[volf_]

TikTok has one of the lowest bars to monetization out of all the major social media networks.

There is a large amount of creators on the platform that live off their content and eCommerce enabled through the platform. So it disappearing overnight would severely impact people who have a majority of their livelihood through the app.

Facebook. Twitter. YouTube. They all have short form video, but TikTok has a lot of features that just don't exist on other platforms.

[rdlecler1]

I’m sorry but the livelihood of a healthy democracy is more important than the livelihood of a bunch of influencers.

[mistermann]

Do you know for a fact that TikTok is not more beneficial to democracy than detrimental? Could it be possible that your opinion is based upon the various stories you have read on the matter, and could it be possible that those stories are misleading?

Ironically, TikTok is a good platform for learning about why people think the things they do, though it is also a very powerful tool for exacerbating the problem. Power of most any kind can be used for good or ill, and TikTok is certainly powerful. If I was in the controlling beliefs of the masses business, canceling TikTok is the first thing I would do also...and to make sure it gets done I would bundle it in with funding for Ukraine and Israel.

[caeril]

Awful lot of people on "Hacker" News incredibly worried about the livelihoods of people who look pretty and dance for 15 seconds for a living.

Any time one hears someone mention the phrase "content creator", one should, by default, execute s/content creator/manipulative parasite/ in their mind. The entire business is social engineering of our brains, en masse, and you should care as much of the livelihoods of these people as you would about an Enron executive, or Madoff or SBF associate.

That said, it doesn't matter who controls the platform. If it gets banned or purchased, the show still goes on, and the world is still worse off for it.

[volf_]

You clearly don't use TikTok. There is quite a lot more than just dancing for 15 seconds.

> Any time one hears someone mention the phrase "content creator", one should, by default, execute s/content creator/manipulative parasite/ in their mind.

k

[drivingmenuts]

I suspect that most people on hacker news, when they say content creator, that’s a stand in for “customer”. Banning TikTok hurts their customers which in turn hurts them by interrupting their flow of income.