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Judge temporarily blocks U.S. ban on TikTok downloads from U.S. app stores

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Re: Judge temporarily blocks U.S. ban on TikTok downloads from U.S. app stores

#91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What exactly is the national security risk with TikTok?

Propaganda. You don't have to bother making troll farm accounts to spread misinformation and sow doubt when you control the platform and can create and drip content you want into peoples feeds, and you know what they like, you're already serving them an addictive stream of content based on their behaviors.

I don't have tiktok but according to anecdotal evidence from family members who do, the propaganda you describe seemed to be people doing stupid things in their bathroom while getting hurt in the process.

You'd probably say 'potential' but just think about it, banning something for 'potential'. Is that where we are right now?

Re: Judge temporarily blocks U.S. ban on TikTok downloads from U.S. app stores

#92
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Instead, I believe that it is a national security issue Are you uncomfortable adopting that belief with literally no concrete evidence that anything of the sort is actually occurring? I don't know how you reconcile rule of law with such drastic interventions in the rights of companies without evidence of wrongdoing. If anything you can come up with in your most paranoid fantasies can be the basis of shutting down a…

In a country without any constraints on government behavior or rule of law beyond whatever the CCP decrees, Chinese entities have to be treated as organs of the Chinese Communist Party. https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/05/huawei-would-have-to-give-da...

"Government", "administration", and "party" are all the same thing in China. So something like:

"Huawei would be forced to hand over 5G data to the Chinese government if it was asked for it, because of national security laws, experts told CNBC."

...is really no different from the US, is it?

And while China has lots of problems, citing a lack of "rule of law" in this context is rather brave. Also: if you believe everything called "communist party" is "communist", you definitely have to pay the beer at the next "RePUBlican Party" meeting.

Re: Judge temporarily blocks U.S. ban on TikTok downloads from U.S. app stores

#93

Unlike some other commenters below, I don't believe that this is a privacy issue. Instead, I believe that it is a national security issue because TikTok is controllable by the CCP which is ideologically opposed to the United States. The next global conflict will likely be one between the east and the west, with control of information being advantageous to both sides in the conflict. China already blocks the western I…

You don't have to believe, national security is an official reason.

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2019/12/30/army-follows-...

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2020/09/18/us-bans-wecha...

Re: Judge temporarily blocks U.S. ban on TikTok downloads from U.S. app stores

#94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It sounds like OP is arguing for reciprocity. Why should we give due process to Chinese companies if American companies are not given due process in China? Chinese companies are taking advantage of our tolerance and fairness. We should be intolerant of intolerance.

I love this line of reasoning. Next step is labor camp for non-Uighur Chinese, I guess; on American soil, no less, and inmates will be working for Apple and Nike

So if a bad country with concentration camps is doing bad things, you can't counter them? If you try to stop them, it might be a slippery slope to concentration camps?

Re: Judge temporarily blocks U.S. ban on TikTok downloads from U.S. app stores

#95
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

so is just saying the words "national security" enough for you to believe that this is justified? should the US government be allowed to block any private company from doing business just by saying those magic words, with no further justification? or just any foreign-owned company? or just any chinese company - if it's china, what makes china special? there's got to be some limitation on where you draw the line on th…

I don’t really know where I stand on the issue, but it is fairly clear how this is a potentially serious threat to national security. Maybe a better solution is allowing the us government unfettered access to source code, algorithms, data collection, etc. Edit - it seems reasonable that if a private company is able to massively influence the countries politics they should be scrutinized more closely. IMO it’s like ha…

"but it is fairly clear how this is a potentially serious threat to national security."

Yeah... the Chinese could, like, get the inside scoop on some serious teen drama.

Re: Judge temporarily blocks U.S. ban on TikTok downloads from U.S. app stores

#96
post #27

Something revealed in the recent court filings was how Bytedance spent over $1 billion in advertising on Facebook/Instagram, YouTube, and Snapchat. Apparently they were spending $10-$30 to acquire an active user and expecting to generate $5 of revenue per user in the US, implying a revenue payback period of 2-6 years. Some ugly unit economics.

It's a tool of the government, not a company. It's not meant to make money.

Re: Judge temporarily blocks U.S. ban on TikTok downloads from U.S. app stores

#97
post #63
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Instead, I believe that it is a national security issue Are you uncomfortable adopting that belief with literally no concrete evidence that anything of the sort is actually occurring? I don't know how you reconcile rule of law with such drastic interventions in the rights of companies without evidence of wrongdoing. If anything you can come up with in your most paranoid fantasies can be the basis of shutting down a…

Devils advocate - there is no evidence that it isn’t already occurring in subtle ways. Russia’s strategy is sowing discord, which would be fairly easy if one government controls the algorithm deciding what media the other country’s citizens sees.

How do you exactly prove something isn’t occurring?

Re: Judge temporarily blocks U.S. ban on TikTok downloads from U.S. app stores

#98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What exactly is the national security risk with TikTok?

I reckon it was probably just this: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/21/style/tiktok-trump-rally-...

Yes, I've said it before. Trump will attack you for writing an mean article about him. But somehow people believe that Trump leaving a rally visibly upset because of actions by TikTok's users and him attacking TikTok literally 3 weeks later are unrelated events.

They're definitely related. It's literally an action->response... and it fits Trumps modus operandi perfectly... he's done it numerous times.

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