Live data from Hacker News

TikTok goes dark in the US

techcrunch.com

431–440 of 1001 posts

Re: TikTok goes dark in the US

#431

So I have a relatively large extended family covering a wide age range and we talk pretty frequently in a shared SMS group - most of them have noted the ban with a passing level of irritation but nobody's "freaking out" like if you lost access to a platform like Facebook, Twitter, or Discord that's more oriented around communication rather than consumption. I understand that people spend a lot of time doomscrolling o…

there are a decent number of people who make money and market their business on tiktok. those people are probably concerned about their future

They had an entire year to prepare.

Re: TikTok goes dark in the US

#432
post #382

The app was shutdown a couple of hours ago in the US and this was the message all TikTok users saw when they opened the app.[1] The same guy who pushed for a ban massively last year, is going to save the app despite the security concerns he and most of our government said they had. If only we knew what happened in that classified briefing that made them vote together across party lines. [1] https://a57.foxnews.com/st…

Biden could have cut a deal with TikTok instead of this. That would have left the US with a least one major social media not in the pocket of Trump.

They gave bytedance plenty of time to to sell. And TikTok would've not been cheap.

I'm not a fan of the ban, mind you, but it's not like they were ordered to leave the country.

Re: TikTok goes dark in the US

#433

This morning I felt the urge to download TikTok for the first time. I did, but I didn't bother creating an account. There is a passage in the book Life of Pi, where Pi's family is gathered and ready to leave India for Canada. And his mother does something out of the ordinary: > The day before our departure she pointed at a cigarette wallah and earnestly asked, "Should we get a pack or two?" > Father replied, "They ha…

> Do I use TikTok? No, I've always advocated against it. This, to me, is a weird stance. On what grounds did you advocate against it? I just had to create a new account tonight after the ban[0] to keep using it. When you first start TikTok you might be presented with a wave of seemingly crap, bizarre or boring videos, but after several minutes of liking and watching the good stuff the algorithm very quickly starts se…

I find the hard core defenders of tiktok, such as yourself, weird. I know for a fact you get propaganda videos shoved in between your feed of 'good stuff' that you enjoy watching, but I know you wont admit that, or downplay it or say you can scroll past it. It doesn't change the fact the platform is used by the CCP to push a narrative, and while it might not work on you, there's some 120m users in America on TT. That's an awful lot of people who are being fed bullshit and lies.

> my accounts are all on USA servers

Keep telling yourself that ;)

Re: TikTok goes dark in the US

#434

A point I think most people don’t understand is that the government interest in TikTok has little to do with exploiting user data per se, a lot of other companies do that. The issue is that TikTok is somewhat unique in being aggressively weaponized in currently very active “grey zone” conflicts. This has been an open secret in national security circles but the average person on the street has no idea what a grey zone…

Is there solid evidence about that?

The only study I've seen said that TikTok wasn't any more biased than other social medias.

Re: TikTok goes dark in the US

#435

The app was shutdown a couple of hours ago in the US and this was the message all TikTok users saw when they opened the app.[1] The same guy who pushed for a ban massively last year, is going to save the app despite the security concerns he and most of our government said they had. If only we knew what happened in that classified briefing that made them vote together across party lines. [1] https://a57.foxnews.com/st…

I wonder how much ByteDance got from the incoming administration to pull that stunt. Super shady. "We voluntarily shut down our service in your country (er, I mean, we HAD TO, for real!) but don't worry, a true hero is soon arriving to save the day!"

Cam you detail exactly what conspiracy you are alleging without evidence?

This is the corporate version of "he quit before they could fire him".

Re: TikTok goes dark in the US

#436
post #344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mention “grey zone conflicts” then opine that people don’t know what that is…then don’t actually explain what it is!

This is the very top of the "Description" section of the Wikipedia page for "Grey-zone (international relations)"[0]: > Use of the term grey-zone is widespread in national security circles, but there is no universal agreement on the definition of grey-zone, or even whether it is a useful term, with views about the term ranging from "faddish" or "vague", to "useful" or "brilliant" It goes on to say: > Grey zone warfar…

[deleted]

Re: TikTok goes dark in the US

#437
post #422

Can someone please explain to me, why it is illegal to publish biased media? Please relate your answer to US native broadcasters like Fox News. The public discourse in the US appears very distorted. The rececently elected legislative heavily tampers with the executive/judicative and somehow this is stil democratic? IMO the tiktok ban is only about media control, no morale or legality, just political power and somehow…

Always surprised me in the land of the "Free" they ban a whole lot more than in most other countries. Books, LGBT stuff, no objective media. It feels quite medieval.

"Banned books!" is a phrase used for marketing, but it's not really accurate. Most, if not all, of the allegedly "banned books" aren't "banned" in the sense that you are implying, and the "banning" isn't being done by the fedeeal United States government. You can go to bookstores and see entire sections of "banned" books, which as you might guess from the fact that they are freely sold are not in fact really banned.

Re: TikTok goes dark in the US

#438
post #242
post #224

I think a lot of people on here never spent much time on TikTok and it shows. It wasn't just for young people and it wasn't all brain rot. There were vibrant communities, subcultures. Real issues were aired there. Real people connected. From the early days of Covid it provided a window into a broader world.

Can you give some examples? I a skeptical that the format, designed for maximum retention and engagement, can be a positive.

Short form instructional videos on topics such as woodworking that get a point across in 90 seconds, rather than a ponderous YouTube equivalent

Re: TikTok goes dark in the US

#439
post #249
post #213

was not really on TikTok but a bleak day for anyone that believes in the free speech ideals the US was founded on

US law and freedom of speech is for US citizens. China is a foreign adversary. China bans Facebook. Same shit.

Completely different. At least China's rules are technical and can be achieved. Bing, iCloud, AWS, Microsoft office, exchange, Azure are all in China. Of course, whether you want to comply the rules is up to you, but it is doable. Facebook can be in China if they adhere to rules, there were rumors they were going to offer a Chinese version of Facebook but stopped because of backlash, but the point is rule are technical and are doable.

Facebook and Google are still making tens of billions from Chinese advertisers selling stuff on their platform. And China never forced Facebook or Google to sell themselves to Chinese owners, so completely give up control on branding, IP, code, data and all assets etc etc.

US is not even giving you any technical rules to comply with. Tiktok's approach to US is replicate China's rules for foreign internet companies in China. All content moderation done by US employees, US employee work on code and data. Data stored in US based servers. But US companies operating in China, like iCloud, AWS and Azure, US employees can still get access to Chinese data for daily engineering operations, like debugging. Tiktok also offered US government appoint security and natsc officials on Tiktok senior leadership, overseeing all code and data practices. US government have kill switch to shutdown Tiktok if they find anything. Tiktok is perfectly fine with US government implementing the censorship to censor whatever US government doesn't like. These details are equal to China's practices.

But US is not allowing that, it just sell yourself 100% to US owner or get banned. And ban is much more draconian than Chinese ban. Chinese citizens can visit FB using VPN, and companies can transact with FB and Google, hence billions of advertising dollars for these companies. US ban targets all transaction with Bytedance, hence Google, Apple and Oracle are completely geofencing US users that even US user using VPN can't access Bytedance services. And Chinese regulations target specific type of products, Meta's FB main app may not be in China, but FB advertising is. US ban targets Bytedance, the entire company. Capcut, a video editing app is also banned in the US. What data does a video editing app collect? How does a video editing app affect public discourse and opinions? How is Capcut a national security threat? What evidence is there?

US is not offering you a chance to comply, it is offering you a knife to kill yourself, and say here, you got options, why don't u kill yourself. Anyone who think it is not an insult is just, I have no words for you. China gives foreign companies room to live, so your workers have jobs and income, your inventor keep their inventions and private assets. US gives the foreign company two options: either we kill you, or we give you a knife so you can kill yourself. Your workers are out of jobs, what was a comfortable livelihood gone, your inventor's invention is destroyed, you will not get what your invention is worth, your private assets are gone. Or we can take your invention away from you and you lose all control of your baby in the future. If you don't see the difference, I have no word for you.

Re: TikTok goes dark in the US

#440
Bottom line is: it is reasonable for governments to exercise control over the information environment their citizens experience, especially when social media has such potential to sow chaos and instability.

Look at how the US internet fuelled the fires of the Arab Spring / HK protests / Jan 6th / Any number of colour revolutions in Europe. Even today, we see X being used as a platform to encourage protests against governments in UK and Germany. National sovereignty is contingent on digital sovereignty - everyone is going to need a firewall.

Post reply on HN