"TikTok is digital fentanyl that’s addicting Americans, ..." RIP freedom of speech.
Bipartisan Legislation to Ban TikTok
161–170 of 445 posts
Re: Bipartisan Legislation to Ban TikTok
#162Earlier quoted context omitted.
US Tech firms products are largely banned in China, closing off a market of 1bn+ - why should Chinese firms have unfettered access to the US?
Because China is not a good example to follow. It is a dystopian state with full control of what their citizens have access to. Why would you want to have your government to choose the apps for you?
This isn't following china but responding symmetrically to a hostile economic action. The government regulates commerce so just like they can ban Google from operating they can ban bytedance. If the apps you use only affected you, I wouldn't care bur China is using this information as a strategic intelligence source to influence and harm american economic and political entities.
Re: Bipartisan Legislation to Ban TikTok
#163My take: This isn't about China, not really. They're not trying to ban all apps from China, or all social media apps controlled by foreign governments. Chinese spyware apps masquerading as video games are apparently fine, if they don't have users generating and sharing content. And hypothetical manipulative social media owned/controlled by a foreign government isn't banned, unless that government happens to be on the naughty list (China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, and Venezuelan.) If the government of Pakistan makes a popular social media app to manipulate and spy on the American public, that's A-Okay with this bill because Pakistan isn't on that list.
This is really about TikTok specifically. The real reason? TikTok and their userbase pioneered depths of cringe so extreme, revulsion to it cuts across all political boundaries.
Re: Bipartisan Legislation to Ban TikTok
#164Interestingly, the bill gives a definition of a "social media company", that's fairly specific [1, pages 7-8] and fun to ponder on its own [2].
The flimsiest bullet point in the definition might be that the company "sells digital advertising space". If TikTok started gating access to paid accounts only, I wonder if they would no longer qualify be a "social media company"! And therefore not be a "threat". (:
[1]: pdf warning https://www.rubio.senate.gov/public/_cache/files/1ebac814-15...
[2]: There's also an interesting exception for websites that have the "primary purpose" of posting/viewing "reviews" of business, travel, or products.
Re: Bipartisan Legislation to Ban TikTok
#165Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ah, it's the old slippery-slope argument again. I'm fine with banning all apps from countries that require their app-makers to share data with the government. If that requires an international treaty to codify when a company must share data (e.g. only with a criminal warrant), then great, let's do that. China would refuse to sign that treaty? Even better.
So, you will ban apps from ~all other countries.
Certainly Europe would be better off if they took this approach and banned all American apps. American techies have no respect for European privacy laws and will never faithfully follow the spirit of such laws, or even the letter.
Re: Bipartisan Legislation to Ban TikTok
#166Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because China is not a good example to follow. It is a dystopian state with full control of what their citizens have access to. Why would you want to have your government to choose the apps for you?
Ah, it's the old slippery-slope argument again. I'm fine with banning all apps from countries that require their app-makers to share data with the government. If that requires an international treaty to codify when a company must share data (e.g. only with a criminal warrant), then great, let's do that. China would refuse to sign that treaty? Even better.
Agreed, the USGOV needs to expand this and just like with tariffs respond symmetrically to China's hostile laws against american companies there. Any restrictions they place on american companies should translate to similar restrictions against their companies in the US (actually more restrictions since their companies are CCP controlled to the most part).
Re: Bipartisan Legislation to Ban TikTok
#167Earlier quoted context omitted.
Exactly. this seems like a boon to the Meta flavor or digital fentanyl
Meta at least answers to the United States. Congress could easily introduce data privacy legislation. Fuck TikTok.
So "digital fentanyl" is acceptable as long as appropriate privacy legislation has been enacted? It's not an "addiction" problem but rather a "privacy problem"?
Re: Bipartisan Legislation to Ban TikTok
#168Seems like a good way to lose young voters. How hard would it be to spin-off TikTok USA into a separate entity?
This is one of the more egregious examples of the complete infantilization of Gen Z human beings by older generations. No, the kids will not throw a temper tantrum and vote for $THE_OTHER_GUY because you blocked their access to an app. The kids, in fact, stand for more than just politics-as-sports.
Wow - jumping to a lot of conclusions! My only point is that an old guy attacking the most popular platform used by millions of users as their primary entertainment and self-expression will have some repercussions. $THE_OTHER_GUY will build a whole campaign around a hamfisted approach and not just for GenZ.
Re: Bipartisan Legislation to Ban TikTok
#169Tangentially related. A friend of mine's wife is a paramedic/firefighter and I always ask her about crazy stories from when she's on duty. This past weekend, she told me about one where a teenager saw a challenge/trend on TikTok to report a fake fire. She said they showed up with multiple fire engines, ambulances, and a squad car to no fire. The girl who called it in just said she saw it as a trend on TikTok and want…
> it's a covert foreign state attack—ideological subversion—by the CCP
Have you actually used TikTok? I've heard this claim several times but I'm just not seeing it in my feed.
Re: Bipartisan Legislation to Ban TikTok
#170Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because China is not a good example to follow. It is a dystopian state with full control of what their citizens have access to. Why would you want to have your government to choose the apps for you?
if you believe China is a dystopian state why would a Chinese tech product that isn't even allowed in it's international form within China not itself "dystopian" imo the most dystopian thing about TikTok is the fact that China intentionally exports a highly addictive product that they don't allow their own people to use
> imo the most dystopian thing about TikTok is the fact that China intentionally exports a highly addictive product that they don't allow their own people to use
This comment made me think that TikTok (and Facebook before it) are somewhat like an attempt at hacker attack on the simulation we live in, where the analogue to the "simulation" is the system where freedom of speech is an absolute law, but the system is running on susceptible components: people, and is therefore vulnerable.