TikTok is currently in the crosshairs. Who’s next?

I am sure there are reasons to criticize TikTok. TikTok’s parent is a Chinese company but the allegation TikTok is “beholden” directly to the Chinese government itself hasn’t yet been established IMO.

American tech companies can be based in America and not be beholden to the American government. As we saw just recently with the GOP-led congressional hearings for the “Big 4.”

And that is a good thing.

The problem is that TikTok is home to some famous Trump critics whose work has been so successful that it’s been profiled in major newspapers.

If there is any kind of speech that deserves maximal constitutional protection under the First Amendment, it’s speech that criticizes our elected head-of-state.

It’s hard to rule out the possibility of bias in decisions undertaken by the President at the stroke of a pen against media platforms used to criticize him.

And precedents that get established under a Republican president could be utilized later by a Democratic president in ways that you might not like.

I feel like conservatives used to have a better grasp of some of these nuances of free speech issues, but the conversation has kind of devolved into a cesspit of defense of the most hateful kinds of speech against minorities, anti-science propaganda that could get people killed, etc.

If you don’t 100% support the most grotesque, hateful, bigoted, and fact-free speech online, then it seems conservatives aren’t interested in anything else you have to say on this subject anymore.

I am honestly thinking about downloading tiktok now just because Trump doesn't like it. Don't get me wrong, I never liked tiktok - especially since the few users I personally know are utter morons posting very stupid things - and I still think the majority of posts there are absolutely horrible. Of course, I don't know if that's true because I've never actually checked it out. But as soon as Trump says he doesn't like something it suddenly becomes very interesting to take a look at. And especially US-citizens, who are so proud of their freedom of speech, should go absolutely berzerk at this and demand that it should be people's own choice if they want to look at the amount of bullshit posts everybody seems to think tiktok consists of and not be told they can't.

Wifey and I started watching TikTok together about a month ago. It’s a nice way to relax and unwind. I came to the platform after she had been using it awhile so I didn’t have to sort through a bunch of dumb nonsense. Apparently there’s an algorithm that figures out what content to serve you based on what you like, who you follow, and who you scroll past. I’m sure there’s a lot of dumb content on the platform but after a certain point you pretty much don’t have to see it if you don’t want to.

Here are a couple Trump impersonator TikTokkers. I recognize the gal on the right as Sarah Cooper, who was recently profiled in the New York Times. Not sure I’ve ever seen the guy on the left.

Sarah Cooper’s shtick is pretty simple: she just lip-syncs over Trump voiceovers, sometimes also playing the part of an interviewer, or just doing random things around the house.

A couple more that come to mind: (1) a black guy who holds up fake cue cards over Trump voiceovers and then cringes when Trump inevitably goes wildly off-script; (2) A TikTokker who makes fake PowerPoint presentations to accompany Trump voiceovers. There are many others I’m sure.

They all share one thing in common: decontextualizing or recontextualizing Trump’s speech in order to point out that if he were not delivering his original thoughts as the President of the United States, no one in their right mind would conclude he has any idea what he’s talking about. The emperor has no clothes, essentially.

Under a hypothetical Biden presidency, I’m sure conservatives could have a field day with his verbal gaffes. However, IMO Biden’s gaffes are not quite as frequent, wide-ranging, prolonged, or quite as horrific of an insult to reason or derailment of the train of thought.

Sounds like fun. Every once in a while I see clips that made it to other platforms and some of those are actually quite funny. I don't know... I might check it out. Right now I'm kinda battling myself over getting a twitter account... 😅 I've been doing so much research for the Actress of the week thing that I now have like eight tabs open constantly of different actresses' and actors' twitter pages - and each week there's one or two more - and I think it might be easier to keep up with them if I just bite the bullet and get my own account... 🙈🙈

There are reasons tik tok is being banned.

Yes, and those reasons are that Trump doesn't like China and doesn't like when people make fun of him and doesn't know any other way to deal with it than acting like a five year old.

yeah

that's pretty much the tl;dr of what I wrote above

thanks for being concise :)

😉

You support Communism and slavery? Well, you're no different than the rest of the shit stain celebrities who embrace and adore it. Well done.

I never said I support anything. I actually think tiktok is stupid. I'm just saying banning it for very childish reasons is very childish. But you go ahead and keep your narrow mind and blindly follow your favorite five year old in whatever dictator style actions he tries next. I couldn't care less because I am in the lucky position of not living in the US. 😊

Behold a proper usage of Timber1972’s favorite meme template

Well: after a few other stock uncaptioned ones in the wheelhouse of Don Draper and Goodfellas hilarious

You apparently have no idea why he's considering banning tik Tok, which is why you resort to claiming it's because he's butthurt.

Oh, I’ve heard the Trump explanation. See: my long comment above.

Should we believe it?