So let me guess, Trump saves Tik-Tok and will be celebrated by the youth in this country?

[Wanderlust988]

This is all a setup. Trump will find a way to bring it back and everyone who uses will celebrate Trump as the HERO of Tik-Tok and all the youth will be talking about how great Trump is.

The ban law was one of the stupidest laws in the last 50 years. Even those this law was lumped in with Ukraine aid, the Dems still supported the law and so did Biden. They just did Trump a big solid.

[newdeal2]

1. Not necessarily

Not sure about very young users but lots of other folks on TikTok see through his act and know he’s at least partially responsible. They will also not accept it becoming part of Meta or X.

[Johonny]

2. If he puts a 80 percent tariff on China

I imagine TicToc will have a lot of anti-Trump and tariff videos . . .

[Silent Type]

3. According to reports, people using TT see a screen that says trump is working on solution.

Or, some such BS.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tiktok-voluntarily-shuts-down-in-u-s-divest-or-ban-law-set-to-take-effect/

[Polybius]

7. It's right on their home page

https://www.tiktok.com/

[a kennedy]

27. Oh for gawd sake.......

“ We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office. Please stay tuned!” Let me just puke right now.

[Polybius]

37. TikTok is back up again

Weird.

[Wiz Imp]

41. They took it offline as a stunt, They were never required to do so

The service interruption TikTok instituted hours early caught most users by surprise. Experts had said the law as written did not require TikTok to take down its platform, only for app stores to remove it. Current users had been expected to continue to have access to videos until the app stopped working due to a lack of updates.

The company's app was removed late Saturday from prominent app stores, including the ones operated by Apple and Google. Apple told customers with its devices that it also took down other apps developed by TikTok's China-based parent company, including one that some social media influencers had promoted as an alternative.

Apple said in a statement on its website that three TikTok apps and eight other ByteDance-created apps were no longer available in the U.S., while visitors to the country might have limited access. The removed apps included video-editing program CapCut, art editing program Hypic and Lemon8, a video-sharing app that includes some of the same features as TikTok.

Apple said the apps would remain on the devices of people who already had them installed, but in-app purchases and new subscriptions no longer were possible and that operating updates to iPhones and iPads might affect the apps' performance.

https://6abc.com/post/us-world-politics-donald-trump-says-he-will-issue-executive-order-monday-get-tiktok-social-media-app-back/15816271/

[Scrivener7]

4. Yup.

[live love laugh]

5. Biden should unban it immediately.

[Polybius]

6. Here's the message on their home page:

Sorry, TikTok isn't available right now
A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, that means you can't use TikTok for now.

We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office. Please stay tuned!

In the meantime, you can still download your data, @******

https://www.tiktok.com

[Ocelot II]

8. If saving an app which serves as a platform for videos

of duck-lipped teenage fashion influencers is the tradeoff for the acceptance of fascism, the crushing of women's rights, the oppression of immigrants and minorities and the imposition of a corrupt oligarchy, the youth who praise Trump for saving their favorite app are hopelessly dumb and lost. You can't get an abortion, your neighbors are being deported, you can't even afford to buy a device to run anything on because of the tariffs, but by god you got your TikTok back!

[William769]

12. ...

[TheBlackAdder]

13. Who a quarter of the underaged will be casting their first votes in 4 years.

Political indoctrination is reinforced in the tweenage years, the second wave is 2nd year university.

[LuvLoogie]

15. What you don't get is that people were using TikTok

To speak out against those things and exposing fascists and footmen in congress and state legislatures.

The ban is oppressive and a huge mistake. It is high hypocrisy, and people see through the bullshit claim of national security.

What was happening is that politicians and policy were getting called out for their bullshit. Your post is gaslighting nonsense and would be seen as such by TikTok's users, young and old.

[travelingthrulife]

26. So now instead of opposing fascism, they will be joining fascism. Great.

[LuvLoogie]

36. LOL. Dems losing the young over TikTok

wouldn't be on the young. It would be on the ineptitude of the Dems. The young that ARE giving over to fascism are being influenced by their MAGA parents and local politics and Joe Rogan and Charlie Kirk.

But young progressives aren't going to cut off their noses to spite their faces and not use the app any longer because trump might reverse his position. I say it's 50/50 he keeps the ban in place, because a ban would help him more in the long run. A sale to Musk, Zuckerberg, or O'Leary helps him in the long run. Then it becomes another Twitter or Meta.

You can't admit to the stupidity of this ban and that the Dems stepped on a rake. You blame the young because they see the blatant hypocrisy and were exposed to other information that typically gets filtered out and spun by the MSM in order to uphold the traditional power structures in this country.

AOC is against the ban. A true progressive in Illinois, Jan Schakowski, is against the ban. That so few Dems were against the ban is troubling and exposes a party that is truly asleep at the wheel.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

17. You are talking a lot of crap here ocelot

Tik tok had tons of leftists talking about building community taking, mutual aid, ect like the hippies did until they started making a bit of money and voted in that piece of shit Reagan (glad he’s dead). Calling out political bullshit and corporate evils.

[JI7]

19. Are they going to support Trump if he brings back Tiktok ? Becsuse that's who she is talking about

[Ocelot II]

25. There's a syndrome called Tik Tok Brain and there's been a lot of research on it.

https://theweek.com/health-and-wellness/1025836/tiktok-brain-and-attention-spans. Maybe some of the content was useful but the algorithm apparently trains people, especially kids, to get a rush from the way the short reels are presented, to the point where they can't concentrate on any presentation that lasts more than 30 seconds. If people don't care that TikTok feeds user data to China, maybe they should care that it's rotting their kids' brains. That isn't crap.

[Blue_Tires]

24. Exactly...

[DSandra]

28. Trump banked on the stupidity of Americans and won...

Maybe it’s time for Dems to learn everything about psychology and strategy? Republicans will continue to eat Democrats’ lunch until Democrats wise up. What good is being good at policy if you can’t manage to get power in the first place?

[LizBeth]

32. A lot of people that could never imagine were earning a good amount of money to feed their kids.

So ya, it is a bigger deal than you make it out to be. Also I believe a reason Trump was able to pull it out is thru these very social platforms and doing this is going to just cheer so many and help feed that enthusiasm.

[alarimer]

57. That's about right.

Give us our drug of choice (Content!) and take it away capriciously whenever they want. Opiates for the masses (used to be religion, but now it's social media).

[Takket]

9. yeah now that the whole process is playing out, it sure seems this was all a "setup" as you say

I don't think that was the intent when the law was passed, but certainly since the election occured rethugs have made sure this is how it would "play out". SCOTUS would have thrown out the ban last week if Harris had won, but instead they do drumpf's bidding by allowing it to go into effect so he can "save it".

[SickOfTheOnePct]

18. It was a unanimous decision

Do you really believe the three liberal justices were trying to help Trump?

[Mountainguy]

10. They aren't smart enough to "set up" all of that.

It's very simply a ploy by the Chinese to win favor with Trump by kissing his ass.

[msongs]

11. well there's always "the real world" nt

[Deuxcents]

14. The felon will come thru for them, he's just gonna wait long enough for them to beg n make him a hero

Already a done deal

[Wiz Imp]

16. Not going to happen. He cant just "undo" the ban.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2025/01/17/can-trump-stop-tiktok-ban-heres-what-he-can-and-cant-do-after-supreme-court-upholds-law/

The law empowers the president to pause the ban for 90 days if TikTok shows it’s in the process of separating from ByteDance, so Trump could pause it once he takes office—which reports suggest he may do, as The Washington Post cited anonymous sources who said Trump is considering delaying the law for 60 to 90 days, and The New York Times similarly reported Trump could issue an executive order pausing the law until a deal with ByteDance is reached.

While any executive order could give time to negotiate a deal with ByteDance, if he pauses the law without actual evidence showing ByteDance is divesting, the executive order may not be legally sound, meaning it could be challenged in court and the ban could take effect anyway—or companies like Apple and Google could still take TikTok off their app stores regardless of what Trump says, in order to avoid any potential legal liability.

Trump could also similarly just declare TikTok in compliance with the law—regardless of whether or not it’s actually separated from ByteDance—University of Minnesota law professor Alan Rozenshtein noted, which would keep TikTok legal but similarly leave room for the move to be challenged in court or ignored by companies if ByteDance hasn’t actually divested.

Beyond that, Trump can’t do much: He could try to negotiate a deal for TikTok to be sold to a U.S. company so it would properly comply with the law, but if ByteDance isn’t willing to sell—which so far it isn’t—the ban will stay in effect unless Congress decides to repeal the law.

[LeftInTX]

20. I know the app is gone from Google Play

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/01/18/apple-google-remove-tiktok-from-stores-as-app-halts-service-in-us.html

[Wiz Imp]

22. Good. It will probably be back though in a couple days if he follows through with a pause of the law as he's implied

But from what I read, he can only pause it for 90 days so what happens after that is a big question. Since the ban happened legislatively, he apparently can't just issue an executive order to undo it. I suppose he could ask the Republican Congress to pass new legislation to overturn the ban , but I'm not sure if that would work since they voted overwhelmingly for the ban in the first place.

[LizBeth]

33. Well simply ignoring law or saying they complied seemed to suggest he can do something and

seem right up his alley. You start by saying he cannot just undo yet tell exactly how he can. lol

[Wiz Imp]

38. And that will not work. somebody would just to have to sue and he would lose.

The supreme court already upheld the ban. Oh, and ignoring a law is not undoing it. If he thought he could get away with just ignoring it, then he would do that but he knows it won't work so that's why he is likely to pause it for 90 days while he tries to figure something else out.

[LizBeth]

47. Thanks for a step further in clarification I really havent been following but just

listening to people on FB. I don't do tik tok and the one with Musk, just fb.

[Wiz Imp]

50. Keep in mind, one of the main arguments he was making against banning TikTok was to keep Zuckerberg (Meta)

from having an effective monopoly on some parts of social media. Now that Zuckerberg has gone full on MAGA, Trump's objection is likely not that strong anymore.

In March 2024, Trump reversed his position on banning TikTok, and began advocating against banning the app. Trump argued that while the app's national security and data privacy concerns should still be addressed, banning TikTok would empower Facebook, which he labeled the "enemy of the people."

[Arazi]

39. Yup, my understanding is it's Google and Apple legal that's shut it down

They face severe penalties if they don’t comply with the law.

I’d love for any DU lawyers to weigh in but my guess is TikTok shut down (a day early) last night in their shitty way to deal a blow to Biden but the actual shut down was coming from Apple and Google today no matter what.

Unless there’s a legal loophole that will absolve the big tech platforms, just saying “the ban is lifted” won’t work. Biden did that and every legal expert I saw universally said “yeah, that’s not enough”. That 90 day stay may work temporarily but Bytedance has had a year to divest and hasn’t lifted a finger in that direction

[Wiz Imp]

43. Correct

The service interruption TikTok instituted hours early caught most users by surprise. Experts had said the law as written did not require TikTok to take down its platform, only for app stores to remove it. Current users had been expected to continue to have access to videos until the app stopped working due to a lack of updates.

The company's app was removed late Saturday from prominent app stores, including the ones operated by Apple and Google. Apple told customers with its devices that it also took down other apps developed by TikTok's China-based parent company, including one that some social media influencers had promoted as an alternative.

Apple said in a statement on its website that three TikTok apps and eight other ByteDance-created apps were no longer available in the U.S., while visitors to the country might have limited access. The removed apps included video-editing program CapCut, art editing program Hypic and Lemon8, a video-sharing app that includes some of the same features as TikTok.

Apple said the apps would remain on the devices of people who already had them installed, but in-app purchases and new subscriptions no longer were possible and that operating updates to iPhones and iPads might affect the apps' performance.

https://6abc.com/post/us-world-politics-donald-trump-says-he-will-issue-executive-order-monday-get-tiktok-social-media-app-back/15816271/

[lame54]

42. He needs it for his inauguration...

He wants the biggest audience possible

[Wiz Imp]

44. Tik Tok will have little impact on his inauguration audience

[lame54]

58. That's the reason HE gave

[Wiz Imp]

59. I know, but he's an idiot

[lame54]

60. An idiot who craves an audience...

Whether it works or not that is why he's doing it

[BannonsLiver]

21. Yes, but you left out the part where Elon or some other MAGA goon buys it.

[Wanderlust988]

23. Bingo! Trump will not allow Soros, Gates, or Buffet to buy it

It'll be one of his henchman that'll turn into MAGA central with tons of lies and disinformation.

[underpants]

30. Yes that's the real goal here - owning the user info it has

Last edited Sun Jan 19, 2025, 02:11 PM - Edit history (1)

As I read here the other day, the powers that be (who dine with Trump) want both the user info and access to the Tik Tok algorithm to direct WHAT users see.

We’ve been a short attention span culture for a while but it’s even shorter now. Something like 60% of people never read beyond the headline. If you control the headlines or what headlines specific groups/people see, you control what and how they see/think.

It’s not the mandatory viewing of a controlled propaganda as many writers have envisioned over the years, it’s unavoidable viewing.

[Shermann]

29. How does one even define "TikTok"?

What prevents them from creating a new shill company and website "TokTik" and redirecting to it?

[CrispyQ]

31. Well, at least they can share videos of their houses burning down or being swept away by a hurricane. -nt

[LizBeth]

34. Watching this last election and the power of social media affect

this is not something to sneeze at. I have only started watching these influencer the last yr and am seeing much more of an effect from them on society and from 40's down than I could have imagined. This is not good Trump swooping in being a hero.

[0rganism]

35. Yep that's (part of) the plan

Also get TT into a position where Musk or Zuck can buy it, to turn it into another fascist propaganda center.

We're a few years from seeing a very cruel generation emerge into adulthood.

[dalton99a]

40. Banning TikTok was Trump's idea

https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/31/tech/tiktok-trump-bytedance-sale/index.html


https://www.npr.org/2020/08/06/900019185/trump-signs-executive-order-that-will-effectively-ban-use-of-tiktok-in-the-u-s


https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/06/politics/trump-executive-order-tiktok/index.html


https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/18/business/trump-tik-tok-wechat-ban.html

etc. etc.

[Self Esteem]

45. It's not a setup but just more incompetence from the Democrats.

Setting it up so the ban goes in effect the day before the next president takes office was extremely dumb. Now Trump will be the hero here. He'll find a way to get it unbanned and he'll likely make tiktok thank him for it so that every user is reminded that Biden and the Democrats banned it and Trump saved it.

[vanessa_ca]

48. It's already back up with a statement thanking Trump

Link to tweet

[Self Esteem]

49. Well there you go.

[Drum]

46. Bread & Circus

[W_HAMILTON]

51. Bless your heart if you think any non-bot on TikTok will remember this come next month, much less next election.

These are people that need a tl;dr for a five-minute video, which is why they love TikTok to begin with.

[Wiz Imp]

52. Trump's main argument he was making against banning TikTok was to keep Zuckerberg (Meta/Facebook)

from having an effective monopoly on some parts of social media (Facebook). Now that Zuckerberg has gone full on MAGA, Trump's objection is likely not that strong anymore. In fact, I'm sure he doesn't really give a damn about it.

In March 2024, Trump reversed his position on banning TikTok, and began advocating against banning the app. Trump argued that while the app's national security and data privacy concerns should still be addressed, banning TikTok would empower Facebook, which he labeled the "enemy of the people."

It also needs publicized that this is Republican ban. COngress passed legislation to enact the ban and it was Republicans by an overwhelming majority (93%) who voted in favor of the ban.

Before that, the only President to ban TikTok was Trump (who banned it with an executive order) in 2020. Biden REVOKED the ban in 2021.

[Cobalt Violet]

53. except he won't be saving it with what he is suggesting.

He will be destroying it by handing it over to our Oligarchy. I think people there will see the difference.

[vanessa_ca]

54. You guessed right. Celebrations galore by GenZ right now

Dumbest move ever to try to ban it.

[Deep State Witch]

55. That's The Idea

Win them to his side and they'll be the new Trump Youth brigades.

[GreenWave]

56. Don't forget: All of TRump's loyalists are dumbasses.

They will screw this up again and again.

[kentuck]

61. I'm sure that is part of the plan...

There are millions of potential voters on TikTok