Trump says he will ban TikTok through executive action • Hacker News Board

Re: Trump says he will ban TikTok through executive action

#321

Post by topicseed » Sat, Aug 01, 2020, 9:54 AM UTC

winstonmanor89 wrote: post #266

mola wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could always that American companies expansion abroad could be considered imperialism. Let's just stop beating war drums.

Yes, no war drum needed, just be bilateral, they ban our shit, we ban there shit. They open their market, we open our market. Easy.

The problem is that if they had opened their market to foreign corporations, their own "shit" like you say, would never have been as great and strong (at least locally) as it is now.

If you open your market too early and don't protect your own elements, they will get crushed and you will be at the mercy of other powers.

Look at the UK, look at Germany, look at the EU... Having to please two superpowers and doing so bending backwards.

Re: Trump says he will ban TikTok through executive action

#322

Post by kjksf » Sat, Aug 01, 2020, 9:55 AM UTC

chaostheory wrote: post #288

baddox wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it's always struck me as unfair that Western social media companies are banned in China, while Chinese ones have been able to compete Worldwide. It’s weird to point out this double standard but then apparently take the side of both countries banning foreign media companies.

Why give China access to our domestic market when they refuse to give us access theirs? What do you propose then?

The issue here is that it's a president arbitrarily destroying a company.

If the Congress (the actual body meant to crate laws) decides to create a reasoned, comprehensive law to level the playing field with Chinese companies, then they should do it.

What shouldn't happen is this kind of impulsive decision making that arguably abuses the emergency powers of the presidency to block an app that allows people to film themselves and post those recordings.

If you claim that this app is a national security threat then any app is.

Re: Trump says he will ban TikTok through executive action

#323

Post by JanSt » Sat, Aug 01, 2020, 9:55 AM UTC

Twisell wrote: post #293

Not US citizen here. Can someone explain how in a democracy the chief executive can singlehandedly decide to ban a media only a few month before elections? I can't make any sense of that, it seems wrong at so many levels...

It‘s a question of distribution power. If the power is granted to the executive branch, they can do it. It‘s part of decisions on their own country. I consider it much more questionable to exert power over allied countries to stop extraterritorial infrastructure projects (i.e. Nordstream 2), because the US wants to sell fracking gas to europe. I‘m sure that using such power will lead to losing it long-term and former allies for mutual profit will grow apart.

Re: Trump says he will ban TikTok through executive action

#324

Post by floatboth » Sat, Aug 01, 2020, 9:56 AM UTC

mindslight wrote: post #165

billfruit wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Summary of which seems to be that in general there is not absolute authority available for banning TikTok, but there are some novel/emergency measures possible to put some restrictions on ByteDance, but which are all rather new and untested, some of whose adminstrative rules/regulation are yet only being formulated(they many not be ready for implementation for many months if not weeks), mostly all of which will expos…

If ByteDance goes to court? How about when Apple and Google go to court... A president unilaterally shutting down a foreign business would destroy trust in their centralized app stores. I can't imagine both companies will just nod their heads and roll over. So does Trump really expect TikTok to just disappear like COVID, or is the actual play here to give Trump a strong talking point to fire up his remaining supporte…

Apps like TikTok are way less problematic than, like, messengers. If the app is all about publishing things, why is anyone talking about privacy?!

Re: Trump says he will ban TikTok through executive action

#325

Post by knolax » Sat, Aug 01, 2020, 9:59 AM UTC

It's nice to see the HN crowd drop their facade of caring about freedom.

Re: Trump says he will ban TikTok through executive action

#326

Post by linlucas » Sat, Aug 01, 2020, 10:01 AM UTC

Now people in the US will have to use a VPN to access a Chinese app. Oh how the turntables.

Re: Trump says he will ban TikTok through executive action

#327

Post by re6tor » Sat, Aug 01, 2020, 10:02 AM UTC

ApolloFortyNine wrote: post #106

Not even getting into the CCP ties, it's always struck me as unfair that Western social media companies are banned in China, while Chinese ones have been able to compete Worldwide. In a way this gives Chinese apps an immediate advantage (as some are indirectly calling out in this comment section). If you want to reach out to someone in China, you have to use a Chinese company's app. Since social media is mostly a win…

The message that would trascend from such an action is that our vision of how a society should work was no better than the one in China. The West always believed their ideals and principles around "democracy" and "freedom" were superior to those of the CCP.

Now the West also needs to ban (in this case, a social media platform) to function and is no better than its rival. If anything, this would prove the CCP was always right when it applied such measures in the past.

This sets a scary -albeit interesting- precedent.

Re: Trump says he will ban TikTok through executive action

#328

Post by quotz » Sat, Aug 01, 2020, 10:04 AM UTC

This should be a starting point for a tit-for-tat game where for every western company China bans, the West does the same. And for every stolen IP, we do the same

Re: Trump says he will ban TikTok through executive action

#329

Post by tchaffee » Sat, Aug 01, 2020, 10:07 AM UTC

chillacy wrote: post #245

tchaffee wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because we live in a relatively free country where the government doesn't choose what software we buy or use.

This is sort of similar to tarrifs no? The government selectively (through lobbyists and deals) picks which types of things are taxed (sometimes to unprofitability). Other things are banned entirely. Not saying Kinder Eggs would be missed as much as Tik Tok, but this is historically something the government does.

How do you plan on taxing something that is free?

Re: Trump says he will ban TikTok through executive action

#330

Post by Lammy » Sat, Aug 01, 2020, 10:07 AM UTC

asutekku wrote: post #294

Lammy wrote: post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This will never be something that can be "proven" and insisting on seeing proof is just a way to halt discussion of the entire topic.

If people are going to allege something, I seriously would like to have proof. I’m not defending China in here, but this is not a good direction to go if we have a large number of people speculating and alleging something without a solid proof. Not that it’s anything new.

Here we go, from the 2017 National Intelligence Law of the People's Republic https://cs.brown.edu/courses/csci1800/sources/2017_PRC_Natio...

"Article 7 Any organization or citizen shall support, assist and cooperate with the state intelligence work in accordance with the law, and keep the secrets of the national intelligence work known to the public. The State protects individuals and organizations that support, assist and cooperate with national intelligence work."