Platforms

I built myself a TikTokToJsonFeed tool a month ago to follow some profiles, because I don’t want to install the app or create myself an account there. That tool uses a JavaScript library called tiktok-scraper. Unfortunately TikTok changed some things in the UI or unofficial API and now the scraper is broken. This and the fact that platforms like TikTok or Instagram (and many more) block IPs when they detect scrapers is actually a big warning sign. ⚠️ Such platforms don’t want to do anything but keep users on them, show them ads and make the big bucks.

There are platforms that are a bit more open for scrapers: Telegram added support to view a channels content even without installing the app and there’s an RSS-Bridge too. But it would be even better if platforms would offer direct feeds (like Medium does for example) (no matter if RSS, Atom, JSON Feed or any other format). I would even go so far as to say that most users have never heard of feeds anyway, and those who would use a feed reader would also have an ad blocker.

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