Live data from Hacker News

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

nytimes.com

341–350 of 1001 posts

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

#341

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I suppose that depends on what you mean by “propaganda”. Personally I think it can be convincingly argued that any message transmitted to you from a State is propaganda (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’v…

Having lived there for several years I didn't find the state some ever-present aspect of life - but it doesn't seem particularly relevant

Your line of reasoning seems fine, but it basically applies to any "other". If some European decides what goes viral, he is going to subject poor stupid american viewers to their nefarious European biases - and those biases may harm our society!

Furthermore the biases of US based company executives may harm our society as well. I'll grant you that they may be less inclined, but gosh, rage bait and selling sweets to children does make them a whole lot of money.

So the logic isn't wrong, but it seems to be applied selectively in cases that just happen to benefit large American tech companies - who are incapable of providing US consumers a product that's nearly as good as Tiktok

Maybe biases in algorithms need to addressed.. But that should be done in a thoughtful unbiased holistic that applied equally to everyone - instead of this embarrassing kneejerk "the commies are taking over" kind of way

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

#343

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…

I find it really interesting how being against a ban is the "freedom" argument when the person who is most responsible for championing this ban is the whole Palantir gang led by Keith Rabois's partner.

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

#344

TikTok has been the only popular social media network in the US not censoring Israeli crimes on Palestinians. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/dec/21/meta-face... https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2023/2/28/twitter-under-f... https://www.vox.com/culture/23997305/tiktok-palestine-israel... There is a reason this is one of the things that's passing with bipartisan support. Both parties are excusing, and are…

[flagged]

You'll notice no one is even bothering to comment why this isn't true, they're just downvoting and flagging anyone pointing this out.

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

#345

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know the dots you're trying to connect here, but there's little monetary support from Congress for Israel nowadays. Although, in my opinion, that's more to do with partisan politics than anything.

TikTok has been the only popular social media network in the US not censoring Israeli crimes on Palestinians. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/dec/21/meta-face... https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2023/2/28/twitter-under-f... https://www.vox.com/culture/23997305/tiktok-palestine-israel... There is a reason this is one of the things that's passing with bipartisan support. Both parties are excusing, and are…

The Guardian, Al Jazeera, and Vox claim censorship. Is there something more credible, maybe AIPAC themselves publicly backing the TikTok ban, or some strong correlation between AIPAC contributions and House votes on the bill?

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

#346
The arguments I can think of for why you wouldn't support restricting social media owned by foreign adversaries:

* You don't believe social media companies can become literal or de facto extensions of the countries they are located in.

* You don't believe social media can influence people's beliefs and behaviors.

* You believe the above, but think a government cannot (or should not) regulate companies operating in its jurisdiction for those aforementioned purposes.

* You believe the above, but don't think that it amounts to a serious risk, even theoretically.

* You don't care about any of that, you just like the product.

* You don't care about any of that, you oppose the bill on ideological grounds other than the legislative scope, or civil liberties issues. For example (but not limited to) purely partisan reasons.

* You have issues with the specific provisions or wording of this bill, which override your general agreement that something like it may be legitimate and desirable.

Am I missing any? None are convincing me, personally, except maybe the last one, and I am guessing most people who oppose it have not done a line-by-line parsing of the text of the bill either.

Post reply on HN