If you told me Facebook directed some AI chatbots here to discuss how great this is, I'd believe you. It seems the initial comments are positive, followed by a lot of arguing. It's usually pointless debates, like whether it's a ban. Yes, it is effectively a ban, similar to imposing a million-dollar tax per gun, or required to be age 85, which essentially bans something protected by an amendment. Then there are those calling for regulations and bans, which is strange. I can manage my app usage and my kids', but I can't control safety regulations for trains carrying toxic chemicals. And then there are the trade war advocates; at what point does this back-and-forth justify losing rights and access? I don't care if China becomes like North Korea. The bill also mentions website and service providers, meaning it could block access through websites too. We should have rights to privacy, encryption, and anonymous whistleblowing without government interference in every social media platform.
> If you told me Facebook directed some AI chatbots here to discuss how great this is, I'd believe you.
Relevant to context: whatasaas is an account with 10 karma and 9 total comments that has been mostly idle for its 14 month existence. Many of the trench fighters in the threads here are names I recognize.
It’s not about you and your kids’ usage, it’s about the general population. Let’s not be naive, TikTok is the 2020s version of “Radio Free X”, a state-backed propaganda tool where anyone can run targeted ads with pinpoint geo accuracy, and cause division and social unrest. And unlike Facebook or YouTube, you can’t hold a company owned by a near-peer geopolitical adversary liable in the US.
At this point Tiktok is getting more regulatory action against it than Facebook has....and Facebook's lax moderation spread the wildfire of genocide in Myanmar.
As it should. This might sound insensitive, but we’re drifting back to an era of realpolitik in geopolitics. Facebook fanning the flames of a genocide in Myanmar has little effect on US citizens, TikTok does.
Sure you can. You follow the law or you are banned from doing business. This law just skipped the first part because the authors didn't want to write any actual regulations.
Why wait until TikTok breaks the law to ban them? Banning an app after it’s been used for nefarious reasons to either spread propaganda or incite chaos in the upcoming elections is too late. It’s like saying “let’s not patch a zero day we found because no one has abused it”.
TikTok being owner by Bytedance means you don’t have who to prosecute for misdeeds, besides some fall guy.
> Why wait until TikTok breaks the law to ban them?
Why wait until a homeless guy steals some bread to throw him in jail?
The foundation of the rule of law is that the law applies to everyone equally, not arbitrarily. That includes a presumption of no wrongdoing and due process.
It should be mentioned that TikTok already has its full US data and source code audited by Oracle, a level of scrutiny higher than any of the domestic tech companies. Combined with the FBI and NSA watching them like a hawk, if they were breaking the law, it would be old news by now.
Didn’t know the homeless guy is a rising superpower with imperialist aspirations. Didn’t know the homeless guy is actively attempting to destabilise the US in order to become the new hegemon.
It’s not about the data or the code. Data brokers exist everywhere, it’s about a platform with reach to the eyeballs of 170 million users controlled by an adversary state.
You can’t use “foundation of the rule of law” wrt an actor that blatantly disregards rule of law.
Interesting that you think breaking the laws is justification for banning a Platform. I wonder how the US would feel about the EU banning every last US tech company for the plethora of violations.
US defence spending is still below its 2010s level. Besides, you mentioned EU banning US apps. Last I checked, with some exceptions, all EU nations are in NATO, and directly procure weapons from the US.
It’s absurd to compare banning a Chinese-owned app to EU banning US apps.
