Bipartisan bill aiming to ban TikTok in US being introduced

[CitizenVectron]

Biden helped draft bipartisan bill that could ban TikTok nationwide

ARSTECHNICA.COM

---

A dozen senators support giving US Commerce secretary power to ban TikTok.

 

IMO it's political suicide for the Dems, it will literally curse them with everyone under 25. "Oh, but Gen Z don't vote anyway" - Well, the 25-35% who vote are going to be far more likely to sit at home, as this could be a single-issue voting item.

 

Personally, I think they should force a sale if they are so concerned about China, and then draft legislation to ban algorithmic-based social media, if they are concerned about misinformation and mental health. But as-is, if they just ban TikTok, they are going to do massive damage to Biden's presidency, especially if his name is attached. 

 

[unogueen]

That IS a sell.

[Air_Delivery]

It isn't political suicide because Meta will probably buy it. 

[stepee]

eh we can just say trump started it it’s fine

[BloodyHell]

Doing the right thing should be above doing the political thing. Ban it. 

[finaljedi]

I'm not really in favor of banning things based on shaky vague "national security" grounds.  Shore up privacy and data handling laws and then come after TikTok from that angle.  But laying the first bricks our own Great Firewall isn't something I'm going to cheer on.

[AbsolutSurgen]

It's because Chinese tech companies can't stand up to the Chinese Communist Party.

Bao Fan: Why do Chinese billionaires keep vanishing?

WWW.BBC.COM

---

The mystery over the latest missing business leader comes as Xi Jinping tightens his grip on China.

 

[Joe]

They’re goibg to take my TikTok

[brucoe]

A number of states are already banning it. I live in Texas, and for a few months now all schools and organizations that receive any state funding are forbidden to use Tik Tok on their servers.

[Guest]

15 minutes ago, Joe said:

They’re goibg to take my TikTok

[MarSolo]

Based on mental health concerns alone TikTok should be banned.

 

That said, that fucking app ruined Instagram for me.

[Zaku3]

37 minutes ago, AbsolutSurgen said:

It's because Chinese tech companies can't stand up to the Chinese Communist Party.

Bao Fan: Why do Chinese billionaires keep vanishing?

WWW.BBC.COM

---

The mystery over the latest missing business leader comes as Xi Jinping tightens his grip on China.

 

 

Our government can't stand up to American tech companies. Not a whataboutism more of a that hurts me more then China's problem. I don't even use tiktok but meta and google wanting that action and red meat for xenophobes makes more sense then national security. 

 

Facebook/twitter directly leads to Jan 6th. Tiktok may have but most MAGA propaganda was through facebook and twitter. So who's the clear and present danger of the bunch really.

[Zaku3]

1 minute ago, MarSolo said:

Based on mental health concerns alone TikTok should be banned.

 

That said, that fucking app ruined Instagram for me.

 

Good ruined or bad ruined? Like you don't use instagram because tiktok is better.

[Joe]

TikTok is by far the least toxic of the social media apps. 

[MarSolo]

3 minutes ago, Zaku3 said:

 

Our government can't stand up to American tech companies. Not a whataboutism more of a that hurts me more then China's problem. I don't even use tiktok but meta and google wanting that action and red meat for xenophobes makes more sense then national security. 

 

Facebook/twitter directly leads to Jan 6th. Tiktok may have but most MAGA propaganda was through facebook and twitter. So who's the clear and present danger of the bunch really.

Luckily, Musk is slowly killing Twitter by firing everyone, and Facebook is the boomer app so it’s user base is on borrowed time.
 

    

        1 minute ago, Zaku3 said:     

    

Good ruined or bad ruined? Like you don't use instagram because tiktok is better.         

    

     

Bad ruined. I mostly use Instagram for sharing my art and now my shit barely gets seen because “reels” have become the new thing on Instagram.

[CayceG]

2 minutes ago, Joe said:

TikTok is by far the least toxic of the social media apps. 

 

Are you fucking insane?

[Joe]

1 minute ago, CayceG said:

 

Are you fucking insane?

No, I regularly use it?

[Zaku3]

5 minutes ago, MarSolo said:

Luckily, Musk is slowly killing Twitter by firing everyone, and Facebook is the boomer app so it’s user base is on borrowed time.

 

Problem is its social media so people will move to the next big thing. A la my gen going from myspace to facebook.

 

I can't say Tom would do what Zuck does but never had that chance to do it. Myspace was better then facebook not gonna lie in hindsight. I could wtlewst share music I like with my friends by them just going to my profile page.

 

Edit: I'm with Joe I don't use tiktok personally but if its full of youtube shorts like content then it ain't that bad. Certainly not turning a not insignificant portion of our pop into Neo Nazis. (More just mask off most likely)

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

6 minutes ago, Joe said:

TikTok is by far the least toxic of the social media apps. 

It’s also got the best algorithm for finding quality content that you are interested in by far. 
 

This is nothing more than Facebook and google flexing their lobbying muscle to ban a competitor who is beating them. (IG and YouTube shorts are not great) Any so called national security grounds for banning the app is hilarious given these two companies relationship with our own government. If we’re concerned about data privacy and security of Americans, we need something like the GDPR for the US, not banning an app owned by the Chinese. 

[Joe]

5 minutes ago, Zaku3 said:

 

Problem is its social media so people will move to the next big thing. A la my gen going from myspace to facebook.

 

I can't say Tom would do what Zuck does but never had that chance to do it. Myspace was better then facebook not gonna lie in hindsight. I could wtlewst share music I like with my friends by them just going to my profile page.

 

Edit: I'm with Joe I don't use tiktok personally but if its full of youtube shorts like content then it ain't that bad. Certainly not turning a not insignificant portion of our pop into Neo Nazis. (More just mask off most likely)

YouTube Shorts are just a copy of TikTok with a shittier algorithm, basically .

[Guest]

Governments should want to protect the interests of their domestic companies over foreign companies. 

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

29 minutes ago, sblfilms said:

Governments should want to protect the interests of their domestic companies over foreign companies. 

Then they should say that and have that conversation rather than hide behind national security concerns like cowards

 

especially since this will probably result in a sale to google or Facebook or some other domestic company. There’s too much money to be made to simply shudder the doors, and everyone knows that. 

[Jason]

6 hours ago, b_m_b_m_b_m said:

If we’re concerned about data privacy and security of Americans, we need something like the GDPR for the US, not banning an app owned by the Chinese. 

 

The people pushing this think anything electronic should have "good guys only" backdoors and their only real concern is that "the bad guys" have a backdoor too.

[Anathema-]

I'm on the side of tiktok being great. 

 

Thing is that you have to know it's constantly trying to figure out what you like. If you hate watch tiktoks you're gonna have a bad time. 

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

The TikTok ceo was/is on capitol hill today and Jesus some of these guys are so fucking stupid it hurts. I know this isn’t news here. Here’s one example, a congressman asking basically “does TikTok connect to my Wi-Fi?”

 

some thoughts on the live congressional hearing right now #uscongress ... | TikTok

WWW.TIKTOK.COM

---

some thoughts on the live congressional hearing right now #uscongress #uspolitics #ditchmeta #tiktokban

 

[Zaku3]

13 minutes ago, b_m_b_m_b_m said:

The TikTok ceo was/is on capitol hill today and Jesus some of these guys are so fucking stupid it hurts. I know this isn’t news here. Here’s one example, a congressman asking basically “does TikTok connect to my Wi-Fi?”

 

some thoughts on the live congressional hearing right now #uscongress ... | TikTok

WWW.TIKTOK.COM

---

some thoughts on the live congressional hearing right now #uscongress #uspolitics #ditchmeta #tiktokban

 

 

Questions like that are why we can't solve our problems. He knew this was coming up. He better be asking that for the record.

[unogueen]

On 3/9/2023 at 10:09 AM, sblfilms said:

Governments should want to protect the interests of their domestic companies over foreign companies. 

So you promote corporate protectionism? That's really not going well up in Igloo nation.

[unogueen]

I don't get it. It's not like the other social media networks have the local people in mind either. The information marketplace seems dangerously unregulated and it's not like Zuch or Musk are hiding their agendas.

[Guest]

9 minutes ago, unogueen said:

So you promote corporate protectionism? That's really not going well up in Igloo nation.

“So you…” is the beginning of a sentence that will definitely be something different than what the person actually said.

 

I don’t promote corporate protectionism, I said Governments should want to protect the interests of their domestic companies over foreign companies. It provides the greatest benefit to that government.

 

I don’t believe what is best for the government is best generally.

[unogueen]

If by protecting the likes of Twitter, Meta, et al. It's going to amount to supporting their disruptive practices home and abroad.

I'm not calling the action hypocritical in a competitive sense. But a discussion around suppressing big info is long overdue.

That giant Equifax leak is basically a bi-yearly occurence for the largest platforms, And their actions are as transparent as a brick wall.

[BloodyHell]

12 hours ago, unogueen said:

So you promote corporate protectionism? That's really not going well up in Igloo nation.

I often wonder if you're a troll, or just can't read English very well? 

 

He said American companies should be protected over foreign ones, he said nothing of protecting corporations themselves. 

 

The problems in Canada are myriad, from over-taxing the working class, to a government that used a pandemic to destroy small business (or "tax Cheats" as Trudeau likes to call them)and prop up corporations, so you aren't wrong about that, but that isn't what SBFilms said at all. 

 

 

[TheShader]

I stand by the stance I've always stood by. If you're going to ban TikTok, then ban all social media. None of the claims levied against TikTok are unique to TikTok, including 'BuT iT's A fOrEiGn PoWeR' because we know from history that American companies are more than willing to sell that exact same data to Russia, China, and whoever has the money to afford it.

 

Nothing has been brought forward that shows this is anything more than protecting US companies in the social media market as(to the best of my knowledge) this has been the first social media platform to emerge on a global scale outside US-based social media platforms. When it comes to the global market, the US has a monopoly on social media with TikTok being the first outlier. That's the only real difference I see when it comes to this approach to TikTok, as politicians are conveniently ignoring how awful our domestic companies have been about data mining.

[Comet]

I hate TikTok and the rest of social media as much as the next person. I'm all for digital minimalism and being an advocate of digital privacy especially after working in adtech. However, there are multiple things people are conflating in this issue: the rot that comes with social media on a society, the digital privacy of citizens, the social weaponization of technology, and then of course corporate and state espionage. @finaljedi is absolutely right. The play here shouldn't be to ban TikTok or any app, but rather, shore up our privacy policies regarding all of the aforementioned things - then go after all companies (domestic and international) who violate those policies. For as much as I shit on TikTok, the service does offer value for specific use cases and that value should be allowed to stay so people can benefit from it so long as the rest of the privacy invasion shit is fixed. 

[CastletonSnob]

Let's be real, the majority of Congresspeople and American politicians are old people who probably still think the internet is a fad.

[ort]

It's kinda funny... one of the justifications for a ban on Tik Tok is that they have the ability to put their thumb on the scale of public opinion. Does the Chinese government want DeSantis to win in 2024? They can juice the algorithm to show more pro-desantis videos to users, etc...

 

Anyway, what do you think about 2/3 (not hyperbole) of my Tik Tok feed was last night? 

A non-stop stream of clips from the congressional hearing against Tik Tok being presented it in a negative light.