I do think tiktok has either been sold to Meta or at least they have significant ownership over it since there was no official Facebook acount on tiktok until earlier today, they recently added some sort on tiktok importing or integration within the last day or two, and right before the app went dark I got served an ad for instagram.
This tiktok “ban” really fucking sucks. Trump is gonna swoop in and save it by having it sold to Meta and now its gonna be another fascistic shithole like Instagram reels and youtube shorts. While tiktok was filled with misinfo and the lowest quality slop, its algorithm was really good at connecting you to interesting content. I found several leftist/communist adjacent content creators, who I learned a lot from. I’ll miss the cute animals, funny skits, and relatable stories. While short form video is almsot incompatible with being nuanced, it was particularly great at being an accessible way to engage with others online.
I feel like I’m not doing a good job at expressing how I feel about this. This is the most upset I’ve been at losing one of the online spaces I frequent. When the og sub was banned, reddit went from being a site I would hang out on to being somewhere I only visit to go to specific communities. Then after the mobile app changes and moderation purge in 2023, I only go there to check very specific things/info. I wasn’t really on Twitter but a lot of people I interacted with did and when musk bought it the website completely tanked even if it had been going downhill for a long time. I was never on tumblr, instagram, discord or more niche forums/spaces. I swore off facebook over a decade ago.
This website, the old sub and affiliated subs, and tiktok were the only places I have felt like I was surrounded by likeminded people. The closest thing to community I’ve had since I don’t have it irl. I regret just lurking and not commenting or sharing hell even posting more. I fucking cried while scrolling on the damn clock app seeing people say their farewells and that includes people who haven’t even been on there in years.
Maybe I’ve spent to much time, energy, thoughts, and feelings on a doomed app.
big sandwich
In the last couple of days facebook updated to have some sort of integration or importing from tiktok and I saw an ad for instagram right before the app went dark.