Misinformation is a security risk that comes both from deliberate sabotage as well as monetary incentives. If it bleeds, it leads. I'm not in favor of censorship like this or social medias tagging things as "fake news" but how else do we prevent people from believing everything they see on these platforms?
Biden signs TikTok bill into law, starting clock for ByteDance to divest
651–660 of 1001 posts
Re: Biden signs TikTok bill into law, starting clock for ByteDance to divest
#652Earlier quoted context omitted.
Also wonder whether the law names TikTok in particular or just some criteria that matches it. If it's the latter, are other companies also on the clock?
It's not just tiktok https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protecting_Americans_from_Fore... Does yandex have an app or use cloudflare?
According to that Wiki link, the law does actually mention TikTok by name.
Re: Biden signs TikTok bill into law, starting clock for ByteDance to divest
#653Earlier quoted context omitted.
If this were true, TikTok wouldn't have ended up in a ban.
It's not being banned.
China has already indicated that because the sale would require a "technology export" of the algorithm, it would need their approval. And also that they would not approve it.
So if China has already made it clear it considers a TikTok sale illegal, this is a ban.
That being said, you don't get Nancy Pelosi and Marjorie Taylor Greene on the same side unless there is some serious fire behind all of the smoke. My guess is everyone who has seen the classified info agrees this ban is too critical to even play games with it.
Re: Biden signs TikTok bill into law, starting clock for ByteDance to divest
#654The 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.
> I'd love to see regulation around all social media algorithms to ensure they're unbiased.
The bias is a feature. They just don't like the fact that they can't control the bias on TikTok so it spews Chinese propaganda instead of Western propaganda.
Re: Biden signs TikTok bill into law, starting clock for ByteDance to divest
#655Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ironically, this sort of internet sovereignty is exactly what China has been preaching for years (though its so-called World Internet Conference), and of course has the most advanced state of the art implementation (aka Great Firewall) to ensure it. It likely didn't envision that this philosophy might one day come back to bite one of their own :)
> Great Firewall This is what sovereignty looks like to you? It looks like totalitarianism to me.
I agree with you. But it's the brand of sovereignty that China has pushed for years. The more other countries adopt it and do the same, the more it validates their own totalitarian approach.
Also, you have to understand that it's never about "control" of the population or restricting freedom of speech (which, also ironically, is protected in the Chinese Constitution, yeah, really, look it up). Absolutely not. It's always about "public safety".
Re: Biden signs TikTok bill into law, starting clock for ByteDance to divest
#656Earlier quoted context omitted.
China doesn't actually ban American social networks, not officially at least. They just don't work for some reason due to technical issues. China has never said "we ban Facebook and Google", you just wake up one day and they aren't working anymore.
Perhaps the GFOC must officially support an app via allowlisting, so that it's banned unless it's allowed by inaction, which is effectively the same thing. Most/all apps aren't banned outright, but they require VPNs to access. I wonder: Are there any Western apps which Chinese citizens would lose social credit or are officially prohibited from using?
VPNs frequently get banned in China. I bought two major VPN services (nordvpn and one other) and they did not work when I got there. Luckily I had a backup VPN I host on Linode. It would randomly stop working though...
Re: Biden signs TikTok bill into law, starting clock for ByteDance to divest
#657Earlier 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'm having trouble squaring that with data, since the trends go back to 2020 and 2022: https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%205-y&ge...
Re: Biden signs TikTok bill into law, starting clock for ByteDance to divest
#658The WTO allows China to ban American social networks - which would otherwise be required to be allowed under its general principle of parity - because of its "public morals" exception ( https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/dispu_e/repertory_e/g4_... ). I personally don't think that exception should exist and I'm OK banning it solely on trade parity grounds.
The US bans TikTok citing the same reasons China bans foreign social media, to avoid influence from foreign adversaries (people below says that China never official bans it, but China is inconsistent on that). It is only fair from a business perspective, but it also means that China's ideology wins over American in the end.
The China's own social media is full of posts ridiculing people like me who have believed in the American ideology, espoused the virtues of freedom of speech and rallied against the GFW. They call us naive and credulous. And I can't refute them.
When I was young, I was taught in China that China lost its superpower status after it chose to isolate itself from the rest of the world. And then it isolated itself. I was taught by the US the importance of freedom of speech. Then it ditched it. My education was a lie.
Re: Biden signs TikTok bill into law, starting clock for ByteDance to divest
#659Earlier quoted context omitted.
>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. That's because: * Saying it'll get banned makes for a more sensational headline. * Saying it'll get banned is accurate enough for most practical purposes. * Saying it'll get banned is simpler than explaining the details of divestiture. Most Americans probably don't eve…
Another reason could be: many are not sympathetic to the America's claims that these foreign platforms are at the whims of a country it is at odds with and which have repeatedly demonstrated covert abilities to change American's perception. Speaking with some younger American co-workers in the past, their suspicion/hatred of their own country is astounding to see and it seems to have coincidentally begun after TikTok…
>their suspicion/hatred of their own country is astounding to see
Speaking as an American, our country was founded on the principles of being apprehensive of governments including our own. Being suspicious of our own government is a very American thing and should not be understood as surprising.
See our Declaration of Independence for further reading and context.
Re: Biden signs TikTok bill into law, starting clock for ByteDance to divest
#660If the security angle is the real issue here, how would "divestment" improve security here at all? Tiktok engineering in the US is like 90% chinese H1B holders, they speak mandarin at work broadly across the company including in work meetings to the extent that many people say you can't work there without mandarin knowledge. The codebase is massive. I don't think it is possible for any amount of auditing or reviewing…
They won't divest. The option for divestment just makes the US look less bad. They didn't ban the app. They chose to leave