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Bipartisan Legislation to Ban TikTok

rubio.senate.gov

261–270 of 445 posts

Re: Bipartisan Legislation to Ban TikTok

#261

Why not? China doesn’t allow our social media. Why should we allow theirs? We can easily copy the best parts of the platform and let our companies take their users. Plus, social media can be used for mass political manipulation, and what justifies letting them hold that power over our population? It’s good for our companies, it’s good for our people, and it takes away a dangerous tool from a country that is more and…

> We can easily copy the best parts of the platform and let our companies take their users.

Billions of dollars have been invested by the biggest US tech companies to try to do this, and they all fuck it up by building the product to serve advertisers first rather than users first.

Re: Bipartisan Legislation to Ban TikTok

#263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TikTok also answers to the United States if it wants to continue operating here. If Congress passed a privacy bill, TikTok would have to comply like all other social media companies.

Most likely they will comply like Huawei complies--say they are complying but do the opposite.

Sure, which is also how US companies "comply" to European law. At that point fine them or ban them until they sort their shit out.

Re: Bipartisan Legislation to Ban TikTok

#264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm consistently surprised that many people in the tech community treat China as some unknowable country that we only get a few snippets of insight in from our media. If you work in tech, you most certainly have a few Chinese citizens as coworkers and colleagues. Talk to them about what life is like if you're curious, don't rely on "60 minutes". TikTok in China may be moderated but only to keep anything controversial…

Do you know if it is possible to access Douyin outside of China? I think it would be an interesting experience to see it first-hand and also I guess the language barrier would no be a huge issue if the content is similar to TikTok.

A lot of Douyin content ends up on YouTube Shorts if you know where to look.

Re: Bipartisan Legislation to Ban TikTok

#265
post #187

Earlier 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.

You don't think the US government requires information sharing?

The US government obviously won't ban apps for cooperating with the US government, that doesn't make sense.

But other governments should ban such apps. The CLOUD Act drafts all American tech companies into the US intelligence gathering apparatus; all American companies providing services to foreigners are legally compelled to be spies. EU laws that require EU data to be stored in the EU? Nullified! The CLOUD Act undercuts any foreign data residency laws by requiring US companies to hand over even that data which is stored in other countries. All US tech companies are required by law to participate in espionage. The EU should respond by banning all American apps in the EU (but won't, for obvious realpolitik reasons.)

Re: Bipartisan Legislation to Ban TikTok

#266
post #22

Earlier 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

China isn't some monolithic automaton. It's a complex society with multi-faceted incongruities and contradictory rationalizations for conflicting piecemeal systems Just Like Every Other Society that has ever existed.

It's 4 times the number of people as the US. Imagine having 200 states instead of 50. I mean heck, they have over 300 languages (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_China).

Re: Bipartisan Legislation to Ban TikTok

#267
post #7

Why not regulate how the data is used or stored, like the EU does, but ban? I'm really hoping this doesn't become a reality because if it does, we will end up with partitioned internet and stagnation. People often forget that the US companies are foreign entity for most of the worlds population and with the WikiLeaks revelations we know for a fact that the US government has access to the data of American tech compani…

Why not regulate how the data is used or stored, like the EU does, but ban?

I guess in practice, if need be economically and politically, you can always launder data.

Re: Bipartisan Legislation to Ban TikTok

#268

"TikTok is digital fentanyl that’s addicting Americans, collecting troves of their data, and censoring their news." Is the conclusion that all forms of digital fentanyl should be banned or just Chinese ones? Because the reality is there's nothing too exceptional about TikTok's underlying algorithms. Will lawmakers be willing enact legislation against companies marketing similar "digital fentanyl" but that are America…

I would love if the govt banned all digital fentanyl personally.

Re: Bipartisan Legislation to Ban TikTok

#269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it’s because it’s from China which bans US tech platforms. If this came from the EU or SK there would be no discussion on this in Congress.

China doesn't ban US tech that obeys the CCP's surveillance laws, like Apple does. This targeting of tiktok is pretty specific by US government, because it singles out a company rather than act as a law.

Therefore the US is free to pass laws that make TikTok illegal by your own reasoning.

Re: Bipartisan Legislation to Ban TikTok

#270

Somebody more in the know, will this actually pass?

I see teenagers overthrowing the US government as more likely than this bill passing. Cats out of the bag - the only possible course is mandating the physical location of the data and preventing it's transmission to china...but good luck with that.

The kids will be on a new app by the end of the week.
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