To be punk rock. The main reason I see thrown around is most younger users don't care if China has their user data and understand that the government is banning it for their own selfish reasons (money).

You state that the US gov is banning it for money as if that’s a fact. I’d love to see the evidence for that.

The irony is that China bans essentially all US social media. I guess these users don’t care a ton their selfish bans?

I read it as that's how they think of it. It doesn't actually matter if it's true or not.

OP didn't say "for money".

As per Mitt Romney, it was banned because TikTok contained too much anti-Israel content (remember, the push for the ban became really strong very soon after Oct 7 when the genocide began)

Source: https://x.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1787288209963290753

Freedom.

Americans want freedom of speech without interference from the US government.

TikTok was banned because of sharing anti-zionist videos documenting the genocide of Palestinians.

Americans turn to a dictatorial psuedo-communist government that has direct control over this social media platform so they can get MORE freedom?

I call bullshit.

Chinese social media has pretty transparent upfront censorship regime: dont criticize CCP, adhere to One China Policy, dont push LGBTQP+ propaganda, everything else is allowed.

Americans on red book are surprised to see the actual life in China and are shocked how different it is from american MSM propaganda about China, you can find plenty of these threads on Twitter how tiktok refugees are amazed by how brainwashed they were by US mass media

Please give us some examples of MSM propaganda about China.

Ok, so besides not being able to talk about these immediate 3 third rails, we're completely free to talk about anything. What a perfect platform for free speech idealists to flock to.

What in the actual hell, why wouldn't they go to one of the various other free sites that isn't controlled by such an obvious bad actor? Unless of course they don't care at all about that and they're really being quite dumb.

And yes, of course real life in China is different than that displayed in corporate US media. Real life in France, Australia, Nigeria and Svalbard are all different than what is displayed there too. None of that makes it a good idea to be so outrageously stupid as to adopt such a platform.

if China has US consumer's data they can do very little harm as they lack enforcement. So its not a big deal to use Chinese owned social media app.

US however, if it has data on US users, has all the means to cause harm to US users, starting from censorship and persecution.

UK and Germany for example are jailing people for social media posts

https://www.standingforfreedom.com/2024/08/think-before-you-...

That seems decidedly short sighted to trust your enemy more because your own governments also do harm.

it signifies lack of trust from US citizens in their own government that lied non-stop for decades and kept brainwashing them with one false narrative (like Iraqi WMDs) after another

>... jailing people for social media posts

More like jailing people for inciting riots by repeatedly and vehemently posting proven wrong information. Freedom of speech is great and all, but you are advocating for freedom from consequences

If your 'opinion' consists of demonstrably wrong accusations to individuals and other proven lies, it is not political speech. Why do you insist on lies being political speech? You can hat your government without lies, I do dislike mine and have no need for lies when talking about it.

This is such a slippery slope. If I post on my social media that I hate my government and its policies - it should be protected as political speech.

You cannot jail people for their thoughts. Unless a person is physically present in public and is inciting violence in person, they do not violate anything

Because deep inside, most people are still children, desperate to declare their autonomy.

Apparently currently they’re posting tons of 3d printed gun content. People are weird.