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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

#591

Post by hnbad »

notresidenter wrote: post #443
tonymet wrote: post #404

Earlier quoted context omitted.

China is communist. That is not the bar we are holding ourselves to.

China is absolutely not communist, it's probably the most capitalist country nowadays !

IDK about that but you are correct that it is explicitly not communist. It's ruled by the "communist" party that wants to "establish communism" but it is very explicitly only on the path to communism even according to its own propaganda.

It's a "communist country" in an aspirational sense, not in a descriptive sense. When we call countries "capitalist" by contrast, we usually mean that in a descriptive sense. This tends to lead to a lot of confusion: nothing that China does is "communism", it's at best something that is done with the justification of being part of the pursuit of communism. Whether or not the CCP is truthful or honest in its claims about its aspirations is a different question.

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

#592

Post by resters »

anon373839 wrote: post #516
resters wrote: post #504

There is absolutely no justification for the US copying CCP policies. This is an embarrassing day for the US. Tiktok has been the only place to see videos about police brutality and one of the main places to see the movement supporting the Palestinian cause. I feel so much shame as an American that my country did this.

> I feel so much shame as an American that my country did this. You’re ashamed that TikTok can continue to operate here so long as it’s divested of CCP control?

The relationship between TikTok and the CCP is no different than the relationship between Google/Meta/Microsoft and the US Government.

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

#594

Post by hahajk »

georgeecollins wrote: post #548
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.

I didn't see the parent say there was no precedent.

But anyways, I like to hope that the US is better than China. If US citizens are abused while in China, I would be appalled to see Chinese citizens abused in the US as retribution.

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

#595

Post by resters »

chaostheory wrote: post #524
resters wrote: post #504

There is absolutely no justification for the US copying CCP policies. This is an embarrassing day for the US. Tiktok has been the only place to see videos about police brutality and one of the main places to see the movement supporting the Palestinian cause. I feel so much shame as an American that my country did this.

It’s a trade war, or a counter to propaganda from a hostile foreign nation. If social media can’t operate in China, why should we allow CCP owned and operated social media companies operate in the US?

You are arguing that we should mimic all CCP policies that impact US firms just because of tit-for-tat.

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

#596

Post by jrockway »

codedokode wrote: post #571
georgeecollins wrote: post #548

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> You can't own a broadcast station in the US as a non-US citizen Because freedom of speech doesn't work in practice?

There can only be a finite number of broadcasters because of how radio works, so it makes sense to regulate. (A little bit of sense, not a lot.)

There should be no restrictions on who owns a website. There can be an unlimited number of websites, and every website's "reception range" is the entire planet.

Today's rulemaking pushes us one step closer to a Great Firewall. If ByteDance moves operations entirely to China, what measures will the government enact to prevent people in the US from using it? (It will probably be strong-arming app stores, but that will fail because they can just make it a web app. So the only option will be to have two Internets, one with everything except TikTok, and one with everything.)

It will be interesting if this extends to other apps. Will it be unamerican to play Genshin Impact?

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

#597

Post by SeanAnderson »

ZoomerCretin wrote: post #555
hot_gril wrote: post #395

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was always in favor of banning it for this reason, but I'm concerned that Biden is now banning it for a different reason. The timing is interesting. Certain lobby groups have been urging Congress on this due to TikTok videos about the war in Gaza. Then again, Trump was also trying to ban it for his own reasons.

Yep. TikTok is the only major social media app in the US that does not downrank pro-Palestinian content. No one in the US government cared about TikTok until the latest conflict in Israel. This is the only reason for the ban.

I thought Trump wanted TikTok banned when he was president?

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

#598

Post by resters »

mjfl wrote: post #513
resters wrote: post #504

There is absolutely no justification for the US copying CCP policies. This is an embarrassing day for the US. Tiktok has been the only place to see videos about police brutality and one of the main places to see the movement supporting the Palestinian cause. I feel so much shame as an American that my country did this.

> one of the main places to see the movement supporting the Palestinian cause. hmmm....

It reveals the extent of suppression of those ideas on other platforms, nothing more.

I don't think there is anything scary/bad about Americans seeing content that humanizes people who have been dehumanized by the US media for as long as I can remember.

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

#600

Post by krapp »

freeopinion wrote: post #587

This, to me, is one of those defining actions that will stand forever as a sign post for what America is at the moment of the event. As such, it is incredibly discouraging to me. I don't write this in defense of TikTok or China. I'm just sad for the United States. I imagine a scene where a wagon train of poor pilgrims is surrounded on all sides and all the poor children are crouching behind anything they can find. As…

Outdated racist stereotypes aside, how are we meant to interpret the scene you're setting?
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