Tag Archives: tiktok

In Ohio, Vandalism Isn’t Vandalism If a Flock Safety Camera is Involved

Cody Morelock got himself in trouble with police in Ohio in June.

“Cody Morelock was accused of damaging the camera on Mount Carmel-Tobasco Road near Glenrose Lane on June 13, according to Union Township police.

“Investigators alleged Morelock removed bolts securing the camera system, bringing down the camera, solar panel and support pole before destroying the equipment.”

Oh, and one more thing. The camera was a Flock Safety camera.

Morelock was identified by other cameras, and his case was brought before a grand jury. (I don’t know why it went to a grand jury rather than having a district attorney file charges directly. Someone enlighten me.)

The grand jury took a surprising action.

“A Clermont County grand jury declined to indict Morelock on felony charges.”

Huh? There was evidence that suggested Morelock did the deed, and the grand jury said, “So what?” Which is rare; grand juries usually indict.

Now theoretically the prosecutor can bring the case before another grand jury, or could directly file charges and bypass the grand jury altogether. But the actions of THIS grand jury suggest that the DA might not get a conviction. And DAs hate to lose.

And Flock Safety probably wouldn’t file a civil case against Morelock. The damage was around $1,000, and it would cost much more than that to file.

So we’re going to see trending stories about destroying Flock Safety cameras—if not total destruction, then less lethal actions such as bagging the cameras.

Google Gemini.

Maybe it will become a TikTok challenge.

When Companies Can’t Target Prospects Under Age 16

If you’re on a platform such as Facebook, you sometimes receive advertisements that are VERY specific. Such as, “This is the perfect drink holder for California white males over the age of 50!” It’s almost as if they know everything about you…because they do.

Unless you implement privacy restrictions and don’t allow platform advertisers to reference your personal information.

Of course, if the advertiser isn’t able to narrowcast directly to you, the advertiser will broadcast to everybody.

And Facebook will start showing you advertisements in Chinese.

Qiaobi.

And if you complain to Facebook and ask why you’re seeing Chinese ads, Facebook will simply reply, “We are prohibited from using your personal information. Since there are a billion Chinese, we take a guess that you’re Chinese and show you those ads.”

Which brings us to age and social media.

The Under 16s Are Blocklisted

Back when Marky Mark created The Facebook, he initially targeted college-age users. But as time went on, Facebook and its competitors started aiming for younger ages.

This makes sense. Advertisers want to target consumers who are suspectible to changing their minds and are not set in their ways. So while a super kewl soft drink manufacturer isn’t going to target me, it is going to target 18 year olds…and 16 year olds…and 14 year olds…and 12 year olds.

A recent DKC report stated that 42% of all household spending is influenced by 8- to 14-year-olds, and that this age group is DIRECTLY spending over $100 billion per year.

So you can bet that advertisers are clamoring to purchase ad time on Facebook, TikTok, and the other social media services to get a pipeline to the brains of these 8 to 14 year olds…whoops, 12 to 14 year olds, since most social media services require you to be at least 12 years old to have an account.

But what if access to that entire age group is cut off entirely?

We’re seeing all over the world that jurisdictions are enacting or trying to enact bans on the use of social media for people under 16 years of age. The latest country to propose such a move is Indonesia:

“Authorities in the country, which is Southeast Asia’s largest economy, said Friday they expect social media platforms to deactivate the accounts of under-16s from March 28, starting with YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bigo Live and Roblox.”

In other words, all the popular sites that teens love.

And in certain jurisdictions, the companies will implement age verification and age estimation technology to ensure that kids don’t like about their ages to get in.

Assuming these prohibitions stand, this causes a huge problem for B2C marketers that target teens: how do you market to them when the direct pipelines to this age group are cut off?

I’m just thankful that Bredemarket and its clients sell to adults. You don’t really see 13 year olds buying biometric technology.

Conceptualization of the Planet Bredemarket and Its Rings

Inspired by the Constant Contact session I attended at the Small Business Expo, I wanted to conceptualize the Bredemarket online presence, and decided to adopt a “planet with rings” model.

Think of Bredemarket as a planet. Like Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Jupiter, the planet Bredemarket is surrounded by rings.

Google Gemini.

The closest ring to the planet is the Bredemarket mailing list (MailChimp).

The next closest ring is the Bredemarket website (WordPress).

Moving outward, we find the following rings:

  • Search engines and generative AI tools, including Bing, ChatGPT, Google, Grok, Perplexity, and others.
  • The Bredemarket Facebook page and associated groups.
  • The Bredemarket LinkedIn page and associated showcase pages.
  • A variety of social platforms, including Bluesky, Instagram, Substack, and Threads.
  • Additional social platforms, including TikTok, WhatsApp, and YouTube.

While this conceptualization is really only useful to me, I thought a few of you may be interested in some of the “inner rings.”

And if you’re wondering why your favorite way cool platform is banished to the outer edges…well, that’s because it doesn’t make Bredemarket any money. I’ve got a business to run here, and TikTok doesn’t help me pay the bills…

Flip is Gone: This Isn’t Gonna Be Good Any More

For the past few months I have been posting some of Bredemarket’s reels on Flip, but my (mostly) business-related reels didn’t resonate with Flip’s consumer-oriented audience.

Now Flip has shut down.

(Which makes my posting life easier, to be honest, but I will keep the app on my phone for a bit just in case someone with money buys the company’s assets.)

Is Instagram next?

No, seriously.

What if you based your entire business model on a single social media channel…and it suddenly disappeared?

I’m looking at you, TikTok people.

Are All Your Eggs in One Social Basket?

(Imagen 4)

If your strategy is solely based upon a single platform such as TikTok, CapCut, Substack, Canva, or any other, you’ve already lost by putting all your eggs in one social basket.

Social dependence

My Saturday TikTok post got me thinking about companies whose entire STRATEGY is based on TikTok.

Not tactics.

Strategy.

  • Even though the chance remains that TikTok may be banned in the United States, as it is already banned in India…and is not available in China.
  • Or the companies that depend on CapCut who may have just surrendered their intellectual rights. Oh, and CapCut may be banned in the United States also.
  • Or the people that are so thrilled with Substack that they are stopping all other social media activity and concentrating solely on Substack.
  • Or the companies (I know of one) who base their strategy solely on Canva.

Or you can cite any other platform, dependence upon which could devastate your business overnight.

So own your own website and mailing list…right?

Well, at least Bredemarket doesn’t have to worry about losing access to my prospects and customers.

Even if I lose access to every single social media service, I still have my WordPress website and my MailChimp mailing list. 

So I am 100% insulated, right? 

Um, right?

OK, guess I’m threatened also.

Omnichannel distribution

In the biometric world, we talk about five factors of authentication and identity verification. If you depend upon a single factor, you’re in trouble. But using multiple factors lessens the risk.

Similarly, if you distribute your content via multiple channels, then a threat to any single channel doesn’t put you out of business.

(Sales pitch incoming)

And your distributed content can take multiple forms. Blogs. Case studies. White papers. Social content on multiple channels.

Assuming you actually create the content.

Or get someone to help you create it.

(Told you there would be a sales pitch.)

So rather than reading Bredemarket’s sales pitch (call to action), why don’t we work on creating yours? Click the image below and reserve a free meeting time.

CPA
Bredemarket’s “CPA.”

CVE 2026

As I mentioned earlier, funding for the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures program was extended. The details:

“The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said that Mitre, which has run the CVE Program since its launch in 1999, can continue to do so until early March 2026. 

“This is a temporary solution. Clearly, the U.S. government wants to get rid of CISA paying for the CVE program. Someone else needs to seize the funding and governance reigns, and the opportunity to do so allows for creating a less U.S.-centric endeavor.”

If a new funding mechanism can ensure technical program continuity—while at the same time providing the $30 million business continuity by shielding the program from the chaotic whims of one country and one person—then this could be a long term solution.

The cybersecurity ecosystem has a little over 10 months to figure out how to fund the CVE program beginning in 2026.

Which means that nothing of substance will get done for the next 9 months. (How’s that TikTok sale going?)

Well, maybe North Korea will volunteer to fund the program…

(Imagen 3)

TikTok Uncertainty…Again

Celina Moreno is the CEO and Co-Founder of Luna Marketing Services. And I always forget her name, so when I see her in Luna Marketing Services’ Instagram videos, I always call her “Luna.”

But she’s not only a video creator.

Today Moreno wrote a post on something that many social media people are thinking about right now: “How To Survive Your Second TikTok Ban.”

You remember the first TikTok ban, which had the same outcome as your usual “fights” between cable/satellite providers and content channels. Everyone gets all excited, but then they all kiss and make up.

Except with TikTok, we have to go through it all over again. And maybe again after that.

I’m not going to steal Luna’s…I mean Moreno’s post, but I do want to quote a brief excerpt.

We are now not in the hands of the Supreme Court or the legal system. We are in the hands of the current administration, a potential deal, and fate….

Unlike January’s drawn-out drama after the Supreme Court ruling upholding the ban, nothing is certain yet, but the pressure is mounting. For many, this feels like a countdown to an uncertain future.

April 5th might not be doomsday—but it could be the day the countdown gets real. There are still a lot of unknowns.

Read the rest here.

And if anyone finds any certainty, let me know. Yes, I know about death and taxes, but the IRS has been DOGEd…