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India bans TikTok, WeChat, and dozens of other Chinese apps

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Re: India bans TikTok, WeChat, and dozens of other Chinese apps

#591

Post by el_dev_hell »

pm90 wrote: post #578
kumarski wrote: post #403

Disclaimer: This is not investment advice, this is lunatic gambling advice from a systems engineer with a background in polymers who is an American born Indian. Tibet quenches the thirst of 3Bn people through ~10 rivers in SE Asia. Kashmir and Tibet are red hot conflict zones and this is through and through a contest of freshwater. This is a powder keg unlike any other and this scenario is collateral shrapnel. China…

Yes, obviously, long term intense military conflict between nuclear powers leads in incredible security. While both countries engage in Sabre rattling, its inconceivable that there would be an arms race of the kind that would cause a significant change in the stock price of defense contractors. A more likely scenario is the upcoming Biden administration steps in and bullies China and/or India into backing down. The h…

> A more likely scenario is the upcoming Biden administration steps in and bullies China and/or India into backing down.

Australian here wayyyyyy out of the US political loop. Is Joe Biden looking likely to win? Has he been promising a hard-line stance on China?

Re: India bans TikTok, WeChat, and dozens of other Chinese apps

#592

Post by cocktailpeanuts »

ianleeclark wrote: post #57
saltedonion wrote: post #42

India is absolutely right in banning TikTok as it is a significant national securities threat. As long as the platforms recommendation and ranking algos are a black box, there is no guarantee that China isn’t conducting misinformation campaigns via the platform. At the very least, the government should audit the algos and make sure China can’t arbitrarily alter ranking results.

Are YouTube algorithms open? I don't really see a difference here. Nation state vs. private corporation is different on paper, but I don't see why. They're both going to react to material stimuli to increase their standings.

China is a special case because they are among the very few number of countries in the world where the government openly controls the media and the private companies.

A U.S. company like Twitter even bans the U.S. president's posts on their platform, and so does Facebook. Something like that is impossible in China as whoever does that will instantly get shut down. Think about the implication of this. This means you have to assume that any Chinese tech company will have to comply when the government tells them to spread some propaganda through their media.

This is what has been called in a science fiction as "information warfare", and it can be even more catastrophic than a real war, but I don't think most people realize this because they've never seen one before. What's even scarier is that even as this is happening, nobody knows this is happening, which is worse than a war because, unlike a physical war where everything is visible, one country can "attack" another country without anyone else realizing, causing a huge damage to their economy.

Re: India bans TikTok, WeChat, and dozens of other Chinese apps

#593

Post by sudosysgen »

dsabanin wrote: post #553
xmprt wrote: post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

YouTube's algorithm suppresses LGBTQ content more than usual which is something that most people agree shouldn't be suppressed. At the same time, I don't think it's because advertisers want to suppress the content. I just think it's a bug with YouTube's algorithm.

Could it be that it’s just not as popular as one might think?

No. Keeping out LGBT related keywords was shown to increase their performance.

Re: India bans TikTok, WeChat, and dozens of other Chinese apps

#594

Post by SllX »

ianleeclark wrote: post #57
saltedonion wrote: post #42

India is absolutely right in banning TikTok as it is a significant national securities threat. As long as the platforms recommendation and ranking algos are a black box, there is no guarantee that China isn’t conducting misinformation campaigns via the platform. At the very least, the government should audit the algos and make sure China can’t arbitrarily alter ranking results.

Are YouTube algorithms open? I don't really see a difference here. Nation state vs. private corporation is different on paper, but I don't see why. They're both going to react to material stimuli to increase their standings.

Nation states have military, intelligence, diplomacy and police corps. They reserve the power to stop, detain, arrest, jail, try, sentence, imprison, and kill. That’s why how we go about those things is a Big Deal, and why we have so many rules about who can go about it, how, under what circumstances, what the laws are that they’re enforcing, what the processes and procedures are for enforcement and how guilt is determined.

Corporations as a rule, and there have been exceptions, but as a rule have none of those powers. Theoretically the worst crimes they’re going to commit are fraudulent in nature and crimes of negligence. They’re not just a separate org chart ultimately serving as a private arm of the State with its own private rules that it self-enforces; they’re different beasts entirely.

The problem with PRC-based corporations is that they muddy the waters entirely between what is private and public. As far as the PRC is concerned, all private life is subject to the State and should serve the interests of the State. Google and Facebook and your favorite café or tea house can and do have interests that lie entirely outside of the State and are free to pursue them. That is the difference between a free society and an authoritarian State.

Re: India bans TikTok, WeChat, and dozens of other Chinese apps

#595

Post by kilroy_jones »

tshaddox wrote: post #209
saltedonion wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have a good point. But TikTok is much more risky, and as as such requires much more scrutiny given existing body of knowledge between how chinese social media / chat companies such as WeChat enforce government censorship and aid in propagating misinformation. This might be a shock to most people in the western world, but if you go on almost ANY news website in china, the headline news is dedicated to government p…

> This might be a shock to most people in the western world, but if you go on almost ANY news website in china, the headline news is dedicated to government propaganda. Those people would be even more shocked by the extent to which this is true in the western world as well.

Not even remotely true. The West has myriad choices to choose from in comparison. I don't think you understand how in sync the media is there. They'll literally run identical stories at the same time on every major network, and publish the same set of stories in their papers day after day.

Re: India bans TikTok, WeChat, and dozens of other Chinese apps

#596

Post by sudosysgen »

suyash wrote: post #485
SuoDuanDao wrote: post #473

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's be honest here; if India's relations with USA had soured to the same degree as with PRC, Youtube would be the one getting banned.

USA and India are friends unlike CCP which can't be trusted by anyone.

No one in the entire world with half a brain trusts the US, or any state for that matter. Too much backstabbing. Ask the Kurds.

Re: India bans TikTok, WeChat, and dozens of other Chinese apps

#597

Post by kilroy_jones »

xster wrote: post #162
mathnmusic wrote: post #80

I think this sort of response was inevitable and will be seen in more and more nations. China bans most of the popular websites and apps (including Wikipedia). The most recent trigger was the border standoff between India and China where Indian citizens could see and read both governments' responses, but Chinese citizens were only told Chinese govt's talking points. This seems like yet another instance of the paradox…

Though if you apply your argument with rigor and reciprocity was in play, more countries should ban american social media which censors geopolitical rivals https://thegrayzone.com/2020/01/12/us-pressure-social-media-...

So you're equating the banning of accounts to the blocking of the majority of internet?

Re: India bans TikTok, WeChat, and dozens of other Chinese apps

#599

Post by pm90 »

el_dev_hell wrote: post #591
pm90 wrote: post #578

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, obviously, long term intense military conflict between nuclear powers leads in incredible security. While both countries engage in Sabre rattling, its inconceivable that there would be an arms race of the kind that would cause a significant change in the stock price of defense contractors. A more likely scenario is the upcoming Biden administration steps in and bullies China and/or India into backing down. The h…

> A more likely scenario is the upcoming Biden administration steps in and bullies China and/or India into backing down. Australian here wayyyyyy out of the US political loop. Is Joe Biden looking likely to win? Has he been promising a hard-line stance on China?

He’s up by wide margins in the polls so statistically, yes.

Although, as the 2016 election showed, polls may not always be reliable.

Re: India bans TikTok, WeChat, and dozens of other Chinese apps

#600

Post by verdverm »

chinesempire wrote: post #540
verdverm wrote: post #457

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone has problems, your comment is off topic and does not enhance the conversation.

> Everyone has problems But very few countries have homicide rates worse than US and lower life expectancy, despite having the highest spending per capita in health care in the World So maybe before criticizing, fix your own problems. Assuming you can.

https://www.worldometers.info/demographics/life-expectancy/

25th percentile means 3/4 of the worlds nations have a lower life expectancy. If the concepts of many and few have switched, I might consider thinking about things you have posted the last few days.

Given your strong sentiments against several groups of people in blanket statements, I suspect you will find yourself consistently down voted and flagged when you speak like this.

Your tone has also been consistently combative, likely another reason you are being down voted

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