting prohibited by American providers.
I'm sure China will still get it's yummy feed of U.S user data too even it Elon does buy it. I don't really personally care about who's watching me poop or knows where I live. I know why someone would though. I also don't have anything to hide personally but I understand how this is an issue for more "important" people. Also the whole "give them a hand they take an arm" thing is why I won't conform to it.
Even if I think TikTok is cancer, I am not sure two wrongs makes one right..
TikTok has met all requirements to operate based on the us law. It still got banned.
That’s a big difference. If data security is a concern the country should have rules regulate how foreign companies handle its citizens data, and it should apply to all companies.
Completely false. They were told not to send user data to China, did so anyway, got caught, and then continued to do it again.
If so, that means that every other foreign app is also illegal?
Seriously, as an enjoyer of democracy and freedom, how is this not a complete horror story?
Musk is so anti-democratic that the CCP trusts him? Is that what I am seeing here? Please, someone talk me down.