Live data from Hacker News

House passes bill to force TikTok sale from Chinese owner or ban the app

nytimes.com

321–330 of 1001 posts

Re: House passes bill to force TikTok sale from Chinese owner or ban the app

#321
post #306

Almost half of Americans are using TikTok. If the Chinese govt. can spy on Americans than this is definitely a national security concern. I understand that American companies like FB and Google are doing it too but hopefully they are not selling the data to Chinese companies. After I typed that I feel FB and Google would sell data to highest bidder. Maybe it is time to focus on privacy and clearly understanding what…

[flagged]

[dead]

Re: House passes bill to force TikTok sale from Chinese owner or ban the app

#322
post #306

Almost half of Americans are using TikTok. If the Chinese govt. can spy on Americans than this is definitely a national security concern. I understand that American companies like FB and Google are doing it too but hopefully they are not selling the data to Chinese companies. After I typed that I feel FB and Google would sell data to highest bidder. Maybe it is time to focus on privacy and clearly understanding what…

In the absence of legislation to the contrary, I'd be surprised if any corporation with any useful data wouldn't sell it to anyone willing to pay their price for it.

I'd hazard that even with legislation about selling outside the US, a foreign government would still just find a cut-out that looks legit enough and then have them send the data overseas regardless.

Re: House passes bill to force TikTok sale from Chinese owner or ban the app

#323
This is going to be a shit show. I don’t even really know where I stand. On one hand, we have to acknowledge that an adversarial government has massively succeeded in installing a botnet in our population— even if that wasn’t the initial intent of ByteDance, it’s effectively true now. On the other hand, you can’t stop people from installing spyware, donating money to fraudster politicians, surrendering themselves to cult leaders, etc. without invoking freedom of speech concerns (rightfully so). Pretty interesting situation, in a morbid way, to live through. I have no idea what’s going to happen.

Re: House passes bill to force TikTok sale from Chinese owner or ban the app

#324
post #307

Ignoring everything else TikTok screwed up. They’re m being accused of having the ability to manipulate public opinion and elections. So what did they do? Push alerts to millions of users telling them of a possible ban and helping them call their representatives to change a political issue’s fortunes. Oops. All of a sudden a ton of representatives who were on the fence jumped off and joined the bandwagon.

> They’re m being accused of having the ability to manipulate public opinion and elections.

I thought it was about stealing data?

> Push alerts to millions of users telling them of a possible ban and helping them call their representatives to change a political issue’s fortunes.

Not pushing the alert, would have changed nothing. And to be fair, isn't this how any organization in a democratic country works? Talking to their customers to communicate their problems? Raising awareness, animating people to talk to their local politicians, that's pretty common, isn't it?

Re: House passes bill to force TikTok sale from Chinese owner or ban the app

#325

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.

[flagged]

Every useful idiot is one kind interaction away from being a useless critical thinker :)

Re: House passes bill to force TikTok sale from Chinese owner or ban the app

#326
post #319

This whole thing is embarrassing. Banning an app is something the CCP does. It's not supposed to be something the US government does. That's leaving aside the feasibility. I suppose tiktok could be banned on Iphones easily enough but it's less clear how the web app or android apps could be banned.

TikTok is not being "banned" by this bill. It's being prohibited from being owned by a "foreign adversary" (a defined term in US Code), with the threat of being banned from app stores and hosting providers if not divested.

Re: House passes bill to force TikTok sale from Chinese owner or ban the app

#328
post #319

This whole thing is embarrassing. Banning an app is something the CCP does. It's not supposed to be something the US government does. That's leaving aside the feasibility. I suppose tiktok could be banned on Iphones easily enough but it's less clear how the web app or android apps could be banned.

Bans don't have to be perfect to be effective.

Free speech isn't absolute, not even in the US. It's normal and healthy for a society to adapt it's view on speech over time and as the world evolves. Hopefully toward being more open, yet openness must be balanced against the negatives.

Re: House passes bill to force TikTok sale from Chinese owner or ban the app

#329
Who are the Thought Police? A comment by qpingo is [dead] within seconds of his posting it (and no, he and I have no connection).

btw, in your profile, set showdead to "yes."

dang: you need to do something about flagging. It is out of control.

Re: House passes bill to force TikTok sale from Chinese owner or ban the app

#330

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…

>If China is unwilling to allow US companies to compete fairly in their digital ecosystem, why the hell should we continue to grant Chinese firms unrestricted access to our market? Because we are (used to be?) a country that believes in democracy and the will of our citizens. If people want to download a Chinese app and watch straight up Chinese news and propaganda (not even close to what TikTok actually is), they sh…

Regarding GP's argument, I would argue it's less about freedom of speech and more about trade protection. Although software is not a physical good, letting another country restrict us and simultaneously flood our market is not good either.
Post reply on HN