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vunderba | on: TikTok goes dark in the US
So I have a relatively large extended family covering a wide age range and we talk pretty frequently in a shared SMS group - most of them have noted the ban with a passing level of irritation but nobody's "freaking out" like if you lost access to a platform like Facebook, Twitter, or Discord that's more oriented around communication rather than consumption.

I understand that people spend a lot of time doomscrolling on it, but even with millions of daily users the optimistic side of me really wants to believe that it won't affect anyone's mental health in any measurable way.

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porridgeraisin | parent | next
There won't really be a noticeable effect IMO. It was banned in India a few years ago, everyone pretty much instantly moved to reels/youtube shorts. I don't know how creators managed, but the consumption just moved to another app.

Nothing specific to TikTok either. PUBG mobile was also banned here around the same time, and people just moved to Call of Duty mobile.

aprilthird2021 | root | parent
Well, in India people are used to authoritarian government banning random online stuff. Or shutting the entire Internet down for days

This is the first largely used anything online the government has banned, and I'm personally still upset it even got this far. The internet was supposed to be free speech incarnate, and banning apps and websites for Americans on it, isn't something I honestly thought I'd ever see

heeen2 | root | parent | next
From the POV of the users it doesn't really make any difference whether the government bannd tiktok, vine went bankrupt, google decided wave was not worth it or any other reason a service becomes unavailable. They will cope by moving to a different service or changing their consumption habits
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dmonitor | parent | next
there are a decent number of people who make money and market their business on tiktok. those people are probably concerned about their future
tivert | root | parent | next
> those people are probably concerned about their future

As they should be, because they stupidly made their lives dependent on a single platform that anyone with a brain could see was likely to run into trouble sooner rather than later.

The lesson for the is: don't put your eggs in one basket.

sethammons | root | parent
Your response is very unempathetic. I am not a "content creator," and hn is the closest thing I use to social media, until TikTok a year or more ago. I won't be following anyone anywhere; I'm not on those platforms.

I listened to the final, farewell videos of several people. Some have leveraged TikTok on other platforms, but for a great many, TikTok was the only platform that let them reach an audience.

TikTok was eating the competition because it was simply better at matching content. It is a completely different beast in that regard.

Calling people stupid who leveraged an unrivaled technology to build a community and/or a business feels particularly anti-human.

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kelvinjps10 | root | parent | next
They only care about the userbase they will just start publishing to whichever platform users choose
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rvz | parent
Perhaps this TikTok ban is a time to reflect around their addictions and cravings.

A new year's resolution to go cold turkey and a chance to change a cure their own addictions.

It is not the end of the world. Just the end of someone's supply of a brand of digital drug.

conradfr | root | parent | next
At the end of The Truman Show when it goes dark the cops don't switch off the TV, they look for another channel.
croes | root | parent | next
And the government won’t have a problem if the new digital drug is under their control.
FpUser | root | parent
>"Perhaps this TikTok ban is a time to reflect around their addictions and cravings."

And tell "go fuck yourself" to FB, Instagram, X ... etc.