What’s something you’ve learned that you think everyone should know, but nobody talks about?
Last Updated: 02.07.2025 23:51
Something disturbing has happened to TikTok since Trump was voted in.
So now there are fewer Americans appearing on the regular version used outside the USA, while at the same time fewer non-Americans are appearing on the US version. This means that American users aren’t being so exposed to foreign perceptions of America. It’s reminiscent of the Great Firewall of China.
It also looks like dozens of politicians may have had prior knowledge of a secret deal, given how much they suddenly invested in Meta in the lead-up to the “ban”. If true, that’s illegal insider trading on a huge scale.
But it goes even further than that. The US version is now, in effect, “TrumpTok”. While the rest of the world can readily search for videos that are saying/showing controversial things about Trump (e.g., “US election rigged” or “Trump and young girl”), those searches in the US app draw a blank, with the message: “No results found.”
Comparison of searches in USA and UK
it looks like the apparent “ban” was simply a period of TikTok going down in the USA while it was being transferred to Meta-controlled servers in Utah. It seems that Meta now owns US TikTok, though no announcement has been made — just some guff about Donald Trump somehow “saving” TikTok.
What used to be a fun video-sharing app for the whole world (except China and India) is now effectively two separate apps: one version just for Americans, and the regular app for the rest of the world.