US government accuses TikTok of being a mouthpiece for the Communist Party • Hacker News Board

Re: US government accuses TikTok of being a mouthpiece for the Communist Party

#21

Post by tertiary » Sat, Sep 26, 2020, 9:30 AM UTC

acqq wrote: post #18

tertiary wrote: post #14

The whole ban is so gross. It's clearly politically targeted to deplatform Trump critics all while firing people up about China. For those that aren't familiar. TikTok is pretty ubiquitous in the under 21 crowd while being practically unused by older people. It's sort of like when young people fled to Twitter and Instagram to get away from their parents on Facebook. It's basically the next Twitter for that age group.…

Also a possible trigger: Sarah Cooper lip syncing him on TikTok and getting possibly "higher ratings" than he. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Cooper See: "Satirical videos" The major impact exactly as he promoted light in the lungs and disinfectants in the body as the treatment: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/may/14/trump-lip-sy... For him it's all about his ratings. The reality show continues.

Ha, really? I missed that. Thanks for pointing it out.

Re: US government accuses TikTok of being a mouthpiece for the Communist Party

#22

Post by justcuz00 » Sat, Sep 26, 2020, 9:31 AM UTC

takeda wrote: post #17

_23sd wrote: post #15

The evidence that TikTok is a mouthpiece for China, according to NPR's account of the Commerce Department memo (I still need to read it myself): 1. Bytedance employs 130 Party members. 2. The party members had a rally with Communist salutes and pledges and such. 3. Bytedance's CEO once apologized over an app that the authorities shut down because, as far as I can tell, the memes were too dank. The first two are norma…

Let's assume TikTok is the mouth piece of Chinese propaganda. Why aren't we doing anything about another mouthpiece that we already got confirmation that it is being used by both our and foreign intelligence. Is that one accepted because it benefits the president? What kind of leader of free nation would accept something like that?

Just because they talk about it being a free country doesn’t mean much

What’s the math of your time economy look like?

You’re a servant of their economy. Any challenges to that, it’s slower police responses, more austerity, and strongman bashing figurative genitals on TV all day to prove his grit

Why don’t we do anything about it? Because we’re entitled to our stuff!

Technology is just your salon.

The level headed man is the scourge of modern times.

My iPhone is the same as Buffets. I can be distracted the same. I can’t get the same healthcare to stay alive.

That’s the reality of your nation.

Re: US government accuses TikTok of being a mouthpiece for the Communist Party

#23

Post by takeda » Sat, Sep 26, 2020, 9:31 AM UTC

3327 wrote: post #5

Synaesthesia wrote: post #3

"The Trump administration, however, did not offer any direct evidence that TikTok's U.S. data has ever been assessed by Beijing officials."

Why should they reveal confidential intelligence? Does any government ever really do? Its stupid to do so. Its tiktok job to show and prove that the suspicion is not the case.

Even with Iraq they at least bothered to fabricate one.

In terms of TikTok what kind of secret thing they could possibly hold in addition what they are already saying?

It's not like to get that information they used a new spy satellite that trump shared image from agree assassination of Soleimani allowing to identify it, or disclosing that Israeli intelligence knew about planned operation by Islamic State and many other disclosures [1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump%27s_disclosures_o...

Re: US government accuses TikTok of being a mouthpiece for the Communist Party

#24

Post by verst » Sat, Sep 26, 2020, 9:42 AM UTC

_23sd wrote: post #15

The evidence that TikTok is a mouthpiece for China, according to NPR's account of the Commerce Department memo (I still need to read it myself): 1. Bytedance employs 130 Party members. 2. The party members had a rally with Communist salutes and pledges and such. 3. Bytedance's CEO once apologized over an app that the authorities shut down because, as far as I can tell, the memes were too dank. The first two are norma…

Expanding on (1): It is important to explain to HN readers the reality of CCP membership.

You can consider it the equivalent of national honor society in high school in the US and various honor societies in college, but with membership dues you must pay. Membership is symbolic and people must attend mandatory propaganda classes which they don't take seriously. Why would they do this? Because this is the way to get into many leadership roles in government.

So CCP membership is driven by capitalist motives.

I personally am friends with quite a few CCP members. I assure you they are critical of the government and have no insight into what the leadership is doing.

CCP membership in itself means little. Really depends on how high up an individual is within the party.

Re: US government accuses TikTok of being a mouthpiece for the Communist Party

#25

Post by addicted » Sat, Sep 26, 2020, 9:54 AM UTC

Apparently bleating about Tik Tok is all this government can do to try and hide the fact that it’s been bleating about Tik Tok for months and not achieved anything besides having increased the deficit with China to record numbers while still paying Midwest farmers tens of billions for that privilege.

It’s also failed to actually do anything about Tik Tok for months despite having committed some blatantly illegal acts that have reduced the government to little more than a PRC style ruling party. I guess actually solving the stated Tik Tok problem would prevent the daily headlines that are distracting from those same record deficits.

Re: US government accuses TikTok of being a mouthpiece for the Communist Party

#26

Post by bad_user » Sat, Sep 26, 2020, 9:56 AM UTC

verst wrote: post #24

_23sd wrote: post #15

The evidence that TikTok is a mouthpiece for China, according to NPR's account of the Commerce Department memo (I still need to read it myself): 1. Bytedance employs 130 Party members. 2. The party members had a rally with Communist salutes and pledges and such. 3. Bytedance's CEO once apologized over an app that the authorities shut down because, as far as I can tell, the memes were too dank. The first two are norma…

Expanding on (1): It is important to explain to HN readers the reality of CCP membership. You can consider it the equivalent of national honor society in high school in the US and various honor societies in college, but with membership dues you must pay. Membership is symbolic and people must attend mandatory propaganda classes which they don't take seriously. Why would they do this? Because this is the way to get in…

[flagged]

Re: US government accuses TikTok of being a mouthpiece for the Communist Party

#27

Post by xmprt » Sat, Sep 26, 2020, 9:58 AM UTC

verst wrote: post #24

_23sd wrote: post #15

The evidence that TikTok is a mouthpiece for China, according to NPR's account of the Commerce Department memo (I still need to read it myself): 1. Bytedance employs 130 Party members. 2. The party members had a rally with Communist salutes and pledges and such. 3. Bytedance's CEO once apologized over an app that the authorities shut down because, as far as I can tell, the memes were too dank. The first two are norma…

Expanding on (1): It is important to explain to HN readers the reality of CCP membership. You can consider it the equivalent of national honor society in high school in the US and various honor societies in college, but with membership dues you must pay. Membership is symbolic and people must attend mandatory propaganda classes which they don't take seriously. Why would they do this? Because this is the way to get in…

Thanks for the clarification. It seems like a lot of the boom in Chinese industries is because of them adopting capitalistic policies (although maybe not publicly).

Re: US government accuses TikTok of being a mouthpiece for the Communist Party

#28

Post by CameronNemo » Sat, Sep 26, 2020, 10:03 AM UTC

takeda wrote: post #17

_23sd wrote: post #15

The evidence that TikTok is a mouthpiece for China, according to NPR's account of the Commerce Department memo (I still need to read it myself): 1. Bytedance employs 130 Party members. 2. The party members had a rally with Communist salutes and pledges and such. 3. Bytedance's CEO once apologized over an app that the authorities shut down because, as far as I can tell, the memes were too dank. The first two are norma…

Let's assume TikTok is the mouth piece of Chinese propaganda. Why aren't we doing anything about another mouthpiece that we already got confirmation that it is being used by both our and foreign intelligence. Is that one accepted because it benefits the president? What kind of leader of free nation would accept something like that?

"Walking round the land of the free, yelling 'free for who?'"

Re: US government accuses TikTok of being a mouthpiece for the Communist Party

#29

Post by zepearl » Sat, Sep 26, 2020, 10:04 AM UTC

3327 wrote: post #5

Synaesthesia wrote: post #3

"The Trump administration, however, did not offer any direct evidence that TikTok's U.S. data has ever been assessed by Beijing officials."

Why should they reveal confidential intelligence? Does any government ever really do? Its stupid to do so. Its tiktok job to show and prove that the suspicion is not the case.

> Why should they reveal confidential intelligence?

From my point of view the US administration lost a lot of credibility during the last months & years => they might be right, but at this point stating something like this without presenting proof is not enough anymore.

Re: US government accuses TikTok of being a mouthpiece for the Communist Party

#30

Post by mitfahrener » Sat, Sep 26, 2020, 10:05 AM UTC

_23sd wrote: post #15

The evidence that TikTok is a mouthpiece for China, according to NPR's account of the Commerce Department memo (I still need to read it myself): 1. Bytedance employs 130 Party members. 2. The party members had a rally with Communist salutes and pledges and such. 3. Bytedance's CEO once apologized over an app that the authorities shut down because, as far as I can tell, the memes were too dank. The first two are norma…

Saying that TikTok employs 130 CCP members doesn't mean much. How many Republicans and Democrats do a typical American company employ?Maybe they don't talk about politics at work in China either?