Queue the citizens of Montana leading the charge in "vpn" searches on Google. Good luck Utah!
TikTok is now banned in Montana
161–170 of 585 posts
Re: TikTok is now banned in Montana
#162It's interesting that some oppose Musk running Twitter, it's moderation, policies, and alorithms because of his sympathies for a mainstream American political party. And at the same time carry water for TickTock who is legally obligated to cooperate with China's intelligence service in any way they require. Knowing that the Chinese regime runs genocidal slave labour rape camps and will extract and sell your organs fo…
> because of his sympathies for a mainstream American political party.
That's not generally why.
But I do agree to this extent -- if we're to be banning Tiktok, we should be banning all social media companies, foreign and domestic, that do the same as Tiktok does.
Re: TikTok is now banned in Montana
#163Earlier quoted context omitted.
That such bans don't include domestic companies spying on people and providing that data to domestic entities says everything about how bankrupt this whole thing is.
Mainstream conservatives/Republicans swung hard in the direction of supporting domestic spying and surveillance in the early 2000s and have never swung back. They hate the government but (with some justification) assume that law enforcement is on their side.
> They hate the government
Judging by their positions and actions, they don't hate government at all. They love government. They just hate it when government doesn't enthusiastically support what they want.
Re: TikTok is now banned in Montana
#164Earlier quoted context omitted.
That such bans don't include domestic companies spying on people and providing that data to domestic entities says everything about how bankrupt this whole thing is.
Mainstream conservatives/Republicans swung hard in the direction of supporting domestic spying and surveillance in the early 2000s and have never swung back. They hate the government but (with some justification) assume that law enforcement is on their side.
Given how much distrust there is of DHS/FBI among Trump supporters/GOP base, I’m not sure this is true; especially with many neocons returning to the Democratic Party they came from originally.
Elected GOP officials are a completely different beast from much of their own base.
Re: TikTok is now banned in Montana
#165One underappreciated aspect of this is ban is that anyone who wants Tiktok will just go download it in Wyoming or Idaho etc, as it seems to be merely a ban on downloading the app, and not a ban on Tiktok traffic itself. So the ban will have near zero actual impact in practice (even if it somehow makes it into effect). Furthermore, it's unclear if the web app of Tiktok will be affected, or if it's only a ban on the mo…
The ban itself seems more geared at restricting Bytedance’s ability to operate (and fine them) and less about preventing the people of Montana from using it, especially since there’s no ISP or traffic restriction on it.
Re: TikTok is now banned in Montana
#166Related, "Montana bans Telegram, WeChat, and Temu from government devices"
https://www.theverge.com/2023/5/17/23727750/montana-bans-tel...
Re: TikTok is now banned in Montana
#167Installed the app last night. It would be interesting to see their DAU graph for the state! Something worthwhile noting here is that the usual "politicians don't understand the technology" sentiment doesn't apply here because our governor at least knows how to code Perl, and ran a software company.
If anything, people who understand technology are more wary about social media and other digital addictions.
Re: TikTok is now banned in Montana
#168Slightly off topic - I'm not sure I've heard the gov stating it plainly in the recent years: "the People's Republic of China is an adversary of the United States" (from the bill). Did I just miss it / glance over, or is this out of character for officially released gov documents?
I wonder how many Chinese-manufactured goods the state of Montana bought yesterday while issuing this statement.
Sounds like a problem.
I guess we need more laws like this then to solve it, then.
Re: TikTok is now banned in Montana
#169Earlier quoted context omitted.
Does a state even have a right to do something like this? Somehow, I feel like if California tried to ban Fox News - it would not fly. This doesn't seem that different, though I personally find it amusing that it's coming from a conservative state. I do agree TikTok is toxic trash - but I'd say the same about Fox News - and it just doesn't seem like something a state has the ability to ban.
It's predictable that it's coming from a conservative state. That they are broadly against using state power to ban things is part of their identity and marketing but not reality. Especially when it can be construed as a social-moral problem.
Yeah nothing like banning people from going to restaurants without a state issued vaccine pass (we didn’t forget)
Re: TikTok is now banned in Montana
#170Earlier quoted context omitted.
Countries have the right to ban foreign adversaries. US companies are a different problem with different solutions.
>Countries have the right to ban foreign adversaries This is the same logic that China uses to ban all western apps. Fortunately in the west, countries don't have rights, people do, and citizens generally have the right to run whatever software they want on the hardware devices they own. Governments that violate such rights get challenged in court.
Aren’t there other foreign goods that you can’t get in the United States?