[BoorishBears]

To play devil's advocate... the most common way to end up in the in-app browser is to click an ad.

Non-technical people don't have a concept of "in app browser sandboxing". In their minds they clicked on an ad, they're still inside TikTok, TikTok's UI is showing, TikTok will show prompts based on the content shown... they probably assume TikTok has access to that page?

Honestly I'm more annoyed that Apple allows big apps to use the loophole that is the legacy webview than I am that TikTok uses that webview to do the exact single thing it's good for... having full control over the web content you're showing in app.

[weird-eye-issue]

How do you know that's the most common way?

Because I doubt it is. People click links in chats and in their feeds way more than they click ads

[BoorishBears]

That is completely wrong since most users cannot post a website link (hotlink if I need to spell that out...), let alone in a comment.

The only way for a non-ad link to be opened from comments is to copy it and paste it in your native browser.

Business accounts get a special link field that's part of their bio, so again, deeply embedded in TikTok... and those behave exactly like the ads do. TikTok has a permanent "Flag" UI on top of the site, they replace every page load with a TikTok spinner

As expected half the people outraged don't even know what they're outraged about.

[weird-eye-issue]

It's ironic how you were being condescending when you used the term hotlink ("if I need to spell it out...") and yet used the term incorrectly

[BoorishBears]

Ironic that you latch onto a completely inconsequential mistake to divert from the fact you had no idea what you were talking about.

[weird-eye-issue]

I just didn't feel like further arguing.

In that guy's other comment he was talking about Meta/Facebook too which is what I'm most familiar with and was primarily referring to about people clicking on links.

Even with TikTok I bet people click on profile links more than ads

Also that's not ironic, maybe you are thinking of another word

[BoorishBears]

The entire thread from the parent is about TikTok.

And "you bet" wrong, since the profile links are only enabled for business accounts.

But you're right about one thing: it was not at all ironic you'd deflect. It's exactly what I'd expect after someone misses what a thread about and makes assumptions about a subject they don't know.

That was some people call sarcasm.