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TikTok is now banned in Montana

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Re: TikTok is now banned in Montana

#401

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would be the specific harm of TikTok? Is it because of China, or because of this style of social media apps? If it's because of China, then ban TikTok and subsidize a competitor app - but be serious about it. Be ready to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on keeping the app free and servers up for years, sponsoring hundreds of content creators, dragging celebrities in to produce exclusive content, burning ton…

It's a hypothetical. Hypothetically suppose we all agree that TikTok usage should be reduced. You are a state legislator. What do you do?

Make using it a criminal offense with minimum mandatory sentence of 5 years in prison.

Re: TikTok is now banned in Montana

#402

I live in a country where such a ban on certain "enemy" social networks was implemented a few years ago. What will happen is this. Teens will download a shit ton of VPN applications, the vast majority of which are specifically produced and marketed by the enemy to circumvent said ban. Then all users' phone traffic gets routed via the enemy VPN instead of just the social app's requests. Win-win for both sides: - the g…

Let's say establishing policies to reduce the use of TikTok in the population is the right move. What policies would you suggest?

Let's say establishing policies to reduce the use of Fox News in the population is the right move. What policies would you suggest?

Let's say establishing policies to reduce the use of firearms in the population is the right move. What policies would you suggest?

(now, people are going to pop up with the obvious objections to those. What is it about US users of TikTok that suddenly makes the 1st Amendment and all those free speech concerns that people bring up not apply?)

Re: TikTok is now banned in Montana

#403

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's say establishing policies to reduce the use of TikTok in the population is the right move. What policies would you suggest?

What would be the specific harm of TikTok? Is it because of China, or because of this style of social media apps? If it's because of China, then ban TikTok and subsidize a competitor app - but be serious about it. Be ready to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on keeping the app free and servers up for years, sponsoring hundreds of content creators, dragging celebrities in to produce exclusive content, burning ton…

Sometimes people say "you only hate TikTok because it's a foreign company doing it better than American social media". Maybe that's right, maybe TikTok is just doing it better than American social media platforms, but what have we been saying about American social media for the last decade? (generally not positive things)

Maybe at some point this was all going to hit some kind of threshold where it is just no longer reasonable to call the effects of social media a net good. Maybe TikTok has passed that threshold. We can give them a trophy for that, but then plan some ways to finally restrict social media's addictive and anxiety-provoking qualities.

So restrictions on infinite scroll, or require the user to actually press a button before the next video starts. I'm sure there are a lot of ideas, and people more qualified than me to suggest them, but I think these two alone would be reasonable restrictions.

It disturbs me that TikTok being a Chinese company is being used right now as an excuse as to why these social media platforms shouldn't be made to change their deliberately addictive designs.

Re: TikTok is now banned in Montana

#405
post #285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> side-loading of apps on Android 90%+ users are never going to use apks. If this ban kills the network effect (the R0 of the viral infection), then the last 10% aren't going to last long either.

There will be quite a stir in the school after TikTok disappears, and if a few kids still have access, they will get attention and other kids will want to know how. Perhaps a silver lining is that we're helping the upcoming generation understand the importance of controlling their own devices.

i'd believe it's more likely they'll just switch to instagram. I get that insta may be worse in recommendation, but the extra hassle with apk may be enough to move users towards another app

Re: TikTok is now banned in Montana

#406

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would you install that app on your personal phone? Even in some misplaced sense of rebellion, you're basically inviting spyware into your life.

Gonna back this up, from the security research I’ve read the app *uploads* over 2gb of data once installed over the course of one month, without any interaction at all from the user.

This stuff has been talked about often enough that it should be well-documented, but can we have a detailed rundown on the stuff that TikTok does that isn't done by other apps?

Re: TikTok is now banned in Montana

#407

I live in a country where such a ban on certain "enemy" social networks was implemented a few years ago. What will happen is this. Teens will download a shit ton of VPN applications, the vast majority of which are specifically produced and marketed by the enemy to circumvent said ban. Then all users' phone traffic gets routed via the enemy VPN instead of just the social app's requests. Win-win for both sides: - the g…

Let's say establishing policies to reduce the use of TikTok in the population is the right move. What policies would you suggest?

[deleted]

Re: TikTok is now banned in Montana

#408
post #285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> side-loading of apps on Android 90%+ users are never going to use apks. If this ban kills the network effect (the R0 of the viral infection), then the last 10% aren't going to last long either.

That's true, but TikTok's primary demographic (teenagers) contains a disproportionate part of the population willing to go to remarkable inconveniences to subvert authority. Alcohol and vapes take substantially more effort for your average high schooler to get their hands on than downloading an APK and pressing "install", yet there's no shortage of drinking and vaping happening. As long as the overall platform is pop…

the thing is, most us people are using iphone and it doesn't have sideloading(there are chances for sideload in eu but not in other places), so instant kill for that demographic(iphone is status symbol and most people have it so they'll not switch to android). For Android - your analogy is not quite good. A better analogy would be prohibiting a mark of alcohol (tiktok) when there is another legalized mark(instagram/shorts) but which tastes a bit worse-> people will continue to drink, but extra hassle will stimulate the switch to the legal type. Both factors will effectively kill the growth effect for tiktok so us userbase will switch (and since eu can have something similar, all western userbase will be cut)

Re: TikTok is now banned in Montana

#409

I hate TikTok and CCP, but banning an app from use is just wrong. Want to fight TikTok addiction or privacy issues with CCP? Sure, do it. But find other ways: banning users from using it, whereas especially everybody else can access it, is a huge punch on the rights of your own people.

yeah they could mandate tiktok to inform users after each video that data is sent to ccp

Re: TikTok is now banned in Montana

#410

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a hypothetical. Hypothetically suppose we all agree that TikTok usage should be reduced. You are a state legislator. What do you do?

Make using it a criminal offense with minimum mandatory sentence of 5 years in prison.

I would like to make the modest proposal that a more effective way of reducing usage would be to make it punishable by summary execution.
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