Couldn’t this be used to prevent VPN use? If so, this is drastically overstepping into dangerous territory regarding online surveillance.
Senate Bill to Ban TikTok
461–470 of 741 posts
Re: Senate Bill to Ban TikTok
#462Earlier quoted context omitted.
Debating the minutiae of the number of school shootings is just...sad. The total number of children who should die in school shootings should always be 0. It's not even particularly hard. Practically every country in the world manages to achieve that target.
Incorrect. Some do, many don't, unless of course you're racist and don't consider quite a bit of the developing world worth your notice. Is that the case?
How common are school shootings in the developing world?
Re: Senate Bill to Ban TikTok
#463Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can't get it from Google , but you can get it from other data harvesters and brokers with a different business model.
What keywords should I search for, for more information?
buy customer data
Information isn't organized by your name but by your quadrant(s) you fall under
Re: Senate Bill to Ban TikTok
#464Did anyone notice that the bill doesn't even mention Tiktok??? If it's a "bill to ban TikTok" why doesn't it name the target? It's a red herring. This is the Patriot Act for the Internet. Ironically they're copying the CCP playbook and want the same level of sweeping control with the implementation of a Great Firewall. It's extremely broad and includes everything connected to the internet that has >1M users in a year…
Because it's unconstitutional to make a law that targets a specific person or company. They have to be subtle and use generic terms to describe who is affected by the law in a way where TikTok ends up being the only company that qualifies right now. It's also good practice because it prevents TikTok from just making a new company that is exactly the same. Edit: changed illegal to unconstitutional because someone belo…
Explain Coca-Cola and Walt Disney
Re: Senate Bill to Ban TikTok
#465These things are pretty dense and generally difficult to read but here are a few nuggets/hot takes. Could potentially apply to VPNs - Sec 2-3-(B) - https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/senate-bill/686... General leeway for The Secretary of Commerce to classify things as they see fit. Chevron Deference, the idea that courts defer to executive branch agency interpretations of the law, might go away so this hedg…
I think the VPN concern comes from a misreading of what is meant by "holding". A "holding" in this context is a financial asset like a stock. The section you highlighted: > (B) includes any other holding, the structure of which is designed or intended to evade or circumvent the application of this Act, subject to regulations prescribed by the Secretary. This is referring to intermediary holding companies intended to…
While it wouldn't blanket ban VPNs, a VPN is fairly clearly a "communication technology" and a provider could be targeted by this bill. I'm pretty sure they wouldn't even need to do anything malicious, just be large enough and have some malicious users.
Re: Senate Bill to Ban TikTok
#466Earlier quoted context omitted.
The data isn’t the risk, it’s more the ability for CCP to leverage influence. https://stratechery.com/2020/the-tiktok-war/ Dialing up things to cause unrest, dialing down stuff critical of the CCP. It’s not an issue about data, or even an issue about speech, it’s an issue of ownership of a media company by an adversary that will weaponize it against you. Who controls and owns media companies is a reasonable national…
I think this attitude is wrong. A strong democracy doesn't need to fight "fake news" legally and doesn't need their own propaganda op in foreign states like Radio Free Asia etc. If you are banning foreign media in your own country, you are doing the same as China in the end. Why not establish a great firewall?
Do you think the USG would have allowed the USSR to buy NBC?
These aren’t new issues, there are certain types of corporations where there is a national security interest in American ownership and capability (see also: Intel). Ownership of airlines is another example, you can’t have a foreign controlling interest in a domestic airline (Richard Branson couldn’t save Virgin America due to this).
There are good reasons for a nation to have rules about foreign control in certain types of companies that carry a national security risk.
Re: Senate Bill to Ban TikTok
#467Maybe someone will scroll all the way down to this comment. Probably not. For half a decade, I have lived outside of the US, and I've watched as it has fallen to shit in slow motion. I make a decent chunk of income in USD and this terrifies me... but this. This move saddens me. There are only so many hours that congress has to make real decisions ... and this, this is what they spent their time on? Talking about how…
Personally glad someone in congress is paying attention to the dangers of surveillance capitalism. Once TikTok is addressed, hopefully it will give them the toehold to expand rights to citizens no matter the company.
Re: Senate Bill to Ban TikTok
#468Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's worse than you think. This bill isn't really about Tik Tok. Read the fine print: people caught using a VPN could be thrown in jail for 20 years! It's about giving govt unchecked authority to throw people in jail.
can you point out where the bill says this? I'm not practiced in reading this kind of thing and struggling to find it
Because it doesn't say it. It instead lays out a series of new designations and powers handed to the President. Specifically the President can now designate new kinds of national security threats and demand various mitigations to stop them. Anyone who does not obey is facing fines and prison time.
So for example, President Biden could designate TikTok a national security threat under the RESTRICT Act, and then order VPN companies to block outbound traffic to TikTok. If the VPN companies refused they would be liable.
Don't blame yourself for not finding it, I had the same reaction last night. The libertarians who caught onto this are not very good at explaining themselves to people who don't care.
Re: Senate Bill to Ban TikTok
#469Earlier quoted context omitted.
I didn’t do anything special. I just installed Xcode, and bam. Done. We ripped CDs so we didn’t have to buy them. Hell, we sat by boomboxes until the right song came on the radio just to push record on the tape player. Kids will do whatever it takes to get what they want. I’d buy that bridge.
Except a MacBook costs $1000+ when TikTok clones are free
I guess many of us underestimate how many teenagers own a smartphone but not a laptop/desktop computer. In older generation it was the reverse, people owned a laptop/desktop before owning a smartphone..
Re: Senate Bill to Ban TikTok
#470Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sadly, it has nothing to do with "talking about how 'kids' might be influenced by an algorithm", because if it did, they would be trying to ban Facebook, Instagram, and other social media services that have the exact same effect as TikTok on children. This is really meant to be a punch in the fight against China. US government does not want any possibility of US citizens' data being in the hands of China and their qu…
The data isn’t the risk, it’s more the ability for CCP to leverage influence. https://stratechery.com/2020/the-tiktok-war/ Dialing up things to cause unrest, dialing down stuff critical of the CCP. It’s not an issue about data, or even an issue about speech, it’s an issue of ownership of a media company by an adversary that will weaponize it against you. Who controls and owns media companies is a reasonable national…
TikTok is one vehicle for influence - and there are hundreds.
Millions use TikTok. To them, you’re not removing their “adversary”, you’re removing their fun.
From the outside, this looks like the United States is controlling the media - something it’s already accused of by 1/2 of Americans.
This action will reiterate that for some and make it true for more.