221–230 of 1001 posts
What is his motivation for this right now? Is it just the distraction of the week or was there a specific incident recently that triggered this?
One factor is that China has had a Firewall blocking all foreign digital competitors and information sources for a long time.
Is there any precedent for a president to do such a thing? I am completely astonished and dumbstruck that everyone is ok with this.
The government frequently bans foreign products that have national security implications.
What about the suspicions that Trump is upset that TikTok users helped sabotage one of his big rallies and this is retaliation and thus an overextension of his powers and an exercise in authoritarianism (something he's already done many times anyway)?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
That isn't my impression of how the web works. The second your bits leave your LAN, they begin traveling over infrastructure that is owned and operated by another private entity. They could rescind your access at any time, especially if the government orders it so.
Eh, TikTok could set up some proxies on non-China non-US controlled shared infrastructure, and with modern https the US network carriers wouldn't be able to tell if the traffic was to them or someone else. The degree in invasiveness needed to enforce this policy via ISPs (prohibiting effective encryption) would probably end up violating the first amendment.
1. TLS is not the impenetrable black box it is made out to be. Every year there are about three papers published at the top tier computer security conferences about identifying applications within TLS. Check out the NDSS proceedings.
2. The EO prohibits conspiracies to evade the ban. This means anyone caught knowingly helping to evade the prohibitions would be subject to legal penalties.
And if wechat allows web only, will US ban the service from browsers GFC style? Seems like a different can of worms than blocking apps.
Now we should intermittently just turn off websites and services of Chinese companies in the US, randomly lose and/or return shipments, etc. They have been cheating us forever. We should do it too if that is the way they want to do business.
What a bizarre and interesting turn. I'd give a lot to be able to sit in on the meetings between TikTok and Microsoft right now. I wonder if FB will come over the top with a bid.
Doubt it, they already have a new competing product. As soon as TT engagement drops due to friction the user will switch.
"Threat" aside, it does seem fair for the West to reciprocate bans on Google/Facebook etc, but not sure the best way to communicate with family in China now if the western messaging apps are banned there and vice versa
Email? I know that seems dismissive, but people got along just fine before Facebook, texting, WeChat, etc. I suspect in reality there will be an endless whack-a-mole game with messaging services where people use a different one fairly frequently.
I wonder if had the big players embraced open chat earlier if we would in this situation.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
One factor is that China has had a Firewall blocking all foreign digital competitors and information sources for a long time.
That’s the behaviour of a dictatorship country. And now America is being like one. This is probably what China wants for America.
China is totally free to sell goods into America. China has blockaded America's technology, unless the companies agree to essentially hand over IP so China can steal it (Huawei operated a cash bonus scheme for stolen IP, according to the DoJ).
Does this sound like "free trade"?
Rather than every nation deploying their own internal version of X, surely the sane endgame is open source software.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Eh, TikTok could set up some proxies on non-China non-US controlled shared infrastructure, and with modern https the US network carriers wouldn't be able to tell if the traffic was to them or someone else. The degree in invasiveness needed to enforce this policy via ISPs (prohibiting effective encryption) would probably end up violating the first amendment.
Two points: 1. TLS is not the impenetrable black box it is made out to be. Every year there are about three papers published at the top tier computer security conferences about identifying applications within TLS. Check out the NDSS proceedings. 2. The EO prohibits conspiracies to evade the ban. This means anyone caught knowingly helping to evade the prohibitions would be subject to legal penalties.
2. Sure, but the entities involved in evading the ban wouldn't be US entities.