[flagged]
Should the Iranians and the Chinese think in the same manner? Isn't this largely a question of how much you trust the official narrative of the local elites?
China has banned YouTube, twitch, wordpress, medium, etc.
House passes bill to force TikTok sale from Chinese owner or ban the app
121–130 of 1001 posts
Re: House passes bill to force TikTok sale from Chinese owner or ban the app
#122Re: House passes bill to force TikTok sale from Chinese owner or ban the app
#123Lol, the US finally showing its true colors. It's a freemarket until our companies start to lose - then suddenly you gotta think of the children, national security, the brainwashed masses and the evil communists.
At this point they're basically using the same arguments the Chinese use to ban Western apps.
Bunch of sore losers. We're losing all moral authority over being a beacon of capitalism. The Chinese made a better app for funny videos and showing people dancing - this has made a lot of people very upset
Re: House passes bill to force TikTok sale from Chinese owner or ban the app
#124Earlier quoted context omitted.
What's your point? China literally has a nationwide firewall to prevent Western ideas from entering the minds of its subjects. Why should we throw open our digital borders to Chinese influence campaigns? "The supreme art of war is to defeat the enemy without fighting", e.g. to undermine Americans' faith in our democratic institutions, to gain the ability to compromise our critical infrastructure, and to influence our…
> Why should we throw open our digital borders to Chinese influence campaigns? Because we are not China and our institutions are built on presumption of freedom of speech and freedom of thought and democracy. If we start emulating China, we will become China. Our institutions are supposed to be robust enough to handle local and foreign propaganda and if they are not, then censorship is certainly not a solution that w…
Free trade should go both ways.
It's ridiculous to let Chinese apps and websites operate in the West when China blocks so many Western sites and apps: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_websites_blocked_in_...
Re: House passes bill to force TikTok sale from Chinese owner or ban the app
#125Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why shouldn’t Europeans do the same with US social networks then?
> Why shouldn’t Europeans do the same with US social networks then? We’re not your foreign adversary? (If we are, we shouldn’t have an obligation to defend you.) This bill permits TikTok’s sale to a European owner. It just bans its ownership by a foreign adversary country.
You're not a foreign adversary - you're a colonial overlord. If a European or other US 'ally' nation attempts to act against American 'national interest' their government is swiftly toppled - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alleged_CIA_involvement_in_the...
More often they don't get elected at all due to coordinated media campaigns influencing elections https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_activities_in_the_United_K...
The US Army literally have an entire army unit dedicated to running propaganda campaigns on social networks internationally. It's ludicrous to suggest this isn't employed to impact political and social policy in 'friendly' nations. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/mar/17/us-spy-op...
That being said, there are worse things than Pax Americana. I'd certainly rather living under US influence than CCP. I'd be the first to argue that NATO has prevented another war in Europe. But lets not deny the reality on the ground.
Re: House passes bill to force TikTok sale from Chinese owner or ban the app
#126Earlier quoted context omitted.
What's your point? China literally has a nationwide firewall to prevent Western ideas from entering the minds of its subjects. Why should we throw open our digital borders to Chinese influence campaigns? "The supreme art of war is to defeat the enemy without fighting", e.g. to undermine Americans' faith in our democratic institutions, to gain the ability to compromise our critical infrastructure, and to influence our…
> Why should we throw open our digital borders to Chinese influence campaigns? Because we are not China and our institutions are built on presumption of freedom of speech and freedom of thought and democracy. If we start emulating China, we will become China. Our institutions are supposed to be robust enough to handle local and foreign propaganda and if they are not, then censorship is certainly not a solution that w…
That's nice, but you have to defend democracy from people who wish to overthrow it. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_of_tolerance)
Re: House passes bill to force TikTok sale from Chinese owner or ban the app
#127Nate Silver did a nice write up on the probability and implications of all this here: https://open.substack.com/pub/natesilver/p/why-the-political... When Biden passes this bill (which he said he would), I can only assume Dems will lose a large part of the younger voting demographic. If jot now, then 4 years from now. Because no chance in hell is China selling this thing, and Trump is already talking about how much h…
> Because no chance in hell is China selling this thing, and Trump is already talking about how much he loves TikTok now.
Which is insane because in 2020, Trump was the one trying to ban tiktok and Biden was defending it. Now the script flipped? In the meantime, all they've done in the past 5 years is give tiktok free advertisement.
Re: House passes bill to force TikTok sale from Chinese owner or ban the app
#128Earlier quoted context omitted.
What's your point? China literally has a nationwide firewall to prevent Western ideas from entering the minds of its subjects. Why should we throw open our digital borders to Chinese influence campaigns? "The supreme art of war is to defeat the enemy without fighting", e.g. to undermine Americans' faith in our democratic institutions, to gain the ability to compromise our critical infrastructure, and to influence our…
The point is that the West painted itself as the defender of freedom, democracy and free markets. Going beyond, it claimed that (in the post Reagan/Thatcher era) that free markets are a prerequisite for being a rich country. Yet, the moment free markets became inconvenient, the west dropped that narrative and went full protectionist. As a result, China gets a propaganda victory in the eyes of non-Western nations. All…
It's not hypocrisy to expect free trade to go both ways.
China blocks many major Western websites and apps. Reciprocating is far from unfair: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_websites_blocked_in_...
Re: House passes bill to force TikTok sale from Chinese owner or ban the app
#129Earlier quoted context omitted.
The point is that the West painted itself as the defender of freedom, democracy and free markets. Going beyond, it claimed that (in the post Reagan/Thatcher era) that free markets are a prerequisite for being a rich country. Yet, the moment free markets became inconvenient, the west dropped that narrative and went full protectionist. As a result, China gets a propaganda victory in the eyes of non-Western nations. All…
> looking like hypocrites This is the paradox of tolerance [1]. It’s a worn discussion and far from hypocritical. In any case, I’d rather be right than consistent. Particularly when it comes to the survival and wellbeing of our people and allies. More pointedly when the other side is a dictatorship. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_of_tolerance
That's the exact argument e.g. Turkey used to ban Wikipedia/Youtube/Twitter etc.
Make of that what you will.
Re: House passes bill to force TikTok sale from Chinese owner or ban the app
#130Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, I am. I should get to use any app, under any ownership that I choose. This is a violation of my rights.
Errr, you don't currently get to choose who owns your apps. record scratch
I get to choose the apps I use and certainly can (and do) take who owns them into consideration.