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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

#331

Post by dvdkon »

causality0 wrote: post #140
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…

Read the replies from Chinese nationals on HN defending TikTok. Even they don't pretend you can say anything you want there. Their argument is "How much time would you really spend discussing Tiananmen or criticizing the CCP? Is it really worth losing contact with your friends or colleagues who use TikTok and WeChat?" In my opinion, absolutely. Stop it now before it gets too powerful to ban. WeChat already has 19 mil…

Maybe if freedom of speech on social media platforms is an issue (it is, in my opinion), there should be laws regulating it that would apply to any businesses operating in the US, not just ad-hoc executive orders of dubious objectiveness.

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

#332

Post by dfischer »

jhardy54 wrote: post #303
dfischer wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TikTok is the generation that is most malleable to propaganda in a way that can undermine an entire generation. TikTok also has history of recording telemetry that’s extremely alarming. Look into what is mined. Look into how algorithms get optimized to influence behavior. See a recent paper on this with using social media to shut down a power plant. Memetic warfare is real and it’s been going on in cyberspace for a w…

> TikTok is the generation that is most malleable to propaganda in a way that can undermine an entire generation Citation needed. Come on.

Every statement doesn’t need a citation. Come on. Propaganda is real. If you don’t think that all social networks are mechanisms to imprint minds you’re either idealist or compromised.

Yawn to the downvotes. Keep them coming. Your naïveté is plain.

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

#333

Post by DiogenesKynikos »

emptysongglass wrote: post #257
Talanes wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm way more afraid of the US Government than the CCP. They're actually relevant to my life, beyond a vague "politics affects us all" kind of way. I'm more afraid of the guy holding a stick over my head than the guy a mile away, no matter what that dude is up to.

The problem with an autocracy is that they will not cease until any threat to their existence can be stamped out or controlled. Nations continued to hope Nazi Germany would just stop its expansion and placate Hitler until it was clear he had no intention of stopping. Last week it was discovered that an additional half a million Tibetans [1] were sent to join the Uighurs in labor camps. When do the democracies of the…

China hasn't fought a foreign war since 1979. I don't see the aggressive expansion you're claiming.

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

#334

Post by tommymachine »

bawolff wrote: post #325
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…

The part i dont get - zoom also has ties to China. Everyone focuses on tiktok which is kids making stupid videos, but zoom which almost certainly has massive amounts of highly sensitive info going through it, seems to raise very few eye brows comparatively.

When you look at the amount of data one would have to sift through to find anything valuable, it’s a pretty big difference between TikTok & Zoom. Put simply, TikTok saves & distributes short video content. Zoom streams long video chats. The potential for gathering psychological data would be far higher with TikTok, and the barrier for entry far lower.

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

#335

Post by tooltalk »

avianlyric wrote: post #279
warbaker wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, it's ok for China to ban Google because Google refuses to help with censorship and propaganda, and because Google doesn't want the Chinese govt to be able to spy on its citizens. But it's not OK for the US to keep out spyware. Heck, retaliation for China's banning of Google etc would be sufficient justification for banning TikTok on its own.

Well yes it is ok for China to block Google, they’re allowed to block anyone they want. The issue isn’t a tit-for-tat they block, we block issue, with the US and China acting like playground children. The issue is whether or not the rule-of-law still means anything in the US. Have the executive block things pretty much arbitrarily undermines the rule-of-law. If the US wants to block Chinese companies, then pass laws…

>> Have the executive block things pretty much arbitrarily undermines the rule-of-law ... If the US wants to block Chinese companies, then pass laws in congress to do so...

That's not how the rule-of-law works. The bill of attainder doesn't allow the US gov't to punish an entity (or a group of) arbitrarily by legislating.

The legislative and executive branches have already been briefed on privacy and/or security threat Tiktok poses to US. The US senate already passed a bill to ban federal employees from using Tiktok on gov't issued devices, which is exactly what the legislative is supposed to be doing without overreaching and impinging on Americans' civil liberty, and Trump in turn issued executive orders to deter national security/privacy threats from foreign entities. The judicial branch likewise appropriately exercised their power by delaying Trump's EO and challenging his authority.

That's precisely how the rule-of-law is supposed to work in the US -- there is nothing novel or arbitrary here.

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

#336

Post by abc-xyz »

bamboozled wrote: post #123
pastaking wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn’t this be better handled by a more sophisticated solution like some kind of law or governance organization? Banning specific apps is like whack a mole. There will also be other countries with opposing ideological beliefs - we probably shouldn’t want to play whack a mole country by country either.

This is my sentiment, is it's TikTok, it will be rebranded as DikDok next, then what? We block one app at a time?

Why not? It’s basically the only app China have managed to make popular in USA. And they’ve had to blow billions on ads to do so.

I do believe it would be best to block all apps owned by the Chinese, but blocking them one by one would work as well, because it’s incredibly difficult and expensive to obtain the userbase that makes the app worth blocking.

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

#337

Post by powerapple »

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…

Of course it is a national security issue. CIA knows the best how to use the internet and trains others to do so. It is risky to have a platform you don't control in your home. People thinking it is privacy issue or pure business idea don't really know what's going on in this world. Look around for all the protests almost all of them organized online. Of course, kids pissing off Trump on TikTok made it easier for him to make the decision.

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

#338

Post by artificial »

ry454 wrote: post #215
notatoad wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

if it's a clear threat, the government should have no problem explaining what exactly the threat is. It seems plausible to me that there is a national security threat, but i'm bothered by the government being able to invoke national security as a set of magic words that excuse them from explaining anything further.

The thing is US has its own TikToks: if US bans TikTok, CCP will use its influence to undermine FB, WhatsApp, IG, Snapchat, etc. CCP is pretty much saying: "we know you're spying on the entire world and we want to do the same; if you torpedo our secret submarine, we'll do the same to yours."

They’ve already blocked those in China, Gmail, Google, FB etc. The insidious thing with WeChat is politically sensitive items are reviewed then blocked and use of the app trains their blocking heuristics.

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

#339

Post by searchableguy »

donkeyd wrote: post #296
CraigJPerry wrote: post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Surely Facebook’s a bigger issue than 60 second videos since any bad actor can target messaging at susceptibile users and no one will know. This just seems like yet another case of Republican double speak. Say one thing do a different thing that just coincidentally happens to grab power over others. Also, what is the method of using a 60 second video platform to share messaging with a crowd who will immediately scrol…

Theoretically, CCP could abuse location services to track movements of military personnel and civilians in a war. Since FB isn't Chinese, that is less of an issue for large scale surveilance. Also, if the Chinese had a zero day that they could exploit by pushing a malicious TikTok update, they could get root access to these phones and use them for surveillance on a large scale. Sure, this is all hypothetical, but it'…

Ban all Chinese apps?

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

#340

Post by secretsatan »

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…

I contend that TikTok was specifically targetted because the Orange one's ego was hurt because of a prank organised on the platform.

Defenders of the trumpalump wanabee emperor are looking for ways to make this rational.

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