Poll of the Day > US House passes TikTok Ban...

(+) Yeah! (+)

byterance is trying to throw everything at the wall hoping that something can prevent this from happening

but if both Congress and the president agree on it, and they both sign the paper, then there is only one thing bytedance can do to try and stop it

and that's appeal to the supreme court, which definitely is not going to go their way

personally, i don't see a single difference between what tik tok has the potential to do and what Facebook and Twitter are already doing, so

Now to ban those other companies from stealing and selling our vs data

i dont see the difference in china owning my data vs the US lol like i really think this is a lot of nationalistic propaganda.

Time to invest in YouTube Shorts again

https://twitter.com/thecookinglane/status/1768015489853243590?s=20

old people, man

agesboy posted...

https://twitter.com/thecookinglane/status/1768015489853243590?s=20

old people, man

What????

i have realized why they care about tiktok and not facebook/twitter, and it's because the us government is unable to actually solicit any information from tiktok like they can with facebook and twitter.

If you want proof about how incompetent the government is...

Back in 2004, a judge was shot and killed in her home by someone she sent to prison. Chuck Schumer did a search on an application I used to work on (this was before I worked on it though, I was hired during the "fallout"), found that he can find the personal information of every government employee and freaked out. The government forced us to opt-out all VIPs from our system.

Fast forward 10 years, the CIA buys use of our application. In using it, they notice that a bunch of government employees are missing, and demand that we get them added in. We remind them of said law from 10 years ago that prevents us from adding them back in. They basically go "oh..." and I am pretty sure they still use that application to this day.

Fucking morons, the lot of them.

Jen0125 posted...

i dont see the difference in china owning my data vs the US lol like i really think this is a lot of nationalistic propaganda.

Pretty much. Tiktok is generally a bit worse than other social media in terms of how invasive its data collection is, but virtually everything that people criticize about Tiktok can also be said about Facebook, Twitter, Google, Amazon... the difference is that Tiktok is scary and foreign while the other companies are American and therefore trustworthy (at least in the eyes of people that understand absolutely nothing about the issue beyond what a bit of nationalistic grandstanding has told them).

ConfusedTorchic posted...

byterance is trying to throw everything at the wall hoping that something can prevent this from happening

but if both Congress and the president agree on it, and they both sign the paper, then there is only one thing bytedance can do to try and stop it

and that's appeal to the supreme court, which definitely is not going to go their way

You'd be surprised, especially now that Trump is saying not to ban TikTok (a complete 180 from his view when he was president). I'm assuming he fears it will get banned and see this as a "Biden win", but he also has a vendetta against facebook and could also see this as Facebook getting more popular with a TikTok ban. Man only thinks of himself.

great, now ban the other non-chinese social media shit too. net positive for humanity.

ConfusedTorchic posted...

byterance is trying to throw everything at the wall hoping that something can prevent this from happening

Everything except just letting anyone other than the Chinese government own them, which would solve the whole thing instantly and move like a hundred billion dollars into the bank accounts of whomever was in charge of the sale. But the CCP won't let that happen because they think owning TikTok is worth more than whatever the monetary value is.

I'm not sure if the ban will work even if it passes (although if TikTok is moved off from the Apple and Google storefronts then its dead as a cultural force even if people can sideload it) and I don't know exactly how precisely the CCP can operate TikTok as a lever of control but I do think having the most popular social media app in America be owned and shadow-operated by an enemy government is bad.

fettster777 posted...

You'd be surprised, especially now that Trump is saying not to ban TikTok (a complete 180 from his view when he was president). I'm assuming he fears it will get banned and see this as a "Biden win", but he also has a vendetta against facebook and could also see this as Facebook getting more popular with a TikTok ban. Man only thinks of himself.

I'm actually concerned that this might increase Trump's chances of getting elected. Tiktok's userbase is overwhelmingly younger people, and as much as it's a bipartisan bill and Trump has previously expressed a desire to ban it, the overall perception is going to be "Biden took away our fun video site" from that userbase, especially given that said userbase is generally tech-savvy enough to understand that all social media does the same things that are supposedly so terrible when Tiktok does them. Trump may be banking on that and doing a 180 on his previous position to drive home the idea that it's Biden's fault.

SomeUsername529 posted...

But the CCP won't let that happen because they think owning TikTok is worth more than whatever the monetary value is.

That calculus may change if it's no longer allowed to operate in the US. I'm not sure how much of that perceived value is "we get to spy on Americans" versus "we get to spy on everyone else."

Good riddance. No one will care for more than a few days if TikTok vanishes. Same as Vine, Friendster, ICQ, AIM, Myspace, blah blah blah blah blah It's all the same garbage.

No one should use TikTok. Ever.
That doesn't mean legally banning it is the answer.

Also, it's not about TikTok. It's a power grab with a TikTok sticker thrown on it.

It's not really about spying though. It's about China using tiktok to influence American voters. Russia and China have been using social media to do this for ages now.

SinisterSlay posted...

It's not really about spying though. It's about China using tiktok to influence American voters. Russia and China have been using social media to do this for ages now.

So ban all social media. Why single out one?

Jen0125 posted...

So ban all social media.

yes pls

If part of the mother company really is paid in part by a spy agency, I can see the point in forcing it to separate a chunk off that'll be under US laws, instead of just on US soil.

On the other hand, do you really want to be the party that tried to kill tiktok in an election year, with 18-21 being such an undecided voting block?

SinisterSlay posted...

It's not really about spying though. It's about China using tiktok to influence American voters. Russia and China have been using social media to do this for ages now.

Spying, influencing, either works.

Jen0125 posted...

So ban all social media. Why single out one?

Starting with the worst I guess. The one that has no economic impact for Americans

SinisterSlay posted...

Starting with the worst I guess. The one that has no economic impact for Americans

Wow, so brave to say something so stupid. There are American content creators on Tiktok, dumbass.

Arcturusisnow posted...

Wow, so brave to say something so stupid. There are American content creators on Tiktok, dumbass.

No one cares about them. Tiktok barely pays anything. It affects so few billionaires that pay politicians that it doesn't matter.

I expect quite a few wealthy Americans have invested in Tiktok, the same as they have in other social media. They've probably withdrawn that investment with this news, since that's going to quite dramatically hurt the company's value, but American investors don't limit themselves to American-owned companies.

https://youtube.com/shorts/k6smfruHDNs

Little clip

150 million commandos lmfao

this guy is inherently untrustworthy

https://apnews.com/article/tiktok-mnuchin-house-senate-ffdf37776e63a09bb6966d741df7093b

Awesome

Amazing

So much better

Jen0125 posted...

https://apnews.com/article/tiktok-mnuchin-house-senate-ffdf37776e63a09bb6966d741df7093b

Awesome

Amazing

So much better

I like the "any service that collects data on users around the globe should be owned by Americans" without a hint of self-awareness.

i legitimately trust the CCP with whatever random ass data they can collect about me more than my own government

wtf is xi gonna do to me? biden can fuck me up tho

Don't care either way.

adjl posted...

I like the "any service that collects data on users around the globe should be owned by Americans" without a hint of self-awareness.

I'm really curious what kind of warped ignorant version of the world one has to have to genuinely not at least conceptually understand that its a bad idea to have the most popular social media thing in your society be run directly by an actively hostile foreign government. China is the most famous high profile example of thinking exactly this! They sure as shit do not allow any wholly foreign controlled social media in their country.

SomeUsername529 posted...

I'm really curious what kind of warped ignorant version of the world one has to have to genuinely not at least conceptually understand that its a bad idea to have the most popular social media thing in your society be run directly by an actively hostile foreign government. China is the most famous high profile example of thinking exactly this! They sure as shit do not allow any wholly foreign controlled social media in their country.

Oh, there are absolutely concerns about Tiktok being controlled by China. There are just similar concerns about any social media being owned by any government, such that "it'd be okay if America had control of Tiktok" is pretty blatantly just a power grab hidden behind a thin veneer of nationalism and xenophobia.

TikTok is a bad site.

Probably a good idea.

adjl posted...

Oh, there are absolutely concerns about Tiktok being controlled by China. There are just similar concerns about any social media being owned by any government, such that "it'd be okay if America had control of Tiktok" is pretty blatantly just a power grab hidden behind a thin veneer of nationalism and xenophobia.

If you want to give your information to China or Russia you're free to sign up for a Vkontakte or WeChat account because US and Chinese censorship are not the same. It is an absurd mental contortion to equivocate the US rejecting direct CCP control of a major social media platform (which, again, would be totally free to exist in the US if it were controlled by almost literally anyone else) and China's all-encompassing firewalling of every single foreign media app that catches their attention.

I feel like there's too much money on the table that TikTok won't divest from China to get around the ban, assuming the senate and president go through with it (which seems unlikely because TikTok is too big to fail)

ConfusedTorchic posted...

i have realized why they care about tiktok and not facebook/twitter, and it's because the us government is unable to actually solicit any information from tiktok like they can with facebook and twitter.

...lolwut? It's the opposite, China actively harvests data from China companies which makes TikTok a national security threat. This goes a lot further than the "maybe the US will" with American social media networks. That's not counting allegations that China manipulates the app to push state propaganda, which is far less of an issue.

Keep in mind that TikTok has seen restrictions throughout many nations at this point, but literally no other social media platform. This isn't just a US concern, it's a "anyplace-outside-China" concern.... well, overlooking that TikTok itself is banned in China. Instead, China has a pro-CCP sister version of the app.

SomeUsername529 posted...

If you want to give your information to China or Russia you're free to sign up for a Vkontakte or WeChat account because US and Chinese censorship are not the same. It is an absurd mental contortion to equivocate the US rejecting direct CCP control of a major social media platform (which, again, would be totally free to exist in the US if it were controlled by almost literally anyone else) and China's all-encompassing firewalling of every single foreign media app that catches their attention.

so then why is america allowed to have it, but china isn't?

your argument applies fully to both.

Its weird how triggered people get by just hearing the name of the app. People will literally melt down just knowing it exists because it exists.

SomeUsername529 posted...

If you want to give your information to China or Russia you're free to sign up for a Vkontakte or WeChat account because US and Chinese censorship are not the same. It is an absurd mental contortion to equivocate the US rejecting direct CCP control of a major social media platform (which, again, would be totally free to exist in the US if it were controlled by almost literally anyone else) and China's all-encompassing firewalling of every single foreign media app that catches their attention.

Are they not equivalent? Certainly, China's censorship of foreign media is on another level, but it's still the same principle of "we don't want other countries being able to influence our people." I have pretty much no faith that Amazon, Google, or Meta wouldn't sell the same info to China for a sufficient price, nor do I expect that the American government is any less likely to abuse whatever data they collect or use platforms within their control to manipulate people than China is. This is solely a matter of "I'm more comfortable with people that are ostensibly on my side doing these things than people that aren't."

adjl posted...

Are they not equivalent? Certainly, China's censorship of foreign media is on another level, but it's still the same principle of "we don't want other countries being able to influence our people." I have pretty much no faith that Amazon, Google, or Meta wouldn't sell the same info to China for a sufficient price, nor do I expect that the American government is any less likely to abuse whatever data they collect or use platforms within their control to manipulate people than China is. This is solely a matter of "I'm more comfortable with people that are ostensibly on my side doing these things than people that aren't."

While China's censorship is an issue -- and their control is more encompassing -- this isn't even a censorship issue with the app, it's a potential national security issue. And the reason other nations get a free pass (not all of them, but most) is because we literally don't have a government glaringly stealing secrets that's either used by their government or given to their companies.

The CCP's probably isn't just that it's an authoritarian regime with some appalling human rights issues -- including the continued use of slavery and allegations of illegal organ harvesting -- it's also a kleptocracy in the very broadest sense of the term. And the only thing that keeps people from calling them out on it is, hypocritically enough, actual racism because these same individuals wouldn't tolerate these behaviors from majority-white nations.

It doesn't directly affect me since I don't use it, but if it's a security issue I'm all for it.

Melody_JR posted...

Its weird how triggered people get by just hearing the name of the app. People will literally melt down just knowing it exists because it exists.

Maybe they hate it because of the following song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iP6XpLQM2Cs

Count_Drachma posted...

While China's censorship is an issue -- and their control is more encompassing -- this isn't even a censorship issue with the app, it's a potential national security issue. And the reason other nations get a free pass (not all of them, but most) is because we literally don't have a government glaringly stealing secrets that's either used by their government or given to their companies.

yeah we do lmfao

ConfusedTorchic posted...

byterance is trying to throw everything at the wall hoping that something can prevent this from happening

but if both Congress and the president agree on it, and they both sign the paper, then there is only one thing bytedance can do to try and stop it

and that's appeal to the supreme court, which definitely is not going to go their way

personally, i don't see a single difference between what tik tok has the potential to do and what Facebook and Twitter are already doing, so

They won't but should since it's a first amendment violation.

SomeUsername529 posted...

Everything except just letting anyone other than the Chinese government own them, which would solve the whole thing instantly and move like a hundred billion dollars into the bank accounts of whomever was in charge of the sale. But the CCP won't let that happen because they think owning TikTok is worth more than whatever the monetary value is.

I'm not sure if the ban will work even if it passes (although if TikTok is moved off from the Apple and Google storefronts then its dead as a cultural force even if people can sideload it) and I don't know exactly how precisely the CCP can operate TikTok as a lever of control but I do think having the most popular social media app in America be owned and shadow-operated by an enemy government is bad.

I must have missed it when China bought Singapore.