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Trump says he will ban TikTok through executive action

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421–430 of 694 posts

Re: Trump says he will ban TikTok through executive action

#421
This is an outrageous violation of the rights of people here. We should also wake up and be against this kind of behavior of the government ... first it raised import tax to make things more expensive for us, then it ban apps we can use on our own phone ... all in the fake name of national security, etc., this is exactly a communist government would do! Wake up folks and stand up against!

Re: Trump says he will ban TikTok through executive action

#422
post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it is a project of Peter Thiel, I would hope that would finally wake everyone up to how bad faith calling himself a libertarian is.

Just consider the HUGE conflict of interest if an Facebook board member, and Trump inner circle confidant, had any input into this process.

where is the conflict? facebook is an america company so the president would be acting in the interest of an american company

Re: Trump says he will ban TikTok through executive action

#423

Wasn't microsoft trying to acquire tiktok? Why not just let that happen rather than try to do something so extreme? I'm not partial to tiktok at all but this is way to much of a big government move than I feel comfortable with. Isn't this a violation of our first amendment rights?

because they wouldn't sell it under normal conditions. now they have to and cheaper

Re: Trump says he will ban TikTok through executive action

#425

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you claim that this app is a national security threat then any app is. How so? Not every app is 1. Owned and controlled by an adversarial state, 2. In the hands of every American youth, and 3. Providing opaquely generated/sorted content. So explain how every app is an equivalent security threat.

Please explain why TikTok is "owned and controlled" by the Chinese government. TikTok is just as much "owned and controlled" by an adversarial state as any app by US corporations is "owned and controlled" by the US government due to national security letters and the CLOUD Act.

No, it’s really not. Note that there is currently a very public tiff between American media and the American state. This would be impossible in China. That is the difference, regardless of whether you can pull pieces of law from either side that would indicate the contrary. State power is a complex thing that is not entirely encoded in legal code.

Some reading:

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/23/world/asia/china-media-po...

https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/why-china-crack...

“Jan 25 - Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, on Friday stressed efforts to boost integrated media development and amplify mainstream tone in public communication so as to consolidate the common theoretical foundation for all Party members and all the people to unite and work hard.”

http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2019-01/25/c_137774923.htm

Re: Trump says he will ban TikTok through executive action

#426

Let's discuss a technical matter. What's the best VPN to get around this ban?

Without US creators TikTok will be lifeless for US market. The creators will leave nevertheless if majority of the audience can't be reached So no. VPN won't work

they won't be able to monetize so will leave regardless of how many fans (otherwise would have to explain to the IRS receiving money from a chinese app banned in the name of national security)

Re: Trump says he will ban TikTok through executive action

#427

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 is…

But you have no safeguard against that? I mean here in France when the government or the assembly trie to pass a law that is potentially unconstitutional there is an emergency review process by the "constitutional council" that can veto all or parts of the law that infringe. This process just happened recently because our president tried to pass a "hate law" on social media that was deemed unconstitutional because it…

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Re: Trump says he will ban TikTok through executive action

#428
post #323

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...

It‘s a question of distribution power. If the power is granted to the executive branch, they can do it. It‘s part of decisions on their own country. I consider it much more questionable to exert power over allied countries to stop extraterritorial infrastructure projects (i.e. Nordstream 2), because the US wants to sell fracking gas to europe. I‘m sure that using such power will lead to losing it long-term and former…

> I consider it much more questionable to exert power over allied countries to stop extraterritorial infrastructure projects (i.e. Nordstream 2)

Nordstream 2 is a great example. Sanctioning a country that was literally the wall between you and the East is such an extremely stupid move. Just confirms Merkels sentence: "Europe can not rely on the US any longer".

German here and I have to, say: You lost me there, buddy. Even though I despise Putin and all what he stands for, I would now vote for polititians, who take a hard stance here, get the project done and take countermeasures or even sanctions against the US. Mind your own business! You have several catastrophes at home going on, maybe do something about that? We will buy our gas whereever we want to. Thanks for asking, we are doing fine here. So if you don't have a better deal for us kindly leave us alone.

Re: Trump says he will ban TikTok through executive action

#429

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

Platforms can be heavily tied to particular speech - e.g. Parler, Gab, etc. Banning a platform can hinder the groups that tend to use those platforms.

It seems kind of absurd to just ban one of the most popular apps in the world over night like this, especially with a US company about to buy it. On the other hand, I agree that China has had an unfair advantage in terms of banning US apps. But an overnight ban? This could have been played better.

The interesting question is: What's the end-game here? Europe seems to be heading in the same direction. We obviously want global social networks, and no country is happy with a winner-take-all where they're not the winner. So my (optimistic) guess is that we'll end up with federated (or otherwise distributed/decentralised) networks.

Re: Trump says he will ban TikTok through executive action

#430

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...

The short answer is that he can't. The president has no power to ban TikTok. The president also has no control over how the app is distributed or its connectivity. He can say whatever he wants, and he can strongarm the agencies he has some control over (like the FCC), but there's simply no mechanism by which a ban can be enforced, legal or technical. Unless Google and Apple decide to voluntarily remove it from their app stores and forcibly remove existing downloads, it's not going away, and neither company is going to do that without a legal battle. There's no one who even has the authority to demand it, though.
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