Oh it definitely will be. It will be a US admin surveillance tool for sure
this post was submitted on 23 Sep 2025
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Surveillance? This is mass physiological manipulation
Why not both?
Cant manipulate very well without data.
That was there already though, and nobody cared
No shit.
"Might be".
No fucking shit Sherlock
I'm sure everybody will whine about it and just continue using it - like the clowns they are 🤡
Same propaganda platform, different algorithms. It's a shame that for-profit social media inevitably becomes a tool for mass manipulation.
Its funny I didn't know about labubu until the recent South Park episode, and thought it was a parody of the Pokemon craze until I found out it was real.
And that because I don't use Tiktok, Twitter, or Instagram I somehow completely missed this craze that had adults being swept up in buying these physical loot boxes because of the effective marketing that had people wanting to be a part of something.
So yeah corporate consumer outreach tools indeed. Pretty scary just how effective it is in appealing emotionally to the masses.
And labubu is like the least harmful thing when it comes to manipulation of the masses, so just puts into perspective the other ways it can be used by those that control and understand the algorithm to get the outcome they want.
You ever suddenly notice that a bunch of your friends or coworkers all steadfastly believe some shit that seems totally counter to what you knew about them, at the same time? It's fucked.
Yeah, that lababu thing was an epiphany of realizing maybe I'm not even part of society culturally and more a foreigner, since how deep the influence of mainstream social media goes is something I'm not as in tune with as I thought. What I get is just a small trickle that occasionally bleeds through into what I use.
Its like the people I'm around live in a completely different sphere of influence from me, and I didn't realize the extent of it until now. I'm missing out being part of a hivemind that has taken over most of the world.
It is very surreal living in a deep red area right now. And not the good kind of surreal.
Young people will be so pissed that they shut down TikTok that they won't download anything that claims to be its replacement.
They’ve said it’ll stay the current app on your phone. They’re licensing and “retraining” the Chinese algorithm, so…
That's not what this article says
There have also been discussions that the TikTok app will be relaunched (perhaps rewritten) as a new app. Put another way, we may all have to delete ByteDance's TikTok app and install the new US-approved one, again, without assurances that it will operate in the same way and still include the freedom of expression the app has enjoyed for almost a decade.
I don't love that freedom of expression is used in this case not to mean "freedom to express oneself as one wants" but instead to mean "a black box algorithm that at best allows one to express one particular slice shaped view of reality as favored by one particular group"
TikTok has little freedom of speech as it is. No talk about guns, death, drugs, racism. Now go to reels or yt shorts and there's people calling black people the N word. It's nuts.
This app will allow hate speech towards people of color and immigrants. It will not allow thought provoking criticism against the Trump regime.
It’ll probably allow it but the content will be deranked so no one sees it.
One in the same
True, but every other article has said something different, so honestly who knows.
To your original point, it’s an insanely popular social media app and its users will absolutely go download a replacement.
So... Don't use it?