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U.S. looking at banning Chinese social media apps, including TikTok

reuters.com

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Re: U.S. looking at banning Chinese social media apps, including TikTok

#41

Post by coliveira »

SpicyLemonZest wrote: post #6
ikmoss wrote: post #2

Will US abolish all other Chinese digital presence including Alibaba etc?

The US government almost certainly doesn't have the power to do that. (It's not tremendously clear how they'd even be able to ban Tiktok; they'd have a hard time getting Apple and Google to take it off the app store and an impossible time convincing Internet providers to block it.)

Since the beginning of the "tensions" with China people keep pushing the same key: "the government cannot do this, they don't have the authority, the constitution blah". And every time they have been proven wrong, as Trump has established travel bans, restricted visas, put people in concentration camps, imposed tariffs, and who knows what they will do next. People that keep pretending that freedoms are not eroding are just exercising wishful thinking.

Re: U.S. looking at banning Chinese social media apps, including TikTok

#42

Post by lightgreen »

sschueller wrote: post #39
lightgreen wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google is 1000 times more transparent company than ByteDance. It is OK to use US services for non-US countries.

Says the USA... "You can trust us, we don't listen on your foreign leaders". Come on, that ship has sailed years ago.

It was US government agencies, not private companies who were spying. So, to clarify, other countries can use US private company services, but should not blindly trust their secret data to the US government.

Re: U.S. looking at banning Chinese social media apps, including TikTok

#43

Post by drak0n1c »

SpicyLemonZest wrote: post #16
codezero wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just ask the app stores to ban them. The US couldn’t do anything more sophisticated right now, and that would solve most of their concerns.

Why would the app stores agree to do that? Apple in particular is pretty well-known for refusing invasive government requests.

Apple regularly punishes privacy-invasive apps, and also apps that they and other tech giants deem misinformation (all apps are banned from presenting COVID-19 data, Infowars was deplatformed, etc). While they do stand up to OS-level encryption-breaking requests, they don't necessarily have a problem with banning apps.

Re: U.S. looking at banning Chinese social media apps, including TikTok

#44

Post by rottingfruit »

mxcrossb wrote: post #20
core-questions wrote: post #3

So this is how it's going to happen - with every country banning each other's social media apps, we will enter into a future of digital borders, limited speech, and broken international relations. All in the name of making sure people don't dare think some wrongthink.

On that note, this will be tough for people with relatives in China, since they might lose their only way to chat for free. You also lose a channel for pushing your own propaganda to other countries. Here’s an idea: what if you forced any app that goes across borders to be open source and implement decentralized encryption of all data? This is a joke of course....

Tik tok isn’t allowed in China as far as I know.

Re: U.S. looking at banning Chinese social media apps, including TikTok

#46

Post by lightgreen »

dicomdan wrote: post #40
lightgreen wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is kind of dictatorship. US could achieve the same effect without banning, eg by forcing stores to display warnings to users about where their data and what data is being send. That would be a reasonable compromise between freedom and safety.

It's like saying we should allow unregulated fentanyl sales on the streets as long as drug dealers provide a disclaimer to the addicted.

We should allow unregulated fentanyl sales as long as we provide cheap regulated fentanyl sales as well as drugs and services to deal with addiction. This way we will kill drug mafia and drug related crimes and reduce the numbers of addicted people.

Re: U.S. looking at banning Chinese social media apps, including TikTok

#47

Post by HenryBemis »

core-questions wrote: post #15
bruceb wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TikTok can already limit your speech. If you "wrong think" on their you would be booted.

Of course. But Facebook limits our speech just as much, no?

Facebook, on the front end, manipulates what you see just to piss you off and increase "user engagement". On the back end it collects and sells data to anyone with money (see Cambridge Analytica, and whoever else). It is a filthy game, but a different game. They don't filter/block what you say/write, unless you go very extreme with your opinions posts.

To ensure that I am not defending Facebook, it is a filthy company, with filthy management, and filthy agendas. Unfortunately they provide the 1-2-5-10 useful features that have captured some audience that would have otherwise dropped them.

Re: U.S. looking at banning Chinese social media apps, including TikTok

#48

Post by rdlecler1 »

actuator wrote: post #14
codezero wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just ask the app stores to ban them. The US couldn’t do anything more sophisticated right now, and that would solve most of their concerns.

Has there been any precedence of US banning an app/website without some clear violation of law?

This is a national security issue.

Re: U.S. looking at banning Chinese social media apps, including TikTok

#49

Post by unishark »

coliveira wrote: post #33

Welcome to dictatorship. Government will now start to ban all kinds of apps they don't want.

Dictatorship means the dictator makes the laws. This is a case of the executive branch interpreting laws passed by congress (presumably national security laws here) and which has to be defended in court if challenged.
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