Now Marvel Snap is claiming it is banned in the US by the same mechanism due to ownership by ByteDance.
TikTok goes dark in the US
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Re: TikTok goes dark in the US
#742As 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".
I think it's totally reasonable when it has massive influence over your population and is controlled by a geopolitical adversary.
The EU banned Russia Today (correctly in my opinion) and that was nothing compared to TikTok. Propaganda isn't free speech.
Re: TikTok goes dark in the US
#743So young people learn how to use VPN and web apps.
Re: TikTok goes dark in the US
#744(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. Why?
As an American, support for democracy and (small-l) liberal values is the best type of government.
These liberties are built into the U.S. Constitution. And, while the U.S. government makes mistakes, this is the ideal we strive towards.
Re: TikTok goes dark in the US
#745As 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".
I think it’s more along the lines of the free market is great but if a foreign government has close control/ties with a pervasive social media business that it’s not great. Sounded like via an IPO they would have still had the ability to retain some ownership via the stock but would not longer have complete secret control.
Re: TikTok goes dark in the US
#746(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…
>I'm willing to bet Americans are the most propagandized people on Earth.
Perhaps. It might feel that way because we have multiple sources of propaganda and interests trying to sway us while places like China only have one. We have political party propaganda, government propaganda, corporate propaganda, special interest group propaganda, religious propaganda, grass roots propaganda, etc. China has government propaganda that encompasses all of that.
I also think the US apparatus' are just better at hiding which information is propaganda and which isn't; this makes it harder to spot. China has full control so it doesn't really matter if its propaganda is believable. Once you bring up a generation on it, the propaganda turns into reality.
Re: TikTok goes dark in the US
#747Unreal. Land of Freedom bans Social Media app that runs on US servers, on its own terms, with censorship teams staffed by dozens of ex-US State officials[1]. Amazing that Congress will see bipartisan action on this issue before any of the other much more important issues. It absolutely destroys criticisms of China banning Facebook, etc. 1. https://www.mintpressnews.com/tiktok-chinese-trojan-horse-ru...
> It absolutely destroys criticisms of China banning Facebook, etc. You mean around 10-20% of the open internet? [1][2] That is what you graciously summarize as "Facebook, etc."? No, it does not destroy criticisms of that. China is #172 out of 180 countries on the World Press Freedom Index [3]. It was #179 two years ago. Just because the US "bans" [sic!] one app (that, by the way, is also blocked in China [4]), that…
A quick note: the US is falling down the WPFI fairly quickly lately...
Re: TikTok goes dark in the US
#748(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.
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Re: TikTok goes dark in the US
#749(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 doubt this has anything to do with "data". I generally view "data is the new oil" arguments as a sign that the journalist doesn't know what they are talking about, especially if they can't characterise what data they are referring to or why it is valuable. More likely, this is about control of the recommendation algorithm, and therefore control of the narrative.
Absolutely but I do think there is a slice of data. Unlike meta selling its data, we have no idea the full scope of what bytedance collects and sends home. My one thorn is we are so consumed with China but somehow it ignore Russia.
Re: TikTok goes dark in the US
#750(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…
3 comments total from this account totaling 28 karma at the time of writing and this of the top comment on a 1500+ comment thread about a major issue? Ok. That fact is relevant to the issue. This comment is the most “State Department talking points” comment you could make and the finger is put on the scales to elevate it. That’s exactly what Google and Meta do with content via recommendation algorithms and comments.…
Lol. I lurk on Hacker News. I am not a U.S. government employee.
I just felt compelled to state what I thought was missing from the conversation.