It was always "owned" by the Chinese Bytedance, but the operation was split with most of the global operation run from Singapore and the Chinese operation run separately for regulation/censorship compliance. Now the US arm is also run separately for regulation/censorship compliance, but instead of getting the "no glorifying being rich" stuff we're getting "no talking about left of goebbels politics".

[–] quarrk@hexbear.net 18 points 4 days ago (2 children)

It must be more than a US-centric change because the app also changed here in EU.

[–] Carl@hexbear.net 7 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

Maybe the algo and stuff are different because of EU regulations? AFAIK TikTok Europe is still run from Singapore

[–] quarrk@hexbear.net 8 points 4 days ago

I received the fabled popup on my device on Jan 23 and the content immediately changed. That might be due to downloading from the US app store originally, yet in the past the algorithm was dependent on my physical location instead.

My feed definitely changed after the switch and I’m not in the US

[–] Valarie@lemmygrad.ml 5 points 4 days ago (1 children)

The eu and remainder of the world have experienced no changes, the changes were specifically the algorithm for displaying things to people in american territory and on us servers

[–] quarrk@hexbear.net 4 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Proof?

[–] Valarie@lemmygrad.ml 10 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Here is the statement from tiktok saying that it is united states specific

https://newsroom.tiktok.com/announcement-from-the-new-tiktok-usds-joint-venture-llc?lang=en

[–] quarrk@hexbear.net 3 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I’m certain that my app changed, but it might be due to which store I downloaded from. I’ll try downloading from an EU store and see if this fixes it.

[–] Valarie@lemmygrad.ml 3 points 4 days ago

I can't garuntee anything but if I'm reading it right that is what it says

[–] Commiechameleon@hexbear.net 4 points 4 days ago

O... I haven't been back on tik tok in a min, it was my lil rednote before rednote. But I was on briefly after it was turned off and on again and it WAS relatively similar. Mostly getting left wing takes and hasanabi clips. So idk what it's been turned into now. Will it flag anything like red sun in the sky, trotsky =lib, or hot maoists in my area?