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India bans TikTok, WeChat, and dozens of other Chinese apps

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Re: India bans TikTok, WeChat, and dozens of other Chinese apps

#261

Post by dvt »

bad_user wrote: post #242
mathnmusic wrote: post #80

I think this sort of response was inevitable and will be seen in more and more nations. China bans most of the popular websites and apps (including Wikipedia). The most recent trigger was the border standoff between India and China where Indian citizens could see and read both governments' responses, but Chinese citizens were only told Chinese govt's talking points. This seems like yet another instance of the paradox…

The paradox of tolerance is bullshit though, as it's not based on empirical evidence. It's just armchair philosophy used as justification for intolerance by intellectuals, the mental gymnastic people need to get over their cognitive dissonance. AFAIK Plato came up with it to justify autocracy. That says it all actually.

I think you're going to get heavily downvoted (HN loves the paradox of tolerance), but I wholeheartedly agree. I think it's complete nonsense, not to mention that its spirit is much better represented by older ideas (e.g. Mill's Harm Principle). "Tolerance" is kind of a weasel word anyway, essentially giving carte blanche to the one that invokes the paradox.

Re: India bans TikTok, WeChat, and dozens of other Chinese apps

#262

Post by apta »

mathnmusic wrote: post #80

I think this sort of response was inevitable and will be seen in more and more nations. China bans most of the popular websites and apps (including Wikipedia). The most recent trigger was the border standoff between India and China where Indian citizens could see and read both governments' responses, but Chinese citizens were only told Chinese govt's talking points. This seems like yet another instance of the paradox…

> I think this sort of response was inevitable and will be seen in more and more nations. China bans most of the popular websites and apps (including Wikipedia).

Hopefully the rest of the world follows suit and bans Chinese apps and websites.

Re: India bans TikTok, WeChat, and dozens of other Chinese apps

#263

Post by joshuamorton »

bad_user wrote: post #255
jjoonathan wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The paradox of tolerance is bullshit though So do you tolerate intolerance?

Sorry, not falling in that trap ;-)

It is impossible to be tolerant of all things. The paradox of tolerance is one way of picking which things to be intolerant toward. There are lots of others, mostly worse. Ultimately though, we all have to pick.

Re: India bans TikTok, WeChat, and dozens of other Chinese apps

#264

Post by zelphirkalt »

NicoJuicy wrote: post #168
saltedonion wrote: post #42

India is absolutely right in banning TikTok as it is a significant national securities threat. As long as the platforms recommendation and ranking algos are a black box, there is no guarantee that China isn’t conducting misinformation campaigns via the platform. At the very least, the government should audit the algos and make sure China can’t arbitrarily alter ranking results.

Yeah, when I saw my neece on TikTok I was feeling really bad. Most people don't see it, but I hate it to realize that she's being slowly influenced by hidden propaganda :(

One problem is, that often you cannot easily tell people or explain to them how bad it is, because "all their friends do it too" and the network effect is particularly strong in environments like schools. You can try at least though, asking them, whether they want to know how it works.

Re: India bans TikTok, WeChat, and dozens of other Chinese apps

#265

Post by pppaul »

jjoonathan wrote: post #250
bad_user wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The paradox of tolerance is bullshit though, as it's not based on empirical evidence. It's just armchair philosophy used as justification for intolerance by intellectuals, the mental gymnastic people need to get over their cognitive dissonance. AFAIK Plato came up with it to justify autocracy. That says it all actually.

> The paradox of tolerance is bullshit though So do you tolerate intolerance?

don't we all tolerate intolerance on some level/topics?

it seems to be perfectly acceptable to be intolerant to some groups of people and religions/ideologies.

Re: India bans TikTok, WeChat, and dozens of other Chinese apps

#267

Post by quantummkv »

kalesh wrote: post #215
mav3rick wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its more to do with the border skirmish.

I don't understand what's the objective here. Banning these apps will have 0 or little financial impact on China. This seems more like a publicity stunt. Banning Alibaba would have been a bold move.

> I don't understand what's the objective here. Banning these apps will have 0 or little financial impact on China

The intent is not financial. The intent is to block the direct access that China has to manipulate and shape opinions inside India. It's to prevent China from opening another front in it's ongoing war with it's neighbors.

Re: India bans TikTok, WeChat, and dozens of other Chinese apps

#269

Post by dmix »

jjoonathan wrote: post #250
bad_user wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The paradox of tolerance is bullshit though, as it's not based on empirical evidence. It's just armchair philosophy used as justification for intolerance by intellectuals, the mental gymnastic people need to get over their cognitive dissonance. AFAIK Plato came up with it to justify autocracy. That says it all actually.

> The paradox of tolerance is bullshit though So do you tolerate intolerance?

That isn't a natural dichotomy, it's silly to break down problems into that sort of black and white ("you're either for us or against us!" sort of nonsense). There are always multiple choices.

The real question is whether reacting with similar intolerance leaves you better off - or has any meaningful influence on the bad actors in question.

Diplomacy is full of these tradeoffs.

Re: India bans TikTok, WeChat, and dozens of other Chinese apps

#270

Post by quantummkv »

tksb wrote: post #189

I've been passively thinking about this recently. Is there any pathway for individual users to (effectively) do the same for their devices or network, or both? Is IP blocking via hosts or otherwise still effective enough to be useful?

For networks, a Raspberry pi with pihole would be great starting step that still works
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