Trump says he will ban TikTok through executive action • Hacker News Board

Re: Trump says he will ban TikTok through executive action

#101

Post by akersten » Sat, Aug 01, 2020, 3:55 AM UTC

grazhero99 wrote: post #88

akersten wrote: post #2

Under what authority? A dozen paragraphs in the article and not one questioning whether he can actually do this. What would such an executive action look like? An EO to Apple and Google to de-list the app from their stores? Why should they comply? What's he going to do when ByteDance uploads the .apk somewhere? Sick of media treating this man like a zoo exhibit instead of the advanced persistent threat to US democrac…

> advanced persistent threat to US democracy I don't see what this has to do with our electoral system. That seems like a rather narrow and emotionally charged stance to take on this issue in my opinion.

The executive branch taking wild swings to impose rules that even congress would struggle to pass through constitutional review, is a threat to the democratic principles on which the US is based.

Re: Trump says he will ban TikTok through executive action

#102

Post by free_rms » Sat, Aug 01, 2020, 3:55 AM UTC

dimitrios1 wrote: post #99

free_rms wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pardon my phrasing, but that's some bullshit buck-passing. If 100 russians or whomever can subvert our democracy, we never really had it together to begin with, did we? Maybe, and this sounds crazy, but maybe it's domestic people trying to whip up a fallacious outside threat for insider political reasons. A totally unheard of phenomenon.

Considering spies and espionage literally turned the tide of two world wars, you might be selling the effectiveness of it short when conducted at a nation-state level. Again to your reply, I don't think you understand how pervasive and wide reaching it has become. We are talking about entire groups of protesters and counter-protesters being organized and subsequently funded through donation platforms solely by foreig…

This isn't cracking enigma, this is shit-posting on social media.

I'm fine with the fun and games and industrial espionage, let the best man win. It's not a threat to our democracy unless our democracy is critically weak. Where's the accountability?

Re: Trump says he will ban TikTok through executive action

#103

Post by bluecalm » Sat, Aug 01, 2020, 3:55 AM UTC

shiado wrote: post #80

Dems are in a rough spot on this one, it will be hard to attack an action against an app with documented CCP/PLA involvement when they went so hard against FB for their inaction on use of the platform by foreign powers.

Why would they want to defend it? Addictive social media app based in China being forced to go is beneficial for everyone. It's even better if you're not the one removing rights so the blame goes to your political opponent.

Re: Trump says he will ban TikTok through executive action

#104

Post by busymom0 » Sat, Aug 01, 2020, 3:56 AM UTC

coding123 wrote: post #24

I think the biggest thing that bugs me is that the American public didn't let Vine grow and make money. Instead we're either banning and blocking TTok or giving China a huge amount of money. I don't like giving China money. Ban them

The creators of Vine actually launched a Tiktok competitor few months ago. I think it is called Byte:

https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/byte-app/id1441800002

Re: Trump says he will ban TikTok through executive action

#105

Post by markus_zhang » Sat, Aug 01, 2020, 3:56 AM UTC

nan0 wrote: post #49

Could this be the same as a tit for tat measure like with tariffs? China has banned a lot of US services and forced US corporations to pull content from their stores too [0] [1]. Genuinely asking and want to remain open-minded about this. 0: https://www.gadgetsnow.com/slideshows/10-popular-apps-and-we... 1: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.news18.com/amp/news/tech/ch...

Just consider this: You have FB and other stuffs and can influence the world with it. They are very valuable propaganda channels and political tools and you can push whatever message on them to influence hundreds of millions of people.

Now someone else banned those channels so that you lose the edge. Not only that, the other guy also creates something similarly popular and wait -- it is not under your control!

What would you do?

Re: Trump says he will ban TikTok through executive action

#106

Post by ApolloFortyNine » Sat, Aug 01, 2020, 3:56 AM UTC

Not even getting into the CCP ties, it's always struck me as unfair that Western social media companies are banned in China, while Chinese ones have been able to compete Worldwide.

In a way this gives Chinese apps an immediate advantage (as some are indirectly calling out in this comment section). If you want to reach out to someone in China, you have to use a Chinese company's app. Since social media is mostly a winner take all (or at least has a major snowball affect), this helps the Chinese social media company's grow even bigger. Now you already have one social media app for contacting people in China installed, why not use that app for contacting others?

Re: Trump says he will ban TikTok through executive action

#107

Post by busymom0 » Sat, Aug 01, 2020, 3:57 AM UTC

kortilla wrote: post #74

busymom0 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t think this will just be the app itself. It will be network traffic based.

I don’t think there is infrastructure in place in the US to prevent access to an IP space.

Shouldn’t this be a very basic thing to do network wise?

Re: Trump says he will ban TikTok through executive action

#108

Post by Elidrake24 » Sat, Aug 01, 2020, 3:57 AM UTC

softwaredoug wrote: post #84

OK is this legitimately happening? Or is it something Trump randomly spouted out to a reporter?

Welcome to US politics for the past 3 and a half years. It’s a hell of a thing not knowing how serious anything he says means on any given day, imagine being on the other side of his fence when it comes to human rights.

Re: Trump says he will ban TikTok through executive action

#109

Post by postingawayonhn » Sat, Aug 01, 2020, 3:58 AM UTC

busymom0 wrote: post #91

rydre wrote: post #53

If there is any rule of law in the country, this should be against the constitution. If the US does this, they'll be losing a lot of goodwill founders from other countries have about the US. The US is uniquely thought of as a part of every country for business. If you're from third world country but you'd like to do a tech business in the US, you're free to do so without much hurdles by the government. Open competiti…

Australia, India have already banned it. UK is probably next too. How exactly is this against the constitution? Was banning Huawei unconstitutional too?

You're going to need a source for Australia banning it.

Re: Trump says he will ban TikTok through executive action

#110

Post by jhanschoo » Sat, Aug 01, 2020, 3:58 AM UTC

hooande wrote: post #97

Lammy wrote: post #67

I'm curious what they know about TikTok that isn't public. This seems too drastic for just trade posturing.

TikTok is basically a tool of [SOME NATION]'s military intelligence. Not going to say which nation, but this is well known in the security community

Why should I trust you with this claim and that

> this is well known in the security community

? It's a tall order to trust such a serious claim from a pseudonymous person. Please furnish some reasons why I should do so.