this post was submitted on 27 Jan 2026
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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/59392382


TikTok wants users to believe that errors blocking uploads of anti-ICE videos or direct messages mentioning Jeffrey Epstein are due to technical errors—not the platform seemingly shifting to censor content critical of Donald Trump after he hand-picked the US owners who took over the app last week.

However, experts say that TikTok users’ censorship fears are justified, whether the bugs are to blame or not.

Ioana Literat, an associate professor of technology, media, and learning at Teachers College, Columbia University, has studied TikTok’s politics since the app first shot to popularity in the US in 2018. She told Ars that “users’ fears are absolutely justified” and explained why the “bugs” explanation is “insufficient.”

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[–] reddig33@lemmy.world 129 points 2 months ago (5 children)

Find. Another. Service.

TikTok is dead — just like Twitter. I don’t understand people who cling to these services. Might as well post on MySpace while you’re at it.

[–] felixwhynot@lemmy.world 11 points 2 months ago

If you are uninstalling, you can try the federated alternative: loops

[–] EndlessNightmare@reddthat.com 8 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

It's probably either sunk-cost fallacy or outright denial

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

shortform content, is addictive to people.

[–] chaogomu@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

And Tiktok isn't the only place for that exact type of content.

People are already jumping ship to other platforms.

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[–] rayyy@piefed.social 2 points 2 months ago (2 children)
[–] Zoot@reddthat.com 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Or Loops? The federated, no special interests version of TikTok. You're already on lemmy, why advocate for yet another corporate social media company?

[–] Wispy2891@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago

I like the idea of a federated version of that, but there are many problems:

  1. When people scroll, they need an algorithm to choose content for them.
  2. 99% of average TikTok content is low quality shit and it's the algorithm to find and promote what works
  3. All that 99% of shit is occupying exabytes on bytedance servers. Users are uploading terabytes of shit every hour, it's impossibile for a federated instance to keep all this shit on disk. Look how Lemmy is designed for example. I upload an image and then it's stored forever in hundreds of instances. For videos is untenable. Only companies that are profiting from this (for example using such videos for training ai models, or using this videos to hook people and serve them highly personalized ads) can host a TikTok clone
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[–] Ebby@lemmy.ssba.com 90 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Yeah. Right.

"If you get caught, call it a bug." seems to happen a lot this administration.

[–] BurgerBaron@piefed.social 15 points 2 months ago (1 children)

My bet is they tweak the backend instead to derank content they don't like softly next.

[–] chaogomu@lemmy.world 16 points 2 months ago (1 children)

They're already doing that. There are reports that content from the DNC isn't being served anymore, even to subscribers.

[–] AmbitiousProcess@piefed.social 61 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Wow, a bug that specifically automatically chose keywords like "ICE", and "epstein", then blocked them from appearing, while leaving literally all other content unharmed????? How conveniently specific and well-timed! /s

[–] Telorand@reddthat.com 54 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Maybe—and I'm going out on a limb here—just maybe, using centralized media to document State-sponsored domestic terrorism is a fucking stupid idea. Especially since the very same platform is co-owned by the State.

Y'all, we already went through this with Xitter. Sorry you fell for it again, but this won't be the last time if you continue to cling to platforms owned by the very people who want to censor you.

[–] grue@lemmy.world 18 points 2 months ago (1 children)

We're not the ones who need to hear it, though.

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[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 3 points 2 months ago

especially one that reaches a wider range of young gen z people who had not been captured by other alt-right social media yet.

[–] ArgumentativeMonotheist@lemmy.world 43 points 2 months ago (3 children)

This is TikTok in America as managed by Larry Ellison and the US government btw. They Iron Curtained y'all.

[–] D_C@sh.itjust.works 25 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Balderdash! That type of stuff only happens in dictatorships.
Next you'll be telling me there's a bunch of masked Gestapo goons running around shooting innocent people and kidnapping non whites...

[–] rayyy@piefed.social 12 points 2 months ago

That type of stuff only happens in shit-hole countries - FTFY.

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[–] Chozo@fedia.io 26 points 2 months ago

Weird timing these bugs seem to have, eh?

[–] 4grams@awful.systems 19 points 2 months ago

Why doesn’t anyone see this for what it is. They put monitoring for certain keywords but fucked up the code and it blocked some users through incompetence. They fixed the filters, but I guarantee they are sending reports to the White House…

[–] artyom@piefed.social 17 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Okay good so they're going to fix it then?

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[–] Samsy@lemmy.ml 14 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Hey, now I am not able to watch videos about my favorite fast train from Germany, the InterCityExpress, ICE. /s

[–] hakunawazo@lemmy.world 14 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Always remember: If you flip the Deutsche Bahn logo, the customer is depicted.

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[–] ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world 13 points 2 months ago

Translation: "We got caught"

[–] EndlessNightmare@reddthat.com 12 points 2 months ago

How convenient.

[–] me_myself_and_I@lemmy.world 12 points 2 months ago

Ironic that an app monitored and controlled by the Chinese communist party allowed more freedom of speech for Americans. How the turn tables.

[–] Anarki_@lemmy.blahaj.zone 11 points 2 months ago

Every time. Facebook said the same thing when things that upset the powers got hidden or deleted.

[–] neukenindekeuken@sh.itjust.works 10 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Lol, that's not how it fucking works.

Key words like that don't just accidentally get filtered out with a "bug".

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[–] Formfiller@lemmy.world 7 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Hopefully the Streisand effect takes place and people wake up to the fact that Israel was blackmailing our politicians with trafficked children and bribing the rest. History will call these people traitors https://www.trackaipac.com/

[–] DrDickHandler@lemmy.world 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Once again, they are using this mainly to censor anti-Israel content. No one is mentionning this in the articles and comments.

[–] Formfiller@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago

It’s because our government is literally occupied by this genocidal state that was blackmailing our politicians with trafficked children. History will call these people traitors https://www.trackaipac.com/

[–] FukOui@lemmy.zip 6 points 2 months ago

Might not be a lie. They might be silently rolling a feature to selectively censor/ show ICE fascists and accidentally censored all by mistake lol

[–] pimpampoom@lemmy.zip 5 points 2 months ago

I’m not expert and I call BS. No need to be an expert for this hahaha

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 4 points 2 months ago (2 children)

it was one of the last platform that allows significant criticism against ISrael without being censored, thats why.

[–] chaogomu@lemmy.world 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Ah, but that's the thing. There are always new platforms.

The current winner seems to be a new one called Upscrolled.

The guy behind it is a Palestinian out of Jordan, with Australian citizenship?

Anyway, that's all I currently know about it, the app is being hugged to death by tens of thousands of new users over the last day or two.

[–] Zwrt@lemmy.sdf.org 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Not Open Source…

It is considerably more open and build on open source technologies and they do want to become decentralized “once the open protocols mature (?)” but still, can someone educate the kids on software freedom please.

[–] felixwhynot@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

There is If a federated alternative: loops

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[–] Archangel1313@lemmy.ca 4 points 2 months ago

Not "bugs"..."features."

[–] Formfiller@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I hope tik toc loses so many users it goes bankrupt

[–] myfunnyaccountname@lemmy.zip 2 points 2 months ago

By bugs they mean bending over backwards to please daddy.

[–] Tuscy@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

Sure. “Bug”. It’s just a way of them begging people to come back to their Zionist spyware bullshit.

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