this post was submitted on 17 Mar 2024
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[–] [email protected] 109 points 9 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 52 points 9 months ago (1 children)

yeah this bill is not about tiktok at all. they're just using tiktok as an excuse to setup internet censorship for the future

[–] [email protected] 22 points 9 months ago

Yep, this is McCarthyism and the Patriot Act all over again. We're really naive if we believe this is just about Tik Tok.

[–] [email protected] 70 points 9 months ago (14 children)

People acting more terrified at the loss of tik tok from their lives than they did during covid, while losing people from their lives.

Tik tok might as well just change their name to empathy box, because they have convinced their users that the act of watching content on empathy box makes them more moral and politically aware than the rest of us.

At the end of the day, we have to be nervous when a foreign nation has content reach to 80℅ of Americans. This foreign nation is banning Americans from accusing it of genocide while allowing an economic incentive for Americans to accuse themselves and everybody else of doing it.

Deep down, every one of us knows tik tok is a power nobody can or should be trusted with.

[–] [email protected] 48 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

So when are we shutting down Facebook for their 2016 targeted ad campaign specifically meant to fuck with an election?

[–] [email protected] 36 points 9 months ago (2 children)

I'm 100℅ in favor of breaking Facebook into 912 separate companies.

But not having the current political power to get that done doesn't mean we shouldn't do it to tik tok while we still have the power to.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

That's not what they're talking about doing. They want to sell TikTok to a US interest. Not 900 of them. This is literally a chance for Musk, Zuckerberg, Apple, and Alphabet to grab up the best short form video app for cheap.

That's all it is. It is incredibly corrupt and the state department calls that out in other countries all the time.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 9 months ago (1 children)

China doesn't allow US social media in their nation, specifically for this reason.

There is no reason two belligerent states shouldn't be protecting their citizens from each other.

But I agree the citizens need to protected from their own governments as well.

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 9 months ago (8 children)

Don't use TikTok, don't really care too much either way, but watching this whole thing unfold is starting to open my eyes to the ways these companies can shape public opinion.

They're apparently sending notifications to people to contact their reps and it seems very likely that they're promoting content that advocates against the ban.

I'm not a fan of censorship or blocking internet services but TikTok really seems to trying to make a good case for it.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 9 months ago (1 children)

This isn't the first time a company has done that. Uber famously used pop up ads to get people to vote for a ballot proposition. Enron went so hard on PR that everyone blamed the government for people losing the pension that had already been embezzled by the executives.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Yeah but that's okay because they're American, right?

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 9 months ago (4 children)

As an Australian who gets bombarded by the US point of view and agenda from their tech companies - I think America could do with an outside influence undermining the government's point of view.

As the post points out - the US government is doing an incredibly shitty job looking out for its citizens, and if they were afraid of a propaganda machine holding them accountable and creating civil unrest it might be for the best.

It's just a shame the power that owns the means to do that happens to be china. I wonder if things will return to normal once the citizens pack away the guillotine

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 9 months ago

Deep down, every one of us knows tik tok is a power nobody can or should be trusted with.

I disagreed with you up until this point. You're exactly right about this.

The problem is that nobody should have this kind of power. But our government thinks this kind of power is just fine as long as it's a US company they can control.

If nobody should have this power than nobody should have this power. Not China. Not Musk. Not Zuckerberg. NOBODY.

But we have a feckless, ineffective government written by racists 250 years ago and this is literally all they can do.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 9 months ago (3 children)

American social media companies are also controlled by foreign powers. I have no interests in common with the ultra wealthy and massive corporations that control this country. They are just as foreign to me as anyone in another country. I trust them less than I trust TikToc.

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[–] [email protected] 47 points 9 months ago (10 children)

They don't actually want to get rid of tiktok. They just want it to be owned by a consortium of American billionaires so they can influence public policy more easily.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago

That is a just cause in theory

Except billionaires aren’t loyal to any accepted borders

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[–] [email protected] 38 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Our two parties that refuse to address relevant problems:

Skill issue

[–] [email protected] 33 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Isn't Zoom supposed to be basically Chinese spyware too? Why are they trying to ban TikTok and not Zoom?

Rhetoical question. I know why. Zoom helps funnel more money to shareholders.

[–] [email protected] 42 points 9 months ago (3 children)

Because the bill lets them ban anything that they want, not just TikTok. All the have to do is assert “foreign influence” and they can block, censor, or force sale to “American interests”.

Basically these motherfuckers are doing their best to make it so you only see, hear, and read what they want. And if that’s not actually their intent, they’re leaving the door wide open for the next guy to do it.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 9 months ago

And if the current guy doesn't get his shit together, that next guy is going to be the former guy and then the entire world's fucked.

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[–] [email protected] 33 points 9 months ago (1 children)

They're not protecting you from Tiktok. They are protecting their interests from China.

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[–] [email protected] 30 points 9 months ago (11 children)

Usa invented the Online psyops/spy game with facebook/google. Now they pissed china beat them at there own game.

Wanting to ban a app/service that basically gives your biggest economic and political enemy direct conact to the local networks/brain of your population is understandable.

I mean those are the reasons why china banned Facebook/Google years ago.

Reality is more complicated tho, cause unless the usa is willing to build a chinese firewall for themself, it will be impossible to keep people from using TikTok via VPN.

If the usa would actually care for its citizen privacy they could just outlaw closed source software.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 9 months ago

willing to build a chinese firewall for themself, it will be impossible to keep people from using TikTok via VPN.

A majority of people probably won't bother and just move on. A decent chunk, 30/40% maybe but that still leaves a 70/60% reduction and it's influence permanently neutered so the gov will still see it as a win

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 9 months ago (13 children)

Helping the working class doesn’t net them a fat profit.

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Sounds to me like they don't want to ban it, they want it sold to American business at a massively discounted rate. Standard mafia shit.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 9 months ago (3 children)

I did hear a solid counter point recently.

All American social media is banned in China. Effectively, if we don't do something like this, the Chinese social media becomes the biggest (because they restrict ours but we wouldn't restrict theirs).

Mafia shit or international power politics shit.

The danger here is they could do this to Facebook or Instagram in other countries (eg India)and use this as a precedent. I'm not sure India wants to pick that fight with the US, but this is all a weird game that's being played.

But yes, on the surface, and the immediate impact, this seems like such a fucking dumb tone deaf thing that our legislature pushed through without most Americans wanting this.

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[–] [email protected] 25 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I think it's rather hilarious, how fast something can get passed if it's against a foreign adversary

[–] [email protected] 11 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Tell that to Ukraine funding

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 9 months ago

They aren't protecting us from TikTok, they are protecting themselves from us. They put a lot of resources into controlling mass media then got blindsided by social media. Now they have social media mostly under control, but only in this country. They can't risk the next Bernie Sanders giving people hope for a better world.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 9 months ago

As someone who's never used tiktok, has no interest in doing so, and finds the whole platform + 99.99% of the content dumb as all fucking fuck:

The US government can eat my shit and hair

[–] [email protected] 20 points 9 months ago (1 children)

It's not about protecting the people. It's about who gets and controls the data. Data is the new oil.

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 9 months ago (7 children)

Two genocides actually. The Russian and the Israeli one.

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 9 months ago (6 children)

🤓 "Uhrm axetually, inflation is dropping and wages are slightly rising, so people shouldn't complain because the economy is actually great. They're really just imagining things and suffering because they weren't responsible with their covid checks."

Seriously, liberals think that's all people are upset about. They don't recognize that already existing trends and enshitification of capitalist products are making things suck for people. They don't appreciate that housing inflation has been way too high for decades, and that cheaper nonessential junk doesn't make up for it. Inelastic demand that the government will not address because politicians don't understand the struggles of new homeowners and renters.

When most people can't win at the game, they don't care to uphold it.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Don't leave out healthcare inflation. It's as bad or worse than housing inflation, but it's easy to forget until you need it.

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 9 months ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 17 points 9 months ago (3 children)

ok, to be fair. There have been recent investments into people generally in poverty, in regards to improving their financial situation, as a means to improve their overall health, it's still in trial stages, and very new, but it IS happening, and it IS positively affecting people.

Also, "we" aren't really witnessing a genocide, i'm assuming to this is referring to war, if not, I'll take my leave.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 9 months ago (2 children)

There's like 8 recent 'genocide emergencies' declared by Genocide Watch not including Palestine and Ukraine

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 9 months ago

Hey, at least they got one thing right.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 9 months ago

“These are OUR slaves!”

[–] [email protected] 12 points 9 months ago

This post is inaccurate. It fails to state that you actually work 2 jobs each at 25 hours a week so neither megacorp has to provide any benefits, and you'll be fired from one next week because despite requesting otherwise they keep scheduling overlapping shifts and you can only go to one job at a time.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 9 months ago (23 children)

So there's an app that's operated out of an authoritarian country that's spewing propaganda from a terrorist organization that's making you hate your own democratic government.

You can't understand why people might have some concerns over this if Tik Tok is your only source of information. And that only adds to the concerns over Tik Tok.

How angry are is the Tik Tok crowd over how China treats the Uighurs? It's all ok as long as you don't witness it on Tik Tok, right?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (6 children)

To answer your question just about as angry as any other major social media is about it these days? Right now the sentiment on TikTok is very strongly anti Isreal and outrage over the current genocide. I don't know why you just assume they're all over there praising China or whatever. China doesn't come up there any more than here or other social media. China has their own version of the app where I assume their own censorship is applied.

Unless you want to pretend that lemmy or other social media is actively discussing the Uyghurs right now I don't think this is a very valid point. You're just using their suffering to feel superior when you probably haven't even thought about them in who knows how long before now. You can search for them in TikTok and there are plenty of videos criticizing China about it.

It's not hard to be informed and it's incredibly hypocritical of you when you couldn't even be bothered to fact check your own assumptions.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 9 months ago (4 children)

Waiting for ban on Australian infiltration and manipulation of the American populace.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 9 months ago

Honestly the genocide part of this meme bothers me. It's not just one after all.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago (1 children)
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