Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

U.S. opens a national security review of TikTok’s acquisition of Musical.ly

reuters.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

271–280 of 401 posts

Re: U.S. opens a national security review of TikTok’s acquisition of Musical.ly

#271

Post by vineyardmike »

wruza wrote: post #33
jasonjayr wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>One question I have, is the real-time interests of millions of 16-24 yo Americans reported back to the Chinese government a national security concern? Perhaps not, but the influence of a nebulous "algorithm" controlling what comes up next certainly can reinforce a message or way of life that line up with China's cultural norms

Iow, the presence of non-US cultures on a feed can harm US children?

when its an aggressive and manipulative foreign powers propaganda, yes.

Re: U.S. opens a national security review of TikTok’s acquisition of Musical.ly

#272

Post by papito »

kccqzy wrote: post #256
root_axis wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? So what?

> So what? The eighteenth-century ideal of free speech in a public forum has now become de-facto mediated by private companies acting in their own interest. Some may believe in free speech more rigorously than others (say Reddit, as compared to Facebook). The fact that the government cannot censor speech matters less and less nowadays, given how much speech now passes through private companies' control.

And private companies want their taxes and regulations cut.

Re: U.S. opens a national security review of TikTok’s acquisition of Musical.ly

#273

Post by crematoria »

quaquaqua1 wrote: post #225
aianus wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> we are no better than the Chinese government who have banned countless "American" apps If someone punches you (bans your apps, bans your companies from operating and acquiring companies in their country) and you then punch them back (ban their companies from acquiring companies in your country) you are not the same as them. The order matters and they started it.

What you are saying is that if I punch your child, you should punch mine back as the proper response. There is no need to harm the second child-- you have to deal solely with the person who threw the first punch in a legal, rational, and fair way.

The problem is that the Chinese government has almost total control over Chinese apps, so American citizens are rightly afraid that Chinese apps might serve as vehicles of Chinese government propaganda.

It's totally okay for both America and China to ban whatever foreign stuff they want, though, and both of them have very good reasons to do so.

Re: U.S. opens a national security review of TikTok’s acquisition of Musical.ly

#274

Post by tastroder »

claudeganon wrote: post #269
nullc wrote: post #207

So HN changed the headline to remove TikTok which is a name I reconized and replaced it with "ByteDance" and "Musical.ly", which I've never heard of before. It was originally displayed on HN the same as it is in the article. From the article, I know that the new headline is more precise. But it's much less informative, I wouldn't have clicked the article under this name.

I wonder if anyone ever built an HN title change tracker. Seems a trivial project for the audience of this site.

https://hackernewstitles.netlify.com/

Re: U.S. opens a national security review of TikTok’s acquisition of Musical.ly

#275

Post by modulos »

markdown wrote: post #265
bilbo0s wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the world of international relations, there really are no good guys. But in a world where everyone is a bad guy, hypocrisy can be forgiven, since it keeps other bad guys in check despite its self-serving intent. Hypocrisy, whether European, Russian, American or Chinese, keeps the peace.

> In the world of international relations, there really are no good guys. Bhutan. Bhutan are the good guys.

Bhutan engaged in ethnic cleansing and expelled over 100,000 Lhotshampa into Nepal.

Re: U.S. opens a national security review of TikTok’s acquisition of Musical.ly

#276

Post by root_axis »

kccqzy wrote: post #256
root_axis wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? So what?

> So what? The eighteenth-century ideal of free speech in a public forum has now become de-facto mediated by private companies acting in their own interest. Some may believe in free speech more rigorously than others (say Reddit, as compared to Facebook). The fact that the government cannot censor speech matters less and less nowadays, given how much speech now passes through private companies' control.

> free speech in a public forum has now become de-facto mediated by private companies acting in their own interest

This statement is misleading. Some public internet forums owned by large corporations are mediated by companies acting in their own interest. Nobody is required to use those forums and many alternative forums exist, other individuals or firms are also able to create their own online public forums subject to whatever speech standards they consider ideal.

> The fact that the government cannot censor speech matters less and less nowadays, given how much speech now passes through private companies' controls

This is not true. The fact that government cannot censor speech is as critically important today as it ever was. It doesn't matter that a lot of speech passes through private companies because that is a free choice made by individuals who voluntarily push their speech through those companies and are free to take their speech elsewhere if they desire. Additionally, censorship or moderation is sometimes a desirable feature of a social media product because unbridled free-speech is sometimes abused in a way that is antithetical to the user experience and thus to business prerogatives.

Re: U.S. opens a national security review of TikTok’s acquisition of Musical.ly

#277

Post by crematoria »

quaquaqua1 wrote: post #196
mustacheemperor wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This line of discussion seems a bit off the topic of the thread, but I want to respond to you. Based on your last paragraph, it seems to me like it should be pretty clear why there is so much hate for the Chinese government and the companies that act as agents for Chinese government censorship and oppression policies. There are many Chinese nationals suffering and dying in concentration camps _right now_. Am I oblige…

I do not deny any of the claims you have made about concentration camps, human rights abuses, corporate interests etc. But I would really like to understand why there is a double standard in the minds of "my fellow Westerners". Boeing, Raytheon, Booz Allen Hamilton, Halliburton, Lockheed, and the whole Washington aparatus in general have been (in)directly responsible for the deaths of millions of innocent people in t…

Nobody is stereotyping the Chinese people!

Google and Apple have publicly stood up against the US government, and the US doesn't (publicly and legally, at least) meddle with companies to anywhere near the same extent as China.

When I support Google, I support Google alone, but when I support Tencent, it feels a little like I'm supporting the Chinese government, too.

Re: U.S. opens a national security review of TikTok’s acquisition of Musical.ly

#278

Post by tboyd47 »

rshnotsecure wrote: post #264
nullc wrote: post #207

So HN changed the headline to remove TikTok which is a name I reconized and replaced it with "ByteDance" and "Musical.ly", which I've never heard of before. It was originally displayed on HN the same as it is in the article. From the article, I know that the new headline is more precise. But it's much less informative, I wouldn't have clicked the article under this name.

https://news.ycombinator.com is run by M5 Hosting out of San Diego. M5 Hosting is also known as M5 Computer Security out of San Diego. These firms are a strange choice for a place like YCombinator to host I think.

Hey man, I really like the research you're doing on HN. Thought about starting a blog?

Re: U.S. opens a national security review of TikTok’s acquisition of Musical.ly

#279

Post by crematoria »

morpheuskafka wrote: post #89

Shouldn't this issue be addressed by the free market rather than by the government getting involved? If there is evidence that the app censors content to serve CCP propaganda, then consumers can make the choice not to use it.

The free market is usually predicated on rational actors. I don't think the target market of teenagers fits the bill, nor does any market, really, once propaganda enters the picture.

Re: U.S. opens a national security review of TikTok’s acquisition of Musical.ly

#280

Post by Aunche »

filoleg wrote: post #233
LudwigNagasena wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I challenge you to find a person in Eastern Europe or Middle East who wouldn’t crack up reading your comment. The realpolitik the US, China and Russia use are very similar.

As a person who spent majority of his life in Russia, your comment is the one that makes me crack up, not the parent one. And I can safely say that the same would hold true for most of the people from those countries who were lucky enough to be exposed to all sides of coverage on the issue. If you think the way western media covers things is biased and dishonest (which it sometimes is, I admit), you have no idea how…

Nobody is claiming that China and Russia have anything close to fair and balanced journalism. The above comment points out the irony that Americans are treating censorship on a Chinese social media app for teenagers as if it's the greatest threat to democracy, while their government bombs a country because they don't like the guy in charge.
Post reply on HN