March 10, 2024

"Snippets of speeches, impersonations, and other organic content involving Trump routinely rack up tens of millions of views on TikTok."

"Prominent MAGA figures, conservative comedians and other cultural commentators with large followings are highly active on TikTok, which has become one of the top sources of news for Gen Z.
The Nelk Boys, for example — hosts of a podcast Trump has appeared on twice — boast a staggering 4.6 million followers on TikTok...."

From "Inside Trump's TikTok flip-flop" (Axios)(looking into why Trump isn't against TikTok anymore).

7 comments:

Michael said...


Note: Saturday Night Live gets 3 million viewers once a week. YouTube clips of SNL generate another 10 million. But the biggest Tik Tok accounts get tens of millions of views each day

Bob Boyd said...

why Trump isn't against TikTok anymore

And why the Regime wants to control the content on TikTok or end it.

Wince said...

Axios said...
The big picture: Trump's position — if he sticks to it — has the potential to tear apart the GOP, which has spent years branding TikTok as Chinese spyware that's brainwashing America's youth...

What to watch: Top Trump allies are not expected to whip against the bipartisan TikTok legislation next week, a sign that MAGA world is aware it must walk a careful tightrope.


Even if it passes, the bi-partisan legislation calls for divestiture of Bytedance ownership and control in 165 days, not a "ban" on TikTok.

Isn't Trump shrewd knowing an actual "ban" on TikTok is unlikely, yet establishing that any future regulation of the app should encompass Facebook as well?

Tom T. said...

The parties flip-flopped because the politics did. The conspiracy theories about Chinese mind control are just a bullshit cover story.

Yancey Ward said...

Of course, you can flip that around, right- the Left now wants to ban TikTok because conservatives are figuring out how to use it, and the Left has no control over it like they have no control over Twitter any longer.

Yancey Ward said...

And how do you ban TikTok anyway? Force internet providers to put of firewalls to prevent American citizens from accessing it from international servers?

Ficta said...

I'm not necessarily fully endorsing this view, but Glenn Greenwald makes a good point (on X):
"Fear mongering over China is nothing more than a thinly-veiled pretext for the US govt & its security state to deprive American citizens of TikTok: the one social media app outside of their direct control.

This new, bipartisan bill to ban it, supported by Biden, is menacing."