We hate you

I'm too old to be up to date with American internet culture. What app are the cool kids using now?

A bunch of people moved over to 小红书 (xiaohongshu) lit. "little red book" aka RedNote. It's basically chinese instagram.
- What’s the obsession with Chinese social media anyway

Yeah, anything but foss apparently.

Sorry for off topic.

Is there a f/loss alternative to tiktok?
- Loops appears to be the one for that space but from what I understand they still have a lot of development to do before it's ready for general users.
I’ve used TikTok since 2021 and really enjoyed the content that it showed me. I learned a lot about fixing things up around the house, things that were going on in other parts of the world, FROM those that live there, and even some of the funniest skits I’ve ever seen off of YouTube. It was a great place.

On every video I’ve seen, for the last two weeks, I have been plugging the Fediverse, Loops especially, for any who care. Some of the content creators did see and like my comments, but I have yet to see a video about anyone talking about it, which is sad.

I unfortunately think a lot of them were just not wanting the money train to disappear, and I can understand that, but to provide only corpo owned media to their fans really disappointed me. Sometimes, money is really not worth selling out. Or, I suppose I must be crazy and insane, because that’s how I feel about it anyway.
- I'm not equating this to you personally but here is my experience (I have never used TokTik myself):
  my coworker in her just about 50s said the same thing you did - "just how much life hacks" she has learned and immediately proceeded to explain if I knew that if I buy some seeds and put them in some water or moist soil it just "starts to grow" and you can then proceed to plant those "things" in pots and it will eventually grow you "fruits" and you only need to water it "like a (house) plant".
  
  I still have not recovered from this and it's has been a year. It really shook me to my core.
  I'm still speechless about it, I don't even know how to comment it, where to ever start thinking about it.
  Just so much wow.
  
  Oh, but I agree with you abut money-train issue, foss communities are still learning how to donate to devs/creators. But it's a process, a cultural movement & development which I am sure will lead us to a better society.

Just like the "men would do anything but go to therapy" meme, Americans would rather install malware on their phones than get out to vote.

American gov worried about Americans going to Chinese social media to share even more personal information

Chinese gov worried about the influx of Americans inside their Great Firewall

What a clusterfuck. I love it.

Chinese news seems generally positive. Here's a translation from the official Chinese media, People's Daily, yesterday:

spoiler
- You'd epxect official media to be happy about it. But they had cordoned off the rest of the world for a reason on TikTok. They have that Great Firewall for a reason.

They really have cut off their nose to spite their face imo. Only way this makes sense to me is that the users want a noble justification for their ignoble habit.

“The data would’ve ended up in China anyway since American apps would’ve sold it.” -Rationalizations of a feed addict fiending

Explain exactly how using a Chinese app will negatively impact the average American. Don't use vague threats, use evidence based examples. I'll wait.
- Because China bad. Duh.
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridge_Analytica
- Have you ever been on tiktok? You will lose braincells quicker than drinking gasoline.
  
  It should genuinely be considered self harm to have a tiktok account.
- “Chinese app”? I’m sensing some defensiveness here.
  
  Using any for profit data harvesting app has great financial incentive to negatively impact anyone, evidence based government back-doors or not.
  
  I’m sure there’s some lovely Chinese-made fediverse wrappers or locally hosted communities with good moderation. Idk, I don’t speak Chinese.
- China controlling the narrative might be a bit worrying. Not sure how much that reflects in the daily life of a single person but for societies it does have some implications.

I mean both suck and short form & vertical videos are trash, so now it's your chance to watch better content.

I have likely learned more on TikTok in four years and I had my entire public school education.
- That's on you tbh
- Should've paid a bit more attention in school, friend

Would Rednote or whatever it's called also be covered by the same ban?

no. the ban is not against chinese apps, its against tiktok specifically.
- Not quite. As far as I can tell the US can now play whack-a-mole with any app owned or controlled by a "foreign adversary", thanks to this precedent. The decision as to which nations are considered a "Foreign Adversary" is made by the U.S. Secretary Of Commerce.
  
  I am not a lawyer or lawmaker, so someone please correct me if I'm wrong. Here's the full text of the legislation (emphases mine):
  
  DIVISION H-- PROTECTING AMERICANS FROM FOREIGN ADVERSARY CONTROLLED APPLICATIONS ACT
  
  Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act
  
  (Sec. 2) This division prohibits distributing, maintaining, updating, or providing internet hosting services for a foreign adversary controlled application (e.g., TikTok). However, the prohibition does not apply to a covered application that executes a qualified divestiture as determined by the President.
  
  Under the division, a foreign adversary controlled application is an application directly or indirectly operated by (1) ByteDance, Ltd., TikTok, their subsidiaries, successors, related entities they control, or entities controlled by a foreign adversary country; or (2) a social media company that is controlled by a foreign adversary country and determined by the President to present a significant threat to national security. (Here, a social media company excludes any website or application primarily used to post product reviews, business reviews, or travel information and reviews.)
  
  For the purposes of this division, a foreign adversary country includes North Korea, China, Russia, and Iran.
  
  A qualified divestiture is a transaction that the President has determined (through an interagency process)
  
  would result in the relevant foreign adversary controlled application no longer being controlled by a foreign adversary, and
  
  precludes the establishment or maintenance of any operational relationship between the U.S. operations of the relevant application and any formerly affiliated entities that are controlled by a foreign adversary (including any cooperation with respect to the operation of a content recommendation algorithm or a data-sharing agreement).
  
  The prohibition applies 270 days after the date of the division’s enactment. The division authorizes the President to grant a one-time extension of up to 90 days to a covered application when the President has certified to Congress that (1) a path to executing a qualified divestiture of the covered application has been identified, (2) evidence of significant progress toward executing such qualified divestiture of the covered application has been produced, and (3) relevant legal agreements to enable execution of such qualified divestiture during the period of such extension are in place.
  
  Additionally, the division requires a covered foreign adversary controlled application to provide a user with all available account data (including posts, photos, and videos) at the user's request before the prohibition takes effect. The account data must be provided in a machine-readable format.
  
  The division authorizes the Department of Justice to investigate violations and enforce its provisions. Entities that that violate the division are subject to civil penalties for violations. An entity that violates the prohibition on distributing, maintaining, updating, or providing internet hosting services for a covered application is subject to a maximum penalty of $5,000 multiplied by the number of U.S. users who have accessed, maintained, or updated the application as a result of the violation. An entity that violates the requirement to provide account data to a user upon request is subject to a maximum penalty of $500 multiplied by the number of U.S. users impacted by the violation.
  
  (Sec. 3) The division gives the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia exclusive jurisdiction over any challenge to the division. A challenge to the division must be brought within 165 days after the division’s enactment date. A challenge to any action, finding, or determination under the division must be brought with 90 days of the action, finding, or determination.
  
  DIVISION I--PROTECTING AMERICANS’ DATA FROM FOREIGN ADVERSARIES ACT OF 2024
  
  Protecting Americans' Data from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act of 2024
  
  This division makes it unlawful for a data broker to sell, license, rent, trade, transfer, release, disclose, or otherwise make available specified personally identifiable sensitive data of individuals who reside in the United States to North Korea, China, Russia, or Iran or an entity controlled by such a country (e.g., headquartered in or owned by a person in the country).
  
  Sensitive data includes government-issued identifiers (e.g., Social Security numbers), financial account numbers, biometric information, genetic information, precise geolocation information, and private communications (e.g., texts or emails).
  
  A data broker generally includes an entity that sells or otherwise provides data of individuals that the entity did not collect directly from the individuals. A data broker does not include an entity that transmits an individual's data or communications at the request or direction of the individual or an entity that makes news or information available to the general public.
  
  The division provides for enforcement by the Federal Trade Commission.