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

reuters.com

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

#111

Post by hatenberg »

localhost wrote: post #20

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…

Or we could look at history and accepr that the US changes the rules whenever it is eclipsed or finds itself outdone at its own game.

See Japan 1980s

Nah, the ideology is manufactured - we were just fine doing business with them and we keep being just fine doing business with the Saudis or any number of ideologically 'opposed countries.

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

#112

Post by yibg »

devwastaken wrote: post #101
zmmmmm wrote: 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…

Any business with china is a national security issue. There's plenty of evidence to the level of dictatorship in China. It's your responsibility to look at its history and make reasonable conclusions from it. If you want some sort of smoking gun evidence you're not going to find it, unless you somehow have a security clearance in China good enough to gain knowledge about their operations. It's a Chinese company, they…

Let’s not pretend this is anything other than just plain old geopolitics with TikTok caught in the middle.

Going by “national security” reasons most countries should ban Facebook and google, not to mention amazon, Microsoft, oracle, Cisco etc. since the us government has already shown willingness and ability to spy on anything they can get their hands on, including foreign heads of state. Allowing US controlled social media and other tech companies is a huge risk.

Of course power doesn’t balance that way so they don’t.

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

#113

Post by pcbro141 »

Pornhub is a foreign company, perhaps Trump should ban that too. It could be a national security threat for a foreign company to know the porn habits of government officials, they could use that to blackmail military generals and the like.

/sarcasm

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

#114

Post by IfOnlyYouKnew »

homptydompty18 wrote: post #85
zmmmmm wrote: 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…

Uh, welcome to international politics? Every country on Earth gives its executive some discretion when dealing with foreign powers. The idea that TikTok should have the same due process rights as American corporations is naive (putting it mildly).

You're just making that up.

"Rule of law" means you need to have a specific rule to govern government's action. The use of the catch-all "national security" justification here is in itself proof that nothing better exists in US law, or they would cite that.

Among the free countries, I'm most familiar with the EU's laws: there are some provisions limiting, for example, acquisitions of land, mergers, and military technology to countries like China. But there's no "we don't like them" power. Those powers belong to a king, not a president.

EU companies have explicit guarantees against discrimination in other EU countries, and most every trade agreement contains similar provision. I believe even WTO rules, which both China and the US are theoretically bound by, would exclude arbitrary bans.

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

#115

Post by arcticbull »

GuB-42 wrote: post #93
localhost wrote: post #20

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...

National Security™ was invoked to justify the tariffs imposed a few years ago on Canadian aluminum imports into the United States. [1]

Since the sole arbiter of what constitutes a national security matter is the executive branch, whether or not it represents a material threat to national security is very much up for debate, proclamations aside.

[1] https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/proclamation...

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

#116

Post by alacombe »

DLay wrote: 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.

> Some ugly unit economics.

Cash coming from the CCP is pretty much infinite, especially given the massive US trade deficit.

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

#117

Post by jerrysievert »

ausjke wrote: post #32

It's a national security issue. Plus, if you sue the government order from any courts in CA, you will win anyways these days. CA is too liberal to remain in US, I remember they were saying CA-Independence from USA after 2016, I can't wait to support it, but those people somehow did not proceed, very disappointed.

great, then California could take Oregon and Washington as well, since they're "anarchist states" and all. New York would likely follow suit. Colorado would probably join with the west coast, leaving Texas to carry most of what was left of the country. Don't mess with Texas, which is to say that they don't want to be the ones paying for everything.

Now we have 3 countries that can feed themselves, pay for what they need, with coastal access, and we have what's left of the United States. Not a great scenario if you follow it to its conclusion.

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

#118

Post by FpUser »

localhost wrote: post #20

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…

Nice way of justifying slow conversion of the US to USSR/China/Watever

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

#119

Post by bamboozled »

localhost wrote: post #20

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…

A decision to block something like this should be made in a court of law with evidence given.

If it needs to be expedited, then it the POTUS should expedite the case, but we can't have arbitrary decisions being made like this without evidence, or we're like the CCP?

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

#120

Post by xvector »

localhost wrote: post #20

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…

And this justifies compromising on our freedoms? Some populist utters the words “national security” and we decide to destroy the first amendment.

That mindset is an affront to what it means to be American and it is much more of a threat to our country and the rights of our citizens than TikTok could ever be.

See: the PATRIOT Act.

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