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TikTok goes dark in the US

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Re: TikTok goes dark in the US

#841

Post by jillyboel »

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…

> that use this application for their livelihood

what? you will survive without cat videos or whatever the fuck kids are watching these days

Re: TikTok goes dark in the US

#843

Post by margalabargala »

mardifoufs wrote: post #699
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.

So, I guess China had it right with its great firewall then, right? I mean you have to protect your national interest against foreign corporations. I didn't know Americans would agree with CCP policies like this.

From the perspective of the Chinese government, yes.

I would say America has as much right to be upset at China blocking American websites within its borders, as China has to be upset at the US blocking Tiktok within its borders.

Re: TikTok goes dark in the US

#844

Post by CuteMemeCoin »

MarcelOlsz wrote: post #806
johnnyApplePRNG wrote: post #753

This is one of the most slippery slopes I think we have ever ventured down in the history of the Internet here in North America. Not impressed whatsoever with this. This is not what the internet is all about.

The internet has been dead for like 20 years dude. It's been over.

So let's just roll over and give up then? Is that what you're implying?

If nobody takes a stand against situations like this, it's only going to get worse.

Enact laws that require app makes not to be allowed to harvest so much data and/or hold onto it for more than 24 hours perhaps.

But don't just kick some massively successful company off of your country's internet because you're afraid.

Re: TikTok goes dark in the US

#845

Post by klabb3 »

scarab92 wrote: post #728
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 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.

And how does the recommendation algorithms work? Without user data, it’d be nowhere near as potent at being addictive and dominating in the collective human attention economy.

Oil isn’t useful in its raw form either. Do you think we’d be plagued by cookie banners on almost every single website if they didn’t think collecting data was crucial to their business? Not to mention AI, where the analogy is reinforced for obvious reasons.

So data being the new oil is not a terrible analogy. However, I have to agree with you that the reasoning and justification from journalists is often fluffy and completely off-mark. I’d cut them a bit of slack, they’ve been through a complete economic massacre and talent exodus precisely as a result of this new economy.

Re: TikTok goes dark in the US

#847

Post by 331c8c71 »

chpatrick wrote: post #742
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".

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.

> Propaganda isn't free speech.

Who decides what is propaganda and what is not? EU commissariat? And propaganda coming from EU is fine I guess?

Re: TikTok goes dark in the US

#848

Post by chis »

sashank_1509 wrote: post #805

As someone who has used TikTok, I don’t hate the outcome, but hate the mendacity with which it was executed. TikTok is brain rot, a better way of describing it is digital crack. You can spend hours and hours on TikTok in a numb state, with no sense of what’s going on in the world around you. If the government decided, this addiction is not good, let’s treat it like a drug and ban it, I would be all for it. But claimi…

I don’t understand this argument that China couldn’t possibly use the app to influence public opinion. The TikTok algorithm works by tagging a bunch of features onto a video. How positive is it, political bent, comedy, cat, depressive, anything. And the people running these apps can then pull levers as they see fit to change the distribution of content shown to users.

In fact in a very real sense I think it’s impossible to be neutral. Similar to running a newspaper and picking which articles are on the front page. There is no neutral outcome: the owners of a feed inevitably make editorial choices on what gets shown.

Re: TikTok goes dark in the US

#849

Post by pbsds »

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…

If concentration of control over concentration scares you then a social media not owned by the US should be welcome. Now you have an all-american echo chamber.

Re: TikTok goes dark in the US

#850

Post by kaoD »

chpatrick wrote: post #742
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".

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.

> Propaganda isn't free speech.

If free speech has exceptions it's not free speech. The government will keep adding exceptions.

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