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TikTok is now banned in Montana

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Re: TikTok is now banned in Montana

#451

Post by egorfine »

tibbydudeza wrote: post #387
egorfine wrote: post #379

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…

Or vendors that currently sell cases and repair screens will then offer a service to sideload such apps for teens and install who knows what other stuff on phones for a fee from a customer and malware vendors. The Prohibition did now work back then and only made the Mafia rich and made them push drugs when it was lifted.

Exactly. This is what happened here.

Re: TikTok is now banned in Montana

#452

Post by mmh0000 »

Beta-7 wrote: post #381
mmh0000 wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, I avoided VPNs for years because they had no practical benefit. I live in Utah, and I would consider myself very technically adept. Previously, I didn't like "VPNs" because now I'm just routing all my traffic through another untrusted 3rd party. It's like choosing between two evils, would I prefer my ISP knows where I go, or some rando that I also have to pay? Worse, the "rando" (usually) requires a VPN app which…

> AND I can pay them in BTC, further obscuring myself. Which is not really impressive since BTC can be tracked. What is impressive, however, is you can just mail them cash with a piece of paper with your account number on it and they will add that money as credit on your account.

BTC can be tracked by default. But, with a little effort, it cannot be.

You can either by BTC locally from an anonymous source, use a coin tumbler, or, in the BTC world you can do CoinJoins[1]

[1] https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/CoinJoin

Re: TikTok is now banned in Montana

#453

Post by kranke155 »

Matl wrote: post #423
kranke155 wrote: post #413

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TikTok is evil. Let’s stop with the whataboutism

As 'evil' as FB is for example form my EU perspective.

So? We should allow one and not the other?

What about this false equivalency between China and the US? Even in a worse case scenario, data being taken by US intelligence is given SOME form of oversight. If you believe the US and China are similarly free, I invite you to tell me if you feel like you’re as free in New York City and San Francisco as Shanghai or Shenzen.

If you don’t think living in those two locations is equivalent, then why do you argue the data collection is the same.

Re: TikTok is now banned in Montana

#454

Post by MichaelZuo »

TrainedMonkey wrote: post #120
avn2109 wrote: post #99

One underappreciated aspect of this is ban is that anyone who wants Tiktok will just go download it in Wyoming or Idaho etc, as it seems to be merely a ban on downloading the app, and not a ban on Tiktok traffic itself. So the ban will have near zero actual impact in practice (even if it somehow makes it into effect). Furthermore, it's unclear if the web app of Tiktok will be affected, or if it's only a ban on the mo…

Disagree with zero impact, it is a question of accessibility. Downloading an app is easy, going to another state to download an app is significantly harder. You are right that this does not stop determined people from downloading TikTok, but it definitely will slow down user growth in Montana... and open the door to further regulation in the future.

I believe this doesn't prohibit users from setting their phone/App Store locations to another country and downloading it.

Re: TikTok is now banned in Montana

#455

Post by 404mm »

scarface_74 wrote: post #404

If only TikTok had a website at https://TikTok.com that had the same functionality….

My understanding was that the issue stemmed from having the actual app. Or at least that would make sense to me. TikTok has been surrounded by controversies since the beginning - many western countries, not just the US.

I may be just crazy but providing geolocation and biometrics of 100M+ US citizens to Chinese government just does not seem like a good idea. Also keep in mind that TikTok has the ability to curate content you see. Social media in general have been found guilty of influencing elections.

Re: TikTok is now banned in Montana

#456

Post by MichaelZuo »

mullingitover wrote: post #139
jameshart wrote: post #88

The actual legislation: https://leg.mt.gov/bills/2023/billpdf/SB0419.pdf Seems facially unconstitutional. Will maybe force a proper court decision on whether the Bills of Attainder clause applies to corporations. Why are legislators so focused on banning TikTok, rather than regulating whatever it is that TikTok does that they don't like? Don't like data about your constituents being in the possession of a company wit…

> Why are legislators so focused on banning TikTok, rather than regulating whatever it is that TikTok does that they don't like? Because a foreign company succeeded in the US. If Tiktok had simply done what the US wanted, and done a fire sale to a US company, Tiktok would be welcomed with open arms and there isn't a privacy violation the company could commit that would get it into real legal trouble. Tiktok would be…

Not a good look among the folks in Brussels.

They're probably going to push the limit even farther the next time a big piece of legislation comes around.

Re: TikTok is now banned in Montana

#457

Post by MichaelZuo »

anonymouskimmer wrote: post #273
DanAtC wrote: post #269

Is there a precedent of app stores needing to enforce app restrictions on a state-by-state basis? What if Apple protests and just disables their store in MT? It would only impact at _most_ 500k people (population 1mm at 50% market share, not accounting for demographics) A huge number of angry Montanians who might vote their representatives out, but a rounding error for Apple.

Why would Apple do this to help a foreign company? They have nothing to gain except a small amount of app store fees. And they'd piss off a ton of Republican and some Democrat lawmakers, not to mention the 80% of their customers who don't use TikTok. If Apple did do this to help a foreign company (or any company), it would probably fall afoul of the law: https://www.ftc.gov/advice-guidance/competition-guidance/gui...…

They almost certainly don't want to set the precedent of caving in to a sub-national jurisdiction's bills when they don't even have any business operations in that jurisdiction.

Because then every state, province territory, etc., in the world will have an excuse. Since there are App Store users everywhere.

Re: TikTok is now banned in Montana

#459

Post by trasz4 »

bioemerl wrote: post #156
dboreham wrote: post #97

Installed the app last night. It would be interesting to see their DAU graph for the state! Something worthwhile noting here is that the usual "politicians don't understand the technology" sentiment doesn't apply here because our governor at least knows how to code Perl, and ran a software company.

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.

TikTok app is no different from YouTube app or Twitter app in that regard.

Re: TikTok is now banned in Montana

#460

Post by nickthegreek »

mlyle wrote: post #345
nickthegreek wrote: post #302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And the 4th option - it’s eating American companies lunch and apparently the free market party thinks it’s now okay to take away things from its citizens based on scaremongering and innuendo.

I think most of us who are concerned about TikTok are equivalently concerned about Meta.

Not the politicians.
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