Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

reuters.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

611–620 of 1001 posts

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

#611

Post by warner25 »

kjkjadksj wrote: post #520
paxys wrote: post #222

Anyone remember when they were in school and adults tried to ban access to a popular website? I imagine this ban will go down exactly the same. Never underestimate a bored teenager's ability to bypass tech restrictions. Heck maybe this is what is needed to finally get a new generation out of the comforts of their tech walled garden and get their hands dirty.

This ban does nothing about the mobile tick tok website. You don’t need to be a techie to use the browser on your cellphone. Yet it is a point of friction compared to an app with native notifications. And given the expectations of the average american tech user who has been coddled for the last decade into safe app store apps instead of the scary web, people are legitimately concerned.

This part is unclear to me. I know the article says "app," but this is general news reporting, and the term "web app" for stuff in the browser is acceptable terminology anyway. It also says that opening the app will redirect people to a page with information about the ban, not to the main page of the website. Prior to this discussion, I thought a ban at the ISP or CDN level was part of the plan, so a VPN would be required to circumvent it. No?

In any case, yeah, I'm not sure that "the average american tech user who has been coddled for the last decade" knows what a web browser is. I've observed some user behavior among family members that indicates a pretty bizarre mental model of how the Internet, web, and mobile applications work.

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

#612

Post by Invictus0 »

stonesthrowaway wrote: post #363
abeppu wrote: post #230

> The outcome of the shutdown would be different from that mandated by the law. The law would mandate a ban only on new TikTok downloads on Apple or Google app stores, while existing users could continue using it for some time. Does anyone have thoughts on why TikTok would choose to stop for existing users? I.e. why would they choose to do more than the minimum required by the law? It's nice that they want to point p…

> Does anyone have thoughts on why TikTok would choose to stop for existing users? What business would choose to keep operating if it can't gain new customers? Think about it. The law makes it impossible for tiktok to grow or be profitable. What advertiser would be interested in a platform that will lose users every day and won't gain more in the future? The law was sneakily and intentially written to outright ban ti…

Would you throw away a $100B asset? If TikTok was just a business and not an arm of the CCP then they would not be shutting down.

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

#613

Post by kpennell »

jdlyga wrote: post #115

"I would literally write my social security number on a sticky note and stick it to Xi Jinping's forehead than go back to using Instagram Reels" I saw this yesterday and it's hilarious but this is the feeling right now. TikTok has such a culture of authenticity and realness and Instagram is so phony and overly perfect (not to mention ads and so many bots and spam). It's like shutting down Reddit and telling everyone…

My tiktok feed was night and day better compared to IG reels. IG reels is simply attrocious memes. Like the same recycled crap over and over again. Where my tiktok feed always felt fresh. Makes me embarrassed that Zuck and co can't make the feed better. I thought this was America!

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

#614

Post by tnt128 »

Let’s be clear about one thing: it’s never about protecting the privacy of private citizens—that’s just the justification.

Social networking platforms are among the most effective tools for mass influence, second only to religion.

The U.S. has held a monopoly on this power, leveraging it to gather data on citizens worldwide and projecting our value systems onto others.

Banning TikTok is simply an effort by us to maintain that monopoly, and making sure a foreign adversary do not wield such power.

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

#616

Post by m3kw9 »

jdlyga wrote: post #115

"I would literally write my social security number on a sticky note and stick it to Xi Jinping's forehead than go back to using Instagram Reels" I saw this yesterday and it's hilarious but this is the feeling right now. TikTok has such a culture of authenticity and realness and Instagram is so phony and overly perfect (not to mention ads and so many bots and spam). It's like shutting down Reddit and telling everyone…

Link in bio is literally killing instagram, it’s so anti user for the sake of $$ so people don’t link out easily

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

#617

Post by warner25 »

spyder wrote: post #587

So they want to ban only the mobile app, but the Tiktok website would still work from the mobile browsers? Huh... I guess they can get less user data from the website than an app, but the content manipulation and the usage data collection could still happen that way if that's the real fear of the US...

This part is unclear to me. I know the article says "app," but this is general news reporting, and the term "web app" for stuff in the browser is acceptable terminology anyway. It also says that opening the app will redirect people to a page with information about the ban, not to the main page of the website. Prior to this discussion, I thought a ban at the ISP or CDN level was part of the plan, so a VPN would be required to circumvent it. No?

[I made the same comment elsewhere, but I'm putting it here too because I'm really puzzled by this.]

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

#618

Post by avalys »

tnt128 wrote: post #614

Let’s be clear about one thing: it’s never about protecting the privacy of private citizens—that’s just the justification. Social networking platforms are among the most effective tools for mass influence, second only to religion. The U.S. has held a monopoly on this power, leveraging it to gather data on citizens worldwide and projecting our value systems onto others. Banning TikTok is simply an effort by us to main…

[flagged]

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

#619

Post by teqsun »

Invictus0 wrote: post #612
stonesthrowaway wrote: post #363

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Does anyone have thoughts on why TikTok would choose to stop for existing users? What business would choose to keep operating if it can't gain new customers? Think about it. The law makes it impossible for tiktok to grow or be profitable. What advertiser would be interested in a platform that will lose users every day and won't gain more in the future? The law was sneakily and intentially written to outright ban ti…

Would you throw away a $100B asset? If TikTok was just a business and not an arm of the CCP then they would not be shutting down.

It's not being thrown away, it will work as normal in every other country except the United States.

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

#620

Post by sobellian »

lenerdenator wrote: post #23
drcongo wrote: post #9

Can anyone enlighten me as to what this TikTok ban is supposed to be about? It feels a bit satanic panic from a distance.

It's generally not wise to let your geopolitical rival have extensive influence over your populace, which is why CCP doesn't let American companies like Meta operate in China. Turnabout is fair play.

I don't necessarily buy the argument that we should play the same game as a communist dictatorship in the name of fairness. If we eat our own dogfood then we ought to conclude that suppression of speech in fact marks a critical weakness of their system. Why not take the free real estate, then, and leave our system's open nature unmolested?
Post reply on HN