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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

#391

I hope this will show the severity of threats countries face from social media and that things are no longer business as usual. Every European country /and/or EU/ECC as a block, as well as every other nation or block, should follow this up as soon as permitted to have all social media apps operated by a foreign country be subject to the same legislation. TikTok will have to sel to the US, Netherlands, France, Germany…

De-facto international antitrust, I like it.

I believe this would be de jure, not de facto.

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

#393
post #389

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the end result will likely be that TikTok will be sold to US owners Why does everyone assume this is likely? The CCP has already said they would block a sale of TikTok. This happened a while ago - so the US saying TikTok must be sold is an effective ban. The misdirection of the wording of the ban is just dishonest.

Why are you framing this in such a way that treats one party as having agency and the other party as being immovable? The US is not banning TikTok, they are posing stipulations towards its use and you believe the CCP when they say they won't comply with those stipulations. But why is that a ban, versus "the CCP refuses to let TikTok comply with US law?"

Do you consider Google banned in China? The CCP had stipulations for Google's continued business in China. It was unable/unwilling to follow them, so Google left (voluntarily, infact).

I've never seen anyone argue that Google isn't technically banned in China. It's clearly a ban when China does it.

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

#394
I wonder if they couldn't sell to a more "friendly" to China country somewhere in Europe and then backdoor info out of there? Away from NSA/SS/FBI scanning and FISA courts. That would seem to be the best of all worlds for ByteDance if they could make it hard to audit the potential company and if the court challenge fails to have the whole thing dismissed as unconstitutional.

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

#395

if you've been to China, you'll know that they ban all western products: facebook, google, etc etc and replaced them with their own variants. If they want to run around free-range without any restriction with their own products then they should respond by loosening restrictions in their own country. This is an absolute no-brainer. If you want Tik Tok in the US, lower your middle finger. Am I missing something?

I was always in favor of banning it for this reason, but I'm concerned that Biden is now banning it for a different reason. The timing is interesting. Certain lobby groups have been urging Congress on this due to TikTok videos about the war in Gaza. Then again, Trump was also trying to ban it for his own reasons.

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

#396

I wonder how effective being banned would really be at slowing down usage? Across various threads there's a lot of info on how large & what a revenue source the US is for TikTok, and an assumption that that goes away. But do people think the ban would be 100% effective, that no one would workaround? Would TikTok accept the ban or try to help people work around it? I kind of want to see an example of the US trying to…

It is finally time for the Year of Linux on Mobile? Probably not lol but maybe this will push people to learn how to sideload or "tiktok install services" might crop up to do so. Maybe this might force Apple to open up iOS also if enough users go to sideloaded Android to get their tiktok fix.

Correct me if I am wrong but Didn't Epic also get removed from the Android and Apple stores? They are still going somehow though.

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

#397

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…

There is another possibility. TikTok exits the us market.

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

#398

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…

Just because it doesn’t say “ban” doesn’t mean its not one. It is well known that China lists algorithms and AI models trained on citizen data as a non-export so tiktok will never be able to sell to anyone other than a Chinese company unless they retrain the model etc. The CEO has mentioned that they will simply pull out of the US market.

They could work on a "good enough" algorithm that is basically already in public/open source domain when they sell it. 80% of its value is captive audience and "cool factor" with younger users.

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

#399
post #238

I feel like if TikTok didn't want this to happen, they should have not had their CEO commit perjury in front of Congress. https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexandralevine/2023/05/30/tikt...

Who hasn't lied to Congress at this point? Facebook did it, Amazon did it, the oil industry did it, Betsy DeVos did it, the director of the CIA did it, EPA Chief Scott Pruitt did it, Big Tobacco did it. How many of them faced any real consequences?

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

#400

I hope this will show the severity of threats countries face from social media and that things are no longer business as usual. Every European country /and/or EU/ECC as a block, as well as every other nation or block, should follow this up as soon as permitted to have all social media apps operated by a foreign country be subject to the same legislation. TikTok will have to sel to the US, Netherlands, France, Germany…

Hmm not sure I agree. It can be helpful to have access to social media that contains perspectives outside of the control of the country you live in. Sure will it be slanted or even outright propaganda ? Yes but this is still okay as we can teach people to critically think and make their own decisions. The idea that our “government” will curate content and sanctify what is true is simply dystopian.

Citizen these social media sites and these news sources are safe. We have curated this list for your safety and that of the community at large.

Geez things have gotten bad in a hurry :(

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