Bonum Certa Men Certa

TikTok is a Chinese Weapon Controlled by a Dangerous Company (ByteDance) and We Must Treat It Like a Chinese Weapon for Our Own Sake

Fentanylware: Who's there?



Summary: Many people believe -- or get paid to say -- that TikTok is no worse than social control media made by the West and controlled by the West; those people clearly have no clue about TikTok (where the stated aim is harm, it is not merely a side effect)

TikTok is, bluntly speaking, a Chinese weapon disguised as an "app" or "site". Consider some recent examples such as [1] (some idiot "arrives at his own funeral in helicopter after faking his death"). As we noted some days ago in the series about YouTube, this imperils emergency services, can cause a suicide, etc. What healthy-minded person does this? And what for? To teach one's family a "lesson"? See "Paramedics turn on premier in TikTok tirade" [2], "The Battle for Control" [3] (yes, it's about TikTok), and then witness disturbing trends [4]. Even German media [5] has had its say.



For those who do not know what ByteDance is, Wikipedia says this: "ByteDance Ltd. (Chinese: 字节跳动; pinyin: Zìjié Tiàodòng) is a Chinese internet technology company headquartered in Beijing and incorporated in the Cayman Islands." Well, "internet technology" is a typo (should be capitalised i, but Wikipedia is no longer known for quality) and calling it "internet technology" is a gross understatement. It's a surveillance giant that farms behaviour. It's like a Chinese "profiling" or "scoring" system for the entire world, operated by youths for the most part but aimed at adults.

Yesterday the New York Times wrote [6]: "On the short-form video app, long-established facts about the 1912 disaster at sea are being newly litigated as musty rumors merge with fresh misinformation and manipulated content."

Yes, "misinformation and manipulated content" is very common there because it is actively being encouraged and promoted (selected to go viral, by hostile forces). It harms people's safety, feelings, self-image, and education.

Techrights has been consistently and unapologetically against TikTok, more so than any other social control media. If you know someone who uses TikTok, do your best to wean them/him/her off it.

Related/contextual items from the news:


  1. 2023-06-15 TikToker arrives at his own funeral in helicopter after faking his death
  2. 2023-06-15 [Older] ‘Hey Chris Minns, remember us?’: Paramedics turn on premier in TikTok tirade
  3. 2023-06-14 [Older] The Battle for Control: TikTok, Parental Consent, and the Rights of Children
  4. 2023-06-14 [Older] Fewer People Trust Traditional Media, More Turn to TikTok for News, Report Says
  5. 2023-06-10 [Older] Drohnenkrieg: Die TikTokisierung des Grauens


  6. The Titanic Truthers of TikTok
    On the short-form video app, long-established facts about the 1912 disaster at sea are being newly litigated as musty rumors merge with fresh misinformation and manipulated content.




Recent Techrights' Posts

In statCounter, a Lot of "Unknown" Turns Out to be GNU/Linux
GNU/Linux has more than doubled
Silent Layoffs (PIPs) Have Allegedly Accelerated Since IBM's Stock Cratered
"IBM is Managing Decline, Not Building Growth"
Being Pro-Slop is Death Knell to One's Credibility
It's not hard to see Ubuntu users resisting and antagonising this
 
When IBM "Managers Have to Mark 15% of Their Teams as Low Performers" a PIP Means Likely Layoffs (Disguised as a Performance Issue)
"IBM is a Law firm with an I/T department."
Links 27/07/2026: Chatbots Lead to Suicides, Social Control Media Intentionally Designed for Addiction
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, July 26, 2026
IRC logs for Sunday, July 26, 2026
Daniel Pocock in Mainstream Media Again
AFR wrote an article today. It is about Pocock and another contender.
Millions of Daily Requests
4.5+ million requests in 4 days
3,500 Active Gemini Capsules Soon
How much longer before 3,500+ active? A month?
Gemini Links 26/07/2026: European Eclipse, Writing About Writing, and Comments on Formatting Gopher Posts
Links for the day
Stigma of Being Laid Off by Microsoft
One might call this the "curse" of having worked for Microsoft
Non-Techs Using Slop Run Fedora and It's Turning Out to be a Total Disaster
RIP, Fedora?
Gemini Links 26/07/2026: Beach Day, CAs, and Plaintext
Links for the day
Sweden Needs GNU/Linux and Free Software, Not GAFAM
home of IKEA and ABBA
Maintenance Today
Preparing for more mass-publication activities
Links 26/07/2026: "Zelenskyy Says Russia Wants To Bring North Korean Troops Into Ukraine", Muslim Van Ramming Attack on Berlin Pride
Links for the day
Centrica fraud exposed: worse than Palestine Action 'terrorists' with cardboard placards
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 26/07/2026: "Nate Silver Discovers the Educated Poor" and "India’s “Cockroach” Protest Movement Faces State Repression"
Links for the day
The Slop Bubble is Killing the Planet, Not Just the Economy
The chatbot/LLM speculation bubble not only causes a health crisis, a mental health epidemic, and climate change; it's also crashing the economy on several levels
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, July 25, 2026
IRC logs for Saturday, July 25, 2026
IBM Hammers a CoI Into a CoCed Fedora, RIP Fedora?
Also in the "Fedora is dead" dept. today
Gemini Links 25/07/2026: Zoo, MUD, Literature, EMF Camp, and e-ID
Links for the day
European Patent Office (EPO) Series: The Solution of No Choice: A Shortlist of One
deployment of the "shortlist of one" by Campinos
Wife of Dan Williams Has Explained Mental Factors Leading to His Death
"We need to be open and honest about mental health," his wife pleads
Several New Series Coming Soon
we'll publish 8 series in tandem, in parallel
Insolvency as the New Norm in the United States' Economy
this is vastly worse than then 2008 subprime mortgage crisis
IBM's CEO Might 'Retire' or 'Step Down' by Christmas
PIP the CEO
Misleading Articles About YouTube and Google Financial Performance
The future of Google is self-serving monopolisation and destruction of the Web
Microsoft Cannot Survive the Fall of Windows
It has amassed way too much debt
Links 25/07/2026: Hong Kong Squashing Criticism/Dissent, Mirror Caught Breaking Into Voicemail
Links for the day
PIPs Are Shrinking IBM and "IBM is Managing Decline, Not Building Growth"
IBM is going down the drain
IBM is Killing the Fedora Community, Replacing It With LLM Slop From IBM Staff
Krishna buys companies only to gut them. They've all learned this from experience.
Give Me Your "Dumbest" (Devices)
Why can't people accept that a "modern "smart" "phone" isn't necessary to check the time (overkill) and playing social control media "on the go" is far from necessary?
Earlier This Year Dan Williams Prepared for Scenario Where Linus Torvalds Dies
He had only just started a job at NVIDIA
Links 25/07/2026: Data Breaches Abundant and Attribution Imperiled in the Age of Slop Hype
Links for the day
Gemini Links 25/07/2026: Poetry and Plaintext Pages
Links for the day
What is Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
In many cases, the acronym became a misnomer
IBM PIPs Continue Until Morale Improves, Silent or Quiet Firings at IBM Explained
IBM is a dying company
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, July 24, 2026
IRC logs for Friday, July 24, 2026