TikTok is now collecting more data about its users

Scope of the change

• Several commenters stress this is about TikTok in the US: the new data practices apply to US users whose data is now handled by a US-based joint venture (TikTok USDS).
• Users outside the US (e.g., Europe, Asia) are described as still being under the older Singapore-based TikTok Pte Ltd EULA.
• People note the policy now explicitly includes more granular data collection such as precise location.

Who is more dangerous: foreign state vs domestic elite

• Some argue they’d rather their data be handled by “China” than by a US billionaire aligned with the US government, since US authorities (ICE, law enforcement, intelligence contractors) have far more direct coercive power over Americans.
• Others counter that China can and does conduct large-scale influence operations, shaping narratives, amplifying division, and potentially affecting elections; they see TikTok as a strategic tool in any future conflict.
• A rebuttal claims Americans generate enough chaos themselves and that foreign propaganda is limited by poor cultural understanding; the bigger concern is whoever can combine detailed personal data with microtargeted political messaging.
• There is also a tangent arguing that Israel or its lobby is a greater threat to US policy than China, framed around TikTok discourse on Gaza and US aid.

Mass surveillance, manipulation, and elections

• One line of argument: individual-level harm from China is low, but mass access to millions of profiles enables sophisticated targeting and election interference.
• Others broaden this to say many states and domestic actors (not just China) run similar campaigns; the goal is often to increase contention and exhaustion, not to push a single ideology.

Social media addiction and “just quit” debate

• One camp says the obvious solution is: stop using TikTok/social media and deny them data.
• Pushback: calling it “obvious” ignores how these apps are engineered to be addictive; telling people to “just quit” is likened to telling a heroin addict to “just stop,” i.e., descriptively correct but practically unhelpful.
• Some argue most use is habit/convenience rather than deep addiction, so many could quit with “mild difficulty.”
• Others emphasize building offline social lives (clubs, gyms, recurring in-person activities) as a long-term path away from reliance on social feeds.

Nature and impact of TikTok’s algorithm

• One commenter found their feed dominated by disturbing “exploitative” content and saw this as a deliberate dumbing-down of Americans.
• Multiple replies insist TikTok’s algorithm is highly reflective of user behavior: others report feeds full of hobbies, games, or politics aligned with their interests.
• The idea “the feed is what you make of it” is repeated, though it’s not universally accepted.

Meta: social vs forum platforms

• Side discussion on whether HN/Reddit count as “social media”: some say they are forums (topic-first, no friend graph, limited personalization); others argue that algorithmic curation, karma, and popularity dynamics already make modern Reddit functionally social media-like.