TikTok ban?

[emailking]

Re: the bill that just passed the House in the series where they also passed Ukraine aid.

Looks like the TikTok bill is basically the same ban but now they have up to a year to sell it instead of 6 months. This will push the issue past the election at least. It has more support in the senate.

[Beet]

The correct answer is to regulate the algorithim and the content.

snip:

Essentially, all the supposed harms of this app could be addressed by regulation that gives auditing and oversight of the algorithm, data, to US officials and third parties, as well as adding data privacy requirements and encouraging use of features like parent mode that are within First Amendment allowances.

I’m sure this would be enthusiastically welcomed by American social media companies.

Further, on the same day the House Energy & Commerce Committee passes this bill 50-0, they tabled a bill that would have stopped data brokers from selling Americans' data. If they are s concerned about protecting our data, why would they do that? Not to speak of the fact that while they are adamant about the equivalent of the death penalty for TikTok, they have zero concern for enacting any regulation that would address the harms of social media in general.

oh

The bolded bit is flippant enough about the difference between a human life and a f**king phone app that it almost makes me think there's something to the crass "kids these days" framing here. Not great!

It was a bad turn of the phrase.

Speaking of human life, Congress has done almost nothing for 20 years as mass shooters actually take away the lives of children in our schools, it does nothing about a health care system that has higher per capita spending but worse outcomes in life expectancy that other OECD countries with lower per capita income than us, and higher rates of treatable illness, and chronic conditions, and it does not seem to be troubled that the president sent over 100 arms shipments to Israel in its war that has cost 30,000 Gazan lives in the past six months alone. It does not want to act to avert climate change that is estimated to cost over 250,000 lives per year.

So if the perceived flippancy based on bad wording one time of me, one guy posting on an Internet forum who has no power, who is 40 years old and not even a part of Gen Z, is "almost" enough to dismiss an entire generation who I am not even a part of, what makes you think our Congress, which actually has power and is substantively flippant year after year about human life, should be trusted to be able to tell us which apps we can express ourselves on? This is not just about a "f**king phone app", it is much deeper than that, when considering implications of the government taking this power for themselves.

I'm not one of the people in this thread whom I think you can fairly accuse of complacency on all these other (and, yes, enormously more important) issues, Beet.

I just saw this. Where did I accuse you of complacency, Nathan? I didn't. First you nitpick me over one phrase in a long debate with other posters over several very long posts, then you accuse me of saying you are complacent, which, having read the quoted post carefully, I never did. Which is weird because I never interact with you on this site at all and am barely aware of who you are. Don't engage in this weird passive aggressive behavior. You are a mod and a respected member of this forum. There is nothing wrong with me, or others, being passionate about this issue.

And yes, I find the warlike and authoritarian tendencies of Congress to be linked, and their vote to provide lethal weapons to a country carrying out genocide on the same week that they vote to restrict Americans' speech by banning TikTok, AND expand government powers to spy on us, on the same day, merely reinforces the point expressed in my earlier post. Except for Ukraine, (which is conveniently profitable to weapons contractors), we are losing the moral high ground. If you support any of this, then yes, you should feel bad about it,

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

The correct answer is to regulate the algorithim and the content.

snip:

Essentially, all the supposed harms of this app could be addressed by regulation that gives auditing and oversight of the algorithm, data, to US officials and third parties, as well as adding data privacy requirements and encouraging use of features like parent mode that are within First Amendment allowances.

I’m sure this would be enthusiastically welcomed by American social media companies.

Further, on the same day the House Energy & Commerce Committee passes this bill 50-0, they tabled a bill that would have stopped data brokers from selling Americans' data. If they are s concerned about protecting our data, why would they do that? Not to speak of the fact that while they are adamant about the equivalent of the death penalty for TikTok, they have zero concern for enacting any regulation that would address the harms of social media in general.

oh

The bolded bit is flippant enough about the difference between a human life and a f**king phone app that it almost makes me think there's something to the crass "kids these days" framing here. Not great!

It was a bad turn of the phrase.

Speaking of human life, Congress has done almost nothing for 20 years as mass shooters actually take away the lives of children in our schools, it does nothing about a health care system that has higher per capita spending but worse outcomes in life expectancy that other OECD countries with lower per capita income than us, and higher rates of treatable illness, and chronic conditions, and it does not seem to be troubled that the president sent over 100 arms shipments to Israel in its war that has cost 30,000 Gazan lives in the past six months alone. It does not want to act to avert climate change that is estimated to cost over 250,000 lives per year.

So if the perceived flippancy based on bad wording one time of me, one guy posting on an Internet forum who has no power, who is 40 years old and not even a part of Gen Z, is "almost" enough to dismiss an entire generation who I am not even a part of, what makes you think our Congress, which actually has power and is substantively flippant year after year about human life, should be trusted to be able to tell us which apps we can express ourselves on? This is not just about a "f**king phone app", it is much deeper than that, when considering implications of the government taking this power for themselves.

This is an awful government power grab and I agree wholeheartedly with you that it's bad.

[Redban]

So the ban is coming. No more 30-second clips of random slutty women dancing for no reason.

Can we do Reddit next?

[emailking]

They might divest which would mean the dancing will continue for you. We don't know what will happen.

[wnwnwn]

So the ban is coming. No more 30-second clips of random slutty women dancing for no reason.

Nah, Ig will continue

[darklordoftech]

If TikTok is banned, what will the dominant social media platform be in the future?

I never want to hear "there's more important issues" from anyone who supports banning Tiktok.

[Horus]

If TikTok is banned, what will the dominant social media platform be in the future?

I never want to hear "there's more important issues" from anyone who supports banning Tiktok.

Instagram does everything tiktok does + you can actually have normal still shots, not just annoying short videos with bad AI voices.

[Born to Slay. Forced to Work.]

If TikTok is banned, what will the dominant social media platform be in the future?

I never want to hear "there's more important issues" from anyone who supports banning Tiktok.

Instagram does everything tiktok does + you can actually have normal still shots, not just annoying short videos with bad AI voices.

Yea but Instagram makes me feel bad about myself 😂 it’s whole thing is comparing your image with other people

[Meclazine for Israel]

If TikTok is banned, what will the dominant social media platform be in the future?

I never want to hear "there's more important issues" from anyone who supports banning Tiktok.

Instagram.

But as the Dark Lord Of Technology, you already knew that.

The average US adult spends 33 minutes per day on Instagram.

The yearly ad revenue in 2023 was $51 billion increasing to $58 billion in 2024.

The usage split is 51.8% male and 48.2% female and the users most likely to be on the platform are 16-34 y.o's from the US or India.

[emailking]

The average US adult spends 33 minutes per day on Instagram.

That's ambiguous. I think you mean the average amount of time a US adult spends on Instagram is 33 minutes.

[Oregon Eagle Politics]

Hopefully SCOTUS overrules this BS.

[Arizona Iced Tea]

https://twitter.com/spectatorindex/status/1783581855226441919
As predicted ByteDance is not going to sell. The US government is going to have to rip TikTok out of the hands of millions of Americans.

[Oregon Eagle Politics]

https://twitter.com/spectatorindex/status/1783581855226441919
As predicted ByteDance is not going to sell. The US government is going to have to rip TikTok out of the hands of millions of Americans.

VPN use 📈📈📈

[Tekken_Guy]

https://twitter.com/spectatorindex/status/1783581855226441919
As predicted ByteDance is not going to sell. The US government is going to have to rip TikTok out of the hands of millions of Americans.

What does that mean?

[Kahane's Grave Is A Gender-Neutral Bathroom]

https://twitter.com/spectatorindex/status/1783581855226441919
As predicted ByteDance is not going to sell. The US government is going to have to rip TikTok out of the hands of millions of Americans.

VPN use 📈📈📈

Wait I'm sorry are NONE OF YOU suspicious that a company would rather shut down and stop making money then sell and roll in dough?

[Cashew]

A massive ideological victory for the Chinese government if the supreme court lets this pass. The first time in history that a great power has become so competitive and almost immediately firewalls and protectionism are the response.

https://twitter.com/spectatorindex/status/1783581855226441919
As predicted ByteDance is not going to sell. The US government is going to have to rip TikTok out of the hands of millions of Americans.

VPN use 📈📈📈

Wait I'm sorry are NONE OF YOU suspicious that a company would rather shut down and stop making money then sell and roll in dough?

You know as well as I do that any coerced sale leads to the asset being sold for far less that it's actual value.

[Arizona Iced Tea]

https://twitter.com/spectatorindex/status/1783581855226441919
As predicted ByteDance is not going to sell. The US government is going to have to rip TikTok out of the hands of millions of Americans.

What does that mean?

You will no longer be able to freely access TikTok in the US within a years time. Similar to how the CCP shuts down websites the same will happen to Americans as we lose our freedom. If you use VPN its still possible to access the content, but once the uniparty figures that out its likely they will start restricting access to that as well which was in the original Restrict Act from 2023.

[Tekken_Guy]

https://twitter.com/spectatorindex/status/1783581855226441919
As predicted ByteDance is not going to sell. The US government is going to have to rip TikTok out of the hands of millions of Americans.

What does that mean?

You will no longer be able to freely access TikTok in the US within a years time. Similar to how the CCP shuts down websites the same will happen to Americans as we lose our freedom. If you use VPN its still possible to access the content, but once the uniparty figures that out its likely they will start restricting access to that as well which was in the original Restrict Act from 2023.

Maybe Trump will reverse the ban on the app.

[Oregon Eagle Politics]

https://twitter.com/spectatorindex/status/1783581855226441919
As predicted ByteDance is not going to sell. The US government is going to have to rip TikTok out of the hands of millions of Americans.

VPN use 📈📈📈

Wait I'm sorry are NONE OF YOU suspicious that a company would rather shut down and stop making money then sell and roll in dough?

None of the tech conglomerates that could realistically acquire TikTok would offer anything close to a fair price. They would have no reason to, really.

Anyways, I am fundamentally opposed to the government censoring the internet.

[emailking]

You will no longer be able to freely access TikTok in the US within a years time.

Realistically I think it will take longer and perhaps significantly so. There will likely be an injunction on the ban going into effect while this is litigated.

I'm also not convinced they won't sell, despite the X post above.

[GeneralMacArthur]

You guys notice the Chinese government weighing in and saying TikTok will never divest?

Why is the Chinese government weighing in on this, I thought TikTok was a Singapore app, wasn't that the point of Shou Chew constantly reminding us that he's from Singapore, not China?  Hmmm otherwise why would he keep bringing that up if it's irrelevant?

Also I thought TikTok was totally independent of the Chinese government and that in particular its American operations were a completely distinct entity from anything Chinese?  That's what Shou Chew told us when he sat before Congress.  So why would the Chinese Communist Party have any interest whatsoever in what an American app with American data does?

And why is China so determined to keep this particular app operational rather than allowing its CEO to sell it for enormous amounts of money?  LinkedIn, PornHub, DeviantArt, Archive.org, and many other American companies are banned in Russia, did the United States government get involved and dictate corporate strategy for those companies?  Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, WhatsApp, Google, and YouTube are banned in China but I don't remember the Trump administration weighing in on whether or not Google should do Project Dragonfly.

[Ferguson97]

If I wasn't sold on banning TikTok before, ByteDance's reaction has convinced me that it needs to happen.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

I still really don't like the "foreign influence" angle on this--I want short-form social media in general cracked down on because it's a cognitohazard, not TikTok in particular cracked down on because it's Chinese--but Zephyr Teachout (law professor at Fordham, perennial candidate in New York, high-profile left-wing primary challenger to Cuomo in 2014) has an interesting essay in The Atlantic arguing, convincingly in my opinion, that this is really not much of a departure from traditional American policy on who can and can't own communications infrastructure.

[DaleCooper]

I don't know that censorship is really an accurate way to describe this, even if you are opposed to it. None of the content on TikTok is being censored by the government. It can be uploaded anywhere. The crackdown here is because an uncivilized sh-thole country owns and operates the platform. If MySpace was run by al Qaeda then there would probably have been similar action taken back then too.