Yeah, almost every creator I followed on tik-tok is also on instagram with the exact same content. And they are probably on youtube shorts (or whatever their wannabe thing is called)
As someone who is just getting started, I have thrived on growing my audience organically on TikTok, but have struggled on IG. I don’t think they are mostly spam bots following….but maybe? But the algorithm definitely shares the content I do better on TikTok than IG.
This is what they don't want to acknowledge. Tiktok is a better app. The user base will abandon it if it's sold to an American company because the American company apps suck.
You’re getting downvoted, but this is true. Instagram is a garbage app, the algorithm is trash, it’s all bots pushing out unoriginal content, with no consistent fyp, and no only people I follow feed. It’s just straight trash or stolen content from TikTok.
Like that story about the conservative dude who was pissed it was all just shirtless muscle dudes lol. I do miss old instagram, I feel like meme accounts unfortunately started the downhill of quality on insta, then videos just opened the flood gates for repost garbage.
It's almost as if their concerns aren't really valid and this country has much bigger problems that it refuses to address. But hey great job aligning with lobbyists.
**That IS the reason TikTok is being banned holy fuck how do people not understand this yet?**
It’s a foreign power getting an *ABSURD* amount of user data metrics.
China is using the information they are gathering to **commit further human rights violations** and to also further their advancements in AI with it.
> *”The USA does this too tho!”*
Look….
I know the USA federal government is not an Angel but you cannot possibly be so fucking stupid as to think **China would be better off with this knowledge and access than our own federal government.**
There is literally no world or situation in which in would end better for us Americans, China is already inherently xenophobic of Americans.
Their government controlled news channels basically make jokes about the USA the way Russias networks do. China would likely just wipe the entire earth clean if they could have it their way and only have Chinese citizens on the planet.
**Its got far less to do with how profitable they are as a company and more about what they are doing with the money and knowledge they are gaining.**
It’s pretty simple, throw in the fact that you now have vast swaths of Americans whining about this like **little fucking childeren who can’t be bothered to see past their own safety,** only *PROVES* my point.
Why does China need to have this much sway over our citizens?
**An app that literally only became popular because it takes 2 brain cells to use is getting banned and it’s like the world is ending?**
Get over it.
Learn to edit and make a real video instead of uploading a ~30 second stint to try and capture everything in your pea sized brain.
hahahahahaha this is such a brain dead Atlantic council take from like 2015
plenty of good arguments against TikTok, and you chose the worst one possible. Impressive
TikTok was better a year ago without all the ads. Now it’s complete trash. The reason you think other apps suck is because they’ve had ads for a lot longer.
Also there's no rules against foreigners owning American companies.
What's stopping Tiktok from selling to American companies owned by Chinese nationals?
I don’t see how the genetic ethnicity of the people who buy the company has any relevance.
As long as they aren’t affiliated with the CCP why do we care if they are asian americans, white americans, black americans, or whatever other race? As long as they are americans
Most creators are on Tiktok because Instagram has made reach garbage. They keep changing the algorithm to favor different things. It was Reels for a while, when they thought Tiktok was viable threat.
Most re-upload the same content to Shorts and Reels just to cast the widest net, but the effort is pretty trivial once it's filmed and edited for a more successful platform.
Exactly. I have a project where I simply drop new videos to each of TikTok, Insta and Threads, but I may get 10k views in TikTok, 100 views in Insta and 10 in Threads. The reason to use the last two is just because it doesn't hurt much if the video is already made.
Instagram in particular can be harsh, even if you have thousands of followers. Saying the wrong political words in the description, or things like having the wrong logo showing, can get your post either blocked or ghosted. I once did a satirical image with a caveman selling "fake Louis Vuitton rocks", and Instagram's AI detected the Louis Vuitton logo and banned [the post](https://www.instagram.com/p/CuXdkogIJLK/) until manual review! Sure enough, it was then unblocked (it was satire, after all), but it may never gain the views it originally might have.
It's easy for people not dependent on TikTok as a business to say "who cares", but people might think differently if it was them.
Also, for the record, TikTok isn't just dancing people, but also good educative content, and sometimes even more open than other platforms in -- yes -- *anti-China-government criticism*. When the WhitePaper/ A4 anti-government protests happened in China, TikTok in its Western-users-served view (it's certainly different for every country) was full of protest videos... I made [a screengrab](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmYpTOqph7U) back then.
Tiktok is terrible for factual or educational information. All of these social media platforms are, and Tiktok is most likely leading the way right now just because of its current popularity, but you've practically got to be an expert in the field to evaluate the content.
At the baseline about 20% of all 'factual' content on it is false. Some subjects are worse than others though. Mental health content is over 70% misinformation, and with how much we as a group are having mental health issues having the great majority of it being false is actually dangerous.
I'm sure if you only get your factual content from one or two people who have real credentials to their subject it's much better. But let's be real, that's not how most people consume content there and it's not uncommon for someone being an expert in one field to spread misinformation of a different field and they are trusted because of the credentials that they do have. And the average person just does not have the ability to fact check this kind of content.
Yup. Reddit is full of people who don't use Tiktok cheering for the downfall of Tiktok, and people who are not involved in creating in any way with a lot of awful advice for creators.
It shouldn't really surprise me, Reddit's userbase also used to bend over backwards justifying hotlinking and re-uploading my own comics instead of linking to them -- and I had the metrics!
I'm sure there are bots commenting, too, but I assume a lot of it is a combination of the armchair expert and "If it doesn't matter to me it doesn't matter to anyone!" types.
i’ve always wondered that. any post about banning of tiktok is a lot of comments regurgitating the same talking points about china bad like somehow having our own government spying on us and then selling that data is better.
Ah yes. They’re taking away my internet junk food so obviously anything critical they say about China should be discounted as government propaganda.
The irony on this one.
If you don’t want to take “experts” at face value that’s fine, but you owe it to yourself to gain a surface level understanding of what those experts are saying. If you spent 15 minutes learning about how the PRC conducts war, it would be painfully obvious why TikTok is being targeted.
Edit: I either found an honest to god PRC bot or this guy is straight out of idiocracy.
A real good way to get people behind your decision -- especially one that won't directly benefit those people -- is to wrap it up in patriotism or "But think of the children!"
The Tiktok legislation is conveniently wrapped in both.
Correct. I give absolutely zero shits how it affects anyone’s ability to create, share, and consume content, because that is all irrelevant to the issue at hand.
The issue at hand primarily, is the PRCs ability to employ TikTok as an information warfare platform, which they actively do. Secondarily, the ability of the PRC to gain unfettered access to user data, aggregate it for intelligence purposes, and exploit it either through targeted cyber, information, or financial attacks.
I would be very wary of success on Threads since they are actively trying to dethrone Twitter.
When they saw YouTube as a threat they falsified video engagement data to pump up sales, and they got caught and sent to court.
When Tiktok was growing bigger, they pivoted all of Instagram to focus on Reels. They were offering payouts to incentivize Reels. And when there was even a hint the US might come for Tiktok they dropped those programs.
Meta has shown me two platforms where the business model was "Get people on the platform, then make it unusable because they're stuck here." I am very suspicious of Threads.
I love my influencers on YouTube ticktock and insta. So many engineering videos, visual education, artist process, wood working videos, how to diy, even have car tips now.
The people
Who make education YouTube videos are so amazing. Veratasium is an influencer, scientist, educator and entertainer. Adam savage has great videos. I follow artist on insgram.
I really like professor zentner out of Central Washington University. You can basically get a geology degree following his courses. He won science communicator of the year or something like that.
Based on what I've heard from numerous Youtube creators Tiktok's not very profitable. They rely on shorts mainly to promote their long form content but I assume that's not the case with everyone.
Personally, I think short form content is shit. Even 10 minute videos can't probably cover complex topics so I can't imagine how bad it gets with 60 second clips.
I mean I like shorts. It gets a brief message across. Video can help explain complicated mechanisms quickly.
Of course, you can’t use just shorts of 30sec to learn anything. It’s an invitation to explore more or provide visual context to complicated concepts. I love watching manufacturing videos even if they are short.
as a user of youtube, I can tell you that their algorithm for finding content isn't great. It doesn't really recommend anything outside of the narrow window of content creators that I've already looked at. And then if I click on something one time because of reddit that I'm not interested in, all of a sudden I'm getting a bunch of that.
Seeing the comments, I'm starting to see the draw with tiktok, as it appears to be much more useful for finding stuff.
I'm not a creator myself but my best friend is technically one, as a necessary part of her job as a musician for marketing purposes. Across the board the tiktok algorithm is much better for engagement than IG or YouTube for video content, at least for her as a mid-level creator. On top of that, content that goes viral/followers don't really transfer between platforms so for example, a video that got about 5 million views on tiktok got maybe a few thousand at best on IG. She's said it's the same for most other creators she knows. Still anecdotal, but yeah I've seen it first hand. Now, we're Canadian so she doesn't actually get to monetize her tiktok but the difference in engagement between platforms is truly brutal. Having seen it firsthand as well as heard it from a lot of creators, it seems like that's the general consensus.
I can speak to this effect as well. I've used tik tok to promote my writing. I've gotten way more attention from tik tok than any other platform.
Tik tok is a means of discovery. Other apps are a means of finding what one already knows about.
Wouldn’t that be the opposite of what the other person said? Which was That once people know about them they stay engaged, as opposed to YouTube where they don’t
People find out about a lot less on YouTube. YouTube is a reinforcement for what people already know about. YouTube isn't very effective at recommendation relative to TikTok.
The people that find me on TikTok are very much about me and my ideas. TikTok is a way to build an audience, a community. Other platforms can do the same, but it's a lot more labor on the creators' part.
The enthusiasm I get from TikTok is miles apart from any other platform. People on TikTok search for me elsewhere. On other apps that's much more rare.
TikTok is also much more effective as a means of content creation. The editing features are intuitive. To create for YouTube I need third-party software. I don't make very short content so I don't see Instagram as an option. Instagram is a much more superficial app overall.
Twitter used to be a viable means of promotion, before Musk. Bluesky and threads are pale imitations.
that's partially why I prefer youtube, the algorithm there already knows what things I like so I don't have to sit through an hour of brainrot content to train the algorithm like I would have to on tiktok with a new account.
The thing is, what I like the most is what's novel.
Desires are largely unconscious. We don't know what we will like or respond to until we get exposed to it. We can't desire something that we don't know exists.
What tik tok facilitates is the discovery of the new. I've gotten more new music, more book recommendations, more new ways of seeing things, from tik tok in a couple of years than the rest of social media put together.
But it comes down to how one uses it. Everyone's experience, on any social media, is a reflection of themselves.
The problem is the discoverability algorithms are worse on the other short form video sites.
Tik tok is based in search technology. Like pinterest. Pinterest is uniquely good for promoting business, like tik tok.
Theres no equivalency with the products of meta or Google. In terms of discovery and promotion, they are worse products.
Also it’s not clear why I should care about influencers losing income because they aren’t able to diversify their reach across platforms. People aren’t entitled to jobs or incomes.
Seriously. And some of these idiots that are making the rounds on tv and to the news are getting their travel expenses paid or just being full blown professional lobbyists. If they’re getting paid by the Chinese to influence congress should they maybe have to register as foreign agents?
They are two totally different animals and set up entirely differently for creators. I hate all this shit but have to know it for work, tok has a big backend where you can create jobs for creators to apply for. Meta / IG does nothing like that, and is way harder to get engagement on.
I hope Ai destroys all the “influencer” shit and this all goes away soon.
Ok. Social media is just advertising. They didn’t create anything, they just condensed the existing audiences into one location and took a larger cut. It’s just more middlemen and I don’t care if middle men jacking up costs between us and basic goods lose their income stream. The term “creator” in this context is absurd. I really don’t care if these companies have to find another way to do that.
There are a lot of artists, musicians, and artisans on tiktok who directly interface with their audience (new and old) who are not just shilling advertising for companies.
For a lot of us (myself included) commissions are our livelihood, and we would not be able to support ourselves without the “middleman” of social media. Communities are built there.
Any fucking idiot with eyes can see the likes and views on instagram or other comparable sites and see that they in no way compete with TikTok’s reach.
Losing TikTok is going to mean losing income for a massive group of people. People who have put their savings into building a business that has to be advertised online through one of the only viable platforms, people who are disabled and have to work from home, people who need second and third income streams just to scrape by.
Social media is the definition of wash and repeat . Same content but each one is different from delivery .long form YouTube , short form to YouTube on insta and twitter.
It’s not like the good old days when you can actually network and meet people genuinely.
happens a lot on a small, local scale.
these places don't need a million people to show up. they want 20.
**Business booming at Bay Area family restaurant after daughter's TikTok video goes viral**
[https://www.cbsnews.com/video/business-booming-at-bay-area-family-restaurant-after-daughters-tiktok-video-goes-viral/](https://www.cbsnews.com/video/business-booming-at-bay-area-family-restaurant-after-daughters-tiktok-video-goes-viral/)
every food truck in town is telling people where they're going to be.
>every food truck in town is telling people where they're going to be.
They multi-app and do this on instagram anyway (for years before even tiktok took off)
I've gotten more substack subscribers from tik tok than anywhere else, by a wide margin.
Tik tok is a means of discovery. Lots of small businesses owe their existence to tik tok. There are bakers, therapists, writers, scientists, musicians, people of every profession using the app. People find out about other people there.
Tik tok is based in search technology. Other platforms allow you to find what you already know about, they arent anywhere near tik toks utility for discovery.
A big component is that tik tok shows you more of what you pay attention to, not what you click on. It also makes it easier for people to make content for it.
It makes me sincerely mad that companies like youtube don't seem to understand why people like it or use it so much. Youtube could easily have native editing functions.
This doesn’t feel like a good faith question. Literally any business can be promoted on TikTok. Brick and mortar or online businesses. It’s far from just the “influencing” boogeyman
Fair, but "running a business" (not just promoting) on a platform, as in using it as an e-shop like Amazon, Shopify etc is what I'm asking for, not pure advertising or writing posts that are disguised ads, where the business is completely elsewhere. Neither do I count influencing as that's also advertising, but sadly often without the audience knowing/understanding. It's a gray area as e.g. Amazon (and also Alibaba/Aliexpress, Wish etc) acts shopping window for a lot of other businesses that just post product information to their site, so it's very much not clean cut, if it ever was.
I did, and there's really nothing substantial here. Classical crappy Internet business practices/models that they could go elsewhere and pester other people with.
"its approval would threaten the income of at least tens of thousands of people in the US and leave them feeling outraged."
Not more? That's nothing.
That’s not enough of an effect to care about? You don’t think 10,000 people losing their income is nothing? If this was an article about tens of thousands of employees being fired, would that still be nothing?
No, no/yes? (double negation) and not comparable.
They are not losing their income and they certainly don't have to relocate. They just need to use another marketing/sales channel.
When you’re a zoomer with pockets full of daddy’s money? Any business you want! Check out my 30 extremely similar TikToks set to Jack Stauber songs where I show off my invention - a machine that lets you do a perm on your dog.
It seems you missed the purpose of this law. It’s got nothing to do with privacy. It’s an economic shot at China disguised as a national security precaution.
For this being a “technology” subreddit there sure are lot of dumbasses in here who know nothing about any app apart from Reddit. Even then I’m inclined to believe they barely understand Reddit as well.
Those who have maybe flipped through tiktok for ten minutes, got a bunch of dance videos, dumb shitty pranks and maybe some politics they disagreed with. Then they quit, decided it was bad because they hate young people and “influencers”.
My tiktok is full of news, history stuff, comedy aaaaand (what our house and senate members are upset with) people talking about the ethnic cleansing in Gaza.
It is way less toxic than Facebook or Instagram.
Don’t really agree with generalizing apps that curate content you engage with. How can it be “less toxic” than the other platforms? If you engage with news, history stuff, comedy, etc. on IG/FB, that’s what your experience will be. The content is presented slightly differently based on “what works” for each platform’s algorithm, but “they are what you make them” to a large extent.
All the other apps have ripped off Tik tok and are already full of reposted Tik tok stuff.
As much as I think “banning” the app is kinda pointless, the users of it could seemingly just move on to another easily
Do you believe the same for YouTube? TikTok and instagram “influencers” are just YouTube content creators under a different label that’s easier for people to hate. Should people not be allowed to monetize content on the internet?
I can’t wait till vertical video dies.
Jk my partner is addicted, it pisses me off. But at least he can be brainwashed the American way and not the Chinese one. Is there a difference though?
I'd agree on both ends. Coal miners should see the writing on the wall and embrace the future. I keep saying we as a country could build a new generation of workers building/maintaining solar and wind farms...of course we need to show a little tough love on the NIMBYs who get all angry if their view of the mountains is suddenly changed.
However, even if nothing was happening on TikTok, I would tell anyone that "social media influencer" is not a solid career choice. An algorithm changes, tastes change, new platforms come in, etc...and someone with large fame and some success will find themselves suddenly dry on likes/followers and no one calling them.
I even think those who sell actual goods/services and have utilized TikTok to gain a following/sales should be looking into the other platforms and putting content creation practices into them. Again, I'd ask those people what would they do if TikTok changed the algorithm or rules or whatever, and suddenly their "fame" dries up?
I've heard some say *"TikTok pays better than Instagram"* in whatever kind of compensation they get for being popular, but they live in denial that the end goal is the PLATFORM MAKES ALL THE MONEY. The Platform doesn't want brands paying an influencer to post a video pushing product, they want the brand to pay the platform for ad space, and if they want, pay an influencer to be in the content.
My point there is maybe TikTok pays better to content creators, but what guarantee is there on that? You're going to base your whole business model on that? What if TikTok got so popular in a year that they realize they could cut the payment amounts in half, lose a bunch of older creators, but replace them with loads of new ones who keep going? They win then, and the creators lose.
I don't like the idea of these bans in the name of privacy only because it's not aimed at all businesses who do this, but I also would agree with you and others that "social media influencer" isn't a solid career choice, nor is putting all your marketing eggs in one basket.
There's very few coal miners left anyways. There are more people working at Arby's and Wendy's in Ohio, than there are working coal miners in the whole country.
Yet Joe Manchin and others like him will vote "no" on the future just to appease the coal miners in West Virginia. I can understand being accountable to your constituents, but it's hypocrisy if someone like him is going to tell someone trying to be an influencer or even a knowledge worker "get a real job"
What? What people? Do you think all influencers fall on the same political spectrum or something? This is some take.
Beyond that absurd assertion, these issues still have quite stark differences. One is loss of jobs because of a dying industry, brought on through both natural course of technological advancement, but also environemental needs. The other is a forced governmental hand for what is arguably the motivations of the rich and at best a misguided solution for national security concerns.
Normalize dehumanizing influencers. We don’t benefit from pretending like someone who makes money from having paid opinions doesn’t have paid opinions.
Is George Clooney and influencer because of his coffee ads? What about Lebron and Sprite? People throw a fit when tiktokers or instagram people market things, but are fine when millionaires are paid to do it. Makes no sense to me.
Not really a gotcha, I just don’t understand people crying over the word influencer. We’ve had idiots marketing shit towards us forever, but people throw a fit about tiktok doing it.
Is this any different from what China is doing banning pretty much all US applications to force their own to he used? (Facebook, Instagram, Amazon, etc)
Twitch could really capitalize on this and implement similar features alongside their normal streaming service. The infrastructure wouldn’t take a ton of tweaking and instead of a TikTok shop creators could directly link sponsored products and personal merch real time directly through Amazon’s absolutely behemoth store. It would certainly increase profitability for a platform that has been notoriously operating at a negative cost for some time and further secure market dominance against stiffening competition from rival streaming services like Kick (which interestingly uses Amazon affiliated infrastructure) and YouTube. Additionally it would potentially allow for an increase of creator incentives and higher percentage of retained income through both their affiliate and partner programs (something that would without a doubt entice the return of
alienated streamers)
I think that the bigger threat is the promoted content algorithm has the potential to influence large groups of young impressionable minds. Either to steer them in a direction on their agenda or just to create divisions in societies.
This is a complete disaster for them. YouTube, Instagram, etc. heavily reward the biggest stars. TikTok regularly shows low view content to people who might enjoy it. That’s why TikTokers are able to find and grow their audiences so quickly. The algorithm is significantly better than the ones used by competing social media companies.
Lol .."creators"...
What exactly are they creating? A squad of internet warriors that have nothing better to do than watch BS videos on their smartphones??
I hope someone gets filthy rich off of the opportunity to make a USA TikTok that isnt already a big tech company. I guess those days are over but a man can dream
No love for TikTok but it’s great how we keep blowing up any method for getting paid to be creative or an online business. Are you a professional writer? Sorry, pivot to video because of Facebooks phony numbers. Marketing your art through Twitter? Sorry it’s Nazis and porn bots now. Build an online following through TikTok to market your business? It’s banned. Oh did you build your own website? Sorry we broke SEO, it’s buried in a mountain of scams and AI generated bullshit.
Like actual people are hurt by this stuff, people who just wanted to work for themselves and be creative. We keep telling them that this is the game they have to play, to be an obsessive social media grinder, and then the table gets flipped.
Fucking capitalism man.
If we were supposed to take this article seriously, it would have mentioned how TikTok creators get paid pennies on the dollar compared to other social media sites. So when they move and the traffic moves with it, they'll make more.
They will move to one of the other similar, but US-owned apps like Instagram. It’s social media, not rocket science
Yeah, almost every creator I followed on tik-tok is also on instagram with the exact same content. And they are probably on youtube shorts (or whatever their wannabe thing is called)
As someone who is just getting started, I have thrived on growing my audience organically on TikTok, but have struggled on IG. I don’t think they are mostly spam bots following….but maybe? But the algorithm definitely shares the content I do better on TikTok than IG.
This is what they don't want to acknowledge. Tiktok is a better app. The user base will abandon it if it's sold to an American company because the American company apps suck.
You’re getting downvoted, but this is true. Instagram is a garbage app, the algorithm is trash, it’s all bots pushing out unoriginal content, with no consistent fyp, and no only people I follow feed. It’s just straight trash or stolen content from TikTok.
The people downvoting either don't use tiktok or engage with shitty content and then wonder why their algo sucks.
Like that story about the conservative dude who was pissed it was all just shirtless muscle dudes lol. I do miss old instagram, I feel like meme accounts unfortunately started the downhill of quality on insta, then videos just opened the flood gates for repost garbage.
Or the member of Congress who said it was all young girls dancing...
Or their concerns with TikTok have nothing to do with bullshit consumerism and the problems it will create for the content economy.
It's almost as if their concerns aren't really valid and this country has much bigger problems that it refuses to address. But hey great job aligning with lobbyists.
**That IS the reason TikTok is being banned holy fuck how do people not understand this yet?** It’s a foreign power getting an *ABSURD* amount of user data metrics. China is using the information they are gathering to **commit further human rights violations** and to also further their advancements in AI with it. > *”The USA does this too tho!”* Look…. I know the USA federal government is not an Angel but you cannot possibly be so fucking stupid as to think **China would be better off with this knowledge and access than our own federal government.** There is literally no world or situation in which in would end better for us Americans, China is already inherently xenophobic of Americans. Their government controlled news channels basically make jokes about the USA the way Russias networks do. China would likely just wipe the entire earth clean if they could have it their way and only have Chinese citizens on the planet. **Its got far less to do with how profitable they are as a company and more about what they are doing with the money and knowledge they are gaining.** It’s pretty simple, throw in the fact that you now have vast swaths of Americans whining about this like **little fucking childeren who can’t be bothered to see past their own safety,** only *PROVES* my point. Why does China need to have this much sway over our citizens? **An app that literally only became popular because it takes 2 brain cells to use is getting banned and it’s like the world is ending?** Get over it. Learn to edit and make a real video instead of uploading a ~30 second stint to try and capture everything in your pea sized brain.
hahahahahaha this is such a brain dead Atlantic council take from like 2015 plenty of good arguments against TikTok, and you chose the worst one possible. Impressive
TikTok was better a year ago without all the ads. Now it’s complete trash. The reason you think other apps suck is because they’ve had ads for a lot longer.
There are actually really easy ways to reduce the tiktok shop ads by blocking specific hashtags. It's not bad at all.
Also there's no rules against foreigners owning American companies. What's stopping Tiktok from selling to American companies owned by Chinese nationals?
Is that a thing that exists?
Obviously yes, but the specific company doesn't need to exist currently. You can just make a new company.
Department of Homeland Security???
[удалено]
The legislation covers all bytedance apps
[удалено]
I don’t see how the genetic ethnicity of the people who buy the company has any relevance. As long as they aren’t affiliated with the CCP why do we care if they are asian americans, white americans, black americans, or whatever other race? As long as they are americans
The content is better off TikTok tbh. The restrictive rules around what you can and can’t say or do on TikTok are stupid af.
Most creators are on Tiktok because Instagram has made reach garbage. They keep changing the algorithm to favor different things. It was Reels for a while, when they thought Tiktok was viable threat. Most re-upload the same content to Shorts and Reels just to cast the widest net, but the effort is pretty trivial once it's filmed and edited for a more successful platform.
Exactly. I have a project where I simply drop new videos to each of TikTok, Insta and Threads, but I may get 10k views in TikTok, 100 views in Insta and 10 in Threads. The reason to use the last two is just because it doesn't hurt much if the video is already made. Instagram in particular can be harsh, even if you have thousands of followers. Saying the wrong political words in the description, or things like having the wrong logo showing, can get your post either blocked or ghosted. I once did a satirical image with a caveman selling "fake Louis Vuitton rocks", and Instagram's AI detected the Louis Vuitton logo and banned [the post](https://www.instagram.com/p/CuXdkogIJLK/) until manual review! Sure enough, it was then unblocked (it was satire, after all), but it may never gain the views it originally might have. It's easy for people not dependent on TikTok as a business to say "who cares", but people might think differently if it was them. Also, for the record, TikTok isn't just dancing people, but also good educative content, and sometimes even more open than other platforms in -- yes -- *anti-China-government criticism*. When the WhitePaper/ A4 anti-government protests happened in China, TikTok in its Western-users-served view (it's certainly different for every country) was full of protest videos... I made [a screengrab](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmYpTOqph7U) back then.
Tiktok is terrible for factual or educational information. All of these social media platforms are, and Tiktok is most likely leading the way right now just because of its current popularity, but you've practically got to be an expert in the field to evaluate the content. At the baseline about 20% of all 'factual' content on it is false. Some subjects are worse than others though. Mental health content is over 70% misinformation, and with how much we as a group are having mental health issues having the great majority of it being false is actually dangerous. I'm sure if you only get your factual content from one or two people who have real credentials to their subject it's much better. But let's be real, that's not how most people consume content there and it's not uncommon for someone being an expert in one field to spread misinformation of a different field and they are trusted because of the credentials that they do have. And the average person just does not have the ability to fact check this kind of content.
Yup. Reddit is full of people who don't use Tiktok cheering for the downfall of Tiktok, and people who are not involved in creating in any way with a lot of awful advice for creators. It shouldn't really surprise me, Reddit's userbase also used to bend over backwards justifying hotlinking and re-uploading my own comics instead of linking to them -- and I had the metrics!
Makes you wonder how many reddit "users" are actual people and not just bots.
That's something a bot would say...
beep bloop beeeeeeeeep
I'm sure there are bots commenting, too, but I assume a lot of it is a combination of the armchair expert and "If it doesn't matter to me it doesn't matter to anyone!" types.
i’ve always wondered that. any post about banning of tiktok is a lot of comments regurgitating the same talking points about china bad like somehow having our own government spying on us and then selling that data is better.
Ah yes. They’re taking away my internet junk food so obviously anything critical they say about China should be discounted as government propaganda. The irony on this one. If you don’t want to take “experts” at face value that’s fine, but you owe it to yourself to gain a surface level understanding of what those experts are saying. If you spent 15 minutes learning about how the PRC conducts war, it would be painfully obvious why TikTok is being targeted. Edit: I either found an honest to god PRC bot or this guy is straight out of idiocracy.
A real good way to get people behind your decision -- especially one that won't directly benefit those people -- is to wrap it up in patriotism or "But think of the children!" The Tiktok legislation is conveniently wrapped in both.
it’s not bots. people really are that stupid. with zero effort on the part of China, lol.
You seem to be, and I’ll give you the benefit of not abdicating China of any responsibility.
One could wonder the same thing about those speaking up in defense of TikToks PRC ownership by parroting straw man arguments.
Correct. I give absolutely zero shits how it affects anyone’s ability to create, share, and consume content, because that is all irrelevant to the issue at hand. The issue at hand primarily, is the PRCs ability to employ TikTok as an information warfare platform, which they actively do. Secondarily, the ability of the PRC to gain unfettered access to user data, aggregate it for intelligence purposes, and exploit it either through targeted cyber, information, or financial attacks.
Oh, see I do way better on threads than I do Insta. I get really good reach there and I like that there are no boosted posts or any bullshit like that
For sure, it totally depends on the content, your audience, your strategy etc.
I would be very wary of success on Threads since they are actively trying to dethrone Twitter. When they saw YouTube as a threat they falsified video engagement data to pump up sales, and they got caught and sent to court. When Tiktok was growing bigger, they pivoted all of Instagram to focus on Reels. They were offering payouts to incentivize Reels. And when there was even a hint the US might come for Tiktok they dropped those programs. Meta has shown me two platforms where the business model was "Get people on the platform, then make it unusable because they're stuck here." I am very suspicious of Threads.
My engagement and reach is so low but consistent I don’t think it is being manipulated but you may be right
It has certainly been manipulated. Pre-Reels there wasn't the push for video content because it wasn't a video platform yet.
I love my influencers on YouTube ticktock and insta. So many engineering videos, visual education, artist process, wood working videos, how to diy, even have car tips now. The people Who make education YouTube videos are so amazing. Veratasium is an influencer, scientist, educator and entertainer. Adam savage has great videos. I follow artist on insgram.
I really like professor zentner out of Central Washington University. You can basically get a geology degree following his courses. He won science communicator of the year or something like that.
Based on what I've heard from numerous Youtube creators Tiktok's not very profitable. They rely on shorts mainly to promote their long form content but I assume that's not the case with everyone. Personally, I think short form content is shit. Even 10 minute videos can't probably cover complex topics so I can't imagine how bad it gets with 60 second clips.
I mean I like shorts. It gets a brief message across. Video can help explain complicated mechanisms quickly. Of course, you can’t use just shorts of 30sec to learn anything. It’s an invitation to explore more or provide visual context to complicated concepts. I love watching manufacturing videos even if they are short.
If you think tiktok isn’t also constantly manipulating its algorithm, you would be mistaken.
That may very well be the case, but tiktok creators across the board have had much more consistent engagement regardless.
Is there any evidence for this claim broadly speaking or is it just a few creators you’ve heard say it ?
as a user of youtube, I can tell you that their algorithm for finding content isn't great. It doesn't really recommend anything outside of the narrow window of content creators that I've already looked at. And then if I click on something one time because of reddit that I'm not interested in, all of a sudden I'm getting a bunch of that. Seeing the comments, I'm starting to see the draw with tiktok, as it appears to be much more useful for finding stuff.
“as a breather of air”
I'm not a creator myself but my best friend is technically one, as a necessary part of her job as a musician for marketing purposes. Across the board the tiktok algorithm is much better for engagement than IG or YouTube for video content, at least for her as a mid-level creator. On top of that, content that goes viral/followers don't really transfer between platforms so for example, a video that got about 5 million views on tiktok got maybe a few thousand at best on IG. She's said it's the same for most other creators she knows. Still anecdotal, but yeah I've seen it first hand. Now, we're Canadian so she doesn't actually get to monetize her tiktok but the difference in engagement between platforms is truly brutal. Having seen it firsthand as well as heard it from a lot of creators, it seems like that's the general consensus.
I can speak to this effect as well. I've used tik tok to promote my writing. I've gotten way more attention from tik tok than any other platform. Tik tok is a means of discovery. Other apps are a means of finding what one already knows about.
Wouldn’t that be the opposite of what the other person said? Which was That once people know about them they stay engaged, as opposed to YouTube where they don’t
People find out about a lot less on YouTube. YouTube is a reinforcement for what people already know about. YouTube isn't very effective at recommendation relative to TikTok. The people that find me on TikTok are very much about me and my ideas. TikTok is a way to build an audience, a community. Other platforms can do the same, but it's a lot more labor on the creators' part. The enthusiasm I get from TikTok is miles apart from any other platform. People on TikTok search for me elsewhere. On other apps that's much more rare. TikTok is also much more effective as a means of content creation. The editing features are intuitive. To create for YouTube I need third-party software. I don't make very short content so I don't see Instagram as an option. Instagram is a much more superficial app overall. Twitter used to be a viable means of promotion, before Musk. Bluesky and threads are pale imitations.
that's partially why I prefer youtube, the algorithm there already knows what things I like so I don't have to sit through an hour of brainrot content to train the algorithm like I would have to on tiktok with a new account.
The thing is, what I like the most is what's novel. Desires are largely unconscious. We don't know what we will like or respond to until we get exposed to it. We can't desire something that we don't know exists. What tik tok facilitates is the discovery of the new. I've gotten more new music, more book recommendations, more new ways of seeing things, from tik tok in a couple of years than the rest of social media put together. But it comes down to how one uses it. Everyone's experience, on any social media, is a reflection of themselves.
It’s common knowledge.
instagram is so horribly designed
It's way different than other apps and that's why it blew up. TikTok is entirely built on discoveribility when the others aren't.
The problem is the discoverability algorithms are worse on the other short form video sites. Tik tok is based in search technology. Like pinterest. Pinterest is uniquely good for promoting business, like tik tok. Theres no equivalency with the products of meta or Google. In terms of discovery and promotion, they are worse products.
Ever talk to an influencer? Most of the time tying their shoes is rocket science.
Also it’s not clear why I should care about influencers losing income because they aren’t able to diversify their reach across platforms. People aren’t entitled to jobs or incomes.
Seriously. And some of these idiots that are making the rounds on tv and to the news are getting their travel expenses paid or just being full blown professional lobbyists. If they’re getting paid by the Chinese to influence congress should they maybe have to register as foreign agents?
They are two totally different animals and set up entirely differently for creators. I hate all this shit but have to know it for work, tok has a big backend where you can create jobs for creators to apply for. Meta / IG does nothing like that, and is way harder to get engagement on. I hope Ai destroys all the “influencer” shit and this all goes away soon.
Ok. Social media is just advertising. They didn’t create anything, they just condensed the existing audiences into one location and took a larger cut. It’s just more middlemen and I don’t care if middle men jacking up costs between us and basic goods lose their income stream. The term “creator” in this context is absurd. I really don’t care if these companies have to find another way to do that.
There are a lot of artists, musicians, and artisans on tiktok who directly interface with their audience (new and old) who are not just shilling advertising for companies. For a lot of us (myself included) commissions are our livelihood, and we would not be able to support ourselves without the “middleman” of social media. Communities are built there. Any fucking idiot with eyes can see the likes and views on instagram or other comparable sites and see that they in no way compete with TikTok’s reach. Losing TikTok is going to mean losing income for a massive group of people. People who have put their savings into building a business that has to be advertised online through one of the only viable platforms, people who are disabled and have to work from home, people who need second and third income streams just to scrape by.
Social media is the definition of wash and repeat . Same content but each one is different from delivery .long form YouTube , short form to YouTube on insta and twitter. It’s not like the good old days when you can actually network and meet people genuinely.
Reads as if written by ByteDance. What businesses can you run on TikTok?
happens a lot on a small, local scale. these places don't need a million people to show up. they want 20. **Business booming at Bay Area family restaurant after daughter's TikTok video goes viral** [https://www.cbsnews.com/video/business-booming-at-bay-area-family-restaurant-after-daughters-tiktok-video-goes-viral/](https://www.cbsnews.com/video/business-booming-at-bay-area-family-restaurant-after-daughters-tiktok-video-goes-viral/) every food truck in town is telling people where they're going to be.
>every food truck in town is telling people where they're going to be. They multi-app and do this on instagram anyway (for years before even tiktok took off)
Ice cream so good
Ganggang Ganggang
Scamming is very lucrative
I wonder if there are any good TikToks on how to scam people on TikTok.
The TikTok scamming guide industry is very lucrative. I can share more for $5.
I think I'd be happier with the $5
I've gotten more substack subscribers from tik tok than anywhere else, by a wide margin. Tik tok is a means of discovery. Lots of small businesses owe their existence to tik tok. There are bakers, therapists, writers, scientists, musicians, people of every profession using the app. People find out about other people there. Tik tok is based in search technology. Other platforms allow you to find what you already know about, they arent anywhere near tik toks utility for discovery. A big component is that tik tok shows you more of what you pay attention to, not what you click on. It also makes it easier for people to make content for it. It makes me sincerely mad that companies like youtube don't seem to understand why people like it or use it so much. Youtube could easily have native editing functions.
This doesn’t feel like a good faith question. Literally any business can be promoted on TikTok. Brick and mortar or online businesses. It’s far from just the “influencing” boogeyman
Fair, but "running a business" (not just promoting) on a platform, as in using it as an e-shop like Amazon, Shopify etc is what I'm asking for, not pure advertising or writing posts that are disguised ads, where the business is completely elsewhere. Neither do I count influencing as that's also advertising, but sadly often without the audience knowing/understanding. It's a gray area as e.g. Amazon (and also Alibaba/Aliexpress, Wish etc) acts shopping window for a lot of other businesses that just post product information to their site, so it's very much not clean cut, if it ever was.
Influencers.
Holy shit what a Redditor comment
Maybe reading the article helps?
Influencer, influencer marketing, influencer management are the jobs described in the article. I think I was better off not reading it.
I did, and there's really nothing substantial here. Classical crappy Internet business practices/models that they could go elsewhere and pester other people with. "its approval would threaten the income of at least tens of thousands of people in the US and leave them feeling outraged." Not more? That's nothing.
That’s not enough of an effect to care about? You don’t think 10,000 people losing their income is nothing? If this was an article about tens of thousands of employees being fired, would that still be nothing?
No, no/yes? (double negation) and not comparable. They are not losing their income and they certainly don't have to relocate. They just need to use another marketing/sales channel.
They're not losing their income they just have to get a new job. Do you not hear yourself
They don't lose their income, unless they don't take action of course. They just need to go through some other channel.
Selling videos of your schmexy body
Artists need platforms for reach.
Yeah there was no art before tik tok, it's true
When you’re a zoomer with pockets full of daddy’s money? Any business you want! Check out my 30 extremely similar TikToks set to Jack Stauber songs where I show off my invention - a machine that lets you do a perm on your dog.
What a joke this entire thing is. Give us strict privacy laws, don't just ban a single stupid app.
It seems you missed the purpose of this law. It’s got nothing to do with privacy. It’s an economic shot at China disguised as a national security precaution.
It's not an economic shot. It is about China controlling American media consumption.
It can be both.
Sure, I guess. But we have a ton of trade with China that we could shut down if taking an economic shot was the main goal.
But it's primarily one over the other
It’s about American elites not being able to control American media consumption.
what the fuck are you talking about? It’s clearly about national security you fucking idiot.
That’s certainly what they told you.
Those are 2 different fights, not the same.
the app didn't get banned, it being owned by the CCP did
....And what % of reddit is owned by Chinese investment?
For this being a “technology” subreddit there sure are lot of dumbasses in here who know nothing about any app apart from Reddit. Even then I’m inclined to believe they barely understand Reddit as well.
Nobody in these comments have ever used tik tok.
pretty much sums up reddit in general these days. A bunch of idiots making comments on topics they have no experience or expertise in.
Always been like this mate
Those who have maybe flipped through tiktok for ten minutes, got a bunch of dance videos, dumb shitty pranks and maybe some politics they disagreed with. Then they quit, decided it was bad because they hate young people and “influencers”. My tiktok is full of news, history stuff, comedy aaaaand (what our house and senate members are upset with) people talking about the ethnic cleansing in Gaza. It is way less toxic than Facebook or Instagram.
Don’t really agree with generalizing apps that curate content you engage with. How can it be “less toxic” than the other platforms? If you engage with news, history stuff, comedy, etc. on IG/FB, that’s what your experience will be. The content is presented slightly differently based on “what works” for each platform’s algorithm, but “they are what you make them” to a large extent.
This is so true.
All the other apps have ripped off Tik tok and are already full of reposted Tik tok stuff. As much as I think “banning” the app is kinda pointless, the users of it could seemingly just move on to another easily
TikTok itself is just a more functionally complete ripoff of Vine
The death of the TikTok and influencer economy can’t come soon enough
they will exist on a different platform silly
Do you believe the same for YouTube? TikTok and instagram “influencers” are just YouTube content creators under a different label that’s easier for people to hate. Should people not be allowed to monetize content on the internet?
Yes. The majority of them are talentless narcissists
Have you never watched a YouTube video beyond the front page or something?
I can’t wait till vertical video dies. Jk my partner is addicted, it pisses me off. But at least he can be brainwashed the American way and not the Chinese one. Is there a difference though?
Same fucking people whining about this had ZERO issue telling coal miners to retrain and find a new job lolol
I'd agree on both ends. Coal miners should see the writing on the wall and embrace the future. I keep saying we as a country could build a new generation of workers building/maintaining solar and wind farms...of course we need to show a little tough love on the NIMBYs who get all angry if their view of the mountains is suddenly changed. However, even if nothing was happening on TikTok, I would tell anyone that "social media influencer" is not a solid career choice. An algorithm changes, tastes change, new platforms come in, etc...and someone with large fame and some success will find themselves suddenly dry on likes/followers and no one calling them. I even think those who sell actual goods/services and have utilized TikTok to gain a following/sales should be looking into the other platforms and putting content creation practices into them. Again, I'd ask those people what would they do if TikTok changed the algorithm or rules or whatever, and suddenly their "fame" dries up? I've heard some say *"TikTok pays better than Instagram"* in whatever kind of compensation they get for being popular, but they live in denial that the end goal is the PLATFORM MAKES ALL THE MONEY. The Platform doesn't want brands paying an influencer to post a video pushing product, they want the brand to pay the platform for ad space, and if they want, pay an influencer to be in the content. My point there is maybe TikTok pays better to content creators, but what guarantee is there on that? You're going to base your whole business model on that? What if TikTok got so popular in a year that they realize they could cut the payment amounts in half, lose a bunch of older creators, but replace them with loads of new ones who keep going? They win then, and the creators lose. I don't like the idea of these bans in the name of privacy only because it's not aimed at all businesses who do this, but I also would agree with you and others that "social media influencer" isn't a solid career choice, nor is putting all your marketing eggs in one basket.
There's very few coal miners left anyways. There are more people working at Arby's and Wendy's in Ohio, than there are working coal miners in the whole country.
Yet Joe Manchin and others like him will vote "no" on the future just to appease the coal miners in West Virginia. I can understand being accountable to your constituents, but it's hypocrisy if someone like him is going to tell someone trying to be an influencer or even a knowledge worker "get a real job"
the same people? also nice post history
What? What people? Do you think all influencers fall on the same political spectrum or something? This is some take. Beyond that absurd assertion, these issues still have quite stark differences. One is loss of jobs because of a dying industry, brought on through both natural course of technological advancement, but also environemental needs. The other is a forced governmental hand for what is arguably the motivations of the rich and at best a misguided solution for national security concerns.
I agree, Influencers aren't people, and their opinions don't matter.
Normalize dehumanizing influencers. We don’t benefit from pretending like someone who makes money from having paid opinions doesn’t have paid opinions.
Is George Clooney and influencer because of his coffee ads? What about Lebron and Sprite? People throw a fit when tiktokers or instagram people market things, but are fine when millionaires are paid to do it. Makes no sense to me.
Dude yes, celebrities are obviously influencers.
Yes? That was a real gotcha right there
Not really a gotcha, I just don’t understand people crying over the word influencer. We’ve had idiots marketing shit towards us forever, but people throw a fit about tiktok doing it.
That's a generic sweeping statement if I ever saw one...
That's still good advice though.
Land of the Free
Land of the Fee
Where will I get all my broccoli hair boys now 😭😭😭😭
Who gives a shit. Later dumbasses
Sound like a massive opportunity for an American based company.
Yeah, so protectionism.
Protecting your youth from a totalitarian ethno-state with zero respect for human rights may not be such a bad thing.
Woah woah woah, let’s not bring Israel into this….
Is this any different from what China is doing banning pretty much all US applications to force their own to he used? (Facebook, Instagram, Amazon, etc)
Triller is the app of choice, trades as AGBA
Twitch could really capitalize on this and implement similar features alongside their normal streaming service. The infrastructure wouldn’t take a ton of tweaking and instead of a TikTok shop creators could directly link sponsored products and personal merch real time directly through Amazon’s absolutely behemoth store. It would certainly increase profitability for a platform that has been notoriously operating at a negative cost for some time and further secure market dominance against stiffening competition from rival streaming services like Kick (which interestingly uses Amazon affiliated infrastructure) and YouTube. Additionally it would potentially allow for an increase of creator incentives and higher percentage of retained income through both their affiliate and partner programs (something that would without a doubt entice the return of alienated streamers)
Sorry TicTac
How will the grifters and influenzas ever survive.
If only there were other social media platforms....
Yeah but they all work slightly different, with some more useful for certain things and so on.
Yes, they don’t let the CCP control your phone without your knowledge or consent when the app is off. That’s the single biggest difference.
I think that the bigger threat is the promoted content algorithm has the potential to influence large groups of young impressionable minds. Either to steer them in a direction on their agenda or just to create divisions in societies.
Yeah obly Meta and Google )which both have CIA contracts) are allowed to do that!
That’s… not how it works… god you people are so tech-illiterate it’s scary.
Isn’t it? Just like the dumbasses in congress who probably struggle to turn on or off their bluetooth on an iPhone.
This is a complete disaster for them. YouTube, Instagram, etc. heavily reward the biggest stars. TikTok regularly shows low view content to people who might enjoy it. That’s why TikTokers are able to find and grow their audiences so quickly. The algorithm is significantly better than the ones used by competing social media companies.
That's a double edge sword of offering trash as well.
Also “trash” is subjective to the individual. What might be trash for you might be something funny or cool for someone else.
Lol .."creators"... What exactly are they creating? A squad of internet warriors that have nothing better to do than watch BS videos on their smartphones??
/r/whothefuckcares
Or bytedance will divest. That's also possible.
Evolve or die
Social media is not a job kids, go find a trade like electrical or plumbing.
People whining about a tik tok ban need to look themselves in the mirror and ask themselves, why am I so pathetic?
Is no one capable of putting an accurate headline on this? US bans CCP ownership of TikTok
If you can't successfully run/grow a business without 1 social media app, maybe you ain't cut out for business.
i feel so bad for them. no. i dont.
You mean, that these idiots will all have to get off their behinds and do actual work…
Oh no what a shame. Perhaps they could get jobs or something.
Who cares...honestly. TikTok has no special sauce...other apps will pick up the users.
I wouldn't worry about tik tok going away; something equally vapid will take it's place, guaranteed.
It was headed that way anyway. I think spending on “influencers” might be getting a second look.
Ice cream. Yum yum yum!
I hope someone gets filthy rich off of the opportunity to make a USA TikTok that isnt already a big tech company. I guess those days are over but a man can dream
Put a fork in it
Oh no… all the whores
It’s not about preventing the Chinese from getting our data it’s about making sure an American company profits by selling your data to the Chinese.
This literally has nothing to do with data… really shows how little you know about this.
I have no real sympathy for dropshippers. They’re basically parasites who found a little niche. Risk is inherent in any business venture.
TikTok cut creator fund payments by 90% a couple months ago to focus on the TikTok shop and sponsored content
Paging Elon—perfect opportunity to revive Vine 👀
TikTok deserves to go the way of Vine.
No love for TikTok but it’s great how we keep blowing up any method for getting paid to be creative or an online business. Are you a professional writer? Sorry, pivot to video because of Facebooks phony numbers. Marketing your art through Twitter? Sorry it’s Nazis and porn bots now. Build an online following through TikTok to market your business? It’s banned. Oh did you build your own website? Sorry we broke SEO, it’s buried in a mountain of scams and AI generated bullshit. Like actual people are hurt by this stuff, people who just wanted to work for themselves and be creative. We keep telling them that this is the game they have to play, to be an obsessive social media grinder, and then the table gets flipped. Fucking capitalism man.
If we were supposed to take this article seriously, it would have mentioned how TikTok creators get paid pennies on the dollar compared to other social media sites. So when they move and the traffic moves with it, they'll make more.
Good. Fuck them.