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Why we are suing the Administration

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Re: Why we are suing the Administration

#101

Post by Canada »

This is retaliation for China's unfair practices. It's not about propaganda, what videos are allowed or disallowed, or who might see which videos you watch. It's about the fact that valuable US tech companies aren't allowed to compete in China. If they were the trade deficit wouldn't nearly as bad. Now the Trump administration is hitting back. This is plainly and simply: Screw you, we're going to take something successful of yours.

The tactics are distasteful: Filing outrageous criminal changes against Meng Wanzhou and the campaign to ban Huawei products as well as this frankly gangster-like hostile takeover of Bytedance's business.

I don't feel sorry for Huawei. Live by the sword, die by the sword. Bytedance on the other hand is only guilty of making a fun product, but in the game being played here fairness to the pawns isn't a priority.

Re: Why we are suing the Administration

#102

Post by roflc0ptic »

LatteLazy wrote: post #80
bootloop wrote: post #7

Why is the US always focusing on individual companies instead of working on laws to protect them from all companies invading the privacy of their citizens? Banning one player isn't going to help much in the long run I would think. Edit: I am an EU citizen if it matters.

Cynical answer: This is about creating chaos and allowing some buyer to get a really good deal. The hoped outcome is that that buyer will support trumps re-election and the headlines about china will rally support but that the damage won't be enough to cause China to act back. Less cynical answer: wider action would require congress to be involved and congress is permanently gridlocked

Yeah, this isn't a perspective I've seen anyone elucidate, and I don't have any evidence for it, but my gut says that it's a corrupt play intended to force sale/some other tawdry goal. Or maybe they just want to get back at those "tiktok teens."

Re: Why we are suing the Administration

#103

Post by Tarq0n »

pryce wrote: post #61
bootloop wrote: post #7

Why is the US always focusing on individual companies instead of working on laws to protect them from all companies invading the privacy of their citizens? Banning one player isn't going to help much in the long run I would think. Edit: I am an EU citizen if it matters.

I am coming to believe that what we are seeing is a kind of "race" to see which aspiring superpowers will eventually control (or own) the main companies that are intentionally the most successful in invading the privacy of citizens. People can only inhabit a finite number of social media networks, and there can eventually only be a fairly small number of big players in a position to produce massively detailed rich pr…

There's definitely an element of this at play. This was stated pretty explicitly in the case of Grindr, a dating app for gay men. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/28/us/politics/grindr-china-...

Re: Why we are suing the Administration

#104

Post by modo_mario »

Canada wrote: post #101

This is retaliation for China's unfair practices. It's not about propaganda, what videos are allowed or disallowed, or who might see which videos you watch. It's about the fact that valuable US tech companies aren't allowed to compete in China. If they were the trade deficit wouldn't nearly as bad. Now the Trump administration is hitting back. This is plainly and simply: Screw you, we're going to take something succe…

I suspect there's also more lobbying from more isolated (as in not general American) interest involved than people think. I initially thought it would come from the potential buyers like Microsoft but actually articles have mentioned Zuckerberg was throwing his weight behind it before it all took off.

Re: Why we are suing the Administration

#105

Post by christophilus »

It’s hard for me to imagine the US allowing the USSR to distribute apps like this (or any kind, really) back in the Cold War. This action is not as unprecedented as some think. It is misguided, though. The US needs a systematic policy, not a bunch of arbitrary one-offs.

Re: Why we are suing the Administration

#106

Post by StavrosK »

badRNG wrote: post #28

Regardless of what you think about TikTok, the banning of an app in the interest of "national security" is largely unprecedented. The jump from banning Huawei from building critical public infrastructure to banning an app that hasn't even conclusively been proven to behave in any uniquely dangerous ways seems to be an intense, unjustified escalation of this conflict. [1] You may disagree with me on the strict securit…

Well, "apps" themselves are relatively new, so it makes sense there's no precedent.

Re: Why we are suing the Administration

#107

Post by TheSpiceIsLife »

badRNG wrote: post #28

Regardless of what you think about TikTok, the banning of an app in the interest of "national security" is largely unprecedented. The jump from banning Huawei from building critical public infrastructure to banning an app that hasn't even conclusively been proven to behave in any uniquely dangerous ways seems to be an intense, unjustified escalation of this conflict. [1] You may disagree with me on the strict securit…

> the banning of an app in the interest of "national security" is largely unprecedented.

What kind of myopic fucking nonsense is this?

Hsvd you not even heard of the Cold War?

Re: Why we are suing the Administration

#109

Post by ddorian43 »

m11a wrote: post #86
chrisco255 wrote: post #8

It's really hard to feel bad for a Chinese entity when tens of thousands of small businesses across the country have had their business effectively bankrupted on account of arbitrary government action that is no fault of their own.

Keep in mind that it's not just about a Chinese entity. They employ a lot of people directly, and all those 'influencers' on TikTok also make their livelihoods from their TikTok work. Not all could easily migrate to other platforms. This is akin to banning YouTube. You're not just banning the company. There's a whole community, of content consumers and creators with jobs, behind it.

It's a new market, it's ok if it fails quickly.

Re: Why we are suing the Administration

#110

Post by square_usual »

All else aside,

> As a company we have always focused on transparency, so we want to explain why we are taking this step.

is patent bullshit, even more than the usual marketing speak. They sure as heck weren't transparent about hiding posts from unattractive or LGBTQ people [1], or when they waited hours before calling police on a suicide which happened live on the platform to protect their image [2], or even about how they hid posts during the Hong Kong protests [3]. The last one is especially rich - they tried to claim it was because users "came to TikTok for joyful content" that there were very few posts from Hong Kong about the protests. This (The Administration vs TikTok) is a battle where both sides are awful.

1: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/mar/17/tiktok-tr...

2: https://theintercept.com/2020/02/06/tiktok-suicide-brazil/

3: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/09/15/tiktoks...

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