Summary
TikTok, with 170 million US users, faces a nationwide US ban starting January 19 unless its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, sells the platform.
A court rejected ByteDance’s bid to delay the ban, forcing TikTok to appeal to the Supreme Court.
The US government cites national security concerns over data collection, while TikTok argues its US user data is stored domestically.
President Biden may grant a 90-day extension, but the decision could fall to Trump, who has opposed banning TikTok.
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but the decision could fall to Trump, who has opposed banning TikTok.
I firmly believe he only ever said that to get elected. Trump is the one who called for the ban in the first place, and he’s already shown that he won’t be following through on the campaign promises he doesn’t actually care about.
Iirc he had a meeting with some investor in TikTok and after that meeting his tune completely flipped.
Members of his previous administration complained about his tendency to just kind of agree with the last person who spoke to him on a given topic / day. I assume it’s mostly due to his love of (need for) flattery - he comes out of each meeting feeling great and wanting to endorse whatever that person was saying.
LOL, perfect reference. Hope that’s not where I got the idea haha.
But damn, ya know what, I need to watch this whole entire show again, it was fucking AWESOME. Avasarala herself (not in this clip of course) is dope enough to merit a re-watch, and there are so many cool characters and excellent performances, the writing is great, the universe is great, fuck. I’m not even a TV or really movie watcher.
I thought that I read somewhere that TikTok helped Trump during this election and that is why he wanted to reverse the ban.
I wonder if this is just going to push people to switch to android where they can sideload tiktok or have users push apple to enable sideloading.
To not have to ever hear or see that stupid tiktok logo again would be nice. Too bad it’s not a global ban.
To be real: it would better if it’s use just declined until it went away.
How is this to be enforced?
The apps would be delisted from all App stores and then tiktok said the would have to shut down the US Servers.
Don’t Republicans hate TikTok? I’m confused.
Just the ones that expose their corruption to millions. I’m pretty sure one or two wants to buy it specifically to ban that sort of thing
There are legitimate security concerns in having large numbers of your citizens using a platform that directly controls algorithms to show specific content, run by a foreign company known to have direct government control, force them to do what they want. TikTok may deny it, but Chinese law allows the government to essentially force them to do whatever they want. And yes, that includes the US and other countries as well, this is not a US or China thing, it’s a general foreign narrative control issue.
Nothing prevents the Chinese government from forcing TikTok to adjust their algorithm to promote whatever points of view they want and suppress others. Many other countries do the same with their own companies, whether overtly or not, but a foreign government that is known to do what they want, regardless of any agreements, treaties, etc. having the ability to directly control what your citizens see is a massive security risk.
Is a full ban the right approach? The US doesn’t really have any way to force TikTok to ignore Chinese government demands, it is a Chinese company after all. The only way to force compliance, is not allowing them to operate in the US as the alternative, and the company can choose to either do what the US government wants, or abandon the market. It seems that’s the stage the politicians have decided we’re at, and TikTok hasn’t made changes to accommodate US requirements to operate here anymore.
It seems to me that simply exposing the possibility of Chinese interference to the public should be sufficient. Once the public is aware, then every individual’s personal, informed decision to use or not use TikTok is a protected form of political expression.
I expect that most Americans who use TikTok would choose to keep using it, but that’s an option that freedom of expression gives them. They have a right to consume Chinese propaganda if that’s what they want, in the same way that they have a right to listen to any speaker or read any book that they want to.
And thus we get to the fundamental issue behind all of the bullshit. Where do we draw the line to try and balance individual freedom and national security?
Trump has clearly been a Russian asset since at least the 1980s, yet the American people have elected him President. Twice. You trust the general public to make a determination about social media apps intentionally infusing themselves into the culture and are being leveraged by their government to undermine our country from the inside by managing content and spread?
I’ve worked with the public for 20+ years daily in various customer-facing jobs, and I barely trust the average person to just continue breathing, and that’s an involuntary body function requiring no thought. I definitely don’t trust the average person to be capable of an educated analysis of their content consumption and possible negative influence. Not that I trust the government much either, but at least there’s some people in the machine that actually know what the fuck they’re doing and talking about to try and steer the ship in the right direction.
Quick, everyone jump over to one of the other massive data-harvesting short-form content apps with ties to the US government. You like freedom and Hummers parked inside the mall, right youths?
They should just sell it. There would be plenty of bidders. Any company would if they were not controlled by an outside entity.
They can’t sell it, the CCP won’t let them.
That assumes the main reason it exists (in the US) is to be the platform it is.
An alternative is that it’s meant to be a way for the Chinese government to control the content and thus any narrative they want US citizens to see and interact with. If that’s their actual goal, then selling it and losing control doesn’t do anything for them.
I would trust you, but after what you did to the forerunners I just can’t.
And so here at the end of my life, I do once again betray a former master. The path ahead is fraught with peril. But I will do all I can to keep it stable - keep you safe. I’m not so foolish to think this will absolve me of my sins. One life hardly balances billions. But I would have my masters know that I have changed. And you shall be my example.
That doesn’t happen for 528 years. I have my eye on you until then
