TikTok's New Owners Leave a Trail of Chaos
Just over a week has passed since ByteDance sold TikTok to a group of American investors, including Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison and the private equity firm Silver Lake. The new owners have been met with major outages, malfunctions, claims of censorship, and uproar over their updated terms of service.
The chaos began shortly after the transfer of ownership, with users taking to social media to report issues with the app. Some claimed that they were being censored, while others experienced difficulties uploading videos or sending direct messages. However, experts argue that these problems are more likely caused by normal corporate ineptitude rather than intentional censorship.
The culprit behind one major outage appears to be a weather-related issue at Oracle's data center in Virginia. The company has had significant issues with its data centers in the past, which suggests that the new owners may have inherited existing problems rather than introducing new ones.
While concerns about censorship are valid, it is unlikely that the new group of investors would deliberately introduce such changes without warning. In fact, their approach seems more akin to that of Elon Musk when he took over Twitter. Instead of making sweeping changes outright, Musk has opted for a more gradual and transparent approach, explaining his plans in advance.
The updated terms of service are another point of contention. The new owners have introduced some new provisions, including the collection of more precise location data and permission to use AI-related data. While these changes may raise concerns about user privacy, they are not entirely unprecedented and have been part of TikTok's existing terms of service for some time.
Ultimately, the experience of users on the app will likely change with the introduction of a new algorithm. The new owners have promised to "retrain, test, and update" the algorithm, but details about how this process will work remain unclear. For now, users can only wait and see how their favorite platform evolves under its new leadership.
The situation highlights the complexities and challenges of regulating social media companies, particularly when it comes to issues like data collection and censorship. As TikTok's user base continues to grow, it is essential that the company addresses these concerns in a transparent and accountable manner.
Just over a week has passed since ByteDance sold TikTok to a group of American investors, including Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison and the private equity firm Silver Lake. The new owners have been met with major outages, malfunctions, claims of censorship, and uproar over their updated terms of service.
The chaos began shortly after the transfer of ownership, with users taking to social media to report issues with the app. Some claimed that they were being censored, while others experienced difficulties uploading videos or sending direct messages. However, experts argue that these problems are more likely caused by normal corporate ineptitude rather than intentional censorship.
The culprit behind one major outage appears to be a weather-related issue at Oracle's data center in Virginia. The company has had significant issues with its data centers in the past, which suggests that the new owners may have inherited existing problems rather than introducing new ones.
While concerns about censorship are valid, it is unlikely that the new group of investors would deliberately introduce such changes without warning. In fact, their approach seems more akin to that of Elon Musk when he took over Twitter. Instead of making sweeping changes outright, Musk has opted for a more gradual and transparent approach, explaining his plans in advance.
The updated terms of service are another point of contention. The new owners have introduced some new provisions, including the collection of more precise location data and permission to use AI-related data. While these changes may raise concerns about user privacy, they are not entirely unprecedented and have been part of TikTok's existing terms of service for some time.
Ultimately, the experience of users on the app will likely change with the introduction of a new algorithm. The new owners have promised to "retrain, test, and update" the algorithm, but details about how this process will work remain unclear. For now, users can only wait and see how their favorite platform evolves under its new leadership.
The situation highlights the complexities and challenges of regulating social media companies, particularly when it comes to issues like data collection and censorship. As TikTok's user base continues to grow, it is essential that the company addresses these concerns in a transparent and accountable manner.
I just saw this thread about TikTok's new owners and I'm literally DYING over here with stats 
Did you know that ByteDance sold TikTok for like $3 BILLION 
? Meanwhile, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison has a net worth of over $50 BILLION 
Talk about a power play! 
The new owners' approach seems more gradual and transparent than I thought, but what's up with the updated terms of service? 
Did you know that 70% of TikTok users are under the age of 24 
On the other hand, I'm kinda curious about the retraining, testing, and updating process for the algorithm 
first of all can't we just have a stable platform without having to deal with outages and malfunctions? 
plus the new terms of service are really weird... collecting more location data now is kinda shady, imo 
but idk if its entirely unreasonable to expect more transparency from the company. what do you guys think?
. Chaos everywhere - outages, censorship claims, updated terms of service that's giving me the heebie-jeebies 
. And don't even get me started on this weather-related issue at Oracle's data center... like, shouldn't they've checked for that before buying? 
.
. Can't just leave it to the regulators to sort everything out - the users gotta have a say too 
. Time for some answers from these new owners! 
"
. It's easy to make mistakes when you're learning a new system, and I'm sure they'll figure it out eventually 
.
. And sometimes that means making some tough decisions about data collection and censorship 
.
.
. The whole data center thing at Oracle's place was super weird, and yeah, it sounds like they might've inherited some problems from the old crew 
But at the same time, it's not like this is a huge departure from what we've seen on TikTok before... maybe? 
". Can't we all just chill for a sec and see how things play out? 
I mean, what happened to those good old days when we could just upload whatever we wanted without worrying about all these new terms and conditions? 
.
and app malfunctions 
. we want them to innovate, but also keep our data safe, and not mess with our free speech 
. maybe that's why i'll stick to taking my existential crisis walks in nature, away from the chaos of social media 
...
i mean, who needs that many features in their social media app anyway? 
like some ppl think theyre censoring vids but probs just normal tech stuff going wrong 
whats crazy is that they might be doing same thing elon does with twitter tho 
. It's crazy when companies change hands like this, but I guess that's just part of tech life now 
...
now we got tiktok being owned by american investors and people are freaking out again 
. first oracle's data center goes down and now they're talking about censorship and creepy location tracking? what's next? can't we just have one stable app without all the drama? 
. And yeah, Elon Musk's approach to taking over Twitter is definitely one to note 
.