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Senate Bill to Ban TikTok

congress.gov

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Re: Senate Bill to Ban TikTok

#31

Post by empressplay »

I find a certain sense of irony in the Chinese propagandists touting arguments such as 'this is authoritarian", "this is anti-competitive", "this is because TikTok won't let the US spy on its citizens" and so forth when ALL OF THESE THINGS are done by the CCP and worse.

The reason for banning it is simple: it can be used as a first-strike weapon to influence an entire generation (or two) of Americans in a conflict with China that is almost certain to happen. Keeping it under Chinese control is a bad idea.

China has the option to sell it to an American company, take the money and build more guns to shoot at us. Honestly, it's a win-win.

Re: Senate Bill to Ban TikTok

#32

Post by no-dr-onboard »

Do I support TikTok? No, not in the least bit. Their privacy controls are horrendous and, at this stage, user info and content is undoubtedly siphoned and delivered straight to the CCP. Where it goes beyond that is undoubtedly in some Tom Clancy novel, of which likely pales in comparison to some even more grim reality.

Was TikTok a net good to American society? Depends on who you ask, but if anything I think most people would agree that it only exaggerated the decline of the average attention span. This moves with the larger movement to commodify clicks, quick ads and lowers the threshold towards late stage capitalism. In short, this speeds cultural decline ("I said what I said").

Would I support an American TikTok? No, see above.

Should TikTok be banned by the US congress? When is the last time you ever saw a ban of something that didn't include any overt pocket lining or omnibus-style overreach? Read the bill, the language is broad and sweeping; certainly kin to the CFAA and COPPA.

So what then? Well we're certainly at an impasse here, right? We can't rely on tech businesses to turn their shoulders to cold hard cash. We can't rely on our elected officials to "Do the right thing" without lining their pockets and sharpening their knives. Truly a conundrum with no good solution.

Re: Senate Bill to Ban TikTok

#33

Post by chongli »

marcell wrote: post #15
yumraj wrote: post #5

Can someone explain why a bill is needed to ban TikTok? Can’t the administration or a governmental agency (such as but not limited to FTC, FCC etc.) ban it? I think that’s how it works in many other countries.

This is how it's supposed to work, Congress makes laws and the President enforces them. The reverse, where government agencies ban things without Congress, is the unusual thing from a Constitutional perspective.

But isn't this a bill of attainder? It's a bill specifically against one company.

Re: Senate Bill to Ban TikTok

#35

Post by paxys »

charlieflowers wrote: post #20
gretch wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not what the concern of the bill is and it's completely transparent. Just read the first 2 pages of the bill and you can see the concern is, in the words of the bill, a "foreign adversary" and their ability to "sabotage or subversion of the design, integrity, manufacturing, production, distribution, installation, operation, or maintenance of information and communications technology products and services in th…

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 overestimating how much of a concern 2 is for lawmakers. Meta getting its ass kicked is a happy bonus for both political parties.

Re: Senate Bill to Ban TikTok

#36

Post by sct202 »

I'm fine if TikTok gets banned, but I feel like Facebook and all the other social media incumbents owe Americans a bunch of money for their biggest competition being banned.

Re: Senate Bill to Ban TikTok

#37

Post by BobbyJo »

Gigachad wrote: post #25
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.…

When the memes involve destroying the school bathrooms and stealing cars. It's probably worth considering what control is had over it.

Yeah, that's where the Toyota/Honda comparison breaks down to me. Toyota and Honda sell cars to users. TikTok sells users.

Re: Senate Bill to Ban TikTok

#40

Post by ellisv »

abeppu wrote: post #23

So, they're clearly trying to describe what they're doing in general terms. I'm not a lawyer, but I wonder if that's partly a constitutional matter -- just going after TikTok by name based on a knowledge of _past_ access to American data by staff in China would sound like an ex post facto law. So they have to frame it as being about a class of services with relationships to a group of foreign adversaries. But then ar…

If you were to name a company specifically, the company could fold and reopen under a new name.

But moreover, laws should be about behavior. You don’t ban Philip Morris, you ban selling tobacco to kids and smoking indoors.

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