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Senate passes TikTok ban bill, sending it to President Biden's desk

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Re: Senate passes TikTok ban bill, sending it to President Biden's desk

#62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you explain in what way the US is authoritarian? I don't feel it on a personal level at all. I mean, the dept of motor vehicles is pretty strict, but other than that...

Try starting a business that has anything to do with the financial system.

But you get to keep your money in America if you start a successful business. You don't see billionaires getting crushed like Jack Ma in China or the oligarchs in Russia, although I wouldn't mind a little of that in America to be honest

Re: Senate passes TikTok ban bill, sending it to President Biden's desk

#64
post #4

> “In the context of social media platforms used by nearly half of Americans, it’s not hard to imagine how a platform that facilitates so much commerce, political discourse, and social debate could be covertly manipulated to serve the goals of an authoritarian regime, one with a long track record of censorship, transnational repression, and promotion of disinformation.” Mark Warner (D-VA), Senate Intelligence Committ…

If America truly wanted to protect the data of Americans, shouldn’t they instead have passed a law granting that data some protection?

The point GP was making is not about protecting the data going out, but rather protecting against the influence coming in

It's reciprocal since the CCP has the similar policy towards Western social media

Re: Senate passes TikTok ban bill, sending it to President Biden's desk

#65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you explain in what way the US is authoritarian? I don't feel it on a personal level at all. I mean, the dept of motor vehicles is pretty strict, but other than that...

Try starting a business that has anything to do with the financial system.

How is strong financial regulation authoritarianism?

Re: Senate passes TikTok ban bill, sending it to President Biden's desk

#66
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There are several domestic entities (governmental and non) that I would consider much bigger threats to me We can address multiple threats at once, and are not compelled to address them in priority order. Any improvement is good. > if you're not willing to let people read/watch widely and make up their own minds This seems a very weak argument. Of course nobody wants to make it illegal to see propaganda. But if you…

> We can address multiple threats at once, and are not compelled to address them in priority order. Any improvement is good. Not necessarily. A balance of power can be better for us regular folks at the bottom. Frankly I feel safer in a world where there's at least some non-US social media than a world where people who run the US run everything and no-one can call them out. > Of course nobody wants to make it illegal…

A European social media company would not be facing the same backlash

Russia, China, and Iran are at war with the West, the West has not acknowledged it widely yet

Re: Senate passes TikTok ban bill, sending it to President Biden's desk

#67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not saying I agree with grandparent, but I would like to point out that both your statement and grandparents statement could simultaneously be true with zero conflict between the two

I'm just saying it's a bit late to start raving about "enemy state" influence after they outsourced the manufacturing capacity of the entire country to it.

The capacity is actually pretty close between the US and China

https://www.brookings.edu/articles/global-manufacturing-scor...

The difference is largely in the products produced, for example, no one is building anything close to the F-35, which is a significant export for the US.

> America is a manufacturing superpower: Of the 22 manufacturing categories tracked by the U.N., the U.S. ranked first in six categories and second in 13 others, underscoring the breadth and competitiveness of American manufacturing. In only three sectors—apparel, motor vehicles and leather—did the U.S. fail to rank either first or second.

From: https://www.barrons.com/articles/china-manufacturing-semicon...

If we move beyond the US vs China to the West vs Authoritarians, the comparison becomes dominating

Re: Senate passes TikTok ban bill, sending it to President Biden's desk

#68
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We can address multiple threats at once, and are not compelled to address them in priority order. Any improvement is good. Not necessarily. A balance of power can be better for us regular folks at the bottom. Frankly I feel safer in a world where there's at least some non-US social media than a world where people who run the US run everything and no-one can call them out. > Of course nobody wants to make it illegal…

A European social media company would not be facing the same backlash Russia, China, and Iran are at war with the West, the West has not acknowledged it widely yet

> A European social media company would not be facing the same backlash

Maybe. Or maybe the US would find some excuse to ban them too. Or the same one - remember the US considers it appropriate to spy on and read the emails of the German chancellor. Conveniently, there isn't any major European social media to compare to.

Re: Senate passes TikTok ban bill, sending it to President Biden's desk

#70
For those who say "TikTok can just exit the US market", when the Trump administration came close to forcing a divestment/shutdown on TikTok in 2020,^1 Americans were 10% of TikTok's user base but 50% of revenue. Of the top 50 most-followed accounts https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most-followed_TikTok_a...>, 21 of 50 are American.

TikTok's buyer does not have to be American. If TikTok were a Canadian, British, French, German, Korean, Japanese, or Taiwanese company, the US government wouldn't have intervened in the first place.

Conversely, if TikTok were a Canadian, British, French, German, Korean, Japanese, or Taiwanese company, American would not have to fear a hostile government silently gathering data on American users, or a company repeatedly shown to be lying about using its app to do so.

^1 And boy, do Democrats who shouted Orange Man Bad back then now wish they had supported the move

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