[godtoldmetodoit]

My personal feeling is that Tiktok is better then most other social media for the end users emotional state, at least based on my wife's usage.

From a spying perspective, I tend to agree with you as well.

That said - China doesn't let FB or Twitter in their country, why the hell should the US let them in ours? To me it is akin to letting them buy the NY Times or CNN. They may be benign now, but if tensions were to continue mounting, they could greatly influence the content a significant portion of people in the US are receiving. I see 0 reason to trust them with that power.

[jfengel]

Is there any reason to think that positivity will continue to hold? Or is TikTok just getting its grace period before griefers, trolls, and paranoiacs move in?

If the Chinese government is going to aggressively moderate TikTok to keep that out... uh, cool, I guess. I'd be happy to see some popular entertainment that doesn't devolve into a screaming match. But it's a lot of work, and reduces audience (i.e. revenue).

[throw57654]

TikTok is also banned in China.

Bytedance has an isolated version called Douyin.

I believe if FB or Twitter created specific versions that comply with China’s laws, they would be allowed.