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Biden signs TikTok bill into law, starting clock for ByteDance to divest

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Re: Biden signs TikTok bill into law, starting clock for ByteDance to divest

#541

Post by anon373839 »

insane_dreamer wrote: post #417
paxys wrote: post #409

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TikTok is branded as Douyin in China. The international version is the one that is blocked.

No, it's not just a rebrand. Douyin, like all social media in China, is subject to government censorship. Tiktok, like Google, FB, IG, etc., are not and therefore banned in China. That's why they are two completely separate platforms.

Also, perhaps China doesn’t want its own children to consume the same content they’re spoon-feeding to their adversaries’ children. For reasons.

Re: Biden signs TikTok bill into law, starting clock for ByteDance to divest

#542

Post by danielhep »

The way I see this is that democracy is extremely susceptible to tools that can change public opinion en masse. This of course applies to Western social media as much as TikTok, and I'd love to see regulation around all social media algorithms to ensure they're unbiased. I see this as a good start to counter a real threat, which is China's ability to influence US elections through TikTok.

Re: Biden signs TikTok bill into law, starting clock for ByteDance to divest

#543

Post by BriggyDwiggs42 »

insane_dreamer wrote: post #448
danieltanfh95 wrote: post #332

It is maddening to see people who usually are pretty serious and mature turn into zombies parroting whatever political propaganda the state decides to push out this year. Some key facts: 1. Tiktok isn’t allowed to sell because their AI models and algorithms are trained on Chinese citizenry data. These items have been marked as non-exports for some time now, and this is a well known fact by the people pushing for the…

I disagree with all of these points except the first one. #3 is particularly misleading: 1) Apple and Microsoft are not media companies, and 2) cute how you said "local laws" instead of "government censorship". This reads right out of a CCP handbook.

I agree with the palestine point but good spot on the “local laws.” Pretty sus.

Re: Biden signs TikTok bill into law, starting clock for ByteDance to divest

#544

Post by jszymborski »

trog wrote: post #518
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #386

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, WhatsApp, will either have to stop operating outside of the Unites States or they will need to be sold to every country they wish to operate in TikTok can sell to a French, Hungarian, Indian, Brazilian or even Iraqi person and be in compliance with this bill's terms. It doesn't require American ownership, it forbids control by a foreign adversary. If the EU and U.S.…

Is it weird then that China is a "foreign adversary" that is otherwise allowed to sell the US the vast, overwhelming majority of consumer goods and participate in the economy in many other ways?

There's a current trade war in which the USA is trying to "friend-shore" manufacturing and has imposed massive trade tariffs on China.

China is unambiguously a foreign adversary of the USA, as well as many/all Western democracies.

Re: Biden signs TikTok bill into law, starting clock for ByteDance to divest

#545

Post by natdempk »

insane_dreamer wrote: post #417
paxys wrote: post #409

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TikTok is branded as Douyin in China. The international version is the one that is blocked.

No, it's not just a rebrand. Douyin, like all social media in China, is subject to government censorship. Tiktok, like Google, FB, IG, etc., are not and therefore banned in China. That's why they are two completely separate platforms.

It's a rebrand + censorship then? I'm not sure the distinction you're trying to make exactly, it's not like Douyin is a completely different thing from Tiktok, so I think "completely separate platforms" is also a stretch. The core technology and parent company/ownership is the same for both.

Re: Biden signs TikTok bill into law, starting clock for ByteDance to divest

#546

Post by hnpolicestate »

This is the 3rd time I'm trying to share a perspective that keeps getting flagged.

Bytedance does not have to divest because it's against the law for the U.S government to prevent Americans from reading, viewing or saying what they want. Will be struck down by SCOTUS.

Does this comply with HN's site guidelines?

Re: Biden signs TikTok bill into law, starting clock for ByteDance to divest

#547

Post by xyst »

ok123456 wrote: post #60
dwnoble wrote: post #22

Fun fact: according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_websites_blocked_in_ma... , tiktok.com has been blocked in mainland China since 2020.

Shouldn't the US prove it's better than China by its self-consistent actions with its espoused virtues of freedom of the press?

TikTok isn’t a news organization. It’s an entertainment platform.

I don’t understand the people coming out of the woodworks saying this is suppressing “freedom of the press” or speech.

Set up your own domain, get a VPS, upload your trash to VPS. There ya go, no more “censorship”.

Oh wait , you don’t want to do the work to set this up? Sounds like a personal problem.

Re: Biden signs TikTok bill into law, starting clock for ByteDance to divest

#548

Post by georgeecollins »

returningfory2 wrote: post #38

The work "ban" is in scare quotes for a reason. The law doesn't ban TikTok. Rather, it bans TikTok from having Chinese owners. If the law stands, the end result will likely be that TikTok will be sold to US owners, rather than TikTok going away. It's surprising to me that this this pretty significant distinction has been glossed over both in media reporting and in general comments here on HN. To be clear, I'm not sup…

A US company would never be allowed to own any kind of social media company in China. You can't own a broadcast station in the US as a non-US citizen. Rupert Murdoch had to become a US citizen to buy Fox. I don't know if I agree with this but you can't say there is no precedent for it in the US or in China.

Re: Biden signs TikTok bill into law, starting clock for ByteDance to divest

#549

Post by tamimio »

All of this just to limit the spread of Palestinians contents in the young generation, since the ADL has a strong “influence” on all other big social media except TikTok (there’s even videos of ADL’s CEO complaining about tiktok Palestinians contents and young generation not supporting Israel), AIPAC came to the rescue and asked its puppets in both red/blue parties to pass the bill, while they also make some cash out of it as reported that some politicians bought $META stocks before voting the bill. That’s the root reason, any other reason mentioned is just a diversion. The illusion of freedom and democracy in the US.

Re: Biden signs TikTok bill into law, starting clock for ByteDance to divest

#550

Post by krapp »

BriggyDwiggs42 wrote: post #531
asdasdsddd wrote: post #316

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think people are reticent to admit that unfettered globalism (especially in the internet which was meant to connect the world) is bad and has serious security implications. It should've been obvious retrospectively, but folks were lulled by a sense of post-soviet optimism.

Im concerned this represents a more general trend towards severing the small connections between countries formed on things like social networks, and that in doing so we’re opening ourselves up to a public that will be more supportive of useless war.

No. Stop. The public is only against war because Chinese spies are hypnotizing them with algorithms. You're not thinking clearly. The red menace is everywhere, you need to stay vigilant and focused.
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