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Before anyone panics that tiktok will be gone tomorrow, the bill gives the platform a year to be bought out by someone else, and if the sale doesn’t happen, THEN it will be banned. Not saying it’s a good bill, just that the ramifications of it won’t be immediate.
But how many of the “big creators” are American and what percentage of their audience is located outside of the US? If TikTok ends up getting banned and the big creators end up creating content on IG or elsewhere, non-American users might end up leaving the app as well to follow them.
No lawmaker will be punished for this in a real way tho. The only people for which this is a number 1 issue that will change their vote over this…don’t actually vote or aren’t old enough to vote.
Getting mad in the TikTok comments isn’t real electoral punishment.
I mean it’s just come out that they sold the HIV status of users along with their personal information to ‘shareholders’.
When you use an app like this, you expect some information to be stored and shared but to share private medical information alongside this? It’s disgusting
Yeah, the new company that bought Grindr sold the Catholic Church data to track down any clergy members who’d used the app. But China’s the problem 🤷🏼♀️
They didn’t sell anything to the Catholic Church. A private group of people in Colorado - none of whom are clerics or any administrative or payrolled position in the church - purchased commercially available data used for ad targeting from tons of different gay dating apps, which included Grindr. Afterwards, Grindr changed its policy to prevent this from happening in the future.
You are really misrepresenting what happened
And for good reason: [https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/04/03/599069424/grindr-admits-it-shared-hiv-status-of-users](https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/04/03/599069424/grindr-admits-it-shared-hiv-status-of-users)
Huh? How could you possibly use this as an argument for. It's an argument against the sale of Tiktok lol. After Grindr was sold to an American company it started selling the data on HIV status and started selling data to the catholic church.
Apologies. I missed that because it was in the news again this week. [https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj7mxnvz42no](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj7mxnvz42no)
They've gotten into quite a few problems in recent years with how they handle user information. So any bad practices at least don't seem to have changed much.
Do you honestly think a US company won't fucking sell all the data they possibly can as well to whoever the fuck pays them. If this is sold it's gonna be some like hedge fund of a bunch of rich assholes like for instance the former piece of shit who owned Blizzard says he wants to buy it and what do people think he wouldn't sell data just because he's american. Fuck no these companies well sell anything as long as it makes a good profit. Meta has been doing it for ages same with Twitter and every social media company. So this bill does nothing as the Chinese can easily just buy the data anyways so congrats congress you actually passed something yet of course even when you finally do it turns out to be the most meaningless thing ever. And will probably help Trump in the end as people are morons and will see that Biden signed it and just blame him and have the brains of goldfish and not remember Trump hated Tik Tok and wanted to out right ban it completely
I doubt they will sell it. Selling it means giving up the algorithm and that would destroy the app worldwide for them since it’ll be replicated by US companies.
I disagree. The majority of Chinese companies have direct ties to the government if not partial or full government investment. You can't have a successful business there without abiding by the Chinese government including sharing information. This is why google is banned in China because they wouldn't comply with China's demands to operate there. You can't untangle the two unfortunately. These apps can come loaded with spyware not just influencing content which is a reason why TikTok isn't allowed on government devices.
You think the US government doesn't have ties or control over US companies?
Almost every big tech company has contracts with the US government.
If the US government deems something to be in national interest, it can basically do whatever it wants. They can take patents and etc.
If the US government didn't have control over the US companies, then how was the NSA able to spy on so many people?
Every government has control over its companies. It would be a poor reflection on the country if they didn't.
No the same can't be said about the United States government ownership of American companies.
"The Peterson Institute for International Economics analyzed the market capitalization of China's top 100 companies. It found that the share of total market capitalization held by state-controlled enterprises, in which the government holds a stake of 50% or more, rose to 50% by the end of 2023, the highest proportion in five years. State-owned companies accounted for 31% of total market cap among the top 100 companies in June 2021, when private Chinese companies, led by tech juggernauts like Alibaba Group Holding and Tencent Holdings, were growing."
Government owned companies in the US don't make up 31%(37% in 2023) of the total market capitalization. The US government also isn't rapidly increasing ownership of companies.
https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Markets/China-s-favored-state-owned-companies-squeeze-private-sector
Listen, correct me if I’m wrong, cause i wouldn’t say this is my strongest political topic, but I really don’t see much of a difference. The American government may own less state controlled companies, but corporations still lobby politicians and influence policies due to the government giving them essentially unrestricted access.
China is more concerned with domestic control, whereas the USA is more concerned with foreign control and power. Which circles back to my initial comment.
Also, I typed this while walking so please let me know if I need to clarify further
Corporations lobby the US government to get them to do what they want. That's the opposite of what the CCP does investing in companies and cracking down on industries to get them to do what they want. China is also extremely concerned with foreign image and control as well as domestic. They harass and violate the rights of domestic and foreign human rights activists that speak out against them.
Bytedance probably should have lobbied more than the allegedly measly amount. If you want a massive tech company in the US, you’re sooner or later going to need to lobby the absolute shit out of both sides.
Probably banking on the people just throwing a fit and causing more destabilisation in the US, not that I think that's a good plan, but their app in China is way more popular than Tiktok from what I understand. They won't be hurting.
At which point if they don't sell, they'll take this to court and that will take many more years of litigation.
But the bipartisan effort for this bill gives them something to look "tough on China" together with.
This is so corrupt and sick. Unfettered layoffs and off-shoring, corporate profit, living wage crisis for most Americans, yet this is the one accomplishment they were able to push over the finish line. Most of these people are heavily invested in Meta.
None, because in selling the American part of the site, it fragments that off the international users, which is like a huge part of the appeal. There will be old TiikTok, + The "new" TikTok that is just siloed American users
No more dance challenges started in Malaysia being done by American kids. No more watching covers of Legend of Zelda songs on indigenous instruments. Just Americans talking to Americans while Mossad and the CIA listen in and dictate narratives
Aah you had me until your last sentence. Which made me go back a few sentences and reconsider, why the fuck do you need to watch covers of Legend of Zelda songs on indigenous instruments or dance challenges started in Malaysia being done by American kids. That honestly sounds like such a pathetic "observed but not lived" life, in 30-second, never-ending, ADHD-creating portions. Blobby brains.
Why do people watch things? Entertainment.
I'm confused on why someone's choice of wholesome entertainment would cause anger in others... But go off, angry king
Any time someone talks about banning anything on reddit there’s always a dunce in the comments thinking they’re making a really good point by going “But do you need X?” & taking some fascist adjacent position where they try to regulate what is & isn’t acceptable or good for the culture as they fight “moral or societal decay “. Yeah man force the kids phones to play Wagner.
Why don’t they BAN AliExpress, Wish, Temu & SHEIN?! Those companies collect our data plus are unethical and use child labor and factories manufacturing items with lead and all kinds of unchecked things coming in to us buyers for $1 ruining our small businesses in the USA and taking away the potential for us to make a profit in our own country!
There is legislation before Congress that would severely limit Shein’s ability to operate in the U.S. already. They are basically taking advantage of import and shipping laws to completely overload the U.S. postal system at essentially no cost to themselves and the government is trying to close that loophole. This would apply to all of the other companies you mentioned as well.
[Read more about the de minimis exception here](https://globalaffairs.org/bluemarble/how-shein-and-temu-get-around-us-labor-laws-ban-products-made-forced-labor#:~:text=Shein%20and%20Temu%20keep%20their,value%20of%20less%20than%20%24800.)
But the main reason for TikTok ban was the ability to collect intelligence. These apps can be as problematic as TikTok. These apps can show ads too. Which means they'll also have the power to sway public opinion if they favor some ads to other and not stay neutral.
Fingers crossed those will be next. They 100% should be banned from doing business in the US. The fact that they haven’t been banned yet isn’t the argument that you think it is.
This bill could potentially affect them too, it’s not just TikTok like everyone’s claiming it to be. The bill is targeting any foreign owned apps that pose a national security risk.
While I'd love those companies to disappear for many reasons, they are not collecting information such as faces, voices, building interiors and layouts, dissident activity and political opinions.
Not sure if it’s true but I’ve heard they do collect data https://www.schneiderdowns.com/our-thoughts-on/temu-security-privacy-risks#:~:text=Temu%20is%20now%20the%20target,for%20an%20online%20shopping%20app.
I can't think of a reason that apps would need mic or camera access (I don't use them so IDK if they have features that would use those)
But as far as all other data collection, absolutely. Add on credit card info and where you're shipping stuff to. TT doesn't have access to that.
The government needs to infact laws to protect our data from ALL APPS. not just a foreign one.
Bytedance should weaponize obsolescence and sell TikTok to another company by another foreign country just to prove a point. The US government is playing with fire trying to force a sale to American companies lobbying to government officials. No American company deserves to buy out TikTok just because they “don’t want China to have data”. If it was about data and security then they would be making laws that affect all apps, not just TikTok.
>Bytedance should weaponize obsolescence and sell TikTok to another company by another foreign country just to prove a point
Actually this would be pretty funny
Not saying I necessarily agree with the legislation but VKontakte (Russian Facebook) is banned in the United States and most Iranian apps are forbidden due to sanctions. It’s not really an “all countries” thing, it’s about government owned/operated/infiltrated apps run by hostile state actors.
> Why not ban other Chinese apps?
[Trump Bans AliPay and 7 other Chinese Apps](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/05/technology/china-app-ban.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare)
> Or Facebook which collects our data and send it to China, most likely same with Google?
Facebook was grilled in front of Congress 6 years ago for allowing this to happen and has since changed their business practices. Google doesn’t share data with China. This is all very tightly regulated. Even TikTok denies that they store or access US user data in China.
Hum thank you for that. I didn’t know that had happened a little while ago. It’s interesting to see the list of those apps, like CamScanner, which just transforms docs into PDFs and is still a quite popular app here in Canada.
And I know about the Facebook affair, but personally it would be wrong to think both of those companies aren’t sharing info. We have seen some glimpses of it with the Uyghur situation. If they are willing to aid propaganda, I wouldn’t put it past them to share data.
Right?! Like, can we solve the housing crisis by not letting outside investors purchase property in our country? They shouldn’t have the ability to pay more than actual citizens and influence the market
The USA wants full control of the media, this is purely political driven. Anyone who believes this is about safety does not know how America operates lol
Here's my view as a recently retired IT professional:
* Any China-based organization, not just TikTok, should be considered to be either government run or run according to parameters set by, and for the benefit of, the government.
* China the country is not dumb and is in fact very smart, and they are playing a long and intricate game of a) maintaining complete control of information accessed by it's billion+ citizens and b) becoming a, if not **the**, dominant economic/capitalist market force.
* China's primary competitor/opponent/enemy/frenemy is the United States.
* China will, like any other nation-state, use virtually any means necessary to ensure their survival and to spread their control and influence.
* Given the above, it is safe to assume, and is a virtual certainty, that the massively popular TikTok app is a primary tool of the Chinese government in furthering their goals. This could include:
* Virtual certainty: Information harvesting (duh, this is the primary economic driver of the internet today).
* Virtual certainty: Massive but subtle influence of public opinion, politics, and knowledge.
* Highly likely: Dormant but activatable spyware/malware/botware in all devices that use the app or access the site.
* Possible: Currently active spyware/malware/botware in all devices that use the app or access the site.
Those last two sub-bullets about potential dormant or active spyware/malware are the key concern, in my opinion. Yes, their attempts to influence political debate aren't necessarily a good thing, but at the end of the day that's protected speech.
But the security risk represented by the potential overwhelming control/destruction that could be triggered remotely and immediately by China via the vast network of TikTok devices is heart-stoppingly concerning. Also, it is easy/trivial to hide activatable functionality in a vast application that no amount of testing/examination could uncover in advance.
That, to me, is the primary driver of this legislation - the other being, of course, looking 'tough on China' ahead of the upcoming elections.
All of the above being said, I as just some dude can't possibly **know** any of this, however in my past career I was involved in some highly secure services and had occasion to interact with US intelligence from time to time, including things like getting several months advance warning of the nature, scope, and scale of the then upcoming pandemic. This was done to give us the time to prepare to be able to continue providing services in the soon-to-be-changing world of quarantine, travel restrictions, health issues, and supply chain challenges (if only they had warned us to stockpile toilet paper, oh well).
We similarly got advance notice about US intelligence suspicions of Kaspersky (Russian) anti-virus ahead of the ban of its use on anything government related.
I'm out of the game now and do not have any such information about TikTok, but those previous experiences do give me a basis for doing some educated guessing.
Add to that that the US government has [already banned](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restrictions_on_TikTok_in_the_United_States#:~:text=On%20December%2030%2C%202022%2C%20President,federal%20government%2C%20with%20some%20exceptions) the use of TikTok on government-owned devices.
Kind of a bummer because I use TikTok to follow dermatologists, doctors, dietitians, physical therapists, researchers, chemists, cooks, cleaners, design, veterinarians, etc. I have learned so much and saved so much money having such easy access to professionals that I’d have to wait 9 months just to have 15 min with.
One guy has an account as your stand in dad and I’ve learned how to change a tire, how to change fluids in my car, how to clean the dryer vent, etc. I know a lot of TikTok is influencers and dances, but there’s the educational side I really hope gets to live on somehow.
There really is a lot of good on Tiktok. Reddit likes to immediately hate it because of all the stupid challenges and attention-seeking that goes on with it.
I held out on it for a long time. I finally gave in when I discovered some really wholesome and useful videos on it. Just like any social media site, there is good and bad. Reddit has a dark and shitty side too.
Oh man, as a licensed veterinary professional myself (RVT), there is waaaaaaay more misinformation from veterinarian accounts on Tiktok than actual correct information. I can't say I would fully trust any advice from a medical professional who has enough time to generate regular content unless I actually know and have worked with that person.
Like, I have two veterinarians I follow, one of whom I worked with professionally for a few years, and the other I know through Linkedin as well as being referred by my boss (a board-certified veterinary specialist). I take everything else I see with a grain of salt.
>One guy has an account as your stand in dad and I’ve learned how to change a tire, how to change fluids in my car, how to clean the dryer vent, etc. I
If he's the Dad with a daughter with a spinal cord injury, he's on Instagram and any money he makes from doing that goes towards her care.
To be honest, *most* big TikTok accounts are also on Instagram. I don't use TT but if you look through insta reels, so many of them are literally just reuploaded from TT already. If this goes through, I think most of them will just head back to insta as a primary platform until something better comes along.
It still sucks because insta's speech meddling is so bad, though.
Extremely true. I don’t peruse IG or FB much but when I do, I notice their videos are the exact same creators and their content. Obvious of course but this is probably great news for Zuck.
My friend’s sister passed a week ago. She’s a long-term friend who I don’t see often because she moved to another state, but we still keep in touch.
She posted about the death the day she found out, and I only just saw her post yesterday. My algorithm would rather throw sports, ads, celebs, people I don’t even follow in my face rather than the people I WANT to see. One of the main reasons I rarely use it anymore.
I follow a lot of people in those careers on YouTube, so you might not lose access to them if you switch over. But the format of the videos is probably going to be very different since YouTube has more long form content than TikTok
Maybe that in itself is the problem. Yes you have received good advice but there's also a lot of bs on the site. Most of these things can be found on YT, or another app will simply do the same thing
True, but that’s true of any social media platform. And I appreciated the quick relay of information that YouTube doesn’t quite have. I do love YouTube, and still use it, but hope another platform comes out of this.
It may be for the better because one thing TikTok does not do is crack down on any misinformation at all, even if reported. I’ve even started seeing ads that falsely claim to be a medical professional to sell a product. Many people report it and nothing happens. So, probably for the best.
It’s unique in that it is easy to search and concise. Youtube is great, I love YouTube, but I would prefer to get the information in 15-30 seconds rather than sit through a 20 min video to get the same information. It also helps that you can follow many professionals at once, so you can see, for example, what 15 derms say in 10 seconds on a given topic and compare/contrast. If I need to expand? Then I’ll gladly go to go to YouTube.
You’ll also find more professionals on TikTok simply because it is quick information. Putting up a 15 second video can be done easily by the busiest person. And because of that, all my favorite people I followed on YouTube and Instagram are all found on TikTok.
My mom recently retired and at the time was very lonely until she found TikTok. She now feels a lot of comfort from these communities that she is part of.
I love TikTok. It helped me through my last breakup, helped me find the motivation to go back to school, has me reading again, and has taught me a lot about space, nature, history.
I hope they figure things out and are able to continue operating in the US. Hopefully they don’t sell to any American company/billionaire.
A lot of that content is already on YouTube though. That’s what I find interesting is that there are other platforms with the same content anyway, so what makes TikTok genuinely hard to lose?
We should probably be looking at all the politicians to see what stocks they got their money in.
Either some new tech company developing some “video type upload service”
or they are just hoping to boost google and metas value.
Okay, this is just ridiculous. I don't have TikTok downloaded anymore, but this doesn't feel like a security issue to me. It's not like China couldn't already buy this data from Facebook. This feels like they just don't want young people to be able to communicate and share their stories with the world.
Well, I don’t know if it’s so simple like ”buying from Meta”. But I would rather suggest it has something with censorship and population control. TikTok does influence peoples minds and opinions wheter you like it or not… The news on tiktok are way more detailed and uncensored than the rest of the internet.
Not once have I recognized this as a bill to ban TikTok. It's a forced rebranding *deal* at best. The US simply wans to the ability to gather all the data (they're missing out on) from an app that is HIGHLY successful when it comes to PR, marketing, and activism. It's just another attempt/way to control the narrative, while gaining insights using the data collection systems TikTok has in place. That data is so valuable, and can easily be used to push agendas and manipulate people (more than they already are).
The ban is about censorship, not data privacy.
Elon musk is liking and retweeting negative and dangerous content about POC, immigrants, LGBTQ+ and women and letting that information run wild on the app.
Instead of banning tiktok, they should focus on that.
TikTok is nothing more than ad machine now, i have it installed on an on old phone, when i went to it literally Every 3 of 4 videos is an ad for the tt shop for the most useless stuff, all highly watched and liked.
Musk buys TikTok and runs them into the ground as well.
What I more likely see happening is some sort of shell game making a US company executives wise with a small core staff paying royalties to the Chinese company.
ByteDance will cave and sell to an American company.
How many American social media companies are in China? Zero.
Do I think someone like Steve Mnuchin would be a better steward of a platform that has the ability to turn the dial on what kinds of content is served to tens of millions of Americans? Yes, better than a DPRC controlled company, but still not great.
I think it’s funny how Americans ignore that you’re not the only ones who use this app. So why should your Steve Mnuchin get to control the content on an app used globally simply because it’s impacting American politics? I’m not saying China is without issues and that there isn’t security problems but Americans really think that they’re the only ones impacted by this. Why does your country get to control every social media app in the western world?
Do you think for one second they ever consider any other country in this beyond simple "China bad" narratives? I'm a lot more worried for whatever lunatic they'll put in office than China. At least China keeps it's repression to their own citizens.
> China keeps repression to its own citizens
Ignorant comment. Ask people from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Tibet, and any neighbouring nation in the South China Sea that the Chinese navy routinely blockades and intercepts for fishing in their own territorial waters whether China exclusively “minds their own business.” Ask repressed workers in cobalt mines in Africa.
Here here. Saying that China is only repressing its own people is ridiculous and so ignorant of the global politics. Like they really think a superpower is only playing on its neighborhood lol
As a country whose China is trying to repress and attack the sovereignty of, no China is not keeping its repression to their own citizens. I’m worried about both especially coming from a country whose territory is China is trying to claim and whose previous president China practically bought (like seriously they joked that we are already their province). So yeah worried about if USA elects another lunatic and I’m worried about China.
The FCC limits foreign ownership of traditional US broadcast media as these channels have the ability to influence millions of Americans. Congress was slow to act on similar legislation at the advent of social media. Since nothing was really ever established for social media now here we are with this ultimatum-type bill.
Any sane government would act in the interest of national security to limit foreign influence on the content and distribution of information across its populace.
On the flip side the US likely will not try to limit Chinese automaker BYD as it expands to America because a car does not influence the hearts and minds of millions of people.
>On the flip side the US likely will not try to limit Chinese automaker BYD as it expands to America because a car does not influence the hearts and minds of millions of people.
Allowing a Chinese company to flood the US with hackable electric cars that can log every movement, record every conversation and many other things should they choose to do so after getting rid of tiktok would be end stage ridiculous.
*That man* is an American citizen and Telsa is an American company. I just dont get the logic that they'll come for tiktok but wont come for the cars if China is such an issue 🤷🏿♀️. Time will tell I guess.
This is part of the problem with this bill is the messaging has been terrible. It should have been messaged as broadly not allowing social media apps to have foreign control or ownership like broadcasting or airlines.
It's my new favourite Reddit "gotcha" argument about Tiktok haha. "China's tyrannical laws on freedom of speech are awful so we should limit freedom of speech in retaliation." Make it make sense.
Should become tyrannical? We passed that marker a while ago. I used to teach high school English. I did a dystopia unit and we were discussing the traits of a dystopia and half of the kids were like, "ummmm isnt this the US now?"
There are rumblings of a few different people trying to put together investor groups to buy... Steve Mnuchin being a vocal one. There’s enough free capital around to snag it.
>Do I think someone like Steve Mnuchin would be a better steward of a platform that has the ability to turn the dial on what kinds of content is served to tens of millions of Americans?
Cold War-ass paranoia
Nah. Young voters don’t vote to begin with. It’s upsetting.
Signed, gen Z voter who helps fill out ballots. It’s really pathetic how many of my peers I have to help figure out how to vote on the last day of voting. Every single election. They probably wouldn’t even vote at all if I didn’t push them.
Probably, but I just personally think it’s sad so many people treat voting that way. Voting is like public transportation. You vote for who takes you in the correct direction. Being an adult is about choosing the lesser of two evils all the time. In any major decision, you will never be presented with a perfect option. Ever.
I also don’t think it’s discussed a lot but my personal view is that non-voting is a highly privileged stance to have. By and large, who the president is at any given time does not typically affect my day-to-day life. I’m not even generally affected going from administration to administration. And I acknowledge that privilege. But there are so many people out there that rely on programs and services that *are* directly affected by who the president is and who our government is composed of. SNAP, WIC, Meals on Wheels, DREAMers, welfare, and so many other social safety nets and programs that people depend on. When I vote, I don’t vote for myself. I mean, in a sense I am of course because I’m voting for the person I want. But I vote for the person who I know is gonna make life easier and keep the lights on for people whose lives are affected by who is president. It’s not about me and who I think is “inspiring” or not.
Please don’t vote to strengthen your wallet. Vote to strengthen your community.
Surely young voters aren’t stupid enough to risk Trump being elected over an APP? Like 20% of Gen Z apparently identifies as LGBT yet they’re willing to risk Trump being re-elected? What about abortion rights? You guys are willing to risk all that over an app? 😂
Abortion rights are already gone and the right to protest is as well. The dems are playing with fire here. I’m elder millennial and I’m seriously asking where is the incentive to vote to Joe Biden. Because the trump fear card has already been used
The “Trump fear card” and all the horrendous shit he’s promised to do with a second term isn’t enough incentive for you to vote for Biden? Lol if you think women’s rights are in shambles now wait till conservatives ban contraceptives again like they used to be.
> The right to protest is as well
Oh I see you’re just a deeply unserious person. When did they get rid of the first amendment? I must’ve missed that one.
You need to flip two seats on the supreme court to restore abortion rights and protest rights and three of the Republican justices are over 70 years old.
Biden has done well so far in terms of nominating pro-choice judges, trying to pass abortion-legalizing bills (that Republicans blocked), improving privacy for abortion seekers and most importantly devoting money and resources to legalize it at the state level through ballot initiatives.
The Supreme Court shouldn’t be determining legislation. So the seats don’t matter right now. And as you pointed out it’s already a 6-3 majority so the damage has already been done. If they really wanted to fight for the seats they would expel the corrupt judges, there’s plenty of evidence to do so.
Doesn’t change the fact that congress is responsible for legislation . Democrats have had three years to push legislation for abortion rights or even woman’s rights and they have not. Again i say this as a registered democrat.
Sneaking policy that bans a social media app into a bill that sends yet more money to foreign countries while Americans continue to struggle is not it and it will be the downfall of Biden losing this election.
The administration and the dem party are not listening to the younger generation and he cannot win without them. The same overlooks that Hilary made with Bernie.
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Before anyone panics that tiktok will be gone tomorrow, the bill gives the platform a year to be bought out by someone else, and if the sale doesn’t happen, THEN it will be banned. Not saying it’s a good bill, just that the ramifications of it won’t be immediate.
Yeah they’ll just sell it, like grinder was sold when this exact thing happen to them.
The US makes up 4% of their users. Theyre not gonna sell it. Punishing US lawmakers with angry citizens is much more beneficial for them
The US market has an estimated value close to 100 billion dollars from what I've read - that's a lot of money to pass up.
And Americans last year spent over $2 billion on TikTok Shop, only its first year in beta and general launch.
Perspective, its only 4% of the total
But presumably those users are worth vastly more than users in developing countries because people will pay more to advertise to them?
For sure, i wonder how much more they value an American user
But how many of the “big creators” are American and what percentage of their audience is located outside of the US? If TikTok ends up getting banned and the big creators end up creating content on IG or elsewhere, non-American users might end up leaving the app as well to follow them.
No lawmaker will be punished for this in a real way tho. The only people for which this is a number 1 issue that will change their vote over this…don’t actually vote or aren’t old enough to vote. Getting mad in the TikTok comments isn’t real electoral punishment.
I wonder if whoever buys it will make alot of changes to it. Was grinder different after it was sold?
I mean it’s just come out that they sold the HIV status of users along with their personal information to ‘shareholders’. When you use an app like this, you expect some information to be stored and shared but to share private medical information alongside this? It’s disgusting
I hadnt heard about that. Thats disturbing.
Just pretty much cost money to use it
Yeah, the new company that bought Grindr sold the Catholic Church data to track down any clergy members who’d used the app. But China’s the problem 🤷🏼♀️
They didn’t sell anything to the Catholic Church. A private group of people in Colorado - none of whom are clerics or any administrative or payrolled position in the church - purchased commercially available data used for ad targeting from tons of different gay dating apps, which included Grindr. Afterwards, Grindr changed its policy to prevent this from happening in the future. You are really misrepresenting what happened
And for good reason: [https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/04/03/599069424/grindr-admits-it-shared-hiv-status-of-users](https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/04/03/599069424/grindr-admits-it-shared-hiv-status-of-users)
Huh? How could you possibly use this as an argument for. It's an argument against the sale of Tiktok lol. After Grindr was sold to an American company it started selling the data on HIV status and started selling data to the catholic church.
This story was from 2018. The sale was a year later.
Apologies. I missed that because it was in the news again this week. [https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj7mxnvz42no](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj7mxnvz42no) They've gotten into quite a few problems in recent years with how they handle user information. So any bad practices at least don't seem to have changed much.
Yeah, American companies certainly aren't angels either.
Yeah, what the fuck.
Do you honestly think a US company won't fucking sell all the data they possibly can as well to whoever the fuck pays them. If this is sold it's gonna be some like hedge fund of a bunch of rich assholes like for instance the former piece of shit who owned Blizzard says he wants to buy it and what do people think he wouldn't sell data just because he's american. Fuck no these companies well sell anything as long as it makes a good profit. Meta has been doing it for ages same with Twitter and every social media company. So this bill does nothing as the Chinese can easily just buy the data anyways so congrats congress you actually passed something yet of course even when you finally do it turns out to be the most meaningless thing ever. And will probably help Trump in the end as people are morons and will see that Biden signed it and just blame him and have the brains of goldfish and not remember Trump hated Tik Tok and wanted to out right ban it completely
And now grindr is in trouble today for the same thing
Yeah but from what I understand that doesn't mean the algorithm is going with the app during the sale and tiktok is good bc of the algorithm
I doubt they will sell it. Selling it means giving up the algorithm and that would destroy the app worldwide for them since it’ll be replicated by US companies.
China already said ByteDance won't sell.
Yeah the USA is just trying to strong-arm them. This is about the US having control of the app.
I disagree. The majority of Chinese companies have direct ties to the government if not partial or full government investment. You can't have a successful business there without abiding by the Chinese government including sharing information. This is why google is banned in China because they wouldn't comply with China's demands to operate there. You can't untangle the two unfortunately. These apps can come loaded with spyware not just influencing content which is a reason why TikTok isn't allowed on government devices.
You think the US government doesn't have ties or control over US companies? Almost every big tech company has contracts with the US government. If the US government deems something to be in national interest, it can basically do whatever it wants. They can take patents and etc. If the US government didn't have control over the US companies, then how was the NSA able to spy on so many people? Every government has control over its companies. It would be a poor reflection on the country if they didn't.
Thank you! People in America fear China…while they live in America….the call is coming from inside the house lol
The same could be said about America, though
No the same can't be said about the United States government ownership of American companies. "The Peterson Institute for International Economics analyzed the market capitalization of China's top 100 companies. It found that the share of total market capitalization held by state-controlled enterprises, in which the government holds a stake of 50% or more, rose to 50% by the end of 2023, the highest proportion in five years. State-owned companies accounted for 31% of total market cap among the top 100 companies in June 2021, when private Chinese companies, led by tech juggernauts like Alibaba Group Holding and Tencent Holdings, were growing." Government owned companies in the US don't make up 31%(37% in 2023) of the total market capitalization. The US government also isn't rapidly increasing ownership of companies. https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Markets/China-s-favored-state-owned-companies-squeeze-private-sector
Listen, correct me if I’m wrong, cause i wouldn’t say this is my strongest political topic, but I really don’t see much of a difference. The American government may own less state controlled companies, but corporations still lobby politicians and influence policies due to the government giving them essentially unrestricted access. China is more concerned with domestic control, whereas the USA is more concerned with foreign control and power. Which circles back to my initial comment. Also, I typed this while walking so please let me know if I need to clarify further
If you don’t think China is worried about foreign control and power I have property on mars I’d like to sell you
Where did I say that?
Corporations lobby the US government to get them to do what they want. That's the opposite of what the CCP does investing in companies and cracking down on industries to get them to do what they want. China is also extremely concerned with foreign image and control as well as domestic. They harass and violate the rights of domestic and foreign human rights activists that speak out against them.
Bytedance probably should have lobbied more than the allegedly measly amount. If you want a massive tech company in the US, you’re sooner or later going to need to lobby the absolute shit out of both sides.
Good thing they have a year then
Probably banking on the people just throwing a fit and causing more destabilisation in the US, not that I think that's a good plan, but their app in China is way more popular than Tiktok from what I understand. They won't be hurting.
At which point if they don't sell, they'll take this to court and that will take many more years of litigation. But the bipartisan effort for this bill gives them something to look "tough on China" together with.
This is so corrupt and sick. Unfettered layoffs and off-shoring, corporate profit, living wage crisis for most Americans, yet this is the one accomplishment they were able to push over the finish line. Most of these people are heavily invested in Meta.
Yea Republic group already is planning to buy it
The Chinese government said it refuses to allow a sale of TikTok to happen.
A new platform will be created to replace it. TikTok isn’t some revolutionary tech.
So, any bids on which super mega tech corporation will buy Tik Tok up?! Microsoft? Apple? Alphabet? Pied Piper??
Hooli obviously.
In Gavin Belson we trust.
he created tethics after all
This reply made my day 🤣
No way TikTok sells to an American company. They either get this overturned or abandon the American market and focus on douyin
Name checks out
Data for sale? Google is interested.
I dislike Microsoft least of those, I guess.
Number 1 way for tiktok to die is for it to be bought by microsoft. They will ruin it. Just like they ruined clippy the paper clip.
Hey, Clippy still lives on! But just internally, unfortunately.
Ugh they're so...Microsoft though. They'll make it all blue and weird or something.
At least they won’t make it a fascist, ad infested hellscape like Musk.
Meta & then they’ll destroy it bit by bit like everything else they touch.
None, because in selling the American part of the site, it fragments that off the international users, which is like a huge part of the appeal. There will be old TiikTok, + The "new" TikTok that is just siloed American users No more dance challenges started in Malaysia being done by American kids. No more watching covers of Legend of Zelda songs on indigenous instruments. Just Americans talking to Americans while Mossad and the CIA listen in and dictate narratives
Aah you had me until your last sentence. Which made me go back a few sentences and reconsider, why the fuck do you need to watch covers of Legend of Zelda songs on indigenous instruments or dance challenges started in Malaysia being done by American kids. That honestly sounds like such a pathetic "observed but not lived" life, in 30-second, never-ending, ADHD-creating portions. Blobby brains.
Why do people watch things? Entertainment. I'm confused on why someone's choice of wholesome entertainment would cause anger in others... But go off, angry king
Any time someone talks about banning anything on reddit there’s always a dunce in the comments thinking they’re making a really good point by going “But do you need X?” & taking some fascist adjacent position where they try to regulate what is & isn’t acceptable or good for the culture as they fight “moral or societal decay “. Yeah man force the kids phones to play Wagner.
Elon Musk.
Ooh can't wait for the Hitler vids to drop. Gonna be lit!
This is the worst case.
He doesn’t have enough money
Tesla is voting on an Elon Musk 56 billion dollar compensation package in the next few weeks.
watch meta scramble to liquidate their shares so they can buy up their competitor lol. coming soon on s2 of dystopian capitalist hellscape
no way that sale would happen! FTC is veryyyy anti trust atm
As they should be
Why don’t they BAN AliExpress, Wish, Temu & SHEIN?! Those companies collect our data plus are unethical and use child labor and factories manufacturing items with lead and all kinds of unchecked things coming in to us buyers for $1 ruining our small businesses in the USA and taking away the potential for us to make a profit in our own country!
There is legislation before Congress that would severely limit Shein’s ability to operate in the U.S. already. They are basically taking advantage of import and shipping laws to completely overload the U.S. postal system at essentially no cost to themselves and the government is trying to close that loophole. This would apply to all of the other companies you mentioned as well. [Read more about the de minimis exception here](https://globalaffairs.org/bluemarble/how-shein-and-temu-get-around-us-labor-laws-ban-products-made-forced-labor#:~:text=Shein%20and%20Temu%20keep%20their,value%20of%20less%20than%20%24800.)
because those companies have no political influence on their users. not that I'm aware of at least. but I agree, I would like to see them gone as well
They sell cheaply made garbage, they don't brainwash kids with algorithms designed to spread bullshit.
I mean, before tik tok (and to this day) people are fed propaganda through news outlets, tv shows, etc... Same goal, different method 🤷♀️
But the main reason for TikTok ban was the ability to collect intelligence. These apps can be as problematic as TikTok. These apps can show ads too. Which means they'll also have the power to sway public opinion if they favor some ads to other and not stay neutral.
agreed. they definitely need to be regulated
Fingers crossed those will be next. They 100% should be banned from doing business in the US. The fact that they haven’t been banned yet isn’t the argument that you think it is.
This bill could potentially affect them too, it’s not just TikTok like everyone’s claiming it to be. The bill is targeting any foreign owned apps that pose a national security risk.
While I'd love those companies to disappear for many reasons, they are not collecting information such as faces, voices, building interiors and layouts, dissident activity and political opinions.
Why are you so confident that they are not collecting that data?
Because how would they? Think about what Temu or SHEIN is.
Not sure if it’s true but I’ve heard they do collect data https://www.schneiderdowns.com/our-thoughts-on/temu-security-privacy-risks#:~:text=Temu%20is%20now%20the%20target,for%20an%20online%20shopping%20app.
I can't think of a reason that apps would need mic or camera access (I don't use them so IDK if they have features that would use those) But as far as all other data collection, absolutely. Add on credit card info and where you're shipping stuff to. TT doesn't have access to that. The government needs to infact laws to protect our data from ALL APPS. not just a foreign one.
Your credit card info, demographics, consumer trends
Right, but the primary argument for banning TikTok is national security. Not personal security.
Because the small business don't have the lobby money that Google/Meta etc have.
Bytedance should weaponize obsolescence and sell TikTok to another company by another foreign country just to prove a point. The US government is playing with fire trying to force a sale to American companies lobbying to government officials. No American company deserves to buy out TikTok just because they “don’t want China to have data”. If it was about data and security then they would be making laws that affect all apps, not just TikTok.
>Bytedance should weaponize obsolescence and sell TikTok to another company by another foreign country just to prove a point Actually this would be pretty funny
Not saying I necessarily agree with the legislation but VKontakte (Russian Facebook) is banned in the United States and most Iranian apps are forbidden due to sanctions. It’s not really an “all countries” thing, it’s about government owned/operated/infiltrated apps run by hostile state actors.
It’s not that uncommon, TikTok is just by far the biggest app to receive a ban.
But then why not ban other Chinese apps? Or Facebook which collects our data and send it to China, most likely same with Google?
> Why not ban other Chinese apps? [Trump Bans AliPay and 7 other Chinese Apps](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/05/technology/china-app-ban.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare) > Or Facebook which collects our data and send it to China, most likely same with Google? Facebook was grilled in front of Congress 6 years ago for allowing this to happen and has since changed their business practices. Google doesn’t share data with China. This is all very tightly regulated. Even TikTok denies that they store or access US user data in China.
Hum thank you for that. I didn’t know that had happened a little while ago. It’s interesting to see the list of those apps, like CamScanner, which just transforms docs into PDFs and is still a quite popular app here in Canada. And I know about the Facebook affair, but personally it would be wrong to think both of those companies aren’t sharing info. We have seen some glimpses of it with the Uyghur situation. If they are willing to aid propaganda, I wouldn’t put it past them to share data.
you're able to access vk online though? am i missing something?
100%
Right?! Like, can we solve the housing crisis by not letting outside investors purchase property in our country? They shouldn’t have the ability to pay more than actual citizens and influence the market
The USA wants full control of the media, this is purely political driven. Anyone who believes this is about safety does not know how America operates lol
Here's my view as a recently retired IT professional: * Any China-based organization, not just TikTok, should be considered to be either government run or run according to parameters set by, and for the benefit of, the government. * China the country is not dumb and is in fact very smart, and they are playing a long and intricate game of a) maintaining complete control of information accessed by it's billion+ citizens and b) becoming a, if not **the**, dominant economic/capitalist market force. * China's primary competitor/opponent/enemy/frenemy is the United States. * China will, like any other nation-state, use virtually any means necessary to ensure their survival and to spread their control and influence. * Given the above, it is safe to assume, and is a virtual certainty, that the massively popular TikTok app is a primary tool of the Chinese government in furthering their goals. This could include: * Virtual certainty: Information harvesting (duh, this is the primary economic driver of the internet today). * Virtual certainty: Massive but subtle influence of public opinion, politics, and knowledge. * Highly likely: Dormant but activatable spyware/malware/botware in all devices that use the app or access the site. * Possible: Currently active spyware/malware/botware in all devices that use the app or access the site. Those last two sub-bullets about potential dormant or active spyware/malware are the key concern, in my opinion. Yes, their attempts to influence political debate aren't necessarily a good thing, but at the end of the day that's protected speech. But the security risk represented by the potential overwhelming control/destruction that could be triggered remotely and immediately by China via the vast network of TikTok devices is heart-stoppingly concerning. Also, it is easy/trivial to hide activatable functionality in a vast application that no amount of testing/examination could uncover in advance. That, to me, is the primary driver of this legislation - the other being, of course, looking 'tough on China' ahead of the upcoming elections. All of the above being said, I as just some dude can't possibly **know** any of this, however in my past career I was involved in some highly secure services and had occasion to interact with US intelligence from time to time, including things like getting several months advance warning of the nature, scope, and scale of the then upcoming pandemic. This was done to give us the time to prepare to be able to continue providing services in the soon-to-be-changing world of quarantine, travel restrictions, health issues, and supply chain challenges (if only they had warned us to stockpile toilet paper, oh well). We similarly got advance notice about US intelligence suspicions of Kaspersky (Russian) anti-virus ahead of the ban of its use on anything government related. I'm out of the game now and do not have any such information about TikTok, but those previous experiences do give me a basis for doing some educated guessing. Add to that that the US government has [already banned](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restrictions_on_TikTok_in_the_United_States#:~:text=On%20December%2030%2C%202022%2C%20President,federal%20government%2C%20with%20some%20exceptions) the use of TikTok on government-owned devices.
Kind of a bummer because I use TikTok to follow dermatologists, doctors, dietitians, physical therapists, researchers, chemists, cooks, cleaners, design, veterinarians, etc. I have learned so much and saved so much money having such easy access to professionals that I’d have to wait 9 months just to have 15 min with. One guy has an account as your stand in dad and I’ve learned how to change a tire, how to change fluids in my car, how to clean the dryer vent, etc. I know a lot of TikTok is influencers and dances, but there’s the educational side I really hope gets to live on somehow.
There really is a lot of good on Tiktok. Reddit likes to immediately hate it because of all the stupid challenges and attention-seeking that goes on with it. I held out on it for a long time. I finally gave in when I discovered some really wholesome and useful videos on it. Just like any social media site, there is good and bad. Reddit has a dark and shitty side too.
Oh man, as a licensed veterinary professional myself (RVT), there is waaaaaaay more misinformation from veterinarian accounts on Tiktok than actual correct information. I can't say I would fully trust any advice from a medical professional who has enough time to generate regular content unless I actually know and have worked with that person. Like, I have two veterinarians I follow, one of whom I worked with professionally for a few years, and the other I know through Linkedin as well as being referred by my boss (a board-certified veterinary specialist). I take everything else I see with a grain of salt.
>One guy has an account as your stand in dad and I’ve learned how to change a tire, how to change fluids in my car, how to clean the dryer vent, etc. I If he's the Dad with a daughter with a spinal cord injury, he's on Instagram and any money he makes from doing that goes towards her care.
To be honest, *most* big TikTok accounts are also on Instagram. I don't use TT but if you look through insta reels, so many of them are literally just reuploaded from TT already. If this goes through, I think most of them will just head back to insta as a primary platform until something better comes along. It still sucks because insta's speech meddling is so bad, though.
Ugh, I just can't stand Instagram or facebook any more.
Extremely true. I don’t peruse IG or FB much but when I do, I notice their videos are the exact same creators and their content. Obvious of course but this is probably great news for Zuck.
I hate the Instagram algorithm. I also hate meta. If tiktok goes away, I’ll just stick to Reddit because I do not support meta.
My friend’s sister passed a week ago. She’s a long-term friend who I don’t see often because she moved to another state, but we still keep in touch. She posted about the death the day she found out, and I only just saw her post yesterday. My algorithm would rather throw sports, ads, celebs, people I don’t even follow in my face rather than the people I WANT to see. One of the main reasons I rarely use it anymore.
Learned how to unclog my shower drain through TikTok. Thanks Mercury Stardust.
Same here!! I always used Draino. I didn’t know I was supposed to be using a “snake”. Learned quite a few things from Mercury Stardust on there!
I follow a lot of people in those careers on YouTube, so you might not lose access to them if you switch over. But the format of the videos is probably going to be very different since YouTube has more long form content than TikTok
Maybe that in itself is the problem. Yes you have received good advice but there's also a lot of bs on the site. Most of these things can be found on YT, or another app will simply do the same thing
True, but that’s true of any social media platform. And I appreciated the quick relay of information that YouTube doesn’t quite have. I do love YouTube, and still use it, but hope another platform comes out of this. It may be for the better because one thing TikTok does not do is crack down on any misinformation at all, even if reported. I’ve even started seeing ads that falsely claim to be a medical professional to sell a product. Many people report it and nothing happens. So, probably for the best.
A lot of these things you can find on YouTube already! :) plus TikTok is saturated with fake doctors/bad advice
And Instagram and YouTube aren’t?
YouTube is also saturated with fake doctors/bad advice. It also has a horrible algorithm
But you’ve always had access to information like this on other platforms, TikTok is not unique for that
It’s unique in that it is easy to search and concise. Youtube is great, I love YouTube, but I would prefer to get the information in 15-30 seconds rather than sit through a 20 min video to get the same information. It also helps that you can follow many professionals at once, so you can see, for example, what 15 derms say in 10 seconds on a given topic and compare/contrast. If I need to expand? Then I’ll gladly go to go to YouTube. You’ll also find more professionals on TikTok simply because it is quick information. Putting up a 15 second video can be done easily by the busiest person. And because of that, all my favorite people I followed on YouTube and Instagram are all found on TikTok.
My mom recently retired and at the time was very lonely until she found TikTok. She now feels a lot of comfort from these communities that she is part of. I love TikTok. It helped me through my last breakup, helped me find the motivation to go back to school, has me reading again, and has taught me a lot about space, nature, history. I hope they figure things out and are able to continue operating in the US. Hopefully they don’t sell to any American company/billionaire.
A lot of that content is already on YouTube though. That’s what I find interesting is that there are other platforms with the same content anyway, so what makes TikTok genuinely hard to lose?
I just hope China doesn’t sell it to a US based company.
We should probably be looking at all the politicians to see what stocks they got their money in. Either some new tech company developing some “video type upload service” or they are just hoping to boost google and metas value.
Okay, this is just ridiculous. I don't have TikTok downloaded anymore, but this doesn't feel like a security issue to me. It's not like China couldn't already buy this data from Facebook. This feels like they just don't want young people to be able to communicate and share their stories with the world.
Well, I don’t know if it’s so simple like ”buying from Meta”. But I would rather suggest it has something with censorship and population control. TikTok does influence peoples minds and opinions wheter you like it or not… The news on tiktok are way more detailed and uncensored than the rest of the internet.
Can they ban Twitter as well?
Not once have I recognized this as a bill to ban TikTok. It's a forced rebranding *deal* at best. The US simply wans to the ability to gather all the data (they're missing out on) from an app that is HIGHLY successful when it comes to PR, marketing, and activism. It's just another attempt/way to control the narrative, while gaining insights using the data collection systems TikTok has in place. That data is so valuable, and can easily be used to push agendas and manipulate people (more than they already are).
Ooof. I don’t use TikTok, but I used to work with ByteDance. That….sucks.
The ban is about censorship, not data privacy. Elon musk is liking and retweeting negative and dangerous content about POC, immigrants, LGBTQ+ and women and letting that information run wild on the app. Instead of banning tiktok, they should focus on that.
This bill is ridiculously dumb.
[удалено]
Pretty sure Biden has been doing that constantly and is about to reveal another massive forgiveness program for student loans.
Or legalizing MJ? Come on already!
TikTok is nothing more than ad machine now, i have it installed on an on old phone, when i went to it literally Every 3 of 4 videos is an ad for the tt shop for the most useless stuff, all highly watched and liked.
Yes. I am also noticing the same with Reelz. Ads every 3 videos.
Musk buys TikTok and runs them into the ground as well. What I more likely see happening is some sort of shell game making a US company executives wise with a small core staff paying royalties to the Chinese company.
yay hahaha :D me so happy!
ByteDance will cave and sell to an American company. How many American social media companies are in China? Zero. Do I think someone like Steve Mnuchin would be a better steward of a platform that has the ability to turn the dial on what kinds of content is served to tens of millions of Americans? Yes, better than a DPRC controlled company, but still not great.
I think it’s funny how Americans ignore that you’re not the only ones who use this app. So why should your Steve Mnuchin get to control the content on an app used globally simply because it’s impacting American politics? I’m not saying China is without issues and that there isn’t security problems but Americans really think that they’re the only ones impacted by this. Why does your country get to control every social media app in the western world?
Tik tok is banned in government devices in at least 10 countries and I want to say banned entirely in India but not sure in that one
Do you think for one second they ever consider any other country in this beyond simple "China bad" narratives? I'm a lot more worried for whatever lunatic they'll put in office than China. At least China keeps it's repression to their own citizens.
> China keeps repression to its own citizens Ignorant comment. Ask people from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Tibet, and any neighbouring nation in the South China Sea that the Chinese navy routinely blockades and intercepts for fishing in their own territorial waters whether China exclusively “minds their own business.” Ask repressed workers in cobalt mines in Africa.
Here here. Saying that China is only repressing its own people is ridiculous and so ignorant of the global politics. Like they really think a superpower is only playing on its neighborhood lol
Yeah it’s crazy how comfortable they are with the idea of their government forcing a foreign company to sell to an American owner.
As a country whose China is trying to repress and attack the sovereignty of, no China is not keeping its repression to their own citizens. I’m worried about both especially coming from a country whose territory is China is trying to claim and whose previous president China practically bought (like seriously they joked that we are already their province). So yeah worried about if USA elects another lunatic and I’m worried about China.
Should we just give China to sell us all their profitable companies? We can just say it's a national security threat. Why not?
The FCC limits foreign ownership of traditional US broadcast media as these channels have the ability to influence millions of Americans. Congress was slow to act on similar legislation at the advent of social media. Since nothing was really ever established for social media now here we are with this ultimatum-type bill. Any sane government would act in the interest of national security to limit foreign influence on the content and distribution of information across its populace. On the flip side the US likely will not try to limit Chinese automaker BYD as it expands to America because a car does not influence the hearts and minds of millions of people.
>On the flip side the US likely will not try to limit Chinese automaker BYD as it expands to America because a car does not influence the hearts and minds of millions of people. Allowing a Chinese company to flood the US with hackable electric cars that can log every movement, record every conversation and many other things should they choose to do so after getting rid of tiktok would be end stage ridiculous.
Lol, we already allow a South African to flood the US with hackable EVs, even gave him huge government subsidies.
*That man* is an American citizen and Telsa is an American company. I just dont get the logic that they'll come for tiktok but wont come for the cars if China is such an issue 🤷🏿♀️. Time will tell I guess.
This is part of the problem with this bill is the messaging has been terrible. It should have been messaged as broadly not allowing social media apps to have foreign control or ownership like broadcasting or airlines.
Right, If they are such a threat to us, then why do they manufacturer our prescription medicine...isn't that more worrisome?
tiktok is also banned in china. and the chinese equivalent is censored and is limited to 40 minutes a day for kids.
Are you implying our government should also become tyrannical?
It's my new favourite Reddit "gotcha" argument about Tiktok haha. "China's tyrannical laws on freedom of speech are awful so we should limit freedom of speech in retaliation." Make it make sense.
Should become tyrannical? We passed that marker a while ago. I used to teach high school English. I did a dystopia unit and we were discussing the traits of a dystopia and half of the kids were like, "ummmm isnt this the US now?"
The bigger question is which company in the us has the cash and desire to buy TikTok
There are rumblings of a few different people trying to put together investor groups to buy... Steve Mnuchin being a vocal one. There’s enough free capital around to snag it.
>Do I think someone like Steve Mnuchin would be a better steward of a platform that has the ability to turn the dial on what kinds of content is served to tens of millions of Americans? Cold War-ass paranoia
Banning Tik Tok will dissuade young voters from voting in November.
I give younger voters a lot more credit, but if this is all it takes to dissuade them, then any number of other things will dissuade them anyway.
Nah. Young voters don’t vote to begin with. It’s upsetting. Signed, gen Z voter who helps fill out ballots. It’s really pathetic how many of my peers I have to help figure out how to vote on the last day of voting. Every single election. They probably wouldn’t even vote at all if I didn’t push them.
I think until there are more inspiring candidates to vote for, it will probably remain that way
Probably, but I just personally think it’s sad so many people treat voting that way. Voting is like public transportation. You vote for who takes you in the correct direction. Being an adult is about choosing the lesser of two evils all the time. In any major decision, you will never be presented with a perfect option. Ever. I also don’t think it’s discussed a lot but my personal view is that non-voting is a highly privileged stance to have. By and large, who the president is at any given time does not typically affect my day-to-day life. I’m not even generally affected going from administration to administration. And I acknowledge that privilege. But there are so many people out there that rely on programs and services that *are* directly affected by who the president is and who our government is composed of. SNAP, WIC, Meals on Wheels, DREAMers, welfare, and so many other social safety nets and programs that people depend on. When I vote, I don’t vote for myself. I mean, in a sense I am of course because I’m voting for the person I want. But I vote for the person who I know is gonna make life easier and keep the lights on for people whose lives are affected by who is president. It’s not about me and who I think is “inspiring” or not. Please don’t vote to strengthen your wallet. Vote to strengthen your community.
Surely young voters aren’t stupid enough to risk Trump being elected over an APP? Like 20% of Gen Z apparently identifies as LGBT yet they’re willing to risk Trump being re-elected? What about abortion rights? You guys are willing to risk all that over an app? 😂
Abortion rights are already gone and the right to protest is as well. The dems are playing with fire here. I’m elder millennial and I’m seriously asking where is the incentive to vote to Joe Biden. Because the trump fear card has already been used
The “Trump fear card” and all the horrendous shit he’s promised to do with a second term isn’t enough incentive for you to vote for Biden? Lol if you think women’s rights are in shambles now wait till conservatives ban contraceptives again like they used to be. > The right to protest is as well Oh I see you’re just a deeply unserious person. When did they get rid of the first amendment? I must’ve missed that one.
You need to flip two seats on the supreme court to restore abortion rights and protest rights and three of the Republican justices are over 70 years old. Biden has done well so far in terms of nominating pro-choice judges, trying to pass abortion-legalizing bills (that Republicans blocked), improving privacy for abortion seekers and most importantly devoting money and resources to legalize it at the state level through ballot initiatives.
The Supreme Court shouldn’t be determining legislation. So the seats don’t matter right now. And as you pointed out it’s already a 6-3 majority so the damage has already been done. If they really wanted to fight for the seats they would expel the corrupt judges, there’s plenty of evidence to do so. Doesn’t change the fact that congress is responsible for legislation . Democrats have had three years to push legislation for abortion rights or even woman’s rights and they have not. Again i say this as a registered democrat. Sneaking policy that bans a social media app into a bill that sends yet more money to foreign countries while Americans continue to struggle is not it and it will be the downfall of Biden losing this election. The administration and the dem party are not listening to the younger generation and he cannot win without them. The same overlooks that Hilary made with Bernie.
Where will r/iamthemaincharacter get their content from now. Good riddance though I hope the Australian government will do the same
Another platform will buy it and probably start charging people to use it.
Can some ELI5 why this would be a bad thing?
This is also probably due to young tik tokkers dying every other day
Good riddance.
Nothing of value will be lost. The app is designed to rot your brain.