Live data from Hacker News

TikTok preparing for U.S. shut-off on Sunday

reuters.com

471–480 of 1001 posts

Re: TikTok preparing for U.S. shut-off on Sunday

#471

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, we should also forbid books published by Chinese publishing companies because the CPC might pressure those companies to put propaganda in the books. We should also forbid Hollywood from selling movies in China, because as we've already seen that means the movies are being adjusted to get approval in China. We should also forbid Chinese citizens talking to Americans, because they might convince Americans on a top…

The first two don't apply because they don't share the hyper personalized nature of social media. No two people see the same thing so it's impossible to react to foreign propaganda. Books and movies don't work that way. Third example is irrelevant because it's impossible to achieve the efficiency (reach) that social media has.

I don't really see your point. Tiktok is a video library. With the exception of private videos, anything hosted on the app can be viewed by anyone. Whether or not the app provides a personalized algorithmic selection of videos does not have any bearing on the more fundamental question of whether American's have the right to access foreign media.

Re: TikTok preparing for U.S. shut-off on Sunday

#472
post #97
post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Totally. I find it very interesting that we tend to criticize China for their protectionism, but as soon as something out-competes US companies, it gets banned: Huawei, DJI, TikTok. Of course it cannot be said like this, because "free speech" and "democracy", so the official reason is "national security".

I cannot argue on the TikTok as strongly but I can see strong arguments on why Huawei and DJI are national security risks. Some of this is more educated guesses so not defensible with numbers. We know most major companies in the Chinese market have extremely close ties to the CCP. No doubt historically the US has gotten companies to put in backdoors or other mechanisms but I believe the CCP takes it to a next level.…

> 99% of the imported products from China are not getting blocked

because it's impossible.

the US offloaded low-added-value manufacturing to China, exchanging paper dollars for cheap industrial goods. When China tries to upgrade to high-added-value industries, like chips, guess what? National security risks!

just enjoy cheap goods and nature resources from 3rd world...

Re: TikTok preparing for U.S. shut-off on Sunday

#473
post #6

The migration app of choice appears to be .. xiaohongshu, or "little red book". I'm guessing this won't last since it wasn't intended to have lots of Westerners using it and neither government is going to be happy with that scale of unfiltered contact between ordinary Chinese citizens and US citizens. In the meantime, it's the place for Luigi Mangione memes.

In English, it seems to be called rednote. But I doubt that it will be a real successor. At the moment it's a funny meme, and for some people satisfied cultural curiosity. But we already see the problems appearing, from the poorly localized interface, to people getting banned for reasons outside their understanding. My guess is, at the end we will see maybe some million users from the USA and some more millions from…

My kids in HS and their friends all downloaded “Red Note” this week. I said “what about Reels?” — “That’s for you and mom”.

Re: TikTok preparing for U.S. shut-off on Sunday

#474
post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US gov's intention was not at all to shut down TikTok. It was to force ByteDance to sell it. The fact that ByteDance is opting for a shutdown instead is a huge PR stunt, and their unwillingness to sell under the circumstances kinda proves their whole First Amendment claims are made in bad faith. Something deeper is going on, and it's not about your social security number.

I mean, the Chinese government was never going to let the US just take their company at bargain basement prices.

Didn't something similar happen with Grindr? It was Chinese owned and sold without nearly as much excitement. Given the inevitable bidding war from multiple interested parties I would be surprised if they couldn't get a fair price for TikTok

Re: TikTok preparing for U.S. shut-off on Sunday

#475
post #247
post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

how would this actually work? iOS is so dominant among US teens it's crazy, and the ability to sideload on that platform is nonexistent even to very technically savvy users.

If the holding power of TikTok is strong enough (which it just might be) then you might actually see teens start to switch to Android.

I wonder how many Android users would actually sideload it. Same happened with Fortnite for a few years, and idk how many people did that.

Re: TikTok preparing for U.S. shut-off on Sunday

#476

Congress shall make no law respecting ... or the right of the people peaceably to assemble ... unless they mumble 'national security', and then screw the constitution ...

It makes no sense to me how this is an argument of free speech.

I assume you are saying this is curtailing the creators speech? However the creators can move to any other platform, they are not being restricted in what they can say or produce.

So perhaps the concern is about TikTok's free speech; which, thank god the constitution does not protect a foreign adversaries right to free speech.

Re: TikTok preparing for U.S. shut-off on Sunday

#477

Congress shall make no law respecting ... or the right of the people peaceably to assemble ... unless they mumble 'national security', and then screw the constitution ...

There are still a million places online people can organize and assemble so I don't really see how this right is being meaningfully infringed here. It definitely doesn't seem clear to me that this clause means the government needs to maintain every avenue of assembly to the point this is a constitutional issue.

THIS!

If you listen to the arguments that TikTok made before the Supreme Court, the court is extremely dubious of the free speech argument. And this has been a court that has been very favorable to free speech overall.

Re: TikTok preparing for U.S. shut-off on Sunday

#478

Given how easy it is for China to buy US data legally from data brokers and how similar the functionality of TikTok and YouTube Shorts, I feel like the only explanations are: 1. The govt is mad that a foreign company is outcompeting a domestic one Or more likely, given that there are so many other industries that didn't get a ban: 2. The govt is mad that they have control over the narrative on Facebook but do not on…

To echo what other comments have said about it being propaganda related, we can already see this occurring today:

https://reason.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/A-Tik-Tok-ing-...

Re: TikTok preparing for U.S. shut-off on Sunday

#479
post #6

The migration app of choice appears to be .. xiaohongshu, or "little red book". I'm guessing this won't last since it wasn't intended to have lots of Westerners using it and neither government is going to be happy with that scale of unfiltered contact between ordinary Chinese citizens and US citizens. In the meantime, it's the place for Luigi Mangione memes.

Related ongoing thread (though not much there yet):

‘TikTok refugees’ flock to China's RedNote - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42709236

Re: TikTok preparing for U.S. shut-off on Sunday

#480
post #18
post #6

The migration app of choice appears to be .. xiaohongshu, or "little red book". I'm guessing this won't last since it wasn't intended to have lots of Westerners using it and neither government is going to be happy with that scale of unfiltered contact between ordinary Chinese citizens and US citizens. In the meantime, it's the place for Luigi Mangione memes.

As a casual observer, I don't understand why YouTube Shorts isn't the obvious successor? The UI is better than TikTok ever was and a lot of the most popular creators are already mirroring their content there?

Because for 5-20 dollars you can drive hundreds of thousands of people if not millions of people to your video, product, meme, whatever... Youtube, not so much.
Post reply on HN