I'm just waiting for someone to make an open-source TikTok analog that can just replace the functionality with a platform not controlled by a single party .. we still have that dream right, cryptonerds?
There are quite a few open source platforms that could be modified to technically replace TikTok. Peertube could probably be forked or modified to fill that gap. I do not believe that is the obstacle. Running a massive site like that is incredibly expensive, requires a lot of employees, servers, bandwidth, geographic locations, moderators and more moderators. Then there would be the fun that comes with creating a competing site to TikTok, dealing with all its followers and anyone that has a vested interest in TikTok especially when the alternative gains any popularity.
The only open source case I can think of that has some success is Mastodon and that is because it's creators let people launch their own mini communities but that is a different social model all together, probably closer to self hosted forums with a different UX/UI. TikTok's success comes from the centralized discoverability and its algorithms. Mastodon on the other hand is a fenced garden. Almost anyone can walk through the garden gate but AFAIK there is not a centralized search function for full discoverability.
I'd wager its just a matter of time until someone gloms a front-end to Mastodon that will do all the transcoding/transfer magic required to produce the same functionality. Lets see ..
I could see that being an option. It's totally doable technically. FFMpeg, some libraries, some code changes and then the Mastodon hosts will need more CPU, bandwidth and disk space. Maybe some of them already have some beefy servers. There is still the mater of discoverability. One could find video shorts in the same instance but AFAIK there is not a centralized search unless one is depending on Google.
Who is going to pay for that storage for all these crappy videos? It has to be stored somewhere which costs $$$. No open source solution will ever gain critical mass due to that.
Who's going to pay for that? Not only the software, but the video hosting, transcoding, etc.
And don't tell me you can do it with p2p - the entire point of tiktok is that you can load new videos by swiping your finger. If every video takes 10 seconds to begin buffering nobody will want to use your app.
I heard these same arguments about the Linux kernel, back in the days before it came along and ate everyones' lunch.
This app can be built, quite easily, by anyone motivated to do so. Just like the kernel, just like a distribution vendor, just like any one of the thousands of highly successful open source, community-oriented projects out there.
Seems like the best solution to the problem.