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

Re: Trump says he will ban TikTok through executive action

#291

Post by walki » Sat, Aug 01, 2020, 9:08 AM UTC

vwat wrote: post #280

From first principles reasoning, this is a good idea. We don’t ban Chinese websites, books or products. Although we tax their products more now. Apps aren’t like physical commodities. They can be used to gather data, quite invasively, shape and form public opinion in a new and more visceral way, as well as take advantage of exploits. Admittedly websites can do that too, but the scale of adoption of Tiktok makes this…

> The facts: we gain almost nothing by having tiktok around. We lose nothing by banning it, and gain a little bit of buffer against possible threats like election meddling, data mining for nefarious purposes and other things. Completely leaving politics aside, I basically support this.

What about if all non-US countries start reasoning like you and ban Youtube, Facebook, ...?

Re: Trump says he will ban TikTok through executive action

#292

Post by Lammy » Sat, Aug 01, 2020, 9:09 AM UTC

jhanschoo wrote: post #110

hooande wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

What if it's a big hoax and I'm only protecting myself from corporate surveillance and not state surveillance too??

Re: Trump says he will ban TikTok through executive action

#293

Post by Twisell » Sat, Aug 01, 2020, 9:10 AM UTC

Not US citizen here. Can someone explain how in a democracy the chief executive can singlehandedly decide to ban a media only a few month before elections?

I can't make any sense of that, it seems wrong at so many levels...

Re: Trump says he will ban TikTok through executive action

#294

Post by asutekku » Sat, Aug 01, 2020, 9:10 AM UTC

Lammy wrote: post #282

asutekku wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There has been literally zero proof about that as far as i know. If you do have some compelling evidence apart from “the x community knows this”, please share them. The issues risen in the “famous” whitepaper about TikTok’s alleged “security issues” were just pretty much standard fingerprinting that almost all apps do nowadays, like it or not.

This will never be something that can be "proven" and insisting on seeing proof is just a way to halt discussion of the entire topic.

If people are going to allege something, I seriously would like to have proof.

I’m not defending China in here, but this is not a good direction to go if we have a large number of people speculating and alleging something without a solid proof. Not that it’s anything new.

Re: Trump says he will ban TikTok through executive action

#295

Post by mytailorisrich » Sat, Aug 01, 2020, 9:11 AM UTC

coliveira wrote: post #132

The US is acting like a desperate country that has no idea what it is doing. It is evident to the whole world that the US doesn't want to compete at the level of high technology, which is what the Chinese have achieved in the last couple of years. Whenever a country tries to create a fence around it, then it is just displaying weakness. It would be much more constructive for the US to recognize that they're getting b…

There is desperation here. But I think it is mostly Trump's: The election is less than 3 months away and absolutely everything is going pear-shape. He's diverting and deflecting. Chine is one issue is can appear strong. Banning tiktok is fluff that serves no other purpose than helping him for November.

Re: Trump says he will ban TikTok through executive action

#296

Post by AlchemistCamp » Sat, Aug 01, 2020, 9:11 AM UTC

walki wrote: post #291

vwat wrote: post #280

From first principles reasoning, this is a good idea. We don’t ban Chinese websites, books or products. Although we tax their products more now. Apps aren’t like physical commodities. They can be used to gather data, quite invasively, shape and form public opinion in a new and more visceral way, as well as take advantage of exploits. Admittedly websites can do that too, but the scale of adoption of Tiktok makes this…

> The facts: we gain almost nothing by having tiktok around. We lose nothing by banning it, and gain a little bit of buffer against possible threats like election meddling, data mining for nefarious purposes and other things. Completely leaving politics aside, I basically support this. What about if all non-US countries start reasoning like you and ban Youtube, Facebook, ...?

China has been doing that for over a decade and I don't know of anyplace where WeChat is banned.

Re: Trump says he will ban TikTok through executive action

#297

Post by Mountain_Skies » Sat, Aug 01, 2020, 9:15 AM UTC

Twisell wrote: post #293

Not US citizen here. Can someone explain how in a democracy the chief executive can singlehandedly decide to ban a media only a few month before elections? I can't make any sense of that, it seems wrong at so many levels...

Congress loves giving away power to the Executive Branch so they don't have to bear responsibility for unpopular decisions. It's likely that at some point Congress gave this power to the president though not necessarily this Congress and this president. Congress is free to take the power back if it votes to do so.

Given that even the Biden campaign has prohibited their workers from installing the TikTok app, there isn't likely to be much of a partisan fight over this issue.

Re: Trump says he will ban TikTok through executive action

#298

Post by rsa25519 » Sat, Aug 01, 2020, 9:16 AM UTC

Twisell wrote: post #293

Not US citizen here. Can someone explain how in a democracy the chief executive can singlehandedly decide to ban a media only a few month before elections? I can't make any sense of that, it seems wrong at so many levels...

Note that a platform is being banned that's not tied to particular speech. I still think it's wrong for an individual to be able to do this

Re: Trump says he will ban TikTok through executive action

#299

Post by pantalaimon » Sat, Aug 01, 2020, 9:16 AM UTC

AlchemistCamp wrote: post #296

walki wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The facts: we gain almost nothing by having tiktok around. We lose nothing by banning it, and gain a little bit of buffer against possible threats like election meddling, data mining for nefarious purposes and other things. Completely leaving politics aside, I basically support this. What about if all non-US countries start reasoning like you and ban Youtube, Facebook, ...?

China has been doing that for over a decade and I don't know of anyplace where WeChat is banned.

China has also put dissident and unwanted people in 're-education' camps. Should we do that next?

Re: Trump says he will ban TikTok through executive action

#300

Post by rational_indian » Sat, Aug 01, 2020, 9:17 AM UTC

baddox wrote: post #258

chillacy wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reminds me of a Taleb article I read: Most Intolerant Wins https://medium.com/incerto/the-most-intolerant-wins-the-dict...

There are people with much more “intolerant” (restrictive) diets than halal and kosher, and yet, those don’t “win.” This is an extremely simplistic explanation with, I suspect, very little predictive power.

They have not crossed the "threshold of winning". RTFA, please!