Bonum Certa Men Certa

Bytedance/TikTok is a Threat to Freedom, Including Free Speech

Fentanylware: Who's there?



Summary: Fentanylware (TikTok) is very harmful, but some sites insist that the threat should be ignored, citing an amendment that China (controlller of Bytedance) neither has nor recognises; this has nothing to do with free speech and Bytedance/TikTok actually pose a threat to it

"Montana passed a law earlier this year to ban TikTok (and ban mobile app stores from offering TikTok for download). The bill has lots of problems," Mike Masnick wrote yesterday. This is the latest among many articles of his (and his site) which conveniently overlook the harms of social control media (the site downplays those, too).



"We're going to keep an eye on the situation.""TechDirt turns a blind eye to the weapon nature of TikTok," one reader told us today, "perhaps out of wishful thinking or perhaps out of addiction to social control media."

Another theory is that reason.com and TechDirt shill TikTok's side because both are funded by Koch (deregulation extremists) and "the Koch connection can be explored there," to quote the reader. "It's not just about deregulation but by allowing TikTok Koch is promoting cultural genocide. Look up what TikTok has done to DJs and dancefloor "music" already, in the few months it has been operating."

Well, delegitimising regulation is important for Big Oil, but they currently receive more subsidies than ever so they like government interventions of a certain kind. As the reader explained this, "the petrochemical industry gets 100s of billions in subsidies each year. Pay but don't ask where the money goes..."

"Fentanylware (TikTok) was designed to manipulate society in favour of docility in the controlling country and chaos in "foreign" countries."Looking at the past week's news, TikTok's image is being "reformed" as there are many puff pieces about it [1-2], there will be more ads [3], and evasions [4]. There is also an effort to leverage TikTok's (Bytedance) spying [5] and the last time bans were mentioned was around 5 days ago [6-10]. We're going to keep an eye on the situation.

There's hope that the severity of Fentanylware (TikTok) will be recognised and proportional reaction/action be taken. Fentanylware (TikTok) was designed to manipulate society in favour of docility in the controlling country and chaos in "foreign" countries.

Related/contextual items from the news:



  1. 2023-08-24 Love or hate TikTok's viral bottle-smashing trend? A neuroscientist explains what that says about your brain


  2. 2023-08-23 [Older] How TikTok helped this Indigenous beader learn the craft and connect with her culture


  3. 2023-08-22 [Older] TikTok search results are about to get infested with ads


  4. 2023-08-23 [Older] Interview: „TikTok’s power to say no is shrinking by the day“
  5. 2023-08-21 [Older] The Feds Asked TikTok for Lots of Domestic Spying Features


  6. 2023-08-21 [Older] 336: TikTok’s Last Dance in Montana: What This Means For Social Media
  7. 2023-08-21 [Older] Montana Compares TikTok to 'Cancer-Causing Radio' in Defense of State's Ban
  8. 2023-08-21 [Older] 336: TikTok’s Last Dance in Montana: What This Means For Social Media
  9. 2023-08-21 [Older] Somalia orders ban on TikTok, Telegram
  10. 2023-08-21 [Older] Montana AG Asks Court to Reject TikTok Challenge to State Ban


Recent Techrights' Posts

SLAPP Censorship - Part 189 Out of 200: A Terrible Idea to Condemn Projects for Using Slop 'Code' When Your Own Employer Does This (and Profits From Every Company Doing So) or to Call Distros 'Not Secure' While You Advance Back Doors
"I don’t want a back door. I want a front door."
 
Clownflare Data From Canada
We've like to think many people are attempting to install GNU/Linux over the weekend
SLAPP Censorship - Part 190 Out of 200: Plagiarism, Back Doors, and Sabotage of Linux
This can go on for a decade or longer
Linux Kernel Becoming a Slopfest - Part 5 - Kernel Dependency on Plagiarism Giant Microsoft is a Death Blow to Any Kernel
Microsoft is bringing copyright-infringing slop into Linux
GNU/Linux Has Grown a Lot Lately
Based on Clownflare
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, September 19, 2026
IRC logs for Saturday, September 19, 2026
Links 19/09/2026: Many Patents Become Candidates for Annulment and Linux [sic] Foundation Takes More Slop Money to Promote Malicious Bots
Links for the day
Gemini Links 19/09/2026: The Fundamental Human Assets, The History of Gopher's "i" Type, and ROOPHLOCH 2026
Links for the day
Links 19/09/2026: "OpenAI and Microsoft Knew They Were Starting a ‘Doom Loop’ [of Mass Plagiarism 'Normalised' by Brute Force] for the web", Calling It "Hey Hi"
Links for the day
8 Series Going on at the Moment in Techrights
4 series about SLAPPs and related matters
Linux Kernel Becoming a Slopfest - Part 4 - Outsourcing to Microsoft, Approaching 10 Gigabytes
Can we blame Microsoft for those DDoS attacks? Partly.
Software Freedom Day 2026 is Today, Week-long Celebration in Brazil
In Brazil, Clownflare reckons about 1 in 20 laptops/desktops might use GNU/Linux already
Red Hat Lost 2,000 Staff (Net Loss)
Maybe by year's end it'll be a 20% reduction
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, September 18, 2026
IRC logs for Friday, September 18, 2026
Gemini Links 18/09/2026: Setting Goals, Tiredness, and Admissions From LLM Purveyors It Was All Along About Building Plagiarism Engines Sold as "Intelligence"
Links for the day
Links 18/09/2026: Microsoft Boasted Slop is Just Copyright Infringement/Plagiarism, Floods in Europe
Links for the day
Slop Ruins Development and Reverse Engineering, It Rewards Retarded "Slop Kiddies" (to Quote Andy ‘TheFlow0’ Nguyen)
Slop is just a fatal cancer that kills the body, then dies with the body it killed
Internet Relay Chat (IRC) and Mailing Lists Are Still Better Than Discord, Slack, and Discourse
Discourse is "open" "bossware"
Links 18/09/2026: Disgust Over LLMs and Why "Agents" (Bots) Are Nothing More Than "Spam"
Links for the day
Software Freedom Day is Tomorrow
events coming
Illegal and Unconstitutional Tribunal That SLAPPs Critics Does the Illegal and Unconstitutional: It "Rubberstamps Software Patents"
This is not a legal system. This is mafia.
Privilege in 'Linux' Foundation (Double Standards) and What the FSF Should Avoid Doing
If RMS can talk about politics, others too should be able to talk about politics
Seems Like Many Microsoft Layoffs Are Going On Right Now (Forever Layoffs)
Like IBM, Microsoft hopes shareholders will not know of morale and financial problems
More Threats From the Person of Restricted Boot Infamy
Remember this is the man who is the principal purveyor of restricted boot and who landed restricted boot in Linux
Snooping EPO Management, Sniffing Up Every Staff Action
It this a problem for whistleblowers? Of course.
Don't Do That
Options do exist. People should exercise freedom.
Iran Has Debunked GAFAM and Cloud Computing as Safety of Data
Cloud of smoke?
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, September 17, 2026
IRC logs for Thursday, September 17, 2026
SLAPP Censorship - Part 188 Out of 200: Used, Then Discarded, by Microsoft (as We Predicted All Along, It's Always Like That)
The longer they carry on with it, the more scandalous this will get
Linux Kernel Becoming a Slopfest - Part 3 - Besieged by LLM Bots, Now Hiding Behind a Wall of JavaScript
The series began 3 days ago
Gemini Links 18/09/2026: Modern Linguistic, Boxing, Turning 40, and Solar MiniServer
Links for the day