The only thing Trump and I have probably ever agreed on.
this post was submitted on 06 Dec 2024
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This is nyot goob.
Ya tiktok bad, but this is about ensuring america has a monopoly over local social media. If this really were about safety, Facebook would also be fucked
@sleepybisexual @tardigrada It's also about the rich people of the world stopping anything the non-rich use to organize.
Ya. Sure tiktok was still run by rich fucks but other platforms are just as bad. Used to be an extreme anti tiktok person but this isn't about tiktok. Its about capitalism
...and nothing of value was lost
How does this functionally work?
the primary source of this is annoyingly hard to track down for legislation that passed Congress and was signed by the President.
it turns out that's because it was part of H.R.815 - "Making emergency supplemental appropriations for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2024, and for other purposes."
if you want to read the actual text of the law, this PDF starting on page 61.
the gist is that it's illegal to:
Providing services to distribute, maintain, or update such foreign adversary controlled application (including any source code of such application) by means of a marketplace (including an online mobile application store) through which users within the land or maritime borders of the United States may access, maintain, or update such application.
everyone calls this a "ban on TikTok" and it kinda annoys the shit out of me, because as far as I can tell, the website tiktok.com is probably still going to be available in the US.
what this law actually does is require Google and Apple to remove TikTok from their app stores, for US-based users. and makes them subject to a fine of $5000 per user if they don't comply.
I'm generally in favor of more regulation of tech companies...but this is a really fucking stupid way to do it.
Honestly? Good.
I don't really see this as a free speech issue. TikTok isn't being banned because of the kind of speech that's on there, it's being banned because it's a predatory app created as a means of soft power by a hostile foreign nation. Does that mean we should also shut down Twitter? Yeah. Probably.
This isn't some newspaper with dissenting opinions, is a foreign intelligence operation that simultaneously interferes with the normal operation of our democracy, puts our citizens in danger, massively inflates narcissism, and collects our user data to hand to a country that literally is actively spying on us.
Frankly, I'd be okay with tossing any similar social media with obfuscated engagement algorithms anyway. Make YouTube and Facebook bring all that shit above board while we're at it. All this is is corporate regulation, and I fully support it. Fuck TikTok.
I hate TikTok but I hate even more that the ban seems to have been successful this time because of Israel. Lots of people (Romney, etc) have said that TikTok must be banned because it's the reason why young people don't support Israel's genocide.
I don't like CCP propaganda being fed to Americans, but let's be real, CCP propaganda about Israel is way more honest than domestic American propaganda.
While I'm on the subject, Facebook, Google, etc, are pretty near equally as evil.
Well hope you're ready to pay way more in tax to support those losing their jobs with this decisions, all several million of them.
All so the Chinaman Boogeyman youve invented (which has nothing to do with tiktok) doesnt know you like watching girls doing cute dances.
My friends and family are trying to find ways to get around it like vpning and changing region lock app stores to china or something to access it.
You can take the people away from brainrot but can't take the brainrot from the people.
It's not going to be banned. It's a forced sale or spinoff. They'll still have TikTok. Media just made up the term ban. It's just that tencent has ties overseas and they don't want the foreign influence
Is it really that important?
Some American or other company should just hurry up and make TokTik and rake in the bucks. TikTok is going to be a shell of its former self without the US base.
Hell just let Souljaboy make his TikBoy or SouljaTok already
Some American or other company should just hurry up and make TokTik and rake in the bucks.
Google's already been trying with Youtube Shorts. Let's not encourage them.
changing region lock app stores to china
This wouldn't work, given that TikTok isn't allowed in China. This cyberweapon is only meant to be used against foreigners. Either way, don't help them and instead actively dissuade them from trying to keep their addiction alive.
While technically correct, they do have it in China itself, it's a modified version called Douyin. It is more restricted, censored and tightly controlled.
I agree that it is a cyberweapon, but don't think that it's only used against foreigners, they use it just as much to observe and influence their own population.
Finally, I would like to point out that to a lesser extent this is also the case for a lot of USA owned social media and tech companies. Edward Snowden's revelations for example indicate this. While the extent of government control and influence is much larger in China, I wouldn't underestimate the influences of Meta, Google and Microsoft for example.
What exactly is a cyber weapon? How is tik tok different or more harmful than twitter for example
Mainly because tiktok has nothing to do with China.
No. Tiktok in China is a completely different app. China doesn't allow tiktok in the form we have it.
There isn't a tiktok in China. Douyin isn't tiktok anymore than WeChat is Facebook.
And the reason for that is really simple, and it's not even nefarious; Tiktok isnt a Chinese company, and taxes in China are worse for foreign companies, and China doesn't respect foreign IP.
Douyin isn’t tiktok
Because China doesn't allow Tiktok as we have it. They understand it's a plague and enforce that it should not exist. So no shit you're not going to fine the Chinese Tiktok look like our tiktok. That's literally what I said. FFS.
Tiktok isnt a Chinese company
Bytedance owns it. There is a 20% direct stake by the OG Chinese owners, weird... Original owners are Chinese... and you think their government doesn't have some say? By Chinese law the owners must give China whatever the fuck China wants (yay communism!). Further, Chinese officials have a seat on the company board. Weird for a 1% stake owner to have a seat on the board.
ByteDance agreed in 2021 to allow the Chinese government to take a 1% ownership stake known as a "golden share" at one of its China-based subsidiaries
Weird that a public international company would just allow a government to take ownership stake from them. Huh... totally not chinese though! Chinese owners, direct ownership stake by China (against the remaining owners will, as nobody would willingly give a government ownership of their company that they have majority share in).
I'm so tired of people not calling a spade a spade. You believe what you want. You'll never be convinced otherwise regardless.
While the justification for this is primarily based on TikTok being a privacy and data security risk due to it being owned by a Chinese State Organ/Corporation... which is hilarious bullshit because the US does exactly the same thing with all the net data that goes through US corporate social media...
Brainrot is a real thing.
Shortform video platforms are addictive the same way cigarretes or heroin is, extended use ruins your cognitive ability, ruins your attention span, increases depression and anxiety, and fhe format promotes an absurdly fake, narcissistic culture, scams, and mis or disinformation.
Algorithmic profiling is definitely not unique to TikTok, but it is used by the app, and this often pigeonholes the user into content/advertisements that often becomes more and more extreme, manipulative and exploitative of the user.
Though this is being done mostly for stupid reasons, and it isn't stoping US Corpo brainrot inducing social media platforms, I'll take what I can get.
I'm with you. Tiktok is about as "healthy" as vaping. There are other just as bad (if not worse) apps out there, and the reasoning is stupid and has some first amendment concerns. But I won't die on the protecting Tiktok hill.
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