What's your opinion of TikTok?

It’s a great time-killer and I enjoy the ones I follow, like a FB feed. Cat Daddy is one of my favorites. It can get really weird in the kink/sex/fetish zones though.

@KNOWITALL I do try to avoid those bad areas. I like some of the challenges and silly dancing vids. Oh and the crazy cats lol

It is Spyware for the Chinese. https://www.androidpolice.com/fcc-commissioner-labels-tiktok-spyware-app-store-removal/

Like most social media, you have to curate the content you want to follow, which takes some effort. I really like TikTok though.

I follow artists, musicians, dancers, acrobats, NASA stuff, cute dogs, and comic book and Star Wars geeks. All stuff I like.

I avoid the For You Page (which can be peppered with politics and other crap), and just look at the feed of the people I follow.

@Tropical_Willie OMG are you sure? You can’t trust anything :(

I don’t. I steadfastly refuse to join.

@RayaHope Read the article.

I avoided using it, because I was told China owns it or monitors it? Something like that.

I have a couple of friends who admit to being addicted.

@Tropical_Willie I did reread it and it does sound pretty ominous to use the app. Scary, but then I noticed a free TT download in the ads, weird?

Ridiculous.

@Nomore_Tantrums much of it is :)

I got my fill on Vine. And YouTube videos of the best Vines,

I never went for TikTok because I straight don’t trust any company from China. The Party is always involved.

I avoid it as much as possible, which so far has been almost entirely possible.

What I have seen, seemed ultra stupid and like as much of an infinite waste of time as Twitter and Instragram (or even more, if that’s even possible).

@Zaku

“I avoid it as much as possible, which so far has been almost entirely possible.”

Under what circumstances can’t you avoid it?

@Brian1946 I was unable to avoid it when browsing other social media sites where people posted videos from TikTok, or talked about Chinese government abuse of the app. Even here on this site I need to carefully avoid looking at posts where I may semi-involuntarily be exposed to more information about TikTok.

I’ve never been on the site and never will go. It’s owned by the Chinese Government. And if you use that site and aren’t blocking cookies and other trackers, you can be sure the Chinese Government knows what websites you visit and a lot of info about you. In the future this might be useful for blackmailing politicians or other nefarious schemes. E.g. a high school kid goes on TikTok, and ends up being elected to congress a decade later. It turns out she searched for abortion providers near her when she was 19 years old and gets approached by the Chinese Ministry of State Security spy who tells her to push back on a defense of Taiwan bill or else they’ll leak the details of her abortion to the press. Those are the kinds of things that will happen because of sites like TikTok and people not paying attention to who owns their data.

@gorillapaws OMG that is horrible. You scared me straight, I never thought it could be THAT bad. No political aspirations for me then (that was a little joke) But seriously I’m gonna rethink going back to TikTok again.

@RayaHope Just be aware of.a few things. If you’re not paying for a service then YOU are the PRODUCT, not the customer. It costs a lot of money to stream video over the web. Someone’s paying for that bandwidth and that means there’s revenue coming in from somewhere. The source of that revenue stream are the real customers.

Also it helps to understand who owns the data. You can go full tinfoil hat with this stuff, but I think it’s a safe bet that China doesn’t have your best interests in mind with regards to safeguarding your data. Especially when they can rape an international tennis star and make her disappear for a while and then have her say it was all a big mistake…

Don’t use it, never used it. My 15 year old uses it and the kids at her school use it. I agree with @gorillapaws and the Chinese government scares me. It might not affect us right now, much, but who knows what will happen in the future as far as politics. People think “over there, not our problem” but I am not that carefree with my safety.

Zoomer trash. ;)

But seriously, I don’t use it and associate it with Gen Z. Instagram is enough social media for me.

Yup China. My mom told me recently that when she was young her mother used to tell her the US should be wary of China, and she did not mean the Chinese people in the laundries or the restaurants (they lived in The Bronx) she meant the Chinese government and how powerful she thought the country would become. That was over 50 years ago she was could see the future. Ironically, she loved China by the way. She went twice in her 60’s.

@gorillapaws that story…oh I I How could, no words are coming criminal is all I can say.

@gorillapaws has some valid points. Though I’ll be honest…between Facebook, Amazon, Twitter and Instagram, I’ve just accepted that I’m getting data mined. :/

Mostly, I’m on TikTok to keep up with my tween. I’m actually more wary of online bullying, beauty filters that warp beauty ideals for impressionable young girls and the usual land mines of social media.

@raum That is a good idea! You need to be vigilant while online. I thought I was until my email got hacked :(