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Senate Bill to Ban TikTok

congress.gov

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Re: Senate Bill to Ban TikTok

#231

Post by falcolas »

calgarymicro wrote: post #169
AustinDev wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The language on what constitutes a violation is vague, but it does appear you could face hefty fines and jail time for this behavior under the current draft of the act. "Hence anyone using a VPN to access TikTok would be in trouble—specifically, subject to up to $1 million in fines, 20 years in prison, or both."[1] [1] https://reason.com/2023/03/29/could-the-restrict-act-crimina...

If you believe the Senator who wrote it (up to you I guess), this doesn't meet the bar for prosecution. > Warner's office says this isn't so. Spokesperson Rachel Cohen told Newsweek that the provisions only apply when someone is "engaged in 'sabotage or subversion' of communications technology in the U.S., causing 'catastrophic effects' on U.S. critical infrastructure, or 'interfering in, or altering the result' of a…

They can say that until they’re blue in the face, but if those conditions are not in the law, it’s up to prosecutors discretion.

Re: Senate Bill to Ban TikTok

#232

Post by satellites »

YellOh wrote: post #215
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 chil…

The person you’re replying to said that the possibility of being shot at school is psychologically taxing. This would apply to all students at all schools, not just ones where a shooting literally happened. It is relevant because of how frequent school shootings are now, compared to say, 30 years ago. Columbine shook the country when it happened, now we’re at a couple Columbine-style incidents per year. You can say “well that’s still a low overall percentage of students who get shot” and be technically correct while ignoring the gravity of the situation and the fact that other first world countries don’t have this problem.

The fact that school shootings have been so normalized that we’re sitting here and discussing the math around whether they’re worse than social media is… so profoundly sad it’s hard to describe.

Re: Senate Bill to Ban TikTok

#233

Post by spogbiper »

tomcar288 wrote: post #219
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.

can you point out where the bill says this? I'm not practiced in reading this kind of thing and struggling to find it

Re: Senate Bill to Ban TikTok

#234

Post by ononon »

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…

[flagged]

Re: Senate Bill to Ban TikTok

#235

Post by withinboredom »

korroziya wrote: post #228
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…

[flagged]

Psyops is fun, and fairly close to some of the stuff I had fun with in the military. But to say I have any political ideology that fits into a box, is rather funny.

Thanks for that!

Re: Senate Bill to Ban TikTok

#236

Post by atlasunshrugged »

realce wrote: post #227
atlasunshrugged wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

You can't read books from Eurasia, it's against the law.

That's silly of course, but what about a Ractive? I think something that actively tries to collect data on you and shape your perception controlled by a geopolitical competitor should be handled carefully and potentially outlawed.

Re: Senate Bill to Ban TikTok

#237

Post by vetinari »

brigadier132 wrote: post #152
charlieflowers wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The real concerns, in order of importance, are: 1. This is a way of getting memes to the masses that we (the US political establishment) can't fully control. 2. Meta and others are getting their asses kicked revenue-wise by Tik Tok. Like any business, they'd use anything they could to fight back. Turns out they can use China fear mongering, so they are. 3. (Added) Believe it or not, there's nationalistic pride here.…

You are also ignoring the fact that China does not allow our social media companies to operate in their jurisdiction. So part of this is a sense of fairness. Why do they get to operate here if we can't operate there?

Because they have seen how EU's social media companies ended up.

What EU's social media companies? Exactly.

Re: Senate Bill to Ban TikTok

#238

Post by mistermann »

poulsbohemian wrote: post #141
charlieflowers wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is mind boggling, and at the same time not surprising at all, that China is enforcing a humane policy to protect its children when we are not willing to do the same.

>It is mind boggling, and at the same time not surprising at all, that China is enforcing a humane policy to protect its children when we are not willing to do the same. By whose standards? The United States has never been an ideologically cohesive nation outside some basic principles of representative democracy - and even those have been challenged at moments in our history. The moment you get beyond the basics of a…

> I don't have Tik Tok installed, my kids only get the "reruns" off YouTube, but frankly I find it a bit extremist that the US government wants to ban an app that looks to me like people doing funny dances in their living rooms.

There is a wide variety of content on TikTok. One category is (tens/hundreds of) thousands of people who watched the Congressional "democracy" theatre on the TikTok ban realizing that their so-called democracy is fake, a laughing stock, pick your pejorative. Millions of people who formerly had no clue, now realize absolutely that what is on the label does not match what is on the tin.

Of course, they could have realized this via other means since it has been the case for ages, but whether they would have is another story.

If I was running an illusory regime, I'd take out TikTok too, it's just old fashioned common sense.

Re: Senate Bill to Ban TikTok

#239

Post by chimeracoder »

petilon wrote: post #222
hitpointdrew wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's MUCH WORSE than the Patriot act. This bill is absolutely horrific. And calling it at bill to "ban TikTok" is extremely disingenuous as it egregiously goes well beyond that.

> This bill is absolutely horrific. In what way? Explain that, and let readers decide if it is horrific.

> In what way? Explain that, and let readers decide if it is horrific.

The bill allows the Secretary of Commerce to unilaterally ban products associated with countries of their choosing, with a 20 year prison sentence for any US citizen who attempts to use a VPN to circumvent the access ban.

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