Hacker News Reader

Comment by osrec | Hacker News Reader

I honestly feel the ban may well be a direct result of Tiktok users helping boycott a political rally in Tulsa.

They were expecting hundreds of thousands to turn up, but only a few thousand turned up, leaving the organisers utterly embarrassed.

View on HN

I guess I'm even more cynical. I don't think it's an accident that Zuck is playing much more friendly to Trump than people may have expected. This would be the perfect quid pro quo. I hate to think it could be happening like that, and it sits purely in conspiracy theory land. However it is completely consistent with the level of corruption from the administration in other areas and amoral approach by Facebook to its business.

Well, Tiktok has taken all the younger crowd away from Facebook and Instagram. Your suggestion is not beyond the realms of possibility for a guy like Zuck (I always think back to the dumb f comment he made a few years ago to remind myself of how he views his users).

“A few years ago” was 17 years ago, for reference, when he was a 19 year old college student.

Facebook is working on Reels to compete with TikTok, but I’m sure Zuck would be happy if Trump takes out the competition for him.

There may not be an explicit quid-pro-quo but he’s obviously trying to navigate the political situation to avoid either Democrats or Republicans taking real steps to harm his company, since both are demanding Facebook start altering what users see to promote their political causes.

Facebook already alters what people see, mainly to make sure people spend as much time on Facebook as possible. Or if you pay them to put "Ad" next to an item in a timeline somewhere.

Totally agree with you. We all know Trump takes things personally so this is a great way for him to get back at tiktok.

I hardly think he cares about the "security" aspect of it.

Yes, I think a guy that compromises his own country's security by inadvertently sharing secret info on social media doesn't care/know much about security in the first place.

Why did India already ban it with Japan and Australia about to then?

Unlikely. The rally was in June, but they've been talking about banning it since February.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com