TikTok could just release a web app

They already do, all they gotta do is take out the redirect to App popup and voila.

It's not amazing, just like most web apps from big tech.

It's not amazing by choice. Web apps for internet video playing would work fine, companies just make their mobile websites hostile as possible to push you towards their mobile app where you can get the same experience but with significantly more data collection on the app's part.

I wonder what kind of impact this would have on their ability to actually provide good ML recommendations. Based on reporting that would be a lot of data to give up

The reporting I've seen is extremely dramatic about the data being collected. The most useful thing to the recommendation algorithm is interactions: number of loops before scroll, like, comment, share, etc.

Which they have but that can just be blocked as well. Sure you will be able to access it with workarounds but most people won’t.

This was the original vision for iPhone, if I’m not mistaken

Hot take:

TikToks appeal is that it's digital heroin. People aren't going there because it's genuinely amazing stuff. People are going there because it's a dopamine hit. When you make it harder to view like having a web app that you have to refresh or click or have less smooth touch interactions, it'll get less engagement.

Edit: it will be more difficult to track user behavior and location with a web app.

Tiktok servers will be banned at the T1 carrier level, probably.

Do you have a source that the act is being interpreted by the government to include prohibiting network operators from serving traffic? That definitely seems like it would be a stretch given the text of the act

The act prohibits

> (A) Providing services to distribute, maintain, or update such foreign adversary controlled application (including any source code of such application) by means of a marketplace (including an online mobile application store) through which users within the land or maritime borders of the United States may access, maintain, or update such application.

> (B) Providing internet hosting services to enable the distribution, maintenance, or updating of such foreign adversary controlled application for users within the land or maritime borders of the United States.

With the following relevant definition

> (5) Internet hosting service.—The term “internet hosting service” means a service through which storage and computing resources are provided to an individual or organization for the accommodation and maintenance of 1 or more websites or online services, and which may include file hosting, domain name server hosting, cloud hosting, and virtual private server hosting.

Which I've basically read as "it will be removed from app stores and not be allowed to host content on US servers". Which as a matter of policy seems more than sufficient to reduce the reach of tiktok to a tiny fraction of it's current US user base.

The "and not be allowed to host content on US servers" is kinda funny as a requirement in context. Prior to the law being passed IIUC TikTok had already put in a bunch of work to make sure American data was stored in the US, with a US cloud vendor, with access controls, which were to demonstrate that this data was not accessible to the Chinese. Serving in the US, with big US cloud partner was meant to be a way to create confidence. If TikTok ends up being a webapp for US users, with our data definitely not in the US ... isn't that worse?

I bet if it comes to that, a DNS pollution alone will drive down 80% of traffic.

> Serving in the US, with big US cloud partner was meant to be a way to create confidence.

Huawei tried a similar confidence building tactic by paying UK cyber spooks to scour their code to show they don't have backdoors. The so called Huawei Cyber Security Evaluation Centre. Didn't work out for them either.

Here is my question

If TikTok is no longer allowed to be hosted in US, how could they continue the service without transferring the data outside of US? It is going to be a bigger breach if they transfer US user data outside of US, right?

that requires a firewall at the border.

iOS has alternative appstores now -in Europe.

> 2) Will this affect apps like CapCut and Lemon8 too?

Both, the bill lists any "website, desktop application, mobile application, or augmented or immersive technology application that is operated, directly or indirectly" by ByteDance, which controls CapCut and Lemon8.

TikTok is popular primarily because it's easy to get to. You're expecting normal people to learn how to sideload applications and that's simply not going to happen at a scale large enough to keep TikTok at critical mass in the US.

Sideloading doesn't work if an extremely popular app can't handle transactions in a proper way. Creators won't get paid, the ecosystem will fall. I bet US government would ban Tiktok from banks and billing systems.

All that would do is drive off the "blue checkmark" class of uploaders, good riddance. That's not what people are on TikTok to view. Note that the TikTok influencers have never made it as big as the Youtube era of influencers, and that's a good thing for society.

Yeah tiktok is a drop in the ocean for the critical mass needed for people to abandon iPhone. It is already highly censored in the US and no one said let's use Android.

Sounds like the “Year of Linux” fantasies 20-30 years ago. No, people won’t learn about side-loading much like they didn’t care to try out linux instead of windows. They will simply use a competitor app.

Sideloading is not Linux, it's Napster (or maybe Fortnite). Switching to Linux requires a level of ideological commitment that is not necessary for accessing something like TikTok.

On Android, there is no work associated with sideloading besides checking a toggle letting you install an app outside the App Store.

The better comparison would be people buying gaming PC when Apple declared war on NVidia and shunned PC gaming in general.

Did Windows and linux PC sales rise ? Well yes, to some decent extent:

https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/2023-pc-games-revenu...

That article discusses videogame sales, nothing about hardware. Mac game sales would be included in the "PC game sales" statistic. I'm also not sure when "Apple declared war on NVidia and shunned PC gaming in general"? If anything they've been getting more friendly to gaming recently.

Steam sales are abysmal on Mac, so it's a decentproxy I think. I couldn't find a nice cut report on gaming PC sales vs standard desktops, whichi is unfortunate as the PC market in general is on a downtrend while my hunch is gaming is probably flat or rising.

On Apple and gaming...they've been on the cold with Steam, basically refusing any improvement that would help. They've Epic at their throat. They've faught Microsoft over the XBox streaming issues tooth and nails. Sony and Nintendo are the only big players that don't actively fight them. I wouldn't call the situation great.

On Apple and Nvidia, it's a long story. They were in good terms, until the Metal transition where they cut ties in a very messy way, and we're all assuming there was a lot going on behind the curtain.

> macOS 10.14 Mojave required metal-compatible GPUs. At some point, during the macOS Mojave beta, Apple pulled Nvidia's ability to sign its code, which ended Nvidia's support for macOS in one spiteful, anti-competitive move. In order for GPUs to be Metal compatible, they needed drivers, and Nvidia wasn't able to release drivers.

> Nvidia publicly announced that it had working metal drivers on its forum, but Apple had revoked its developer license leaving the blame squarely at Apple's feet. Nvidia even called out apple on his support page but has now since modified it.

https://blog.greggant.com/posts/2021/10/13/apple-vs-nvidia-w...

Finally, those uppity blue-bubble iToddlers get their comeuppance!