americans have beamed their culture to the rest of the world through all sorts of means. the moral debauchery and propensity to crime (hi hiphop) introduced by american entertainment in several regions of the world aren’t spoken about enough. someone allows the rest of the world to beam new/foreign type of poison into your own territory and now what? we can’t have this here? imbecilic cowards.
House passes bill to force TikTok sale from Chinese owner or ban the app
521–530 of 1001 posts
Re: House passes bill to force TikTok sale from Chinese owner or ban the app
#522Earlier quoted context omitted.
So if TikTok was not earning any profit from US (for example, if it was sponsored by the govt), there would be no commerce and it would not be banned? I do not believe that.
Profit is not the standard for the regulation of commerce in the United States though. When the federal government set limits on crop production with the Constitution's Interstate Commerce Clause as its justification, Roscoe Filburn was simply growing wheat over the limit to feed his farm animals. That wheat was never sold, and it never crossed the property line to leave his farm, much less crossed state lines. The g…
That's interesting. Never thought that in a "free" country the govt can ban people from growing wheat.
Re: House passes bill to force TikTok sale from Chinese owner or ban the app
#523Earlier quoted context omitted.
US freedom applies only to citizens and residents and not foreign govts.
Yes, and Americans should have the freedoms to receive whatever information they want, including whatever is on Tik Tok. This is covered by the first amendment.
It's not the information that's banned, it's TikTok. People don't seek to ban TikTok because they fear the content, they fear the power that an enemy nation has over their citizens. It's not a free speech issue.
Imagine if a company developed a new form of paper and published many books on it. If the paper turns out to be toxic and is banned, the company can't then say "oh, no, we're being censured". It has nothing to do with the message.
Re: House passes bill to force TikTok sale from Chinese owner or ban the app
#524Earlier quoted context omitted.
[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.
https://www.fridaythings.com/recent-posts/israel-palestine-g...
This is an active mis-information tactic unfortunately. And moderation systems do not know how to handle this situation.
Re: House passes bill to force TikTok sale from Chinese owner or ban the app
#525This 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…
Why is it worse for me to have Tiktok installed on my phone than Google Chrome or Facebook?
Because only spying from American companies is allowed. /s
In all seriousness though, it isn't. People are generally simply trying to fit in, so hating on anything China is viewed as good and everyone sticks to it.
We know because of Snowden how the US government has access to all (most likely way more) of the same data they are now worried China has access to.
Re: House passes bill to force TikTok sale from Chinese owner or ban the app
#526I 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…
Plenty of American companies operate in Chinese consumer markets, Apple for example. One fifth of Apple's annual revenue comes from China, yet the country never retaliated with banning it while the US turned the whole world against Huawei.
"Censorship, Surveillance and Profits: A Hard Bargain for Apple in China"
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/17/technology/apple-china-ce...
Re: House passes bill to force TikTok sale from Chinese owner or ban the app
#527Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wouldn't be offended but we didn't really do any of that, at least not as a systematic government effort. We required registration of foreign agents which the government used as a basis to stop Nazi propaganda newspapers when they didn't register. But they had the option to register. Sputnik radio is registered and broadcasting today in the US. The strict interpretation of the Espionage Act that Wilson et al wanted…
We absolutely restricted distribution of state-controlled news. We didn’t block it. Same as, even if ByteDance refuses to divest, this bill wouldn’t block TikTok from being accessed on the web. It’s just taking it out of American app stores and off American hosting services.
What do you think will happen when all Americans start side-loading it?
Re: House passes bill to force TikTok sale from Chinese owner or ban the app
#528Re: House passes bill to force TikTok sale from Chinese owner or ban the app
#529Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, and Americans should have the freedoms to receive whatever information they want, including whatever is on Tik Tok. This is covered by the first amendment.
It's not the information that's banned, it's TikTok. People don't seek to ban TikTok because they fear the content, they fear the power that an enemy nation has over their citizens. It's not a free speech issue. Imagine if a company developed a new form of paper and published many books on it. If the paper turns out to be toxic and is banned, the company can't then say "oh, no, we're being censured". It has nothing t…
The courts can look at the effect of the ban, not just the intention. If the effect is that it ends up limiting Americans' access to information (which it would, unless ByteDance gave in and sold) then a court could find it unconstitutional.
IANAL, but this is my understanding.
Same holds true of your 2nd example, if it required Americans to turn in all the books they owned printed on that paper, for example.
Re: House passes bill to force TikTok sale from Chinese owner or ban the app
#530I 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…
I don't think we should "lowest common denominator" to oppressive regimes. Our Constitution says "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." TikTok, at the end of the day, is just a kind of…
Tiktok isn't "some website", it is partially owned and controlled by the CCP, which influences what content gets shown to Americans. A majority of zoomers get most of their news and information primarily from this platform, which again is under the influence of a hostile foreign government. (TikTok also spies on US citizens for the CCP, but let's keep this restricted to the free speech argument about the ban).
We actually don't have to shrug and say "oh well, first amendment" with respect to propaganda outlets of foreign countries.