back to article Tokkers can Tok like Tweeters can Tweet – for now

Chinese short video platform TikTok announced yesterday it will offer text-based content – a feature that mimics capabilities of various other social media sites, including what is formerly known as Twitter, Meta's Threads and even Instagram. "Creators have been able to make content on TikTok across a variety of formats – from …

  1. Disgusted Of Tunbridge Wells
    Holmes

    Disillusioned by Twitter no longer trying to fix elections by covering up inconvenient truths and no longer banning people for disagreeing with the party policy?

    Use the Chinese Communist Party's Twitter knockoff instead.

    ( obviously )

    1. bombastic bob Silver badge
      Black Helicopters

      Yes but the CCP one comes with "Social Credit Score" for future reference!!! (you just can't see it)

  2. GioCiampa

    "While Threads was launched as a completely new platform"

    Not necessarily true, given the mandatory Instagram account requirement (at present) it might as well just be a text-based expansion.

    1. Hans Neeson-Bumpsadese Silver badge

      Re: "While Threads was launched as a completely new platform"

      I've hardly seen any text-only posts on Threads. Mostly people seem to have signed up to Threads on the back of Instagram and are just posting the same content on both platforms.

      1. GioCiampa

        Re: "While Threads was launched as a completely new platform"

        There is a lot of mirroring going on, that is true, but I'll wager that they'll also have also been doing the same on other sites too, for the exact same reason.

        1. schultzter

          Re: "While Threads was launched as a completely new platform"

          It's just really frustrating on Threads because you automatically follow the same people on Instagram so you start out with 90% overlap!

  3. Pascal Monett Silver badge
    WTF?

    "specific bans for some, such as government employees"

    Government employes have nothing to do on Tik Tok or any other non-governmental service with their government-issued hardware and software.

    Why is that such an issue ?

    The only problem is that government agencies aren't capable of locking down their software properly.

    Go work for a bank and see if you can access Tik Tok on your company profile.

    Go ahead, I dare you.

    1. MiguelC Silver badge

      Re: "specific bans for some, such as government employees"

      Some of us do, as some of the banks already have a foot in there... https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/financial-giants-tiptoe-into-tiktok-2022-05-12/

    2. iron

      Re: "specific bans for some, such as government employees"

      I guarantee that IF I worked for a bank and IF I wanted to use social media, Tiky Toky or otherwise, that I would be able to do so.

      There isn't a corporate IT dept I can't get around if I want to.

  4. Howard Sway Silver badge

    Text is the latest addition to options for content creation

    Wow, can't wait to try out this exciting new multimedia format, "text".

    You never know, it might catch on : "Hey dude, check out this text stuff : it's, like, quicker than watching a video...".

    1. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge

      Re: Text is the latest addition to options for content creation

      I hate it when you look for instructions for something and all you can find is a Youtube video. There are some cases where video instruction is genuinely better. A picture being worth 1,000 words, and all that. But when you need technical data or organised / complex information, a video doesn't cut it.

      Alternatively...

      Ugg! This modern text thingy will never catch on! Just like I said about that fire thingy. "Ooh but it keeps us so warm." As next door used to go on-and-on about to everyone who'd listen. Which is all very well until you set fire to your bearskin leotard...

      If you can't get your point across by shouting "Ugg!" and hitting people over the head with clubs, then you're not trying hard enough! It was good enough for Grandad, and it's good enough for us!

      Now where did I put that wheel thingymajig? I've got to review it for 'What Cave Monthly' by next week or the editor says he's going to feed my to his sabretooth tiger.

      1. katrinab Silver badge
        Meh

        Re: Text is the latest addition to options for content creation

        Even there, text + annotated photos is generally better, as it is a lot easier to refer back that way than on a video.

      2. elkster88
        Facepalm

        Re: Text is the latest addition to options for content creation

        "I hate it when you look for instructions for something and all you can find is a Youtube video".

        And in 90+ percent of those supposedly instructional videos, the crucial thing you needed to see is badly lit, only appears for one or two frames, is out of focus, and the camera operator has an advanced case of St. Vitus' dance.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Pointless

    Tik Tok generated a profit of $25 billion last year. Twitter has never generated a profit. Could this be the reason Sumerian civilization (progenitor of written language) collapsed?

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