aside from users "stuck in the dopamine loop", i also think tiktok will see users plateau and eventually shrink without relevant content, even if it's a tough watch. If "joy of tiktok" becomes code for "news that does not upset dear leader" folks will go somewhere else for that content, and imho that's a meaningful chunk of users.
> U.S. officials said in September that China had struck a “framework for a TikTok deal.” However, in the following weeks, China has not confirmed that such a deal was agreed to.
> Many experts believe China’s strategy is to keep talking while making few concrete agreements.
Almost everything with this administration is just lawless uncertainty so it's hard to tell, but has that actually happened yet? The last info I could find is that some sort of rough deal was solidifying, but that even things like the investor makeup or components was still up in the air. That was just two weeks ago.
I don't think it has moved to the new structure yet, or the "all the servers in the US with Oracle control of the algo". Maybe they're just getting ready in advance.
Alternately, a motivated subgroup can often coerce platforms. A lot of platforms will engage such moderation simply because enough people brigaded to flag/report something.
Tiktok has long been extremely heavy handed with censorship. A slightly negative comment will get deleted and warnings meted out. Content that angers anyone gets flagged and often removed. And while there were some ephemeral movements where a bunch of young people trend-lambasted Trump, generally I find the platform seems to actually magnify pro-Trump content, even long before he was elected.
It's actually a shocking experience seeing Instagram Reels in comparison. The latter seems to remove extraordinarily little. If you enjoy darker if not offensive humour, it is a much more rewarding experience, though sometimes I just marvel that Meta not only allows this, they seem to encourage it.
Meta has C Suite execs whose job is to make sure specific political content is censored. Usually stuff the US administration doesn't want. Previously this was COVID skepticism. Now it is anti-Israel content mostly
