Where the TikTok refugees are going
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Users of the Chinese social media app RedNote welcomed "TikTok refugees" from the United States with selfies and messages on Wednesday, as Beijing said it encouraged stronger cultural ties with other countries in response to the sudden influx.
Known in China as Xiaohongshu and as a platform to find lifestyle recommendations on areas from beauty to food, the app has in recent days been transformed into an unexpected bilateral channel for U.S.-China exchanges, with users swapping photos and questions about pets, favourite foods and their lives.
Not everyone was happy, though, with some grumbling that their platform was being taken over and nationalist bloggers warning against American influences.
The influx of more than 700,000 new users has been driven by a looming U.S. ban on TikTok, used by 170 million Americans, on national security concerns.
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The Supreme Court ruled Friday that a controversial ban on TikTok may take effect this weekend, rejecting an appeal from the popular app’s owners that claimed the ban violated the First Amendment.
The court handed down an unsigned opinion and there were no noted dissents.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/17/politics/tiktok-ban-supreme-court/index.html
"Our position on this has been clear: TikTok should continue to operate under American ownership. Given the timing of when it goes into effect over a holiday weekend a day before inauguration, it will be up to the next administration to implement," a White House official told ABC News in a statement.
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The Supreme Court ruled Friday that a controversial ban on TikTok may take effect this weekend, rejecting an appeal from the popular app’s owners that claimed the ban violated the First Amendment.
Good. I'm surprised at the number of people who take national security so nonchalantly.
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I love TikTok. And I don’t value national security. This country elected trump twice, so this country doesn’t value national security either.
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@Cindysphinx Where's the evidence for your claim that Americans don't value national security? It is very likely that most of Trump's supporters value it quite highly, but are too ill informed (to put it a nice way) to know the threat. They aren't the brightest bulbs in the country, imo. Surprised to hear you say you don't value national security, but I suspect that's just emotions. It does put you on the same side of the ledger as those you say don't value it.
The way I see it: Trump, when he was in the oval office, supported a ban on TikTok. Biden supports a ban. Congress bipartisanly supports a ban. Does anyone really think the CCP can be trusted? Not me.
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Richard Clarke had some interesting things to say about TikTok and other vulnerabilities.
Ask yourself this, Michael. Would China allow the United States to have an app running on half the phones in China collecting data about the Chinese and giving the Chinese the truth about the news? No, they wouldn't. And we know they wouldn't because the don't. They ban Facebook, they ban Instagram, they ban X. They know the power of these things. They would never have allowed, but that we've allowed here.
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@Daniel said in Where the TikTok refugees are going:
I think national security is a pretext to attempt to censor certain political content.
So sue me.
Most adult TikTok addicts have some sort of cope where they pretend this isn’t about national security. But remember congress is fine with all the content if only bytednce were to disconnect it from the CCP and sell it to an American company. The law is content neutral.
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I tried TikTok the app. I downloaded it and tried it out. I had a hard time navigating it. I have a hard time with the Instagram interface too fwiw. So I deleted it.
Still, jon, I've followed this controversy. I don't think it's national security. As I said Temu collects the same information. I think national security is the obstensible reason. I think the government wants to censor the political content of TikTok. Just my opinion.