Earlier quoted context omitted.
Or they can push narratives and stories to manipulate their audience? If the main search engine in a country was controlled by a foreign entity that would be cause for concern.
Like.. IDK...Google ?
Judge temporarily blocks U.S. ban on TikTok downloads from U.S. app stores
601–610 of 677 posts
Re: Judge temporarily blocks U.S. ban on TikTok downloads from U.S. app stores
#602Earlier quoted context omitted.
Western governments can be changed through elections. Is the same true for the Chinese government?
I think it is just an illusion that Western governments can be changed. In reality, the deep state is an unstoppable machine underneath the facade of democracy. See perception management: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perception_management
Just depends on what you care about. For the majority of citizens democracy matters because different policies have an obvious impact on daily life.
Re: Judge temporarily blocks U.S. ban on TikTok downloads from U.S. app stores
#603Earlier quoted context omitted.
TikTok is not ran or based in the US. I don't get why you think they would be protected under US laws like a US based corporation. Congress and Executive branch can easily ban foreign companies from operating in the US and there is a long history of them doing so.
Some TikTok users are in the US, and taking a service away from them should happen under US law.
Re: Judge temporarily blocks U.S. ban on TikTok downloads from U.S. app stores
#604Earlier quoted context omitted.
In that post, Ben writes: > It feels like we're talking past each other. I completely agree! I do feel like you and I and Ben (even after reading Ben's post) are still talking past each other. I am completely lost at the point where you say "A and B, therefore C, the US should ban TikTok." What is it about the combination of success and external control that means TikTok should be banned? Ben wrote: > This [video-bas…
> Twitter is a popular information-sharing social platform, and there are Chinese actors on it, but this argument isn't extended to suggest that it be banned, either. But somehow, a platform that does both must not be allowed to exist? I don't get it. Is it that hard to understand? Twitter and Facebook will at least try to make a genuine effort to root out and ban "coordinated inauthentic activity" by the Chinese gov…
Personally I think all the effort and resources spent policing social media platforms is a complete waste and malinvestment. This looks like an overreach of government power.
Re: Judge temporarily blocks U.S. ban on TikTok downloads from U.S. app stores
#605Earlier quoted context omitted.
In that post, Ben writes: > It feels like we're talking past each other. I completely agree! I do feel like you and I and Ben (even after reading Ben's post) are still talking past each other. I am completely lost at the point where you say "A and B, therefore C, the US should ban TikTok." What is it about the combination of success and external control that means TikTok should be banned? Ben wrote: > This [video-bas…
There are pretty massive differences in reach and impact between english.gov.cn and TikTok. I don't think that comparison really holds much water.
By extension should we ignore someone who's selling 1 gram of heroin at a time but we should definitely put a guy transporting 1 ton of industrial hemp in prison, on the ground that hemp can be turned into pot, somehow.
Re: Judge temporarily blocks U.S. ban on TikTok downloads from U.S. app stores
#606Earlier quoted context omitted.
TikTok is not ran or based in the US. I don't get why you think they would be protected under US laws like a US based corporation. Congress and Executive branch can easily ban foreign companies from operating in the US and there is a long history of them doing so.
Some TikTok users are in the US, and taking a service away from them should happen under US law.
Re: Judge temporarily blocks U.S. ban on TikTok downloads from U.S. app stores
#607Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I don't know how you reconcile rule of law with such drastic interventions in the rights of companies without evidence of wrongdoing How far reaching does the rule of law go? Like the US is governed by rule of law, but when you bring in international elements, can all parties operate under rule of law ? It seems almost in this case that the argument made by the US is actually that TikTok is not governed under an ag…
> do the laws give the president the ability to block a foreign company in such situation? Yes, Congress has given the President the power to “regulate, direct and compel, nullify, void, prevent or prohibit, any acquisition, holding, withholding, use, transfer, withdrawal, transportation, importation or exportation of, or dealing in, or exercising any right, power, or privilege with respect to, or transactions involv…
Re: Judge temporarily blocks U.S. ban on TikTok downloads from U.S. app stores
#608Earlier quoted context omitted.
To me, this question is easier to model as a function of some scalar impact metric. Suppose we could quantify influence somehow. What people are arguing over is whether TikTok crosses some line of “too much influence” not “existence of influence” for which there are plenty of sources.
Approaching this from an unemotional, abstract, systems analysis perspective seems like a good way to go about this. If we were debating something like "where shall we go for lunch, Restaurant A or B", most people here likely wouldn't have trouble identifying (or wouldn't deny the existence of) attributes that one might take into consideration (price, location, quality, cleanliness, decor, types and variety of dishes…
- Marketing and propaganda cloud everything they touch, and that one market is full of both. We can't even be certain of the public features of those platforms, because there are a bunch of incoherent messages controlling the communication channels.
- Most of the features of those products are not public. They impact your life, but you have no chance of even knowing they exist. Both platforms apply editorial governance on their contents, what kind and how much is anybody's guess. Both platforms profile their users, who has that profile and what they do with it is anybody's guess.
It is hard to discuss some unknowable thing over a noisy channel.
Re: Judge temporarily blocks U.S. ban on TikTok downloads from U.S. app stores
#609Earlier quoted context omitted.
There’s an absolute ton of pro Trump material on TikTok made by young people.
A LOT more that is anti-Trump I suspect.
Re: Judge temporarily blocks U.S. ban on TikTok downloads from U.S. app stores
#610Earlier quoted context omitted.
US companies operating in China need to follow Chinese laws, including those on censorship. Google etc are blocked because they are hosted outside China, and are not willing to cooperate in China. What I find bizarre about the Tiktok ban is that they are being banned essentially on executive whim: as far as I can tell, there are no concrete allegations, much less evidence, that they're violating any US laws.
So, it's ok for China to ban Google because Google refuses to help with censorship and propaganda, and because Google doesn't want the Chinese govt to be able to spy on its citizens. But it's not OK for the US to keep out spyware. Heck, retaliation for China's banning of Google etc would be sufficient justification for banning TikTok on its own.