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Trump says he will ban TikTok through executive action

cnbc.com

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Re: Trump says he will ban TikTok through executive action

#681

Post by 949throaway2020 »

winstonmanor89 wrote: post #269
949throaway2020 wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>What "real chaos" has "China" (which is, by the way, nowhere homogenous) seen that we have not seen? This is ill-informed and easily proven wrong. I'm no China apologist, but the Chinese have suffered the worst human disasters in history. Let's go down the list of top 10 anthropogenic disasters by geometric mean death toll and count the causalities in China [1]: 1. 2nd World War estimated 70 million dead, 17.5 milli…

Uhh what about European or the Middle east or any other part of the world

>Uhh what about European or the Middle east or any other part of the world That was a list of top 10 anthropogenic disasters for the whole world. Europe and the Middle East's disasters are listed.

Re: Trump says he will ban TikTok through executive action

#682

Post by chillacy »

philliphaydon wrote: post #312
chillacy wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reminds me of wartime psy-ops: Airborne leaflet propaganda: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airborne_leaflet_propaganda Also, Taiwan has a huge speaker array pointed at mainland china which blasts propaganda: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/beishan-broadcast-stat... Though sometimes it ends up making the target stronger if it can overcome the complaints E.g. Soviet propaganda highlighting racial injustice in the…

> Also, Taiwan has a huge speaker array pointed at mainland china which blasts propaganda: Had.

Afaik they still have it, but it isn't used to blast propaganda anymore (just play music for tourists). I haven't found any more recent news articles saying it was removed or taken down, and wikipedia doesn't mention its removal.

Re: Trump says he will ban TikTok through executive action

#683

Post by chillacy »

dtech wrote: post #358
chillacy wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reminds me of a Taleb article I read: Most Intolerant Wins https://medium.com/incerto/the-most-intolerant-wins-the-dict...

Jesus what a bad article, it starts out making a sane point with, maybe some slight anti-religious hints, but quickly turns into a personal rant about how all of modern science is in the pocket of GMO-pushing agricultural companies with a personal vendetta against him.

That sums everything I've read from him. He has genuinely good and unique ideas but over time he's spent more and more time trying to dunk on his enemies. I had actual difficulty making it through some of his more recent books.

Re: Trump says he will ban TikTok through executive action

#685

Post by lenkite »

allendoerfer wrote: post #428
JanSt wrote: post #323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It‘s a question of distribution power. If the power is granted to the executive branch, they can do it. It‘s part of decisions on their own country. I consider it much more questionable to exert power over allied countries to stop extraterritorial infrastructure projects (i.e. Nordstream 2), because the US wants to sell fracking gas to europe. I‘m sure that using such power will lead to losing it long-term and former…

> I consider it much more questionable to exert power over allied countries to stop extraterritorial infrastructure projects (i.e. Nordstream 2) Nordstream 2 is a great example. Sanctioning a country that was literally the wall between you and the East is such an extremely stupid move. Just confirms Merkels sentence: "Europe can not rely on the US any longer". German here and I have to, say: You lost me there, buddy.…

Yet German politicians still want US troops to stay in Germany for "Russia Protection" - while never meeting their NATO promised GDP contribution of 2% in the last 5 years.

Re: Trump says he will ban TikTok through executive action

#686

Post by abvdasker »

envy2 wrote: post #271

This is a terrible development and precedent. Whatever you think of the CCP and the Chinese approach to censorship and tech, building our own 'Great Firewall' and banning foreign apps/services we don't like is not the answer. It just legitimises the Chinese approach and sends us further down the road to a fragmented rather than open internet.

I think that's what this is really about. Trump and the various neocons filling his cabinet have decided to try and do to TikTok what China has done to many US companies through its onerous censorship requirements and preferential treatment of domestic technology companies. This is a case of blatant tit-for-tat. What this boils down to is conservatives in the executive branch not wanting Chinese technology companies to be able to do business in the US. There is an argument that this is justified given the protectionism China has demonstrated towards its own tech sector. Ultimately though this escalation is probably bad for Chinese-US relations and the Internet as a whole.

It's possible for this to completely backfire though. Suppose Microsoft pays tens of billions to ByteDance to acquire TikTok's US operations and then the app tanks in popularity or fails to reach profitability. This seems especially possible given how new TikTok is and the faddish rise and fall of many other video-based platforms (Vine, HQTrivia, Pariscope, etc.)

Re: Trump says he will ban TikTok through executive action

#687

Post by ust »

Explanation of the current legal structure that can be used to ban/force divestment of TikTok:

https://www.lawfareblog.com/tiktok-and-law-primer-case-you-n...

In short, a president has substantial powers (granted by Congress via IEEPA and CFIUS) to institute a ban or force a divestment of any company "engaged in interstate commerce in the United States", if "national emergency" or "national security" is involved. So, legally, it seems that president can ban TikTok, under certain conditions (that may not be so difficult to achieve). The link above only explains the current legal framework, not whether banning the TikTok is in itself a good or a bad thing. IANAL, so I can't judge the competence of the presented arguments, but it is written by a respected law professor.

Re: Trump says he will ban TikTok through executive action

#688

Post by thehappypm »

caymanjim wrote: post #430
Twisell wrote: post #293

Not US citizen here. Can someone explain how in a democracy the chief executive can singlehandedly decide to ban a media only a few month before elections? I can't make any sense of that, it seems wrong at so many levels...

The short answer is that he can't. The president has no power to ban TikTok. The president also has no control over how the app is distributed or its connectivity. He can say whatever he wants, and he can strongarm the agencies he has some control over (like the FCC), but there's simply no mechanism by which a ban can be enforced, legal or technical. Unless Google and Apple decide to voluntarily remove it from their…

You are right. Trump does not have the power to go into 100M phones, remove the apps, and disable the services that run them.

What Trump does have is the power of government, which will make it awfully easy for Apple and Google to do it for him.

Re: Trump says he will ban TikTok through executive action

#689

Post by philliphaydon »

chillacy wrote: post #682
philliphaydon wrote: post #312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Also, Taiwan has a huge speaker array pointed at mainland china which blasts propaganda: Had.

Afaik they still have it, but it isn't used to blast propaganda anymore (just play music for tourists). I haven't found any more recent news articles saying it was removed or taken down, and wikipedia doesn't mention its removal.

It literally says in the first article you posted:

> until it was taken off duty in the 1970s

Followed later by:

> Kinmen stopped using the speakers for such things sometime in the 1970s, opting instead to occasionally play the songs of the Taiwanese pop star Teresa Teng, at moderate volume, for the benefit of tourists.

Taiwan ended martial law in 1987, it's been a democracy ever since. They don't spread propaganda, they are too busy worrying about themselves and trying to ensure they have a good image to distance themselves from china.

Re: Trump says he will ban TikTok through executive action

#690

Post by dang »

flywheel wrote: post #654
linlucas wrote: post #335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huawei has more 5G patents than any other company. By far.

I'll admit that one thing China is great at - downvote brigading posts about China, as evidenced right here. Still not high-tech though.

You have been breaking the site guidelines quite badly, and repeatedly. That's not cool. If you wouldn't mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and sticking to the rules when posting here, we'd be grateful.
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