ADVERTISEMENT

Are You For or Against Banning TikTok?

tiktok-sexy.gif
 
summary is "Chinese law requires ByteDance to comply with Beijing’s surveillance demands. This is why there’s no way to mitigate TikTok’s security risks besides a forced divestment. "

Interesting article, albeit out of date. To the extent that those considerations are still front and center, it's not clear that TikTok is worse than home grown surveillers (surveillents?) like X and Facebook, and Google and....

Bad actors are bad actors. Being a US bad actor doesn't make that OK.

If we are going to have rules, let's have rules that aim at the actual problems.

Moreover, if we are going to complain about the evil Chinese doing bad things, can we please make sure that we don't do the same bad things?
 
I'm not sure why they are talking about banning it.

With that said, the world would be a better place without it.

It would just get replaced. If I had to guess this has a lot more to do with US billionaires wanting to have that platform or it's replacement, all of data it creates for AI, and it would probably be used to manufacture consent for corporations and the government.
 
Interesting article, albeit out of date. To the extent that those considerations are still front and center, it's not clear that TikTok is worse than home grown surveillers (surveillents?) like X and Facebook, and Google and....

Bad actors are bad actors. Being a US bad actor doesn't make that OK.

If we are going to have rules, let's have rules that aim at the actual problems.

Moreover, if we are going to complain about the evil Chinese doing bad things, can we please make sure that we don't do the same bad things?
i disagree with the first bolded part. there is quite a bit of difference between surveiling by x/facebook/google and permitting surveilance by the chinese.

and sure we can certainly use government machinery to enact rules that aim at actual problems but that is a separate challenge from denying the chinese free access to american data and ability to shape sentiments here.
 
there is quite a bit of difference between surveiling by x/facebook/google and permitting surveilance by the chinese.
For example? What do you think they are doing with data about you or me that's worse than what our greedy corporations or our corrupt governments do?

We aren't talking about state secrets here or theft of intellectual property. We're talking about your habits and my shopping preferences. China is probably a lower risk to us than our domestic powers.
 
  • Like
  • Haha
Reactions: RileyHawk and Moral
For example? What do you think they are doing with data about you or me that's worse than what our greedy corporations or our corrupt governments do?

We aren't talking about state secrets here or theft of intellectual property. We're talking about your habits and my shopping preferences. China is probably a lower risk to us than our domestic powers.
for example retain the power to incite or inflame a protest in a way that weakens cohesion or increases fissures here. it's not just about monitoring shopping preferences and you well know it
 
  • Like
Reactions: RileyHawk
for example retain the power to incite or inflame a protest in a way that weakens cohesion or increases fissures here. it's not just about monitoring shopping preferences and you well know it
That's a different issue and I started to raise it in my previous post but decided not to muddy the waters.

Are you agreeing with my point in my previous post? If not, please address it.

As for this "incitement and propaganda" issue, I totally agree. BUT this concern applies equally to every platform of this type. So why are we singling out TikTok?

If your answer to that is "China" then go back to my previous comment.

By all means let's try to come up with a way to address this "incitement and propaganda" concern. If we can, let's apply it uniformly. It's a hard task because of America's "free speech" roots. But that's the debate we should be having.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Moral
Barring intervention from SCOTUS, we are on the verge of either banning TikTok or requiring its sale to a friendly company.

Do you favor this? Why?
I'm against.

First, I like TikTok and I think it brings value if you're looking at the right things which TikTok is very good at putting in front of you based on your viewing habits. If you're seeing crap, its because you like seeing crap.

Second, politicians want to ban it because it gives ordinary citizens access to information they may not want us to see.

Third, the Chinese are in so much of our lives right now, if the concern is because its the Chinese then they themselves need to stop investing in China and getting China out of all the other facets of our lives.
 
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT