this post was submitted on 21 Jan 2025
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politics

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Summary

Donald Trump called TikTok "worthless" and suggested he might not intervene to lift its nationwide ban, which took effect on January 19 over national security concerns about its Chinese ownership.

Previously, Trump had pledged to save TikTok, citing its role in his campaign's social media success, but his latest remarks hinted at demands for U.S. ownership of the platform.

House Speaker Mike Johnson supported the ban, citing fears of Chinese influence on TikTok's algorithms.

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[–] FuryMaker@lemmy.world 6 points 34 minutes ago

Bidding war. Zuckerberg paid more.

Your move China.

[–] UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml 19 points 2 hours ago

Check bounced? Nah he got the check and it cleared and the world's tiniest gear spun in his head and he thought "what if 2 checks?!?!!?".

[–] ChowJeeBai@lemmy.world 11 points 3 hours ago

Guess they didn't donate enough to his inauguration fund.

[–] JeeBaiChow@lemmy.world 2 points 2 hours ago

After the pump, comes the dump.

[–] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 31 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

Imagine having your entire business plans hanging on the whims of this orange dickhead.

[–] davidagain@lemmy.world 3 points 1 hour ago

I suspect it's a share price influencing game with some of his pals.

[–] zib@lemmy.world 13 points 4 hours ago

I'm getting whiplash from all the backtracking and it's only day two.

[–] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 8 points 4 hours ago (2 children)

Did tiktok not offer to kiss his ass or pay him tribute like all the other companies?

[–] affiliate@lemmy.world 1 points 15 minutes ago

i think zuckerberg kissed his ass harder and more affectionately than tiktok did

[–] RizzRustbolt@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

They're not letting him have a cut of the company cake.

[–] GluWu@lemm.ee 11 points 5 hours ago
[–] bdot@lemmy.world 7 points 4 hours ago

let me guess? Zuckerberg phoned him up and reminded him of all that lovely lobby money that had been shared around!

[–] alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml 10 points 5 hours ago (2 children)

I was sticking with rednote anyway.

spoiler

[–] 100_kg_90_de_belin@feddit.it 3 points 1 hour ago

Even if this were psy-ops... this is how you write psy-ops, goddamn

[–] Kecessa@sh.itjust.works 14 points 5 hours ago

I was sticking to not joining social media owned by people who want to make profit with my info...

[–] OhStopYellingAtMe@lemmy.world 26 points 6 hours ago (3 children)
[–] BrianTheeBiscuiteer@lemmy.world 17 points 5 hours ago

Meta dropped a bigger check maybe.

[–] kata1yst@sh.itjust.works 10 points 4 hours ago

Elno reminded him he owns both X and Trump.

[–] bradinutah@thelemmy.club 8 points 6 hours ago

Probably did. Could easily be a grifter move to dupe them into writing another check. Suckers.

[–] RaoulDook@lemmy.world 140 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

Man, I really hope he does the double-flipflop on this and bans it again. Because Tiktok pulled the stunt this weekend to kiss his ass, blocking the app preemptively for the USA and crediting Trump with "saving" it with the popup message. This would be most disruptive to the propaganda pushers on both sides of the globe, and piss off the most people against them.

[–] nialv7@lemmy.world 67 points 9 hours ago (3 children)

u-turning so fast he's basically drifting in circles.

[–] Maiq@lemy.lol 2 points 5 hours ago

Trump holds no convictions outside filling his ego hole. He will go with whatever the most influential person that talked to him last. His u-turn here doesn't surprise me in the slightest.

[–] FiremanEdsRevenge@lemmy.world 21 points 9 hours ago (2 children)
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[–] FediNeko@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 8 hours ago (3 children)
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[–] Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works 6 points 6 hours ago

It will be especially funny because they have had a lot more conservative type join as well, and based off everyone complaining about their "algorithm" it seems like those types are enjoying themselves...

[–] paraphrand@lemmy.world 4 points 4 hours ago

What a capricious shit.

[–] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 22 points 7 hours ago

He logged in and instead of seeing people praising him, he saw people continue to mock him and call him a dumb, fascist, piece of shit.

[–] just_another_person@lemmy.world 103 points 10 hours ago (2 children)

"Donald Trump says dumb fucking thing after other dumb fucking contradictory thing"

[–] bamboo@lemmy.blahaj.zone 22 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

The Onion should just print this headline every day for the next 4 years.

[–] Vladkar@lemmy.world 10 points 8 hours ago

Nah, that's too realistic for The Onion. It needs to be something like, 'Pandemonium Ensues After Trump Utters First Coherent Sentence.'

[–] Zaktor@sopuli.xyz 22 points 9 hours ago

And this strategy works for him just fine. People who like him will believe the thing they want to hear and some of the people who would have opposed him will be confused and delay action because they think maybe it's just going to work out and they should focus elsewhere.

[–] someguy3@lemmy.world 9 points 6 hours ago

He's talking big so that Tiktok sells their US operations to Elon. Then he gets to take credit as a deal maker.

[–] Nightwingdragon@lemmy.world 42 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

This is leverage, nothing more. He has every intention of saving it. He's just going to make sure that he gets his cut and assurances that any anti-Trump videos be scrubbed and any searches return no results. And he wants to make sure they continue to do what he wants, when he wants, and the way he wants by literally hanging a potential ban over their heads that he can sign into effect by EO at the stroke of his favorite sharpie.

It is literally a Mafia protection racket on steroids.

[–] RestrictedAccount@lemmy.world 1 points 7 minutes ago* (last edited 7 minutes ago)

I disagree. Trump and Musk own competitors to TokTok.

They are not going to hurt themselves in order to help a Chinese competitor.

Also, they are now in the ones in charge AND the Chinese government is actually using TikTok to spy on THEM.

[–] emax_gomax@lemmy.world 6 points 8 hours ago

The irony of trump saving it only to make it considerably more dangerous for American stability when it was originally banned because it was dangerous for no explained reason. A tiktok that caters to trump should be banned, but doing so is the only way not to be and well "corporations gonna corporate".

[–] TransplantedSconie@lemm.ee 35 points 9 hours ago (4 children)

How does this lower the cost of my eggs?

[–] SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world 1 points 16 minutes ago

You can suck on Trump’s eggs for a million. Dale Huevo!!

[–] marius@feddit.org 13 points 9 hours ago

You missunderstood. This ends the war in Ukraine

[–] qprimed@lemmy.ml 7 points 8 hours ago

free market dynamics.

you see, more people with eggs become financially desparate enough to sell their eggs to survive in this shithole country. this generlaly lowers the market value of those eggs.

the egg extraction process can be painfu... oh. nevermind.

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[–] dance_ninja@lemmy.world 38 points 10 hours ago (4 children)

That was a strange video to listen to. He wants the US to own half... Like nationalizing the platform?

[–] BlameThePeacock@lemmy.ca 61 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

He wants his cut, like the mafia

[–] TorJansson@lemm.ee 6 points 5 hours ago

To "wet his beak"

[–] tburkhol@lemmy.world 21 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

I don't think he understands the difference between a government and a corporation. Like, he imagines the US is just his now. Just a big hotel, he can buy and sell bits of it to make money. Buy Greenland and Tiktok, sell Puerto Rico and the USS George Bush. Add a cover charge for Canada and Mexico.

[–] HK65@sopuli.xyz 12 points 8 hours ago

To be fair, at this point there is barely any difference.

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[–] chakan2@lemmy.world 4 points 6 hours ago

I guess they won't sell to Musk.

[–] _thebrain_@sh.itjust.works 3 points 6 hours ago

Musk supported Trump so Trump would give tiktok to him. Tiktok would rather go out of business then sell.

[–] ATDA@lemmy.world 5 points 7 hours ago

Man right back to the flip flopping like a hot dog on a 7 eleven grill.

[–] flying_gel@lemmy.world 15 points 9 hours ago

I think it's a threat to ensure that TikTok does what he says. Lots of reports (that I as an Australian can't verify before it works for me) of searches for Trump incriminating videos are returning no results since it came back. It feels like there were conditions on not banning TikTok.

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