271–280 of 1001 posts
I understand it has some content creation support, like recording short videos from the app, but I think there are stand-alone apps for making and editing short videos, and a Tik Tok web based app could probably be made to import from some of those.
I'm a big proponent of free speech and the first amendment, but I agree with the reasonings for banning it or forcing US owners. China most definitely has their hands in the data that TikTok amasses and given its popularity it's not an insignificant risk to U.S. citizens. We all know how easy it is to manipulate users... aka Cambridge Analytica. It'll be interesting to see what legal challenges come up if the bill pa…
Why shouldn’t Europeans do the same with US social networks then?
IMO, somewhat similar situations - popular social media, known for data gathering, based in another country that is viewed as a geopolitical and/or ideological opponent and is often villified.
0: https://money.cnn.com/2016/11/17/technology/russia-linkedin-...
1: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/01/russia-tries-to-...
I think the primary argument for banning TikTok should be based on reciprocity rather than moral and/or security concerns. We can make similar arguments about the negative effects of Facebook, Instagram, and etc. even from the POVs of other countries, but the key issue here is that China heavily restricts foreign apps and services from operating in their market. If China is unwilling to allow US companies to compete…
> We can make similar arguments Hey remember when Apple, Google & Amazon all colluded to ban Parler off the face of the planet within days, a purely political move, based on some shaky allegations of moderation? Meanwhile TikTok is labelled as a "must have" app in the AppStore....
Having a policy against hosting apps that host illegal content and taking no measures to remove it is a political move? There are plenty of active conservative communities on the internet, Parler just went the "free as in anarchy" speech route. Tumblr faced a ban on iOS for pornographic content and Reddit also has to sanitize their default experience to be on app stores, so it's not just Parler.
It's why BlueSky is interesting because they have moderation which will get them on app stores, but you can turn it off.
But TV has always been national. How is global social media supposed to work when every government demands to have its own version, controlled by a local company?
Do these representatives imagine a truly separate version of TikTok, like China's Douyin, without access to foreign content, and without anyone else seeing american content, without any connections between american and foreign users? Does the US want to separate itself from the world like that? China has a long tradition of this kind of separation, the US doesn't.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
China bans a shitton of Western websites. What's wrong with reciprocating? Free trade should go both ways, shouldn't it? I would definitely be more okay with allowing Chinese websites/apps in the US if China wasn't banning so many Western ones: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_websites_blocked_in_...
Why would you want to live in a country that bans apps like dictatorships do? I'd rather live in a free country.
In the case here, it's ostensibly being done with national security considerations in mind. What remains to be determined is whether or not these concerns are valid. But the idea that "free" means the government has no power to ban things, including apps, borders naïvety.
How does this pass muster with the Constitution's forbidding of bills of attainder?
[flagged]
While he wasn't "right", he was also a more complex character than the cardboard cutout villain that the media presented. I believe a lot of people see through the one-sided reporting and begin to mistrust mainstream media ("what else are they lying about"). Not everyone needs their news dumbed down to grade 4 level.
Anything other than open propaganda seems to be offensive to the government. I've got no clue what they're saying on TikTok about him, but kids understanding that there's some nuance and understandable motivation behind a guy like bin Laden seems like... not something to be terribly alarmed about? Of course, goes without saying, bad dude. However, there's a big difference between cartoon character who "hates freedom" and "guy who is pissed off about (among other things) the effect of US foreign policy on his country." One breeds "turn 'em to glass" sentiments, another breeds "what IS our foreign policy?"
Don't be fooled by talk about security or privacy. This is simple Nation State realpolitik. TikTok is a propaganda threat controlled by a non-friendly state to the US. Any other way to look at this is naive.
Is there any evidence it's been used for propaganda? I don't use TikTok a lot, but it seems very non-political (maybe it's my filter bubble). The real cesspool of hatred and madness is Facebook - but of course Congress doesn't care too much about that. As far as I remember from the previous elections the Russian bots were operating on US based platforms
(Note: that means that I don’t believe that all propaganda is inherently evil, sometimes your interests align with a State. For example governments paying for advertising to discourage smoking is a great thing, IMO!)
I’ve never lived in China, but I’ve spoken with many people that have and my understanding is that allegiance to the State (eg, the State’s sole stewards the CCP) is a big part of life there. I’ve even been told that staying in the good graces of the State’s only official political party is important if you want to do things like buy property or start a business.
TikTok is administrated by humans, many of whom live in China.
Those humans are, I assume, ambitious and want to do well for themselves and therefore likely want to appease the State.
Therefore, when I read articles about how the administrators of TikTok can effectively decide what goes viral it makes me fear what I’ve begun calling ‘incidental’ propaganda.
Probably those China-based administrations at TikTok don’t want to actively harm American society, but it’s certainly true that America and China have different interests in the world. I assume that any administrators in China will never choose to make something go viral if it is critical of the Chinese State or its interests.
You can see how that might skew things for those that only get their news from TikTok, right?
(This is my understanding and thinking on things right now given the information I have. I gladly welcome any new information if someone reads this and disagrees. But please be kind :))
Does anyone have an idea of the likelihood of the owners divesting vs a ban being enforced? I kind of want to see the owners refuse to divest