Typical Donnie T. He flip flops on many things, including his staff picks. Maybe Tik Tok donated milliions to his campaign, like Facebook and others did. That’s one way to gain his favor.

I was so confused Biden banned it? I thought Trump wanted it banned.

I would like it unbanned I don’t care who does it, but I am not a conservative.

My family that is conservative still hates TikTok either way

@SergeantQueen It’s not banned yet, but was due to be banned by mid January.

Yes, I know.

Follow the money.

Didn’t Donnie have a visit Mar-A-Lago by an executive of TikTok, just before his statement about. stopping the ban of TikTok ?

I wonder if TikTok showed up with rolling suitcases and left Donnie a present . . . ?

Also will Donnie have to share with the conservative members of SCOTUS ?

Most Dems and Reps voted to ban TikTok.

Limiting free speech and banning media they can’t fully control is bipartisan, and we know exactly why they banned it.

I’m rather surprised Trump has made some noise regarding pausing the ban on TikTok, and I have yet to look into why this is. But whatever the reason, if he can stop/overturn the ban, it will be a very good thing.

@SergeantQueen Yes, it was banned under a Biden Congress, but Trump started it. I agree with @hat in that if SCOTUS will stop the ban it’s a good thing. I’m not a TikTok user although there are two or three accounts I look at from time to time.

I think having a social media platform where the CCP has access to ten? hundreds? of millions of American’s private data (including location data, potentially access to microphones and cameras on smartphones) is extremely dangerous for national security purposes.

I don’t like banning things, but I’m not sure people really understand the risks such data could pose to the USA in terms of creating opportunities for Chinesse MSS to run operations in the US, blackmailing politicians, or military leadership for example. IMO the ultimate solution isn’t banning platforms, but protecting consumer data in a way that’s auditable by the government to protect our privacy from companies willing to exploit it. Of course that will never happen when both parties are financed by companies doing just that.

It shouldn’t be banned. End of subject. It’s an assault on our freedom of speech – 1st amendment. It is that simple.

Everything else is political posturing.

If this is allowed to go through, then the politicians will come after Facebook, Twitter, Google – newspapers, websites – anything that they feel is against their political leaning.

Get itstraight, getting rid of TiKTok is a TERRIBLE precent.

Free speech does NOT mean saying anything you want to.
Free speech protects publications who are critical of the government.

The Chinese government knows all YOUR contacts, where you took the videos and your Credit Card information.

How much more do you want to send to them . . SSN – - – bank account info – - – Trump’s side Chick !

I never joined TikTok because of the China connection, and I am going back 6 or 7 years when people told me to join I already knew the China connection.

I don’t think it should be banned. Maybe there should be better regulations, but I am not inclined to ban a business.

I think the hearing a few years ago with the Tik Tok CEO was ridiculous theatre and disgraceful. The CEO was barely allowed to answer. The Ceo was born and raised in Singapore, and my gut feeling is he would try to his best to answer questions honestly.

Trump says whatever makes his base happy. He also says what stirs up the Democrats. He also sometimes says conflicting things within minutes of each other.

I also think follow the money as a jelly said above.

I find it interesting how people scatter on this issue. It seems to be independant of the “Right” or the “Left”. Hat (hard left) and me (evil neoliberal centrist), both say keep it. Gorilla (center-left) says ban it. My daughter (mainstream left and a TikTok user) not only says keep it but also says she doesn’t give a shit what China knows about her. There are good arguments both for and against banning it.

My question is less of that though, and more of what the MAGA will say. Trump 4 years ago said ban it. Now he says keep it. The MAGA do what he tells them to do. Are they going to change their tune also?

Well, I know some pretty brainwashed Trump lovers, and they are still against TikTok solely because of China.

So, kind of hard to group all MAGA and say where the majority will go.

I suspect major news outlets on conservative sides might lean towards Trump as they always do, but MAGA as a whole, who knows.

MAGA people are not a collective hive mind, believe it or not. I live with some of the most far right people you will ever meet, and as I said, they still hate TikTok.

And @gorillapaws Before you get mad at me I know I misrepresented what you wrote in a pithy statement. I was just making the point that opinions are all over the map on this one. What I“m really interested in is the MAGA response.

@Caravanfan I have some understanding of the world of big data (e.g. a bariatric weightless surgeon would geofence the local divorce attorney offices in his city to send targeted ads to people likely in the process of divorce) and I have a pretty good imagination. I’m also pretty aware of some of the horrible shit the CCP does. For me it’s just about the data and nothing to do with the content. If there were a mechanism to safeguard the data then I wouldn’t care.

I think most on the left are opposed to the ban. I’m generally in favor of free speech. That said with data records that are going to go back for decades any website you visit with a tik-tok cookie on it, the CCP can understand who was in the same building as other people retroactively. In ten years from now it could be conceivable that they could have evidence of an important military leader’s homosexual encounter that happened decades earlier, before he was ever in the military and now they can blackmail him into providing intelligence or risk ruining his marriage or something.

@gorillapaws Oh, I know you do. I certainly could be persuaded to support a ban, I’m not above supporting it for true national security reasons. It may certainly be that Congress did the right thing here. From my point of view from someone who is not that tech saavy except when it comes for telescope equipment it all seemed rather kneejerk.

@Caravanfan ”... it all seemed rather kneejerk.”

It could very well have been an overreaction. I don’t know the details of exactly what info the CCP has access to, but I do know there’s an entire generation of American kids (and adults, but especially kids) who have been potentially giving CCP access to their communications, locations, web search history for the past 8 years and there’s no reason to believe the CCP will ever delete it. There could be ripple effects in history that we won’t discover for decades, or it’s all a big nothing-burger.

Again, I think the solution is to have an agency like the FTC or the IRS that can audit companies, guarantee data is protected and limits what is able to be collected. I also think such a reasonable approach would be opposed by both parties.

Why would this be a maga issue? A lot of democrats voted to ban it also.

Would the opinion to keep it change if it had a connection to russia instead of china?

@cheebdragon It’s a MAGA question. Will they just follow Trump even if he changes his positions? Will they blindly follow him. Will they forget they were against it before? Will they say now that we have more information it’s ok to change our minds? Or, will they stick with still wanting a ban and go against what Trump is now saying. That’s what @Caravanfan is asking.

Maybe you are a Trump supporter who doesn’t always agree with Trump, I don’t know, but it appears to some of us that some of his supporters will simply always follow him and rationalize however they need to to solve any cognitive dissonance issues. There is a difference between people voting for the Republican party because they agree with most or all of their stance on policy issues, and voters who wholly support and practically worship Trump.

@cheebdragon It’s not just a MAGA issue. My point is that MAGA does what Trump wants them to do. 5 years ago he was opposed to TikTok because of national security risks or whatever (probably actually because people on TikTok didn’t like him), and now he’s in favor of it (probably because of a bribe). So do all the MAGA people change their minds now?

@Caravanfan, can you explain to me what you mean when you say MAGA?

Is MAGA all the hardcore Trump supporters?

So do all the MAGA people change their minds now?

I do not believe so, I think I am taking something too literally which is why I am genuinely asking what is “MAGA”

I don’t think they are all hive minds, so I don’t think they all will be against it. Like I said, I know some insane die hard supporters, and they still hate TikTok.

It seems like you are implying that they all just blindly do what he wants, which in that case, then yeah they will change their minds on TikTok. Because they blindly do what he wants. But, is that all of MAGA? Or just the most radicalized section of it?

I hope what I am asking makes sense.

I think we all (Americans) are just waiting to see what shakes out.
If Trump can work it out, great. If not, so be it.

President-elect Donald Trump has urged the Supreme Court to block a law that would force the popular social media app TikTok to be sold or shut down. In a legal filing Friday night, Trump told the justices that a delay would allow his administration to “negotiate a resolution to save the platform while addressing national security concerns.” NPR’s Bobby Allyn joins Ali Rogin to discuss.

@SergeantQueen “MAGA” is a catch-all phrase to include the alt right Trump fanatics. If you saw someone driving around with a bandage on their left ear after the Trump assassination attempt, that person is part of MAGA. MAGA is the guy who has “Fuck Biden” and “Trump 2024” signs on his lawn. MAGA is the person who posts pictures of Trump posing with a Bible on Facebook.

@Caravanfan When you say it’s not just a MAGA issue do you mean there are some people within every political persuasion who will follow their chose leader? I agree with that.

@JLeslie MAGA is generally more cult-like than most.

Correction. Bandage on their right ear, not left ear.

@Caravanfan “Bandage on their right ear, not left ear.” Good catch- Evander Holyfield sympathizers resent being conflated with MAGATs. ;-)

Oh okay, yeah.

What I said still stands. They aren’t a hive mind so this question literally can not have an answer.

@Caravanfan The caricature you described really is a handful of zealots.
Many more regular folks without yard signs or anti-Biden signs still vote red, or vote Trump.
And believe it or not, many are generally anti-big govt.

The way I see it, @Caravanfan is talking about the zealots not the average conservative. He isn’t generalizing about Conservatives or Republicans, that is why I think he used the term MAGA.

@SergeantQueen I think the extremist are kind of a hive mind. They will follow Trump off of the cliff. Several hundreds of them broke laws and risked their life in a battle. A few more thousands saw what was happening and did not run the other way to get away from it. If I saw people beating up cops and breaking windows I would be out of there. January 6th is not the only example of people willing to break the law for him.

Nah. They’re all belligerent, stupid, unChristian zealots.

@Dutchess_III All of the Trump voters? Or, you mean all of the MAGA people? Are you separating the two?

All trump voters.

All 77,303,573 Americans really? I’m honestly surprised you feel that way @Dutchess_III.

Yes. Down to the last one @KNOWITALLL.
In other elections when it was candidate A against Candidate B, people had sound, logical reasons for voting for their candidate. Both were at least qualified.
This BS with trump is different. Not one can give a solid reason for supporting him, without ignoring the 900 examples of things he’s said and done that prove exactly the opposite. And you’d have to be stupid to blindly pretend those 900 other reasons won’t exist.
Imagines 770 million people sticking fingers in their ears and yelling “Nah nah nah I can’t HEAR YOU!!”
The obvious ignorance is tearing relationships apart.
Never has their been such political polarization, except during Lincoln’s term.
And from the distance of time I think everyone can see how right Lincoln was. Except trump supporters. Don’t they fly the northern flag from their trucks? How horrible is that?
And they KNOW they’re wrong. But they do it anyway.

@Dutchess_III I presume you mean the rebel flag? No most do not but a few do. I dont own one and never have, personally.

My suggestion is to come with a better strategy next election because imo, trying to run a senile man another 4 years, then putting up a woman Dems mocked openly for Bidens whole term, was a bit…I wont say stupid but not smart. Ya’ll did that to yourselves.

Agreed, @KNOWITALL. After the debate, I asked about it here and Jellies were saying “he’s sharp as a tack” and “he’s strong as ever.” Apparently the majority of the country didn’t agree with that because in short order, Biden was shown the door.

It’s time for the Dems (which I am one of) to do some soul searching and introspection and planning for 2028 because what they did this last time didn’t work out too well.

When I say these things to my Dem friends, they think I am a Trump lover and I say no, I dislike Trump (although I can see what helped him this past election) but honestly, the Dems didn’t have much of a strategy and that hurt them big time.

I think instead of saying Trump is an idiot, the Dems need to come up with a better strategy. It will be very interesting in 2028 when Trump can’t run again, and to see who the Dems come up with. If it’s against Vance, it’s going to be a tough sell. Vance has a good way of debating without being nasty or vicious, but he makes good points (like he did about the Aurora CO home invasions by South American gangs).

@jca2 Agreed. That would be an interesting question, how Dems can win 2028.

Well, unless he manages to change the Constitution, trump can’t run again.
There was a time when my political affiliation didn’t define me because I didn’t have one….until Obama was elected and the racists poured out in shameful droves.
At that point I became a solid Democrat. And I’ll remain a Dem unless the Republicans get their act together and find their brains again.
I think the same thing happened last trump election that happened the first.
Normal, levelheaded people said there was no way it could happen so they just relaxed.
Our downfall was inderestimating the impact a female candidate would have on racist, misogynistic, mistrustful fools.
trump supporters came out in droves to stop it. Dems were complacent, not understanding what they were up against. Again.
I think if Budagig (sp) had been running the outcome would have been different.

I heard that what happened was, when Biden made the speech that he was stepping down, he right away said he’s endorsing Kamala, which wasn’t part of the plan but once he said it, other Dems had to jump on board and that’s how she became the nominee. Granted, there wasn’t much time to do a traditional vetting process or any other way to find a candidate anyway, which I blame Biden for because he and his handlers should have agreed about a year ago that he wasn’t going to run. Instead they rallied around him and (i think) hid his condition, so they could all keep their jobs.

We wouldn’t he endorse Kamala?
And what “plan” are you referring to?

Hmmmmmm…

He is a disgrace to America.

@Dutchess plan that the Dems intended.

What plan??

It wasn’t the Democrats intention.

WHAT wasn’t the Democrat’s intention? I have no idea what you’re talking about.

Forget it, @Dutchess_III.

Co-President Musk will change the Constitution . . .money talks ! ! !

He bought Trump getting elelcted !

^I saw where one writer referred to Musk as “first buddy”. I liked that one.

TikTok publicly offered to give their code to Oracle for examination.
But grandstanding Congressmen, Senators, and Presidents want to pretend TikTok is a problem.
Trump originally wanted to ban TikTok because it’s Chinese owned.
But now he wants to save TikTok because he got millions of views from it.
And his supporters will favor anything he says because they are billionaires looking for quid pro quo, or typical average stupid Americans who have no clue about anything in life outside of their own job training.

^^^ remember when Little Donnie first learned the term “Quid Pro Quo?” And he gave a book report in front of the class. And he was so proud of hisself.

I’m in Aerospace so I can see how China peeking into a work phone would be a problem. TikTok is already banned from our work-issued phones. For the general public, I don’t know. Seems FB and Amazon already tap into our phone’s microphone and listen to our conversations so that they can pop up ads for relevant products.

@RocketGuy…isn’t there a way to turn off that internal mic?

Good point – I just discovered I could go into: iPhone Settings/Privacy/Microphone and turn it off for FB. Why was it on in the first place?

Factory default, Rocket guy.

@Dutchess_III “isn’t there a way to turn off that internal mic?”

Yes and no. You can programmatically disable access to hardware, but it’s extremely likely that there may be some security flaws in Apple’s programming that a state actor like China could exploit to bypass any safeguards Apple has in place.

Yep, that’s why I don’t have TikTok on my phone.

@RocketGuy I do, but mostly because my daughter sends me Tiktok videos from time to time. I never open it though on my own.

Does she do goofy videos or life hacks?

I don’t have Tiktok and I don’t have an iphone.

@Dutchess_III The same would be true for an android or other smartphone device. I was just using Apple as an example. But that’s the fear with an app potentially controlled by the Chinese government.

There are security venerabilities known as Zero Day which can be exploited to escalate access beyond what the creators of the system intended. Theoretically anyone can discover one, but when you have teams of experts financed by the government’s elite cybersecurity hackers, such vulnerabilities are almost certain to be found.

@RocketGuy Neither. Usually science videos.

I have it and enjoy it. If Trump daddy says its a security risk he’ll be accused of violating our 1st Amendment rights. Same as the fact-checkers he and Elon demonized.

@KNOWITALL Don’t want to piss off the. Hitler – WANNABEE do ya !

$$$$ after the visit from TikTok executive to Mar-A-Lago ! 4 years ago Trump was against TikTok, until he got 14 million followers (donors) ! https://www.deccanherald.com/world/how-donald-trump-went-from-backing-a-tiktok-ban-to-backing-off-3335206

@Tropical_Willie You’re right. He realized its power can work to his benefit. It was saturated with political vids.

He’s an unscrupulous, greedy, amoral, self centered kind of guy.

He realized that it could help him win.

He’d be BFFs with Charlie Manson if he thought it would play into his desperate greed.

@Dutchess_III I’ve got a connection for Manson . . . !

No!

Tiktok was banned for less than 24 hours.

No, TikTok voluntarily cut off US service for a few hours to stir people up, then turned it back on to “thank” Trump for saving them. Kissing the ring of the new Mafia Don.

They listed their reason, it was banned. Said so right on the app

They knew the ban would never get enforced so why the stop?

(responded in wrong thread)

The message that came up when it was “banned” and I tried to open the app:
Sorry, TikTok isn’t available right now.
A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, that means you can’t use TikTok for now.

We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office.
Please stay tuned!”

and less than 24 hours later:

Welcome back!

Thanks for your patience and support. As a result of President Trump’s efforts, TikTok is back in the U.S.!

You can continue to create, share, and discover all the things you love on TikTok.

That is a copy and paste of the screenshots I took.

TikTok cannot be installed from app stores. It has still been removed.

I deleted TikTok but I’m keeping my X/Twitter account mostly because I don’t want anybody taking my username.

Space flight coverage is better on Twitter than on Bluesky so I’m keeping my acct too.

@RocketGuy So is sports coverage.