Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

TikTok goes dark in the US

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

921–930 of 1001 posts

Re: TikTok goes dark in the US

#921

Post by palata »

Gimpei wrote: post #916
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".

You shouldn’t. Lest we forget, China has banned all American social media companies and quite a few other tech companies. Why shouldn’t the US do the same? Red Note should probably be banned too. The condition to lift the ban? Allow google, facebook, snap, etc in China. Until that day, I don’t understand why this is even a question.

I am fine with the US doing protectionism, it's their choice. But they should own it. Not always play the kings of freedom, with freedom being systematically defined as "whatever is best for the US".

Re: TikTok goes dark in the US

#922

Post by ramoz »

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…

We’ve arguably been a better society with TikTok than with any other large-scale American platform. The moderation policies on Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, or any media outlet have been egregious, and more detrimental to the cultural health of the United States.

At the same time, we’re still not equipped to fully understand the complex and often hidden ways that information can influence people online. Some critics go as far as attributing mind-control capabilities to TikTok, yet everyone’s “For You” page is different—driven largely by a user-led algorithm rather than top-down editorial control.

So we've stripped back a genuine outlet for the masses. And now must accept prescription/participation for any similar digital experience or large-scale information sharing in our country.

Re: TikTok goes dark in the US

#923

Post by mbfg »

I wonder how much TikTok will have to personally pay Trump to get reinstated. What would that be worth? Is it a one time fee, or could it repeat over time. Bad situation to be in for TikTok.

Re: TikTok goes dark in the US

#924

Post by latentcall »

The levels of McCarthyism and apparent Sinophobia in this thread astounds me.

“The kids are watching communist propaganda from the CCP!”

Americans on TikTok watch content from other Americans. I know a big complaint the government had was the overflow of support for the Palestinian people compared to Israel.

Are you guys sure you’ve even used the app before? I used it some time ago and it was just other Americans doing dumb stuff or making political videos.

People really just believe the first thing their government tells them and believes it so strictly? “They said it is a national security concern so I believe them and must spread their message!”

Seems to me that TikTok had Americans on there sharing anti-Israel and anti-America content on there with other Americans. Didn’t Ted Cruz bring that up specifically to the CEO of TikTok as a problem?

Re: TikTok goes dark in the US

#925

Post by palata »

dkjaudyeqooe wrote: post #834
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".

Why are you looking to the US for your outrage, EU members are doing the exact same thing: "Eleven EU countries took 5G security measures to ban Huawei, ZTE " https://www.euronews.com/next/2024/08/12/eleven-eu-countries...

They haven't banned the Huawei smartphones, have they?

Re: TikTok goes dark in the US

#927

Post by 1970-01-01 »

The story everyone seems to be missing is how gatekeeping app stores are enforcing it. That is, if TikTok was sold as a "desktop program" which came in an envelope, and was given away for free just as America Online did decades ago, it very likely would be untouchable under the first amendment. The gatekeeping mechanisms at play are a large story that we've become ignorant to.

>TikTok, however, suggested this was not enough assurance for “critical service providers” to continue listing or hosting the app in the United States unless the Biden administration...

This would be a joke statement 20 years ago.

Re: TikTok goes dark in the US

#928

Post by japanification »

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…

[flagged]

Re: TikTok goes dark in the US

#929

Post by gcapu »

mcherm wrote: post #766
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".

An an American, I also find it outrageous. In fact, as I understand it, our most fundamental law (the Constitution) clearly guarantees "freedom of speech and freedom of the press" which specifically means that the government may NOT shut down a particular publisher because the government does not like what they say, or who it is that owns them. Unfortunately, our Supreme Court unanimously disagrees with me about what…

I thought that according law they are distributors, not publishers. That’s how they avoid liability for all the damage they do. They really try to have it both ways

Re: TikTok goes dark in the US

#930

Post by lqstuart »

In all the internet posts about this, I've never seen a response to the fact that China has been doing this to US tech interests basically forever, and even the EU has done its utmost to severely handicap US tech companies for the same reasons. Why hold the US to a double standard against our own interests? TikTok is the exact same garbage you can get from Insta, YouTube, for fuck's sake even LinkedIn has video now. What is the incentive to allow a hostile foreign power that repeatedly and overtly attacks our infrastructure to control the biggest player?
Post reply on HN