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US lawmakers tell Apple, Google to be ready to remove TikTok from stores Jan. 19

reuters.com

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Re: US lawmakers tell Apple, Google to be ready to remove TikTok from stores Jan. 19

#221

Post by bryan_w »

Krssst wrote: post #80
exabrial wrote: post #55

As grating as this is to freedom of expression, I’ve been annoyed enough times by ‘tok’ers doing crap like I dunno, licking ice cream buckets in supermarkets, I’m also looking forward to that going away for a few months till the next thing replaces it. Unfortunately, this is pretty bad precedent. While I love my country, these sorts of decisions are as federal level are pretty scary and I question whether the governm…

The problem is probably not what videos the platform hosts itself (as long as those are legal themselves), but having the recommendation algorithm controlled by a foreign power. Maybe taking over the recommendations algorithm (or banning any kind of algorithmic feed other than chronogical) would have sparked less concerns. But changing the algorithm to make it less addictive would probably effectively kill the platfo…

> Maybe taking over the recommendations algorithm (or banning any kind of algorithmic feed other than chronogical) would have sparked less concerns.

Literally all they had to do was sell the CCPs stake in the company to anybody not in the CCP and they were unwilling to do that, opting to burn the whole company down instead.

If they did that one thing all this would be avoided.

Re: US lawmakers tell Apple, Google to be ready to remove TikTok from stores Jan. 19

#222

Post by suraci »

disqard wrote: post #70
soramimo wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Counter point, how is letting the primary adversarial power (which happens to be an authoritarian regime) massively influence the political views of the future generation a good idea? It sounds to me like the federal government is doing its job here.

I really don't understand why you are being downvoted. I'm baffled at folks wanting to overlook that a Chinese-controlled brainworm is even more dangerous than a US-operated brainworm. Yes, we should steer clear of all brainworms, but we should be exterminating the brainworms run by adversaries ASAP.

That's funny

- There's a Chinese-controlled brainworm which is more harmful than a US-operated brainworm - How you know this - The US-operated brainworm told me

* and why use '-controlled' vs '-operated', I'm not a native English speeker and I'm very curious about it

Re: US lawmakers tell Apple, Google to be ready to remove TikTok from stores Jan. 19

#223

Post by wiseowise »

sourcepluck wrote: post #63
jwarden wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Something doesn’t have to be perfect to be good. Most American’s recognize and lament the erosion of freedoms over the years, while still valuing the many that remain. I don’t think they should be be laughed at for that.

Even very intelligent people will accept this argument for America, and then reject it for often literally every other country. Imagine I made the same argument for Russia, or China, or North Korea, or Syria, or Venezuela, or some other country the Western mainstream media says is bad. You'd presumably come up with a reason - immediately, effortlessly, almost without thinking - why it didn't apply in that case, and t…

As someone that had to deal with one of the countries in your list - they’re bad.

Re: US lawmakers tell Apple, Google to be ready to remove TikTok from stores Jan. 19

#224

Post by dqv »

hetman wrote: post #179
incahoots wrote: post #159

This was always about running defense for the likes of Israel and it’s ongoing televised genocide…. This isn’t about national security, if it had been this would’ve never gotten as far as it has been, the door would’ve been closed long ago. TikTok and its algorithm isn’t beholden to the US’s government mandate like the other social media platforms. It also just happens to be the one with the largest amount of users a…

Anyone who's used TikTok knows the platform is heavily moderated and not at all an "anything goes" paradise for the exchange of free ideas. So, if, as you suggested, the moderation does not favour the US government's mandate, then the obvious question one should be asking is: whose mandate does it favour?

False dichotomy. It doesn't need to favor anyone else's mandate. We are observing a lack of favor to any one mandate. The US mandate is to suppress "anti-US views" (in quotations because what the American populace thinks is anti-US/pro-US and what the American government thinks is anti-US/pro-US is oftentimes drastically different).

What people really mean (without even knowing it) when they say tiktok pushes propaganda is that it isn't suppressing the propaganda they don't like. They mean that after the "funniest Trump moments" video with 10 million views, there shouldn't be a video about the evils of Black Rock, it should instead be one of the "US military is EPIC" phonk edits.

Re: US lawmakers tell Apple, Google to be ready to remove TikTok from stores Jan. 19

#225

Post by skwee357 »

_1tem wrote: post #217
skwee357 wrote: post #209

I'm surprised it doesn't come from the EU. On the other hand, I'm not sure if this move is against short form content in general, but rather against China. I wish the entire world would agree to ban short form content and influencer content in general. Things I saw on reels/shorts range from mild pornography, conspiracy theories, medical advice, promoting overconsumption, financial advice, etc. Nothing useful comes o…

The problem is not with the short-form content medium. The problem is with the culture you live in. As a speaker of multiple languages, I see many different faces of TikTok in different countries. In most Western countries, the content I get is absolute trash, basically OnlyFans promoters and various stupid jokes. In another country I live in (not English-speaking), I get interesting political commentary, everyday us…

Interesting point. I do agree that I consume mainly English-speaking content.

I'd still argue, however, for the usefulness of the content you consume from non-English-speaking short form content.

- Political commentary -- why would I care for some random person's opinion on politics? If there are people whose opinion I respect, wouldn't it be smarter to just consume their content directly (newsletter, telegram channel, whatever)?

- Tips/hacks -- I'm not sure what you get, but I found most of these to be super simple/useless, or promote yet another super specialized tool that you can buy, "using my affiliate link down in the description"

- Views on my city -- I found some travel related content, most of it is fake. It showed me "interesting" locations, containing mountains and waterfalls in the... NETHERLANDS, the most flat country in the world.

- Comedy -- this one is actually good. The problem is that I can't seem to "train" the algorithm to focus on comedy/memes/fail videos. No matter how hard I try, I end up with conspiracy theories/OF promoters/men-women dynamics. Maybe it says something about me...

Re: US lawmakers tell Apple, Google to be ready to remove TikTok from stores Jan. 19

#226

Post by wiseowise »

porknubbins wrote: post #50
add-sub-mul-div wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Free speech" is not like the free square in Bingo. You can't just use it whenever. Commerce is already regulated, speech is already regulated, there's no way around those things not being absolute. If you have a specific argument about the nuance of this situation, then make it.

I’m no Tiktok fan but the US has extremely broad free speech protections and its hard to see how this could be constitutional. Individuals posting videos of themselves is clearly speech so we are in the 1st amendment territory. None of the usual exceptions for certain types of content (defamation, threats, fraud etc) apply because the restriction isn’t on specific content. The only way out I could see is saying natio…

> Individuals posting videos of themselves is clearly speech so we are in the 1st amendment territory.

Who’s preventing them from posting videos on platforms not controlled by CCP?

Re: US lawmakers tell Apple, Google to be ready to remove TikTok from stores Jan. 19

#227

Post by kwanbix »

brookst wrote: post #146
gkanai wrote: post #100

Reciprocity is key. Google and Facebook and most Western web services are blocked in China. If that is the case, then there should be no complaint with blocking Bytedance/other Chinese apps in the West.

So… if China mistreats their citizens, reciprocity says we must mistreat ours? You don’t fight censorship with censorship. That doesn’t stand up to even the most cursory thought. You fight censorship with openness. As soon as you find yourself arguing that you have no choice but to engage in the same behaviors you claim to dislike, you have literally become the enemy.

The reciprocity is between you and me. If you do something bad to me, I can do something bad to you. Is not that if you do something bad to yourself I need to do something bad for myself.

Re: US lawmakers tell Apple, Google to be ready to remove TikTok from stores Jan. 19

#228

Post by alfiedotwtf »

OhioMan2943 wrote: post #167

This is one of the things in my lifetime that gives me the most optimism, alongisde the IRA Bill. as someone in Australia who strongly supports our recent U16 ban, I hope META gets removed/broken up for you guys soon after, at least for underage users. I'm 22 and often wish I had never been born into a world with social media, with the belief that it is one of the worst things we have ever made as a species. I know t…

You could just not use it? Why are you pushing your tastes and opinions on others?

Re: US lawmakers tell Apple, Google to be ready to remove TikTok from stores Jan. 19

#229

Post by wiseowise »

est wrote: post #166
tgma wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please explain its first day then if you want to make that case.

> explain its first day In the beginning The Elders of the Internet created the Server and Terminals, and pipes that interconnects them And the online community was without form, and void; and illegal/cp/terror/financing/harmful darkness was upon the face of the deep And the Spirit of State censorship moved upon the face of the waters And the State said, Let there be right: and there were rights and wrongs And the St…

Using CCP app is not a right.

Re: US lawmakers tell Apple, Google to be ready to remove TikTok from stores Jan. 19

#230

Post by eimrine »

OhioMan2943 wrote: post #167

This is one of the things in my lifetime that gives me the most optimism, alongisde the IRA Bill. as someone in Australia who strongly supports our recent U16 ban, I hope META gets removed/broken up for you guys soon after, at least for underage users. I'm 22 and often wish I had never been born into a world with social media, with the belief that it is one of the worst things we have ever made as a species. I know t…

> as someone in Australia who strongly supports our recent U16 ban

Are you completely acknowledged about certain mechanisms doing that? I (not an Aussy) also support this but not via becoming the Government's slave.

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