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

TikTok preparing for U.S. shut-off on Sunday

reuters.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

951–960 of 1001 posts

Re: TikTok preparing for U.S. shut-off on Sunday

#951

Post by Ikatza »

jeromegv wrote: post #126
rwarfield wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The big issue isn't data security; it's propaganda. Irrespective of whether the government has control of the narrative on Facebook (I would argue they pretty clearly don't) there is no reason to let a foreign adversary have a deniable propaganda line to millions of Americans. Would we have let the USSR acquire a major television network? And even if you disagree with the national security reasons for disallowing Chi…

Looking forward to Europe banning Meta and X considering how their CEOs are meeting weekly with their government overlord, quite clear those social networks are in the pocket of the new US government.

The US is not an enemy to the EU, while China is a clear enemy to the US.

The difference is quite easy to easy to spot.

Re: TikTok preparing for U.S. shut-off on Sunday

#952

Post by whalesalad »

rwarfield wrote: post #107
spencerflem wrote: post #67

Given how easy it is for China to buy US data legally from data brokers and how similar the functionality of TikTok and YouTube Shorts, I feel like the only explanations are: 1. The govt is mad that a foreign company is outcompeting a domestic one Or more likely, given that there are so many other industries that didn't get a ban: 2. The govt is mad that they have control over the narrative on Facebook but do not on…

The big issue isn't data security; it's propaganda. Irrespective of whether the government has control of the narrative on Facebook (I would argue they pretty clearly don't) there is no reason to let a foreign adversary have a deniable propaganda line to millions of Americans. Would we have let the USSR acquire a major television network? And even if you disagree with the national security reasons for disallowing Chi…

So many people keep missing this. It's not about data harvesting. It is about influencing huge portions of the population and controlling that narrative. Of course any social media app can do this, but ostensibly it is worse coming from a foreign adversary who don't play by the same rules.

Re: TikTok preparing for U.S. shut-off on Sunday

#953

Post by drawkward »

Zak wrote: post #874
drawkward wrote: post #690

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am a US Citizen and I 100% want this. I think this is far too small a step; I think all social media should be banned.

What criteria define social media that's ban-worthy for you? Does it require the combination of user-generated content and a personalized algorithmic feed which characterizes modern corporate social media, or do you extend it to a broader range of ways people can interact over the internet?

I'm not a lawyer, and therefore I am not qualified to make that kind of definition.

Re: TikTok preparing for U.S. shut-off on Sunday

#954

Post by drawkward »

iforgot22 wrote: post #491
ergonaught wrote: post #366

US citizens do not want this. Every news article descending into tangents on any other point than that is part of why we can't have nice things. The whole country has turned into some sort of lower primate improv troupe where whatever stupid thing comes up gets a "Yes and let's" diversion instead of an adult in the room standing up and cutting the crap.

Hey, the ADL president is a US citizen, and he said "we really have a TikTok problem."

America has an Israel problem.

Re: TikTok preparing for U.S. shut-off on Sunday

#955

Post by madeofpalk »

aimanbenbaha wrote: post #941
madeofpalk wrote: post #932

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> TikTok has such a culture of authenticity and realness and Instagram is so phony and overly perfect They're very different, and I understand what you're getting at comparing it to the hyper-manufactured perfectly glossy Instagram culture, but I wouldn't call TikTok 'authentic'. Of course, Tiktok is large and there's many different subcultures there, but overall I think TikTok is heavily drenched in Irony. It's a st…

You said a lot of words that are a litmus test proving you almost never use TikTok nowadays. First of all this is not 2020 anymore, you're 5 years late if you think TikTok is still filled with "dances". "Paid influencers" mean nothing in TikTok since everyone has an equal voice and equal shot at virality, see you're still seeing it from the lens of Instagram here. The NPC live streaming is weird yeah but you cherry p…

I use tiktok every day. Maybe I don't know what 'authentic' means, but I don't think most content on tiktok is authentic. I think it is a particular type of fitting to an ideal or trend.

Re: TikTok preparing for U.S. shut-off on Sunday

#956

Post by stouset »

theshrike79 wrote: post #906
bearjaws wrote: post #490

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> TikTok has such a culture of authenticity and realness I must live in another universe because it all feels fake.

Just did a test, opened up TikTok 1) a guy telling me in my native language (not english) how to spot phishing scams 2) another guy doing a short video about how much you need to invest to retire in my native language 3) Donald's AG not answering simple questions directly 4) video about 2CV ice racing where people leisurely drive old Citroens 5) A skit by an Australian dude who has a wall full of Milwaukee tools Inst…

Have you considered that Reels is so bad precisely because you don’t use it?

Mine:

A bit from the SF Chronicle on the LA fires. A comedy/info bit by Alex Falcone. An Ad. A wrestling technique (I’m into judo and BJJ). A card trick. Cooking techniques. An ad.

It’s ad-heavy and frankly I don’t try to spend a lot of time on it. But as somebody who uses it at least some, I get absolutely zero of the kind of garbage you suggest.

Re: TikTok preparing for U.S. shut-off on Sunday

#957

Post by stouset »

I find it pretty telling that the two sides of this argument boil down to:

1. This is a platform owned within China which can easily be used to silently and effectively spread highly targeted propaganda to extremely vulnerable demographics. If it has already been used for this purpose we will never know.

2. They make the most engaging internet junk food and other competitors don’t do nearly as good a job.

Does that about cover it?

Re: TikTok preparing for U.S. shut-off on Sunday

#958

Post by bobmcnamara »

I_AM_A_SMURF wrote: post #467
ergonaught wrote: post #366

US citizens do not want this. Every news article descending into tangents on any other point than that is part of why we can't have nice things. The whole country has turned into some sort of lower primate improv troupe where whatever stupid thing comes up gets a "Yes and let's" diversion instead of an adult in the room standing up and cutting the crap.

We certainly _do_ want this. I think the fact that we let a foreign company own a social media platform in the first place is preposterous. As others have said, we would never let the CCP own a TV broadcast, why should we let china own a major social media platform? That's just absurd.

There's a Kremlin radio station in Missouri.

Re: TikTok preparing for U.S. shut-off on Sunday

#959

Post by bobmcnamara »

hedgehog wrote: post #532
baxtr wrote: post #525

> Privately held ByteDance is about 60% owned by institutional investors such as BlackRock and General Atlantic, while its founders and employees own 20% each. It has more than 7,000 employees in the United States That’s probably a very stupid question, but is how this is a Chinese company when 60% are owned by American funds?

Same way the Singaporean CEO is part of the CCP: He's not, it's not, but there are a lot of vested interests like Facebook lobbying to treat them as the boogeyman.

That Tom Cotton interview was wild.

Re: TikTok preparing for U.S. shut-off on Sunday

#960

Post by Andrex »

phobotics wrote: post #28
donatj wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a casual observer, I don't understand why YouTube Shorts isn't the obvious successor? The UI is better than TikTok ever was and a lot of the most popular creators are already mirroring their content there?

Shorts has a way worse algorithm, I don’t use TikTok because it’s too addictive but I get bored of YouTube shorts after like 5-10mins most times, which actually for me is a Feature but for YouTube itself is a drawback.

It's strange to me everyone acting as like TikTok's algorithm is completely unassailable and will always be better than the competition for years and decades to come. Tech moves fast and Meta/YT aren't just standing around.

If their only differentiating feature is the algorithm, Insta would eat them for lunch eventually the same they did for Snapchat after knocking off that app's big/only claim to fame (stories).

The discussion seems to be TikTok's algorithm is so good no one could ever possibly compete. I really don't think that's the case and TikTok really has no moat whatsoever.

Post reply on HN