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TikTok goes dark in the US

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Re: TikTok goes dark in the US

#661

Post by op00to »

IAmNotACellist wrote: post #331
jandrewrogers wrote: post #308

A point I think most people don’t understand is that the government interest in TikTok has little to do with exploiting user data per se, a lot of other companies do that. The issue is that TikTok is somewhat unique in being aggressively weaponized in currently very active “grey zone” conflicts. This has been an open secret in national security circles but the average person on the street has no idea what a grey zone…

"Grey zone conflict" sounds a lot like our powers are upset they don't have the level of control over information that the adversary has. They want to be the ones to censor, suppress, and promote, rather than another country. The goal isn't more open access to information.

Why drop bombs on your adversary when you can use social media influence to achieve the same ends of reducing productivity? This is far cheaper and gives you plausible deniability.

Re: TikTok goes dark in the US

#662

Post by Febra33 »

neither_color wrote: post #658
psiconaut wrote: post #480

There's an interesting cognitive bias in the western media that tends to define freedom of the press (and freedom of expression) as exactly what is perceived as freedom in this side of the iron curtain. Libgen domains are "seized", and tiktok "goes dark", but of course other countries "censor" porn or news outlets. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Press_Freedom_Index

As long as we're not discussing ways to circumvent the American firewall, since there isn't one, we can still say that one country tries but sometimes fails to live up to a free speech ideal perfectly -making exceptions for national security- and the other is blatant authoritarian.

"Sometimes" fails. If sometimes is every day.

Re: TikTok goes dark in the US

#663

Post by HarHarVeryFunny »

dark-star wrote: post #517

My unpopular opinion on this: - Trump schemes to get TikTok blocked in the US - He waits till he is in charge - Presents himself as White Knight (or rather Orange Knight?) - Gets TikTok unbanned - Popularity with the younger generation rises - ...profit?

Trump will of course be happy to be perceived as the hero that unblocked TikTok (after having requested ByteDance to block it today), but I'm sure "profit" comes first. He isn't doing this to be nice to China, or nice to the US's TikTok-addicted youth ... he's doing this because it puts money into the pocket of Donald Trump .. precisely in what way(s) remains to be discovered.

Re: TikTok goes dark in the US

#665

Post by refurb »

t-3 wrote: post #487
hunglee2 wrote: post #440

Bottom line is: it is reasonable for governments to exercise control over the information environment their citizens experience, especially when social media has such potential to sow chaos and instability. Look at how the US internet fuelled the fires of the Arab Spring / HK protests / Jan 6th / Any number of colour revolutions in Europe. Even today, we see X being used as a platform to encourage protests against go…

> it is reasonable for governments to exercise control over the information environment their citizens experience It's reasonable for governments that don't entertain the notion that their citizens have freedoms of association, speech, etc. For countries where those concepts are legally enshrined in the country's own founding documents, no, it's not. Part of living in a democracy is having the responsibility to infor…

> Letting the government tell people who they can and cannot listen to flies in the face of the very idea of democracy.

But that's not what this is doing.

People are still free to hear the same thing on other platforms (which they can considering how much is crossposted).

It's like getting rid of AM radio because you want to use the spectrum and claiming it violates freedom of speech because stations have to close down.

Re: TikTok goes dark in the US

#668

Post by killerstorm »

gyoridavid wrote: post #632
FilipeMaia wrote: post #394

The Communications Act of 1934 limits foreign ownership of many communication technologies such as TV. TikTok has easily more influence than most TV channels so it does not seem strange to limit its foreign ownership. If the purchase of US steel by a Japanese company threatens national security, surely the ownership of TikTok is also one.

On the same logic, youtube, facebook, google, etc. should not be owned by the parent company in other countries than the US because of the influence they have on ppls opinions (on policital elections and whatnot)

They definitely should do that if they believe that these applications are controlled by US government.

AFAIK nobody seriously believes that.

Re: TikTok goes dark in the US

#669

Post by remixff2400 »

atsjie wrote: post #422
throwawayqqq11 wrote: post #413

Can someone please explain to me, why it is illegal to publish biased media? Please relate your answer to US native broadcasters like Fox News. The public discourse in the US appears very distorted. The rececently elected legislative heavily tampers with the executive/judicative and somehow this is stil democratic? IMO the tiktok ban is only about media control, no morale or legality, just political power and somehow…

Always surprised me in the land of the "Free" they ban a whole lot more than in most other countries. Books, LGBT stuff, no objective media. It feels quite medieval.

I mean, book banning isn't a federal level thing (at least not at any remotely broad level) and typically happens either on one side of the political spectrum (same deal with LGBT stuff), or at the level of individual school systems. e.g. you won't find that book at the school library at most, but the bookstore down the street will have it.

Vast difference from the typical notion of book burnings and such.

"Objective" media exists (NPR, PBS(?), CSPAN) but just isn't as popular because biased media attracts more attention through confirmation bias and flashiness.

Re: TikTok goes dark in the US

#670

Post by cheshire137 »

gdubs wrote: post #224

I think a lot of people on here never spent much time on TikTok and it shows. It wasn't just for young people and it wasn't all brain rot. There were vibrant communities, subcultures. Real issues were aired there. Real people connected. From the early days of Covid it provided a window into a broader world.

I’m sad to lose the cross stitching videos, the travel log clips, the live streams of people playing instruments, and the tons of animal videos. Trying Instagram Reels, everything feels performative, which is annoying.
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