The sequence of events as far as I can recall:
- Trump promised to ban TikTok
- TikTok was slated to be “banned” in the twilight of Biden’s term
- Trump says he’d give it 90 days to make a decision
- Biden decides not to ban it, handing it off to Trump
- TikTok goes dark
- It returns, but if you search for something anti-Trump in the United States, you can’t find it
- Using a VPN will give you that content
- Various news outlets are now calling it Trump’s “Propaganda Arm”
What the fuck is going on? From a political or technological standpoint.
i can understand your confusion: actions speak louder than words; so break it down based on what they did (not what they said) to make it make sense:
- trump tries to ban tiktok and fails
- biden, democrats & republicans try to ban tiktok and they succeed
- tiktok goes dark because it is banned
- trump promises to issue an executive order to save tiktok and follows through
- tiktok is back, but now has to depend on trump for its survival so it’ll do whatever trump wants
It’s clear Trump wants to control all social media within the US.
- Musk took twitter and turned it into a far right hate speech platform
- Zuckerberg has a private meeting with Trump. Next day donates $1m to the inaugural fund. Facebook, Instagram and Threads remove fact-checking in the US and Zuckerberg. There’s some very odd fuckery afoot with left searches that are blamed on a technical glitch.
- Tiktok is threatened with closure. They suddenly align themselves with Trump and the lights stay on.
- Google’s boss, Sundar Pichai, is lauded and given a seat of honour at Trump’s inauguration. It’s clear there are established links there.
- Reddit - I don’t know, but Steve Huffman has a /serious/ adoration of Elon Musk and is fond of money and power. If it’s not already in the fold, it will be soon.
I’d put money on that we’re already seeing left and anti-trump messages suppressed, and algorithms adjusted to promote division and discord - not just in the US, but globally. We’ll be seeing platforms other than the above attacked and inflitrated constantly by bots and AI. We’ll reach a point where you literally will be talking to yourself if you are against this. Your messages will just disappear to the point where you question your own reality. Shadowbanned online. Is Lemmy safe? No, not remotely. Decentralisation helps somewhat, but when the heavy guns are laying down suppressing fire from bot armies and destablising agendas - or even just being ruled illegal for some made-up reason, decentralisation doesn’t allow you to fight.
Jim Morrison said, "“Whoever controls the media controls the mind. The media is the message and the message is me.”
The aim here is obvious, and it’s not new. The method is just adjusted for modern day. And truth? Say goodbye to that sucker.
uhh social media has been controlled by the CIA since near its inception.
You got “foreign influenced” like US has done it for decades to other countries. US used to call it spreading democracy or some sort.
Does that help?
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Uh the Supreme Court approved Biden’s ban that was initiated by Trump. Which is a nice way to make Biden less popular and come out as the saviour, plus TikTok will now lick Donnie’s boots. Someone was very smart, although I don’t think it was Trump himself.
This is exactly the sort of deal making through bullying Trump is known for. He’s crazy, not stupid.
If they let him speech unattended, it goes all gobbledegook in no time, so I suspect he really is not the brightest bulb in the package.
This is a classic mafia move. It will end with the mafia owning something that used to belong to someone else even though that person did not want to sell it.
It was always about control. They had no control over the information and now they do. All of a sudden it’s not a problem anymore.
Democrats walked right into his trap. I don’t think they’re controlled opposition but they sure act like it…
PR stunt
