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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

#331

Post by segasaturn »

efitz wrote: post #179

I see the feedback here is overwhelmingly negative. My biggest problem is that it’s too narrowly targeted. I have worked for several US businesses with global footprints and working with China (and some other countries) required whole or part ownership of the business by entities within that nation. So we partnered with businesses in China to set up and operate our infra, and had to manage everything through contract…

>and if they feel that is in their national interest, why can’t we return the favor when we feel it’s in our interest?

By the looks of it, it seems like you want the US to be more like the CCP than the other way around. Imitating authoritarian governments harms America's global reputation for "freedom and democracy", if that reputation even still exists.

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

#332

Post by danieltanfh95 »

It is maddening to see people who usually are pretty serious and mature turn into zombies parroting whatever political propaganda the state decides to push out this year.

Some key facts:

1. Tiktok isn’t allowed to sell because their AI models and algorithms are trained on Chinese citizenry data. These items have been marked as non-exports for some time now, and this is a well known fact by the people pushing for the bill.

2. The bill was only passed since it was shafted into a bundle of other more urgent bills that have to pass.

3. Not all American media companies are banned in China. Some refuse to comply with local laws and pulled out. For example, Apple and Microsoft complied. However the competition in China is immense and not every business can survive the capitalistic competition.

4. While there were talks about the ban, it was not until the overwhelming amount of Pro Palestinian content that led to the heavy push for the ban.

5. The US is a relatively tiny market for tiktok, so tiktok is likely to just pull out.

What I think:

1. The date set for the sale is highly political, and IMO its meant to weaponise Gen Z against the democrats.

2. Pro Palestinian content is highly searchable on tiktok, and that made a lot of people unhappy and uncomfortable.

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

#333

Post by nemothekid »

Aloha wrote: post #263
mrtksn wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know this is not straight up a ban but it is a ban. Maybe Musk will buy it for pennies ona dollar and will turn my TikTok feed to my Twitter feed, which is full of lunatics, conspiracy theories, racist, dog whistle racist, conman and Tesla boys. Maybe Zuck will buy it and will start showing hot girls, meals and tourist attractions like they do on Instagram? Since I'm not it the USA, maybe I will be able to use the…

I've watched people end up radicalized by content on TikTok - in ways that twitter, facebook, youtube, et al doesn't seem to do. You end up seeing the opening for a rabbit hole, and then suddenly you're very deep into said rabbit hole. I get your concerns over loss of something you enjoy - but the content is steerable enough by algorithm and addictive enough that a little twiddle of the knob, and suddenly a bunch of…

>I've watched people end up radicalized by content on TikTok - in ways that twitter, facebook, youtube, et al doesn't seem to do.

QAnon, birthed in 4chan and largely disseminated to Boomers through Facebook isolated people and convinced a large number of people to stage a coup on the US government. I can't tell if you missed the QAnon craze, or you are intentionally being ignorant. I can't think of a single TikTok trend that comes close to the level of radicalization of QAnon.

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

#334

Post by nebula8804 »

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.

They learned from Musk and his "If X dies because of advertiser boycotts the world will know and they will judge". Ironically the world knew and did not care in that instance haha.

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

#335

Post by turquoisevar »

efitz wrote: post #179

I see the feedback here is overwhelmingly negative. My biggest problem is that it’s too narrowly targeted. I have worked for several US businesses with global footprints and working with China (and some other countries) required whole or part ownership of the business by entities within that nation. So we partnered with businesses in China to set up and operate our infra, and had to manage everything through contract…

I see variations of this argument pop up in this debate, which always confuses me.

I’d expect the takeaway to be “That’s bad, so we shouldn’t do it” instead of “Hold my beer and let me show you how we can follow their example.”

I always thought that the point was to not be like authoritarian countries.

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

#337

Post by rfoo »

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…

Or maybe TikTok decides to exit US in protest because they don't want to comply with the law. We've been seen this 15 years ago.

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

#338

Post by kelnos »

Aloha wrote: post #261
autoexec wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Further, Chinese government officials would show up unannounced and plug shit into our networks, and required access to our encryption keys and accounts databases and employee & customer lists etc. This happens in the US too and has been happening for a very long time ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Room_641A ) only when it happens to US companies they get gag orders and/or paid off. (see https://www.theguardian.co…

While I'm not always thrilled that about the amount of monitoring United States Government does, as a United States Citizen, my government is at least marginally accountable to me - if enough of us are bothered by this policy, we can choose to elect representatives who will change it. I can't say that about China, certainly not to me as a United States Citizen, and not even really to Chinese Citizens either - which i…

I don't use TikTok, so I'm not particularly worried about the Chinese government using it to spy on me. What I am worried about is the Chinese government using TikTok to launch influence and misinformation campaigns against US citizens.

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

#339

Post by j2kun »

turquoisevar wrote: post #335
efitz wrote: post #179

I see the feedback here is overwhelmingly negative. My biggest problem is that it’s too narrowly targeted. I have worked for several US businesses with global footprints and working with China (and some other countries) required whole or part ownership of the business by entities within that nation. So we partnered with businesses in China to set up and operate our infra, and had to manage everything through contract…

I see variations of this argument pop up in this debate, which always confuses me. I’d expect the takeaway to be “That’s bad, so we shouldn’t do it” instead of “Hold my beer and let me show you how we can follow their example.” I always thought that the point was to not be like authoritarian countries.

> follow their example

Nothing about this is following their example. It's saying, "if you do the bad thing we won't let you operate here."

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