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TikTok goes dark in the US

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Re: TikTok goes dark in the US

#731

Post by regularization »

There are a number of cults in the US with a strong leader, living in a rural area where information about the world outside is limited. There are Hasidic dynasties and Christian groups like this. To a lesser but wider degree there are fundamental Protestant groups like this - not exactly cults, but with some of this behavior.

We see a celebration of this kind of thinking here. People want to be kept ignorant of the outside world and to keep others ignorant as well. It's a natural way to think, in the context of the road the US has been heading down for decades.

People here are excited the US will be censoring seditious content just like China does. It reminds me less of China and more of post-1905, pre-1914 Russia and the ministry of internal affairs Bureau of Censorship.

Not that it's the only factor, but I watch the US Congress sanctioning the UN and International Criminal Court for investigating the genocide in Gaza, and how many expressed their unhappiness about how Tiktok was a fissure in the US media bubble regarding that. Now Americans can be in their bubble a little longer, unaware of what the rest of the world thinks.

Re: TikTok goes dark in the US

#732

Post by galangalalgol »

nimbius wrote: post #713
moviet wrote: post #695

(Perspective from an American) Information is the gold of the 21st century. Whoever controls the flow of information has all the wealth and all the power. Therefore, data is the greatest currency in the world. This outcome was never intended to happen, but ByteDance is taking a chance that the American government will relent. We’ll see in a few months who wins the stalemate. TikTok has an immense amount of cultural p…

Bytedance already won. Biden flat-out admitted he was not going to enforce the law once it passed, and Trump is pushing for a 90 day "Extension" because "finding a buyer" has proven more difficult than initially expected. this statement is intended to save face as bytedance has repeatedly refused to sell. What we are watching now is US leaders in both houses of the oligarchy (democratic and republican) scramble to un…

The reason Trump will reverse it is that it helped him get elected. He said this in interviews already. "It is hard to hate it when...".

It also helped that Hungarian candidate when tiktok was used by Russia to push him...

It should be gone. I wish we would ditch FB too. And SEO. Kill all the algos and let me find stuff via regex.

Re: TikTok goes dark in the US

#734

Post by rNULLED »

bakuninsbart wrote: post #725

As a European, I find it quite outrageous to demand a company be sold to the US because it is too successful and valuable to be foreign-held. It is the old-school imperialist school of thought. If you think Bytedance is harming Americans, despite following american law, then amend the rules for social media companies. Or at least be honest enough to say: "The free market is great, but only if we hold all the cards".

This is what they have said, in the most honest way of all — action!

Re: TikTok goes dark in the US

#735

Post by PittleyDunkin »

wilg wrote: post #148
AirMax98 wrote: post #98

It's a shame that it's come to this. I feel that all arguments that TikTok is unhealthy or spyware and bad for our general public are valid, but the same arguments also apply to Instagram/Twitter/Whatever. Rather than have some sort of further regulation for what data any application can collect and present to Americans, we've just brought the hammer down on the millions of people that use this application for their…

None of those arguments are the salient one, which is that a geopolitical adversary has control over a major influence vector on US public opinion. They could simply have divested.

China is not a geopolitical adversary to me. Why would I want to beef with China when China has never done anything to treat me poorly?

Re: TikTok goes dark in the US

#736

Post by gdubs »

phatfish wrote: post #682
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.

Maybe this is a chance for the broader population to understand they shouldn't get attached to a free online service that can be shutdown for many reasons outside their control. If you are an "influencer" build a following on multiple platforms. If you are a business owner engage in marketing on multiple platforms. If you need a video to tell you how to bake cupcakes or clean a kettle, learn to use Google. If you are…

This is so flippant. I do read. And I've been online long enough to know that things disappear. I read slashdot in the hay day and was on Friendster, and MySpace.

If Hacker News disappeared, people would be sad because it was a unique place. And others would say "just go on Reddit it's the same thing."

And those people would be mistaking functionality for community.

Yes, all things pass. But if you read what I said at the top, it's not that we should expect things to last forever. It's that people are flip about TikTok in part because they don't seem to have more than a surface level understanding of it — or a completely different idea of what it was than the people who really used it.

Re: TikTok goes dark in the US

#737

Post by bezier-curve »

arczyx wrote: post #719
moviet wrote: post #695

(Perspective from an American) Information is the gold of the 21st century. Whoever controls the flow of information has all the wealth and all the power. Therefore, data is the greatest currency in the world. This outcome was never intended to happen, but ByteDance is taking a chance that the American government will relent. We’ll see in a few months who wins the stalemate. TikTok has an immense amount of cultural p…

> But China ultimately having that power scares me more than an American company having it. Well for people not from US, China having that power is absolutely better. After all, unlike the US, China hadn't invaded another country or instigated coup for the past 40+ years.

[removing because I don't like HN's comment system and drunkenly engaged in a pointless posturing contest with a tanker.]

Re: TikTok goes dark in the US

#738

Post by gaogao »

arczyx wrote: post #719
moviet wrote: post #695

(Perspective from an American) Information is the gold of the 21st century. Whoever controls the flow of information has all the wealth and all the power. Therefore, data is the greatest currency in the world. This outcome was never intended to happen, but ByteDance is taking a chance that the American government will relent. We’ll see in a few months who wins the stalemate. TikTok has an immense amount of cultural p…

> But China ultimately having that power scares me more than an American company having it. Well for people not from US, China having that power is absolutely better. After all, unlike the US, China hadn't invaded another country or instigated coup for the past 40+ years.

40+ is a bit weird of a timeline to give considering they invaded Vietnam 45 years ago, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-Vietnamese_War

Re: TikTok goes dark in the US

#739

Post by jewelry »

bakuninsbart wrote: post #725

As a European, I find it quite outrageous to demand a company be sold to the US because it is too successful and valuable to be foreign-held. It is the old-school imperialist school of thought. If you think Bytedance is harming Americans, despite following american law, then amend the rules for social media companies. Or at least be honest enough to say: "The free market is great, but only if we hold all the cards".

well I believe if bytedance is a French company or Australian company this wont happen

Re: TikTok goes dark in the US

#740

Post by jewelry »

calculatte wrote: post #730
moviet wrote: post #695

(Perspective from an American) Information is the gold of the 21st century. Whoever controls the flow of information has all the wealth and all the power. Therefore, data is the greatest currency in the world. This outcome was never intended to happen, but ByteDance is taking a chance that the American government will relent. We’ll see in a few months who wins the stalemate. TikTok has an immense amount of cultural p…

I'm willing to bet Americans are the most propagandized people on Earth. And it's done by our government with the "public/private partnership" aka "unconstitutional workarounds" of all legacy media and social media outlets. Facebook has admitted as much, and the Twitter files proves it. China controlling the flow of information is the same. The only difference is China is upfront about what information they are feedi…

You guess? As a Chinese I can tell you you are wrong by 10x if not more.
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