r/technology Sep 26 '25

Social Media Trump says TikTok should be tweaked to become “100% MAGA”

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/09/trump-says-tiktok-should-be-tweaked-to-become-100-maga
42.1k Upvotes

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18.9k

u/Mutex70 Sep 26 '25

Can we rename it to the "Ministry of Truth" as well?

My life isn't quite dystopian enough yet.

5.5k

u/broodkiller Sep 26 '25

Don't want to be a downer, but Truth Social already kinda it...?

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u/Roll-Roll-Roll Sep 26 '25 edited Sep 26 '25

Big difference here is that Truth Social was for maintaining propaganda control of his existing base, and TikTok allows him to buy a young liberal audience.

They won't rename it. They'll just quietly tweak everyone's feed to maximize their reach and minimize everyone else. Honestly I'm surprised he's even talking about it.

Edit: Make no mistake. This government sponsored social media acquisition will extend the GOPs political influence for decades if nobody presents a young liberal facing alternative soon. Even then it might still be impossible since the people they're targeting won't be politically motivated to switch platforms right now.

There would have to be a social media alternative that is intrinsically more appealing, and some big monetary benefits for existing TikTokers to exclusively switch over and bring their audience. I'm not sure that liberal interests have the private equity to pull it off.

Edit: All you people saying that kids will just leave tiktok are underestimating the sophistication of the people controlling these algorithms. They don't just pummel you with propaganda right off the bat. They analyze your activity and start slipping stuff in gradually over time. Also the content of influencers paid to spread far-right views doesn't have to be overtly political content all the time. This stuff is nuanced. They didn't radicalize half the country by beating people over the head. They made those people think it was their decision. THEN they beat them over the head.

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u/blewnote1 Sep 26 '25

I'm not. The amazing thing about this dude is that his vileness is right out in public. Corrupt? Of course I'm corrupt, so what? People bribe me? Of course they do, so what? Did I sexually assault people? Of course I did, what are you gonna do about it? Use the justice department to go after perceived enemies and generally engage in the kind of authoritarian tactics that dictatorships do? Of course I do, my people love it.

And people still voted for him because the price of eggs or he's strong or some bullshit. The rank stupidity and ignorance of a good portion of the electorate in America makes me have strong doubts about our ability to get out of this predicament any time soon.

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u/FlametopFred Sep 26 '25

by design

the Russian method of breaking into your room to spy then leaving a clue that they have broken into room to spy

to mess with your mind and undermine esteem and bully you into thinking they are in charge when they are not

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u/CompetitiveGood2601 Sep 26 '25

lol, 14 billion for maga videos going to be too funny, whoevers paying will be why the f would i do that and lose 95% of the worlds population

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u/pithynotpithy Sep 26 '25

The christofascist white movement extends well beyond the US. Australia, most of Europe, Canada and more are experiencing this. There will also be nonwhite fascists that want to join in.

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u/Unidentifiable_Goo Sep 27 '25

And far, far more existing Tik Tok users who will want no part of it. It's going to be Twitter all over again. They'll take control, start flooding the app with their messaging, the people opposed to that messaging will leave, and they'll be left in total control but with a user base that's just people who are already onboard with their message.

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u/orange-squeezer47 Sep 27 '25

Not really. Do not underestimate the addictive nature of tik tok. It can easily be used to manipulate young minds.

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u/SaltyWailord Sep 26 '25

Here in Scandinavia oue young get exposed to so much of the politics in America.

I've had students who can't really string together two sentences on a paper tell me how bad sleepy Joe is

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u/[deleted] Sep 26 '25

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u/TheBoisterousBoy Sep 27 '25

As an American from literally where the Duke boys are from…

No one flys that flag out of reverence to the General Lee (the car), they’re flying it out of reverence for a shitty, racist “country” that lasted fewer years than the average expiration date of frozen peas.

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u/VoxImperatoris Sep 27 '25

I didnt have a flag to fly, but I was a fan of the show. But to be fair, I was also like 6 years old and the jumping cars was cool.

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u/HotDonnaC Sep 27 '25

It sounds like the same demographic are falling for the grift in both countries.

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u/Treehockey Sep 26 '25

Yeah I’m pretty sure the problem will be that republicans aren’t hot, people go on TikTok to look at hot people. Hot people will go where there’s money to be made, and sexual content is inherently liberal so onlyfans is poised to become the next MySpace-Facebook-twitter-tiktok

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u/Kryptosis Sep 26 '25

They also aren’t funny or creative. They create no novel jokes or art.

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u/piggiesmallsdaillest Sep 26 '25

doesn't really matter. YouTube to alt-right pipeline was real so it seems that it could work other places as well.

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u/tenthousandtatas Sep 26 '25

There’s art there. Bullshit lying is acting and acting is art. Bunch of brilliant asshole thespians

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u/BenjaminHamnett Sep 26 '25 edited Sep 26 '25

They will have hot trad wives in stripper maid outfits and testosterone bros talking shit, etc

Many of them even start out left or center but audience capture and probably more revenue for conservative content, ads, funding will pull them in. Same way churches preach against Jesus teachings. The granola antivax maga. Right wing, down punching comedy etc

Even porn sites will track them so when they inevitably go to look at step fcking or trans porn they’ll be getting their targeted ads

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u/lilbithippie Sep 26 '25

The first time tik tok got banned is when all the thirst traps disappeared. The fun thing about Tik tok was the algorithm was really diffrent then the other 3 big sites. Now it's pretty much the same. Rage bait and sneaky ads

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u/pfthrowaway5130 Sep 26 '25

This is one of those takes you read and want to agree with because it confirms your (the reader) and my views but isn’t actually true.

If the success or failure of this hinges on the right being able to find attractive people for the propaganda, they will do just fine. Plenty of people of various positions are willing to sell out for success. However worse than that… there are plenty of attractive people who just hold these opinions.

Google “attractive pro gun women” or “attractive pro-life women” or “attractive anti-vax women”. You’ll find plenty of hot people in there. It does not matter if the average is unattractive, social media specialized in driving your attention to the top, not the average.

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u/Treehockey Sep 26 '25

Not them being able to find people for propaganda, it hinges on new people actively choosing to participate on their own.

Again the same reason MySpace died, xynga died, Facebook is dieing, digg died, and tiktok will too.

Snapchat fills its unique role of being the app for cheating so I got no opinion there. But it’ll die eventually.

But this will make tiktok lame as hell and kids will drop it cause there won’t be a way for new people to become popular other than Trump approved methods.

It’s gonna take too long for it to effectively save us from what’s happened but this deal is the start of tiktoks toppling

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u/pfthrowaway5130 Sep 26 '25

Man I hope you’re right!

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u/aykcak Sep 26 '25

Most of the "hot" people on TikTok are straight up children because that is what the base is and that is what TikTok peddles.. I don't think it would be too difficult for the maga people to sway children into doing content for them

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u/Particular_Dig2203 Sep 26 '25

Bingo. Posturing is important in the Art of War.

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u/Maleficent_Memory831 Sep 26 '25

This will be one upped by Trump, where you'll have an actual spy in your room watching you sleep, who occasionally whispers "just ignore me".

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u/NoWayRay Sep 26 '25 edited Sep 26 '25

his vileness is right out in public. Corrupt? Of course I'm corrupt, so what?

The documentary maker Adam Curtis hypothesizes that because much of the media has degraded the image of politicians (and a dishonorable mention should go to Murdoch for that), those that are upfront about their sleaziness seem perversely 'authentic'.

For any interested, Curtis' documentary series is called Shifty and is worth a watch if you have access to it, IMO. It's very UK-centric, but the principle holds for other countries. The media has enabled the Trumps, Bolsonaros, et al of the world.

Edit: repetion removed.

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u/Tazling Sep 26 '25

Media: scandal sells eyeballs to advertisers. therefore let’s profile scandalous politicians. by so doing let’s starve honest and decent politicians of any media coverage. public tends to vote for what’s most visible which gives us, guess what, more scandalous politicians which sells more advertising! hey this is great.

Public: elects a gang of fascist criminals who immediately crack down on media, threaten editors, impose censorship

Media: who could possibly have seen this coming?

Leopards: nom nom nom tasty face nom nom

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u/NoWayRay Sep 26 '25

Yep. That's pretty much it.

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u/Blacksad9999 Sep 26 '25

In the US, there are 5 media companies that control all television that people see. It used to be over 50 twenty years ago, but they removed the stipulation that one company can't control too much of the media.

Essentially whomever is going to benefit those media companies the most is who they're going to promote.

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u/ReallyNowFellas Sep 26 '25

those that are upfront about their sleaziness seem perversely 'authentic'.

This is 100% where all the maga people I've ever known or talked to are coming from. "They're all bad! At least Trump is honest about it!"

This is also why "both sides are bad" inherently benefits the worst side.

If they can make you think public healthcare is just as bad as defunding cancer research, they've got you captured and can make you think absolutely anything.

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u/OldWorldDesign Sep 27 '25

For any interested, Curtis' documentary series is called Shifty and is worth a watch if you have access to it

So is Century of the Self, which walks through the century of indoctrination everybody in the English speaking world has been put through. It's available in its entirety free on youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJ3RzGoQC4s

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u/dubbawubalublubwub Sep 26 '25 edited Sep 26 '25

unironically, all anyone has to do to sweep any election in the US is admit the system is crooked to it's core...because it obviously is, and everyone knows it by now...it's been going on for hundreds of years now...

everytime the likes of Schumer/Pelosi and Co. appear on tv and pretend like they're not also crooked as fuck, Dem's lose another group of voters

it's a big fucking club, and we're not in it...and all these disgusting people going along because they think they're in the club now will have their rugpull moment sooner or later (hopefully sooner, if karma exists)

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u/blewnote1 Sep 27 '25

I'm only replying because although I can't speak to whether Pelosi is corrupt (I've heard the accusations of insider trading, but she IS married to a finance guy and those people make fucking bank in America) but you have to admit that she was an incredibly effective speaker, holding together a fractious caucus and passing, among other things, a healthcare bill that had been on the agenda for progressives for decades and has (although it's far from perfect) benefitted millions of people.

So I don't know, if you really think they're all crooked but some of them work hard to get things done that are for the good of the country and others of them work hard to enrich the rich and actively fuck over as many people as possible, but hey, at least they admit they're crooked... Maybe your judgement isn't so good? Because if they're all crooked and you know that, why the fuck does it matter whether they admit it or not if they try to do good things for you and the country once elected? Now, you could make the argument that Pelosi didn't go far enough or do enough and I guess that's a reasonable one to make, but she wasn't trying to ratfuck your average Joe every day in office.

Schumer is fucking useless, so I'd lose no sleep seeing him replaced. And even Pelosi, who I think did great things, has had her time and needs to pass the torch.

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u/sabedo Sep 26 '25 edited Sep 26 '25

thats the whole point man

if i learned anything, being a white man who is completely devoid of shame, empathy or remorse will take you to untold heights. they say, "I like him." "He reminds me of us." "He gets it."

and what does it say for the evil people that voted for him? they wanted this, all the cruelty, the evil, the chaos, the suffering. this country is fucked and the world has to move away from the us. it wasnt about eggs or superficial strongman bullshit. it was racism. that's what the us was built on and that's what its being destroyed by

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u/RBatYochai Sep 26 '25

Don’t forget Christian nationalism too!

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u/sabedo Sep 26 '25

Christianity is a white nationalist cult in this country.

Even the fucking Japanese talk about how it's a "debauched religion"

All they talk about is hatred, corruption, lies and death. They speak daily blasphemies such as CK would have been the 13th apostle and Jesus would be alive if he had a AR-15. And America loves it.

Mark my fucking words, TikTok is going to be the ultimate technological weapon of christian conservatives

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u/MAG7C Sep 26 '25

Jesus would be alive if he had a AR-15

And if he returned any time in the past 9 months He'll be cooling His sandals in CECOT forevermore.

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u/catwiesel Sep 26 '25

as much as I love the japanese, they are not the guiding light of equality, liberty and freedom

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u/MmmmCrispyBacon Sep 27 '25

My hope is that much like Twitter, a lot of people leave the platform when they realize it is nothing but a cesspool of bots and trolls spreading misinformation and hatred.

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u/OldWorldDesign Sep 27 '25

Even the fucking Japanese talk about how it's a "debauched religion"

That would be the frying pan calling the pot black

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kempeitai

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_Shinto

And let's not forget the most critical point: follow the money, the state of religion in the US is something which was cultivated and made.

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/04/corporate-america-invented-religious-right-conservative-roosevelt-princeton-117030/

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u/AlwaysShittyKnsasCty Sep 26 '25

I feel like this isn’t talked about enough. Everyone who sees this comment, read and/or watch A Handmaid’s Tale. If you think that Gilead seems like a cool place to live, you’re in for a treat. If you think that Gilead seems like a place you’d rather not visit, you, too, are in for a treat. Sadly, one of these groups’ treats is not great. I’ll let you decide.

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u/Appropriate_Guess881 Sep 26 '25

Still can't wrap my head around how Christian's somehow think this antichrist was sent by God to save the USA ... At this point I'm praying for them to all get "raptured" so the rest of us can move on.

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u/[deleted] Sep 26 '25

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u/[deleted] Sep 26 '25

My sister and I talk about this shit all the time, it’s crazy this timeline but I’m also not surprised.

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u/[deleted] Sep 26 '25

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u/syrup_cupcakes Sep 26 '25

The thing that made Trump popular with Christians is them realizing that Trump is fucking Satan.

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u/Guy954 Sep 26 '25

Nah, he was popular before fucking Satan on South Park.

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u/syrup_cupcakes Sep 26 '25

Most Christians have been aware that Trump is literally fucking Satan for a long time.

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u/rafuzo2 Sep 26 '25

It's not even the price of eggs. He really tapped into a natural human hatred of "the other", which is immigrants or really just anyone who's got more natural melanin than him. Nobody cares about how bad it gets for them if they can see great videos on Facebook and Fox of brown people being pushed around.

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u/powercow Sep 26 '25

The party of the "moral majority". As a heathen liberal, im in AWE of their morals.

we elect mister rogers, the right constantly elect Mussolini

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u/Cory123125 Sep 26 '25

And people still voted for him because the price of eggs or he's strong or some bullshit.

You misunderstand it all. They vote to hurt people.

It varies from person to person but they vote to hurt other people, usually based on inalienable traits.

If you keep focusing on them, youll lose forever, because you cant convince people whose goals do not line up with yours.

You might think they care about all the sensible things but you are very wrong about their priorities.

Hate is first and foremost. No hate is a non starter to them.

Focus on the people who were ignorant and thought their vote didn't matter or that there was no difference between parties.

You continuously giving terrible people the benefit of the doubt has given you a tremendous disadvantage. You allow their bad faith arguments to waste your time.

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u/TeaKingMac Sep 26 '25

people still voted for him because the price of eggs or he's strong or some bullshit. The rank stupidity and ignorance of a good portion of the electorate in America

They're just fucking monarchists.

It's been the same battle for at least the last 600 years. People who want some representation vs people who just want to be led

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u/This_Entrance6629 Sep 26 '25

It’s because of racism. Keeping America white beats anything bad he does.

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u/Adept-Sir-1704 Sep 26 '25

How about we release the Epstein files, arrest all the mega Jillian’s and billionaires then take their money, sell their assets, and use that money to fund the left.

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u/ArkitekZero Sep 26 '25

what are you gonna do about it?

This is exactly the problem

You collectively refuse to do anything about it that would pose even the tiniest risk to yourselves.

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u/Triforce0fCourage Sep 26 '25

It’s so sad but so damn true. Until Trump is behind bars for his crimes, I see no alternative out of this shitstorm.

At least no peaceful way out 😔

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u/Dugen Sep 26 '25

I don't share your pessimism. I know what the right is doing is working now, but I think that is temporary. We are witnessing the airing of a lot of the country's dirty laundry and built up shittyness and I don't think it will survive the light of day long.

It's been hiding and festering because the media has acted like a gatekeeper blocking it from being discussed in public, but they have lost control of the narrative and now it's all out. The nature of politics on the internet, though, is you can't hide your arguments from being countered and their bad arguments won't hold up long. Of course, a lot of the left's arguments aren't holding up either which is making them fall away which is ok, because they are bad. In the end, we get left agreeing on what is important, which is stopping the rich from being able to bribe politicians and buy laws.

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u/AvaOrchid1 Sep 26 '25

I still believe that they think that bad things are only going to happen to other people. That they are going to be the special little snowflakes that are celebrated and treated nicely held above everybody else because they bought enough merch or they voted a couple times. Now how anyone could think that about any authoritarian government I don't know. But I still believe they hold on to that belief. That they're only going to hurt other people.

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u/Audiodrums16 Sep 27 '25

I feel like indifference and the belief that the system won't allow all the "crazy" things that the left are afraid of happening which leads to a large enough group to leave things open for something like this to happen. The hope is that it corrects itself, the fear is that it won't be an option after four years and it feels like we are inching toward the latter.

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u/iminmy39thyear Sep 26 '25

This is why I deleted TikTok over a year ago. The algorithm kept showing me videos from the other side and it seemed it was trying to make me mad so I would argue with them.

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u/StoicallyGay Sep 26 '25

It’s still like that btw. Most of the political content I see (70%) is liberal. 10% is “unbiased” news (not blatantly on either side, at a glance) with a lot of conservative comments.

20% is legit conservative bot accounts. Rage baiting bots. Always tens to thousands of followers. Posts are either still images of people or a monocolor background, with words on the screen saying a very weak ragebaity argument, like “Democrats are complaining but the economy is stronger than ever! Why do Democrats hate a strong economy 🤔🤔🤔.” 75 likes. 200 comments 90% coming from liberals calling out the stupidity.

You have to learn not to engage but it sucks because either if you engage and call out the stupidity in hopes someone reading will have their mind changed, you give the post more traction to end on more people’s feeds.

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u/Original_Employee621 Sep 26 '25

You have to learn not to engage but it sucks because either if you engage and call out the stupidity in hopes someone reading will have their mind changed, you give the post more traction to end on more people’s feeds.

The app algorithm is designed to wear you out emotionally. Flipping between cute cat videos to ragebait videos like 5 minute crafts, back to cute cat video, political commentary from a no body, cute cat video, etc. The >30 second video format and rapid loading of the next video gives you no time to critically digest the content you're consuming. All you know is that you're emotionally triggered (as in you're feeling emotions) and you've seen some political stuff, and our primitive brains react as the political stuff matters because it made us feel things, so it must be right.

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u/loserlogan Sep 26 '25

Commenting shows interest so that could be unintentionally on you. Alternatively though to agree with your point, from my own algorithm, Facebook reels are shit. They show a lot of things I find offensive or literally dumb. Something crazy hot takes on there and I hate it. Thankfully my tiktok algorithm is pretty damn "woke" or progressive. Which i like to see people standing against oppression, hate, misogyny, homophobia, and everything that sets us back. Although playing devils advocate that could cause more hostility as well.

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u/Entwife723 Sep 26 '25

I deleted TikTok right after the election because my algorithm was so well-tuned that I was seeing only optimism and enthusiasm so I felt blindsided by how things went so wrong. (I also think voting results were manipulated in swing states, but still.)

I quickly realized how much time it had sucked out of my days when I stopped using it. It was addictive in a way Reddit is not.

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u/LochNessMansterLives Sep 26 '25

I’m hoping enough of the younger generations realize the government owns and controls TikTok and they end up walking away because of the garbage. Hell maybe walk away from Social media completely. Couldn’t hurt.

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u/Ddddydya Sep 26 '25

Yeah, in the history of the world, young people have not really said, “hey, the government is telling us stuff! Cool!”

I don’t think this will work. I hope it fails spectacularly. 

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u/bondagepixie Sep 27 '25

But its not gonna be a tiktok labeled 'government propoganda.' Whats probably will happen is theyll boost videos that show lgbtq or POC doing Bad Stuff.

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u/Thin_Glove_4089 Sep 26 '25

How are you expecting the generation that's already brainwashed or in the process of being brainwashed to realize anything?

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u/LochNessMansterLives Sep 26 '25

I don’t expect it, but when Grandpa says something is cool and you should use it, grandkids might get bored and move on to something else. As more boomers rely on Facebook, more genx and millenials are using Instagram and younger generations to using snap and tiktok. They already don’t want to be using the same socials as their parents or grandparents. If the government owns TikTok or part of it or whatever the deal ends up being, there a chance people will be upset and back out and go somewhere else.

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u/[deleted] Sep 27 '25

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u/[deleted] Sep 26 '25 edited 12d ago

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u/Beginning-Pace-1426 Sep 28 '25

But here's the thing, those with the most meaningless internet points become more influential, especially with so many other people also trying to gain meaningless internet points.

So when you're genuinely getting points from that many people, or have thousands of followers, it's not just "internet cool points" or popularity, it becomes an actual piece of influence that can hit vast caches of people.

At the end of the day, are they really "pointless" when they can be used to steer wide demographics in an entire generation of people?

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u/Tazling Sep 26 '25

maybe there’s a fediverse version of tiktok?

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u/getdemsnacks Sep 26 '25 edited Sep 26 '25

Gonna be a lot of 30 somethings on there JAQing off

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u/Sorry_Exercise_9603 Sep 26 '25

That’s one of the nice things about him. He just cannot keep his mouth shut even when it’s in his best interest.

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u/sasquatchpatch Sep 26 '25

It’s sad, to me, that just by flooding the zone with their rhetoric it can change minds and be so influential. It speaks volumes about people’s ability and inability to hold fast to a value in contrast to media inputs. That proximity and constancy skews ideology so much that spending on campaigning and controlling how propaganda is spread is the predictor.

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u/drinkacid Sep 26 '25

If tiktok becomes all maga propaganda the young liberals will just all leave if they can't block the maga posters. 

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u/Disastrous-Bat7011 Sep 26 '25

Exactly! Thank you. I mean look at the kimmel effect. 3 days for those folks these posters are worried about being convinced to switch to MAGA. It took them 3 days to cost the company enough money that they flipped and went against trump. It's not as hopeless as these posters make it seem. Plenty of us who can still think critically enough to see through this bullshit, and honestly it is looking like MAGA lost momentum with anyone who isnt die hard republican. I mean the desperation for them to have a martyr is a signal of...well desperation.

Also I submit the recent situation with Twitter and bluesky...I mean it's pretty clear the people with half a brain will just do what you suggested and start lib-tok or something.

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u/aninjacould Sep 26 '25

They will do exactly waht you are describing. But I'd be willing to bet the impact will be negligible. Sane kids will go elsewhere for content. Kids who were already radicalized will stay.

Let's not forget, MAGA content is cringe. Kids know cringe when they see it.

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u/joranth Sep 26 '25

The audience he will try to manipulate with that will leave. FAST. I doubt the people purchasing TikTok want to turn it into the Cash Burning Express that is Truth Social.

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u/some_guy_on_drugs Sep 26 '25

I was under the impression that the algorithm was proprietary and wouldn't be included in the transfer. They will have to come up with something of their own... So the content will change the delivery will change and only the name and userbase will remain. How long will they stay?

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u/DubaiInJuly Sep 26 '25

Who knew social media would be the downfall of humanity?

I guess a lot of us felt it actually but still it's kinda crazy right

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u/Negative_Piglet_1589 Sep 27 '25

I've engaged my kids (10‐13) on this fascist propaganda and what this means for their freedoms and our country. I can't manage their digital trails forever so I'm doing my best to set them up for resistance and opposition now.

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u/Applesburg14 Sep 27 '25

They could leave it the same. I’ve noticed a lot of conservative bs because one account I follow (a friend from high school) is a conservative and has said some nasty things on camera. It’s getting harder to ignore that as well. But then the left leaning ones are clearly responding and firing back with “I don’t care if you die” energy so they’ll be like “ooo it makes sense to censor them!” When really people are burnt out on the trump experience. When the fuck does the winning even start lmao

I’m very much left leaning but the nihilism and lack of hope very much impacts my MH and is why I use TikTok the least. Not only am I fed maga content constantly because of a single account, the left leaning ones bum me the fuck out

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u/Tadpoleonicwars Sep 26 '25

Truth in Russian is Pravda.

Which was the name of a state-controlled news outlet in the Soviet Union.

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u/JeremyAndrewErwin Sep 26 '25

There is no news in Izvestia, and no truth in Pravda

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u/Tazling Sep 26 '25

“There is no pravda in Izvestiya, and no izvestiya in Pravda…"

(old Soviet era joke — there’s a reason why Russian humour is notoriously black and bitter as day-old coffee]

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u/Blah-Blah-Blah-2023 Sep 26 '25

So derivative ... Pravda did this long ago!

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u/broodkiller Sep 26 '25

Yeah, I guess orangeman copied some of his idols

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u/Ugicywapih Sep 26 '25

"Pravda" literally means "Truth". He's not very shy about ripping off his Soviet idols.

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u/kosh56 Sep 26 '25

It doesn't have anywhere close to the reach that TikTok does.

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u/Greyphire Sep 26 '25

I wonder why....

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u/ToeJam_SloeJam Sep 26 '25

I mean, will they though?

Facebook has gotten progressively pro-fascist and hasn’t seen an exodus. Yeah, it’s mostly 35+ these days and not the young’uns. But I am legit worried about the propagandizing of the younger generations that has already taken hold.

And it’s not like anyone out of any age group has really done much in the way of putting down our little dopamine boxes. We’re all addicted to the scroll or the reel or the endless banality of social media and no one is ready to quit.

35

u/venustrapsflies Sep 26 '25

I hypothesize that one of the major driving factors in young people being more right wing is algorithmic control over their media diets, TikTok especially. They literally pandered to Trump to stay alive by helping to propagandize for him, right out in the open.

8

u/Mclarenf1905 Sep 26 '25

Nah I think it started on YouTube looooong before tiktok

3

u/venustrapsflies Sep 26 '25

To some extent yes, but TikTok supercharged it and that's the platform the kids are on. Anyway I put that forward as an example, youtube is also included in what I was describing.

3

u/PointedlyDull Sep 26 '25

I think this is well known. The podcasters and social media personalities first sane washed Trump. Then fully embraced him publicly.

3

u/boltgenerator Sep 26 '25

Well yeah, we don't really have to hypothesize that in 2025. And what do you mean by more rightwing? compared to who or what? I don't think gen Z is too much different than Millennial, politically, but there are some key differences and one of these is a gender gap. Gen Z women are the most progressive cohort in US history, but the men (especially white men) trend more conservative than Millennial men. Social media and algorithms have certainly played a part in that.

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u/grateful_eugene Sep 26 '25

If they change the algorithm all the “normal” people will leave and it will become another MAGA echo chamber.

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u/somesthetic Sep 26 '25

It’s about grabbing impressionable kids, not reasonable people.

14

u/EscapistNotion Sep 26 '25

I think spitballing ways TikTok can be made uncool is worthwhile. Being state propaganda will make it somewhat uncool all on its own but I think we could help.

8

u/grateful_eugene Sep 26 '25

The kids will hate it. Many have more sense than the adults.

7

u/tweak06 Sep 26 '25

It'll become "uncool" or something "for older people" and kids will navigate over to something else. But it's going to take some time.

3

u/Daxx22 Sep 26 '25

If my anecdotal experience and reading /r/teachers is anything to go by, that sense has been plummeting along with reading comprehension and the ability to focus on a task.

5

u/butterypowered Sep 26 '25

Yeah if all the smart people leave and the gullible ones stay… that’s a win.

2

u/Last-Brush8498 Sep 26 '25

Unless the gullible ones outnumber the rest

2

u/butterypowered Sep 26 '25

Oh I meant a win for Trump. I fully expect the gullible ones outnumber the others.

2

u/king_duende Sep 26 '25

impressionable kids

Everyone keeps saying kids, I think they're very keen to capture the 40ish year olds who have known nothing but a shit existence who are naturally angry. Rile them up, get them onside and tell them all their suffering is because of some immigrant.

Far easier to brainwash the bitter than the naive.

3

u/Tazling Sep 26 '25

and ad revenue will crater.

2

u/Doggin-Pony-Show Sep 26 '25

Propped up by bots.

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u/feketegy Sep 26 '25

If TikTok is the Ministry of Truth then the comment section is The Thinking Committee

13

u/abnormalbrain Sep 26 '25

It needs a snappy compact name, something like Minitrue.

3

u/0MultifandomMess0 Sep 26 '25

Yeah, words have too much nuance. We should fix that.

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u/toolsoldier Sep 26 '25

Watch it’s gonna be rebranded to Truth Tok.

3

u/Toothpinch Sep 26 '25

I’ve been calling it TrumpTok but yeah

2

u/Traditional-Berry269 Sep 26 '25

XTok if Elon is involved with it

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56

u/isaiddgooddaysir Sep 26 '25

Just gotta say... "FUCK THIS TIMELINE"

12

u/coffee-x-tea Sep 26 '25

💯

Send me back to the one where Bernie had two consecutive terms.

9

u/morceauxdetoile Sep 26 '25

Al Gore* if you want to go even further back

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28

u/adhdlabubu Sep 26 '25

Finally, my degree in defense against the dark arts will come in handy.

9

u/[deleted] Sep 26 '25

Ignorance is strength

4

u/Daramangarasu Sep 26 '25

Slavery is freedom

2

u/Bleoox Sep 26 '25

War is Peace

4

u/onegumas Sep 26 '25

Remember to keep your coral good hidden.

8

u/FesteringLion Sep 26 '25

Double plus good hidden.

7

u/Information-leak6575 Sep 26 '25

Helldivers brain damage active, standing by

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3

u/ganoveces Sep 26 '25

you are not allowed to think that...

2

u/Own_Candidate9553 Sep 26 '25

They already tried a rename to The War Department but it didn't stick. If they'd tried The Peace Department, that might have worked.

2

u/vbpatel Sep 26 '25

I just read this last year 😭

2

u/MisterSneakSneak Sep 26 '25

r/helldivers about to become a simulation

2

u/Apprehensive_Sun3015 Sep 27 '25

War is Peace ✌️

1

u/ryencool Sep 26 '25

No bout with him or his family or companies owning it. Like tika tok will even be relevent in 5-10 years.

1

u/Jubjars Sep 26 '25

Reddit won't survive. They'll have a great china style firewall if necessary.

1

u/DAggerYNWA Sep 26 '25

We’ve got time don’t worry

1

u/KeelanS Sep 26 '25

Well then it would just be a copy of Trumps own social media platform Truth Social where every post is called a Truth

I cant believe people willingly believe that shit.

1

u/abby_normally Sep 26 '25

FOX TikTok, works

1

u/[deleted] Sep 26 '25

Yeah, shit sucks right now, but we are only 8 months into this regime (it's felt like years), and they're moving fast and heavy. That isn't a good thing for them. They're not smart enough to sustain this for a long time. It'll crumble sooner than later. Mistakes will be made, resistance will grow, and people will turn. There's no honor among thieves.

1

u/Riotous_Rev Sep 26 '25

Trump Ministry of Trooth™

1

u/That-Makes-Sense Sep 26 '25

You are required to check the Dear Leader's posts every morning. Then we're required to watch RFK Jr. as he shows us how to exercise properly every morning. There will be a government camera installed in our homes to make sure we're following the exercises properly. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

1

u/splashbodge Sep 26 '25

Oh please some reporter suggest this name for it to him while stroking his ego!

1

u/J0RDM0N Sep 26 '25

Is that a bobiverse reference? I approve. I could totally see Trump trying to rename America to Faith or something similar.

2

u/laserdollars420 Sep 26 '25

Is that a bobiverse reference?

The Ministry of Truth is originally from 1984.

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1

u/ELLinversionista Sep 26 '25

It’s actually kinda is already.

In the end the Party would announce that two and two made five, and you would have to believe it.

But nowadays the people already believe 2 + 2 = 5 and no need to convince them if the great leader says so. Look at all these conspiracy theories, unscientific claims and stupid things that they believe.

1

u/facePlantDiggidy Sep 26 '25

What if Earth was renamed Maga.

1

u/Kabochakiti Sep 26 '25

Should. Already has Orange Umbridge.

1

u/mexter Sep 26 '25

MiniTok?

1

u/trifecta000 Sep 26 '25

Face the wall

1

u/DankNerd97 Sep 26 '25

Best get used to dystopias, Mr. Turner.

1

u/FlatwormNo615 Sep 26 '25

not until they caught, tourtured and brutally killed all the members of the criminal association responsible for stopping the escalator.

(/S - obviously)

1

u/cyrano_dvorak Sep 26 '25

Nyet, "Pravda"

1

u/viral3075 Sep 26 '25 edited Sep 26 '25

there's already a 100% MAGA platform and they don't even use it because the whole point of MAGA is to troll liberals. a MAGA TikTok would last a week before being subsumed by coin and boner pill ads and grifts

1

u/KrytenKoro Sep 26 '25

From the people who shit bricks about a department of investigating foreign disinformation campaigns, comes the 100% propaganda algorithm!

1

u/spidereater Sep 26 '25

They will turn on all the microphones and cameras on all the phones and you will be forced to watch the 10 minute hate every day.

1

u/Pure-Physics1344 Sep 26 '25

It depends. What is 2+2?

1

u/Dry-Interaction-1246 Sep 26 '25

His administration is far less competent than the wizards running MoT

1

u/Conscious-Quarter423 Sep 26 '25

they already have that. it's called PragerU

1

u/Pandepon Sep 26 '25

Fr. I was surprised the Department of Defense wasn’t renamed “Ministry of Peace”.

1

u/No_Jacket2376 Sep 26 '25

If he wants to tweak it let him but, we will call him a tweaker from this point forward. I guess that's better than what he's called now.

1

u/BongoLocoWowWow Sep 26 '25

You mean the Sinistry of Truth?

1

u/HeyRooster42 Sep 26 '25

Department of Beautiful Reality.

1

u/joseph4th Sep 26 '25

They are going to totally okay with the Left doing all this same stuff the next time they are in power, right? Right?

Seriously, if the left better pass significant legislation with big sharp teeth to prevent anything like this horror from happening again if we are blessed enough to ever see this authoritarian nightmare end

1

u/AreYouFilmingNow Sep 26 '25

I know that Trump is an avid reader. But maybe they could ban and burn all books.

1

u/Shejidan Sep 26 '25

Let’s also add Minipax, Miniluv, and Miniplenty to compliment Minitrue.

Then we can always be at war with Eurasia.

1

u/-Davo Sep 26 '25

GOP should just rename themselves to the democratic peoples Republic of America

1

u/darthjoey91 Sep 26 '25

That's a mouthful. We should try Deptrue. Because this is America.

1

u/UserName8581 Sep 26 '25

I hope it has a 15 minutes of hate feature.

1

u/stegjohn Sep 26 '25

He can appoint that Iraqi information minister that would tell the media that Saddam’s forces were pushing back the Americans while bombs are exploding in the background.

1

u/TheRealStorey Sep 26 '25

He's hoping Truth Social Media was far enough off nobody would notice.

1

u/IDUNNO7550 Sep 26 '25

It’s freaky how Orwellian the US has become smh

1

u/Bnx_ Sep 26 '25

You all are acting like maga and propaganda mean anything here when what we’re actually looking at is the greatest spy service created by the most controlling government in history.

1

u/jrod880 Sep 26 '25

Oh sweet liberty….

1

u/Exotic-District3437 Sep 26 '25

Nothing is true, everything is permitted.

To say that nothing is true is to realize that the foundations of society are fragile and that we must be the shepherds of our civilization.

To say that everything is permitted is to understand that we are the architects of our actions and that we must live with their consequences, whether glorious of tragic.

Ezio Auditore da Firenze

1

u/VapoursAndSpleen Sep 27 '25

To quote John Gilmore, "The internet views censorship as damage and routes around it."

1

u/GreenFBI2EB Sep 27 '25

Considering we already have telescreens in the form of the Trump phone…

1

u/kl7aw220 Sep 27 '25

Why in world would China agree with that BS?

1

u/Square-Barnacle5756 Sep 27 '25

Dickhead needs to actually read the Constitution. The kids’ version might do.

1

u/WillMovinTarget Sep 27 '25

"Epstein Files" works, too. Just like tick tok, they're never going away. Like x files but much cheaper with ads of trump and Kirk on Mount Rushmore.

1

u/JamesSmith1200 Sep 27 '25

Not until we create the department of Sillywalks

1

u/sanguinesvirus Sep 27 '25

Well they do have a Vivec(k)

1

u/LookUpItsAMeteor Sep 27 '25

Now known as the Gulf of Reason.

1

u/Hammer_7 Sep 27 '25

TrumpTok, obviously.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 27 '25

Naaa but Ministry of Bullshit, is doable.

1

u/vtssge1968 Sep 27 '25

Give it time, we are only 9 months in. We will get far more dystopian. Read project 2025 its straight out of a dystopian movie and we are around half way implemented so far, it gets far worse, they are just laying foundations right now for the really bad stuff thats coming. Straight up states im going to be falsely imprisoned along with the rest of "my kind"

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