Live data from Hacker News

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

theverge.com

771–780 of 1001 posts

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

#772

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A US company would never be allowed to own any kind of social media company in China. You can't own a broadcast station in the US as a non-US citizen. Rupert Murdoch had to become a US citizen to buy Fox. I don't know if I agree with this but you can't say there is no precedent for it in the US or in China.

To be fair, China never claimed to be the bastion of free market capitalism. America did. Still does. And now it’s banning and regulating superior products off the market.

It’s banning it because of national security concerns and has nothing to do with capitalism. Honestly though this administration doesn’t seem to take national security very seriously so this will probably fall to the wayside and be enforced with the same vigor as our border security laws - so yeah nothing for them to worry about.

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

#773

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A US company would never be allowed to own any kind of social media company in China. You can't own a broadcast station in the US as a non-US citizen. Rupert Murdoch had to become a US citizen to buy Fox. I don't know if I agree with this but you can't say there is no precedent for it in the US or in China.

To be fair, China never claimed to be the bastion of free market capitalism. America did. Still does. And now it’s banning and regulating superior products off the market.

To be even more fair, America never claimed that free speech and free markets are wrong.

China did. Still does. And now it's begging and suing to keep those freedoms.

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

#774

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A US company would never be allowed to own any kind of social media company in China. You can't own a broadcast station in the US as a non-US citizen. Rupert Murdoch had to become a US citizen to buy Fox. I don't know if I agree with this but you can't say there is no precedent for it in the US or in China.

To be fair, China never claimed to be the bastion of free market capitalism. America did. Still does. And now it’s banning and regulating superior products off the market.

Just like crack and fentanyl! Let the market decide, cowards.

Although it is fun that it's totally fine for an American company to take the reins and continue on.

This could have been done with emphasis on the way China engineers TikTok/Douyin in each country and the effects on the end users - but that wouldn't make anyone with money or power very happy. The thing it does is fine - merely where the data goes and who pulls the levers is the concern.

The "ban" will change nothing in our society, thank God.

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

#775

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The law doesn't ban them from having Chinese owners. It bans American companies from providing services that distribute, maintain or update any sufficiently popular apps substantially owned or controlled by foreign adversaries. TikTok could host APKs from CCP headquarters if they want to.

does that mean that it could be used to basically block any app made by the Chinese?

I believe so. It's called "Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act" not "TikTok Ban Act", so it can be applied to apps like WeChat as well.

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

#777
I happen to personally agree with the general concept of making the CCP divest from the leading social media platform in the USA.

I also wonder if the KSA should be forced to divest from X/Twitter. Prior to owning part of X/Twitter, they did this [0], which led to to the worst of what one could imagine. What is happening now?

But my main question is, are there any other examples of forced divestiture, aside from Firefly Aerospace? [1]

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saudi_infiltration_of_Twitter#...

[1] https://spacenews.com/firefly-halts-launch-preparations-afte...

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

#778
post #124

This shows that values such as “freedom of speech” are only key words used to enforce US policy in other countries. For such a long time it was advocated that free speech is an important thing and good in and on itself. Now it turns out the free speech is good only as long as it’s US who dominates the information market.

The US has banned foreign ownership of TV and radio since 1934. Are you really this naive of your own country's operations?

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

#779
post #367

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The law doesn't ban TikTok. Rather, it bans TikTok from having Chinese owners. My prediction: China would absolutely throw away a few billion to enjoy the chaos that results from the country that preaches free speech painting itself into a corner and banning it. Enacting a ban on the most popular app among Gen Z would cause a huge uproar. It would be like taking away terrestrial radio from boomers. It's that popula…

Yeah. This is really a generational thing. That's why the ban was bipartisan... nobody in Congress is of the age that uses TikTok. However, the youth in this country are going to be enraged, far more than I think a lot of people expect. I don't use TikTok but the people I know who use it are extremely passionate about the app.

> the people I know who use it are extremely passionate about the app

It's addictive and they don't fully understand the dangers of CCP spyware and CCP controlled algorithm. It's like drugs addicts being passionate about drug use.

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

#780
post #365

I don't use TikTok, but I strongly disapprove of this. Feels like we've stooped to China's level when it comes to free speech? All this has done is validate them banning Google and Facebook. What a petty move. I understand the theoretical security concerns, but this feels like total overkill.

This is either a bullshit argument or a wildly uninformed opinion. We've been banning foreign ownership of TV and radio in the US since 1934. How is this any different?
Post reply on HN