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Senate Bill to Ban TikTok

congress.gov

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Re: Senate Bill to Ban TikTok

#211

Post by withinboredom »

throwaway4837 wrote: post #176
withinboredom wrote: post #164

Maybe someone will scroll all the way down to this comment. Probably not. For half a decade, I have lived outside of the US, and I've watched as it has fallen to shit in slow motion. I make a decent chunk of income in USD and this terrifies me... but this. This move saddens me. There are only so many hours that congress has to make real decisions ... and this, this is what they spent their time on? Talking about how…

Sadly, it has nothing to do with "talking about how 'kids' might be influenced by an algorithm", because if it did, they would be trying to ban Facebook, Instagram, and other social media services that have the exact same effect as TikTok on children. This is really meant to be a punch in the fight against China. US government does not want any possibility of US citizens' data being in the hands of China and their qu…

> [The] US government does not want any possibility of US citizens' data being in the hands of

China. Yeah, except that any business can just buy that information. I can buy your day-to-day movements for dirt cheap. I own a non-American company (though I'm still an American citizen, but that isn't a factor), and it is insanely cheap to get information about any American you want. Hell, BingBot will tell you all about me, what I do for a living and where I live.

This is about China, but it is a stupid and pointless zero-point game. This bill would get shot down in 30s for being unconstitutional, especially if the company has an American LLC or corporation (making it a legal entity protected by the constitution). Further, you'd think congress would have learned from prohibition that banning something ... hmm, doesn't work? At all? How would you even enforce something like this, stop people randomly to violate their privacy further and search their phone? Will this be another thing to get arrested for when you have a 'broken tailight'?

Re: Senate Bill to Ban TikTok

#212

Post by [deleted] »

withinboredom wrote: post #187
threeseed wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

a) The government can do more than one thing at a time. b) There is zero appetite from the GOP for gun control. Until that changes the status quo persists. c) Information about US citizens (which can be used to manipulate them) being handed over to the Chinese government is something that the government should be concerned about.

I mean, you can buy that information for 'practically free' (amortized per person), you don't need an app for that.

[deleted]

Re: Senate Bill to Ban TikTok

#213

Post by henriquez »

satellites wrote: post #199
korroziya wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Can you explain how TikTok (a Chinese “psyop”) is more harmful to the average citizen than Facebook or Instagram (a corporate American “psyop?”) Can you explain how TikTok is more harmful to the average citizen than the constant mass shootings that happen in the U.S.? Touch grass, indeed.

Because China is dumb and bans all U.S. tech companies from doing business in China? Why should we let their tech companies do business here?

Re: Senate Bill to Ban TikTok

#214

Post by gorwell »

Did anyone notice that the bill doesn't even mention Tiktok??? If it's a "bill to ban TikTok" why doesn't it name the target?

It's a red herring.

This is the Patriot Act for the Internet. Ironically they're copying the CCP playbook and want the same level of sweeping control with the implementation of a Great Firewall. It's extremely broad and includes everything connected to the internet that has >1M users in a year period.

Edit: If you don't want to read it, Louis Rossmann does a good flyover here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xudlYSLFls8

Re: Senate Bill to Ban TikTok

#215

Post by YellOh »

withinboredom wrote: post #164

Maybe someone will scroll all the way down to this comment. Probably not. For half a decade, I have lived outside of the US, and I've watched as it has fallen to shit in slow motion. I make a decent chunk of income in USD and this terrifies me... but this. This move saddens me. There are only so many hours that congress has to make real decisions ... and this, this is what they spent their time on? Talking about how…

According to Washington Post data, there were 393,289 students enrolled at schools during shootings in the past 10 years[0]. (Note this is total enrollment, not those present or injured)

In 2022, there were ~25.1 million teens[1], of whom ~67% used TikTok[2], for a total of ~16.8 million on TikTok (totally ignoring anyone under 12 or over 17).

I know the numbers are hacky because the first group includes younger children and the second group doesn't (and 1/3 of TikTok's users could be under 14[3]), but I was trying to get a sense of scale for each category. Assume the TikTok user count is probably an underestimate.

My hacky numbers come up with a bit over 40x more teens being first-hand infuenced by tiktok. To make the numbers even more hypothetical, the next step of deciding how many times worse you think being enrolled at a school that has a shooting is for students and plugging that in to get how much more attention/resources should be used on shootings is left as an exercise for the reader.

[0] https://github.com/washingtonpost/data-school-shootings [1] https://www.childstats.gov/americaschildren/tables/pop1.asp [2] https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2022/08/10/teens-social... [3] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/14/technology/tiktok-underag...

Re: Senate Bill to Ban TikTok

#217

Post by realce »

nbar1 wrote: post #178
stronglikedan wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And before that it was the TV, and before that it was the radio, and before that it was the newspaper, and before that it was the printing press, and so on. Nothing new under the sun.

The new thing under the sun is that the Chinese government has a heavy hand in TikTok.

So we should respond by making it a 20 year imprisonment for using a VPN to access Wikileaks?

Re: Senate Bill to Ban TikTok

#218

Post by atlasunshrugged »

chimeracoder wrote: post #210
atlasunshrugged wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? It seems focused on only applications/products from a few countries of concern

> Why? It seems focused on only applications/products from a few countries of concern ...or any country that the Secretary of Commerce unilaterally decides is a "national security" concern. That's an incredibly sweeping power to grant.

Sure, but there are natural guardrails within that... for instance if we decided to call the UK a country of national security concern it would trigger massive diplomatic and trade ramifications. Other than China you'll notice everyone else on the list basically has 0 trade volume with the U.S., so there's not much damage to the U.S. economy, but doing it to other countries would be a major escalation with economic consequences.

Re: Senate Bill to Ban TikTok

#219

Post by tomcar288 »

withinboredom wrote: post #164

Maybe someone will scroll all the way down to this comment. Probably not. For half a decade, I have lived outside of the US, and I've watched as it has fallen to shit in slow motion. I make a decent chunk of income in USD and this terrifies me... but this. This move saddens me. There are only so many hours that congress has to make real decisions ... and this, this is what they spent their time on? Talking about how…

It's worse than you think. This bill isn't really about Tik Tok. Read the fine print: people caught using a VPN could be thrown in jail for 20 years! It's about giving govt unchecked authority to throw people in jail.
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