Looking this up, is this [1] the bill? Cuz it turns out this bill was sponsored by a Republican and passed during a Republican controlled House in 2023, by a supermajority 352 - 65.

People always blame Democrats for things that Republicans do.

[1] https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/7521...

When the "real problems" are TikTok access and who can enter in which public bathroom you know everyone loses, panem et circenses

The incentive structures inherent in modern politics encourages all politicians to alternately champion or repudiate unworkable solutions to problems that themselves are likely exaggerated or fabricated from whole cloth.

The parties are just brands competing against each other to appeal to different segments of the same market, offering essentially the same product in different packaging. Getting your competitor to adopt a market position that you've already prepared a response to is a neat trick.

This is par for the course, and I don't understand why anyone would expect anything different.

> Man, the current democratic party just does not know how to solve problems in a way that people appreciate.

What would have been a solution to the problem that people would have appreciated?

DEM looks bad now bc they just lost power. DEM did not solve it earlier bc an unpopular party can't do hard/unpopular things. GOP may have a shot, if they will be as popular as they looked in November. End of day it's about popularity and power.

The outgoing Biden administration actually stated that they wouldn’t enforce the ban for just one day, choosing to leave implementation of the law to the incoming Trump administration.

Efforts to save TikTok have been bipartisan (“Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said he spoke with Biden on Thursday to advocate for extending the deadline to ban TikTok.”) and efforts to enforce the ban have also been bipartisan (“Democrats had tried on Wednesday to pass legislation that would have extended the deadline, but Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas blocked it. Cotton, chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said that TikTok has had ample time to find a buyer.”)

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/biden-wont-enforce-tik...

Trump was banging the drum regarding banning TikTok, then changes his tune in the 11th hour, and will now use this to come out as the hero and savior. Not to mention how many republicans supported this.

My 12 year old daughter was cranky this morning about Tik Tok being banned, then walked in ecstatic it was working again. I’m like “I wonder if Trump fixed Tik Tok,” and sure enough. She gave me a high five. My 6 year old son is already MAGA because the boys in his class love Trump.

Like inflation, this was a problem Trump created and now he’s getting credit for fixing it.

It seems like an oversight to me that all the discussion about political impact leading up to this has focused on consumers. Statements like "Gen Z likes TikTok, so banning it risks alienating them", "Gen Z will forgot about TikTok and move on to the next thing in due time", etc.

I think this overlooks one key detail. The focal points of the new online world -- "influencers" -- rely on TikTok for the lion's share of their income. Taking away a fun toy might not radicalize someone but taking away their livelihood might.

And even if these users are a tiny fraction of a percent, they wield outsized influence (obviously). They are the new media. Risking losing these people, many of whom have been largely apolitical, seems like a huge tactical error in retrospect, and one that Trump would predictably take advantage of if given the chance.

The bill was cosponsored by 54, 32 of them were Republicans. I think the primary author was a Republican.

> Absurd that the Republicans are somehow going to swoop in and "Save the day" on an issue they themselves championed.

Absurd that when Trump initially proposed this it was considered a stupid and racist idea. Now they’re for it.

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I’m just happy TikTok is back. It’s a big loss for Reddit

What do they, or any elite gain/lose by gaining/losing the appreciation of ordinary people.

Do you care what a cattle or a sheep thinks? Some may, but the majority don't give it a shit.