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Biden signs TikTok bill into law, starting clock for ByteDance to divest

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Re: Biden signs TikTok bill into law, starting clock for ByteDance to divest

#51

Post by nickthegreek »

returningfory2 wrote: post #38

The work "ban" is in scare quotes for a reason. The law doesn't ban TikTok. Rather, it bans TikTok from having Chinese owners. If the law stands, the end result will likely be that TikTok will be sold to US owners, rather than TikTok going away. It's surprising to me that this this pretty significant distinction has been glossed over both in media reporting and in general comments here on HN. To be clear, I'm not sup…

While I get the point... if the EU said Facebook could not be available in the Country unless the company divested from US interest, would we not call it a ban?

Re: Biden signs TikTok bill into law, starting clock for ByteDance to divest

#53

Post by dpflan »

returningfory2 wrote: post #38

The work "ban" is in scare quotes for a reason. The law doesn't ban TikTok. Rather, it bans TikTok from having Chinese owners. If the law stands, the end result will likely be that TikTok will be sold to US owners, rather than TikTok going away. It's surprising to me that this this pretty significant distinction has been glossed over both in media reporting and in general comments here on HN. To be clear, I'm not sup…

It's glossed over because it creates a more emotional response framing it like that rather than giving the technical details that reveal the actual situation is perhaps less sensational?

Re: Biden signs TikTok bill into law, starting clock for ByteDance to divest

#54

Post by jvanderbot »

yayr wrote: post #14

If I read the bill correctly, any entity with an at least 20% chinese ownership stake (by a person or company) falls under this law... What are the other 2nd and 3rd order effects of this?

I guess I implicitly assumed that TikTok was the poster child for a more general / sweeping legislative push. Consider tech companies, startups, etc, operating under Chinese funding either directly or indirectly.

Re: Biden signs TikTok bill into law, starting clock for ByteDance to divest

#55

Post by bluSCALE4 »

Crazy, all the spying we do and we can't provide any definitive proof of anything yet we're jumping to banning a company. Looks like all that red scare stuff isn't a thing of the past, eh? And we all get to suffer for it. From losing a platform, to facing shadow bans with no recourse, to laws being passed that continue to stamp out our civil liberties to the point that we forget they were even there, what's it all for?

Re: Biden signs TikTok bill into law, starting clock for ByteDance to divest

#56

Post by jMyles »

flappyeagle wrote: post #24
segasaturn wrote: post #5

99% Invisible recently introduced me to the political concept of Noticeably Improving People's Lives (abbreviated as NIPL), which refers to how politicians get votes by making visible, positive improvements to people's lives. Not only is this bill bad policy (does nothing to protect people from foreign surveillance and violates free speech), its shit politics. All it's going to do is make the 150m Americans who use T…

My girlfriend not zombifying herself for 3 hours a day noticeably improves her life and my life

...but is that among the likely outcomes of this?

If she is so zombified by TikTok, won't she just continue to use it? Why would she comply with the ban?

Moreover, even if she does, there are many other nearly identical sources of zombification. Won't she use fall prey to those instead?

Re: Biden signs TikTok bill into law, starting clock for ByteDance to divest

#57

Post by nickthegreek »

dralley wrote: post #45
willio58 wrote: post #7

I can almost hear the Meta execs cackling in their bathtubs of cash. Seriously though, this decision just feels unsubstantiated and rushed. There are so many claims of manipulation and our data being used by China via TikTok but I can't help but feel a company like Instagram does the exact same thing but it's not a Chinese company so we are just... okay with that?

TikTok substantiated it almost immediately with their little stunt that resulted in thousands of 10-13 year olds calling their congressmen.

Wild that they didn't attempt to age gate that push to call congress to 17+.

Re: Biden signs TikTok bill into law, starting clock for ByteDance to divest

#59

Post by LordShredda »

returningfory2 wrote: post #38

The work "ban" is in scare quotes for a reason. The law doesn't ban TikTok. Rather, it bans TikTok from having Chinese owners. If the law stands, the end result will likely be that TikTok will be sold to US owners, rather than TikTok going away. It's surprising to me that this this pretty significant distinction has been glossed over both in media reporting and in general comments here on HN. To be clear, I'm not sup…

This is pretty much a ban. Why would the company convert their main product into a competitor? Majority of congress isn't stupid and knows what they want to happen.

Re: Biden signs TikTok bill into law, starting clock for ByteDance to divest

#60

Post by ok123456 »

dwnoble wrote: post #22

Fun fact: according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_websites_blocked_in_ma... , tiktok.com has been blocked in mainland China since 2020.

Shouldn't the US prove it's better than China by its self-consistent actions with its espoused virtues of freedom of the press?
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