Alas, Poor Tik Tok!

Alas, poor Tik Tok! I knew him, America!

A platform of infinite cute puppies, of most excellent recipes. 

Tik Tok hath sat with me on my toilet a thousand times!

Forgive me the bastardization of Shakespeare's Hamlet but I am in mourning on this 19th of January, as Tik Tok has gone into the ethereal darkness of a digital purgatory lest it be in violation of American law. 

So the deal is that Congress passed a law that ByteDance would need to divest itself of it's controlling interest in Tik Tok or the platform would not be allowed to continue in the United States.

Ostensibly for reasons of national security.

ByteDance is a Chinese company.

And Congress got itself in a tizzy of a snit that the Chinese government might demand ByteDance to share data it has collected on over 170 million American who use Tik Tok?  

In a big ol' "fuck you" to Congress, a lot of Tik Tok users are signing up for Red Note which is actually owned and operated by the Chinese government.  

The Supreme Court ruled not to over turn the ban on Friday but it wasn't clear the justices understood what Tik Tok is.

Clarence Thomas: "Tik Tok? Is than an...  internet?"    

The raisin d'etre given was national security but let's get real for a minute:

1) The Tik Tok ban was straight up driven by good old fashioned racism against the Chinese. 

2) No one seems concerned about privacy and security on other social media platforms like X (Twitter) and Meta (Facebook) that harvest more data than Tik Tok does.   

3) The ban also potentially set the stage for an American tech bro (like Zuckerberg or Musk) to swoop in and buy Tik Tok on the cheap.  

4) Congress persons who voted for the Tik Tok ban own shares in Meta.   

Tik Tok is a very popular app and flies in the face of the will of half the population of the United States.  The other half is still using America Online.  

Clarence Thomas's computer: "You've got mail!"    

I will miss Tik Tok.

I will miss....

Cute babies

Cute babies giggling while playing with....

Cute dogs

Cute puppies who become dogs!!!

Rescue dogs who find joy when they find forever homes!

DOGS!   

Cute kittens!

Cats who do not give a fuck but look cute anyway! 

Penguins! 

And ducks and cows and pigs and goats...

Oh my God! The capybara! I will miss the capybara!!!

And Kelly! 

What will I do without Kelly? 

Kelly is a young woman, a gorgeous brunette whose accouterments include shorts skirts and heels who walks by a camera in an office or in a cafe or in the park and she...

Smiles.

At me! 

Sometime she speaks to me, says she hopes I'm a having a good day.  As she walks past, sometimes she glances back over her shoulder for one more sly smile. 

I...

I...

I love this woman! 

She smiles at me! 

Tik Tok cannot go! DON'T TAKE KELLY AWAY FROM ME!!!!

...

...

<Sorry, need to take a moment>  

...

...

Anyway....

I don't know, maybe Tik Tok needed to go. 

It ate up a lot of my time.  

There are quite a lot of cute puppies out there and I lose so much time watching them scamper with other puppies and kittens and babies and....

If Kelly walks by giving me a sly smile and while holding a puppy....

That would be peak Tik Tok and I don't think I could stand that.

I would melt into a puddle of goo.  

If the ride is indeed over for Tik Tok....

And it does seem to be...

Alas, poor Tik Tok! I knew him, America!