• originalfrozenbanana@lemm.ee
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    9 months ago

    (Not you OP, you = governments)

    You want to block corporate social media sites as propaganda

    I want to block corporate social media sites because they’re parasites on society.

    We are not the same.

    • PopOfAfrica@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Im actually quite upset that lawmakers havent used this to pass generalized privacy protection.

      They have an opportunity to end mass survailance, but thats OK if its US survailance

      • Land_Strider@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Our tools of social connection vs their tools of propaganda.

        Now fill in the possessive pronouns with either country and change them depending on the specific tool used.

      • rwhitisissle@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        I don’t care what they are. I just think the internet in its current state sucks and I like the idea of there being less of it.

    • lennybird@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      What sucks is I’ve imagined a social media platform that was built with good intentions to actually better being people together and make their lives better. It’s one of the worst missed opportunities in recent memory.

    • zurohki@aussie.zone
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      9 months ago

      IIRC China tried to stir up its internet users about the US blocking Tiktok and it fell flat because it’s blocked for them too.

        • PatFusty@lemm.ee
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          9 months ago

          I don’t understand why you guys are trying to educate me on how Bytedance operates. It’s the same as how Weixin and WeChat work. China wants to moderate and curate Douyin but you guys still expect China not to get involved in Tik Tok. Sure it’s content is different but it’s literally the same thing with the same backdoor accessibility. Anyone that argues ‘bit China do good seeeeee’ is obviously masking their love for the red boot flavor.

          • papertowels
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            9 months ago

            Hilariously, you can interpret what I said in two ways:

            1. China do good by blocking kid access

            2. China do bad by limiting kid exposure internally while letting tik Tok run amok internationally

            I’m of the latter camp, personally.

            • PatFusty@lemm.ee
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              9 months ago

              What I don’t understand is the sentiment that China would want to let Tik Tok run amok but drills down on Douyin. All while at the same time they say “see China doesn’t allow Tik Tok either, it’s nothing like their child friendly great alternative Douyin”.

  • fidodo@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    They’re technically not banning tiktok, they’re banning China from owning tiktok

    • bouh@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Which is somehow even worse : it’s like only the USA is allowed to spy on everyone!

        • bouh@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          So you don’t ridiculise your country by promoting freedom of trade but seizing the assets of the countries you don’t like when it’s a better tech than yours.

            • Fedizen@lemmy.world
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              9 months ago

              our most and least popular politician is a sex predator who earned all his money by his dad dying and is currently at risk of losing his money because he can’t stop lying about things.

              The greatest monument to american shamelessness is Donald J Trump.

          • duffman@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            I’m not with my government on a lot of things they do. I want the same data rights and restrictions to apply to all companies that host people’s personal information.

            But what’s this about Impressive tech? Tiktoc? First that’s laughable, even more laughable is how you phrase is as if anyone would give a fuck if another country had some better tech. Sounds like you are projecting your own insecurities.

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          It will be just as easy for them, just less profitable. Now they’ll just pay Zuckerberg or Musk for the information. If they aren’t already.

      • intensely_human@lemm.ee
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        9 months ago

        And it’s not like they can’t maintain use of the thing while not being owners. Come on. Like there’s some magic rule if a company’s not owned by China, it can’t be used as a Chinese intelligence source? Come on.

        If social media is in cahoots with foreign intelligence, there are better ways to handle it in my opinion.

        • FiniteBanjo@lemmy.today
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          9 months ago

          The fact that China is using disinformation to stop the forced sale of TikTok is pretty telling that they will be negatively impacted by this.

      • Rinox@feddit.it
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        9 months ago

        Yeah, you are right. They should do like they do in China, sell to a JV with a local company at fire sales price… Oh wait

        • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          sell to a JV with a local company at fire sales price

          The Chinese policy is to share ownership with locals, so that a firm isn’t simply extracting wealth from the Chinese market.

          The American policy is to seize a pre-existing firm after it has developed, by accusing its Singapore founder of being a secret Chinese Communist.

      • FiniteBanjo@lemmy.today
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        9 months ago

        Lmao, the USA doesn’t operate the commercial sector outside of power, trains, rockets, and planes. It won’t benefit from the sale in any way other than lowering Chinese involvement.

        • Filthmontane@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          The US government works for the billionaires that run the economy. Many billionaires want to buy tiktok. In fact, there’s already teams of people set up for buying out tiktok. The government is just the tool for the hostile acquisition. No one said the US government is directly purchasing tiktok.

          • FiniteBanjo@lemmy.today
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            9 months ago

            The US Government and Billionaires are opposing forces, one political party wants to tax billionaires while the other is on the payroll.

            • tbs9000@lemmy.world
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              9 months ago

              They’re not at all opposing forces. Some billionaires are in competition with each other and political parties are tools at certain billionaires disposal.

              The act of taxing income is but one political mechanism used to influence the power of some billionaires over another.

                • tbs9000@lemmy.world
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                  9 months ago

                  I’m not sure I understand your question. They are both pro-government. If any one human could be the personification of government, it would be the President of the United States.

    • finnie@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      They’re not going to sell though. The US only makes up a single-digit % of their users.

  • manuallybreathing@lemmy.ml
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    9 months ago

    I hate tiktok

    but all these talks about keeping children off phones is restricting the flow of information to a point that it scares me. we have Enciclopedias in our pockets ffs.

    if the bar kids from easily accessing the internet, they’re effectively blocking 2mil people (14-17) from instant access to information. (I did some sleep deprived math, dont @me if its off)

    • KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      9 months ago

      As far as I know, there’s no legislation being talked about to keep kids off their phones, or even social media. This is more of a concern about China having unfettered access to user data at the drop of a hat, which I can absolutely agree is an issue. Though I don’t know that current legislation is the solution.

      That said, kids absolutely do need to spend more time off their phone than they do. We’ve seen legitimate issues arise from perpetual phone use. The issue is… you can’t really legislate that. It’s parents that need to get their heads out of the sand and actually parent.

      • electric_nan@lemmy.ml
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        9 months ago

        If they actually cared about that, they would legislate data privacy laws that keep our data from being sold on the open market. As it is now, everyone from the FBI to your local cops, to the RNC to Chinese or Saudi companies can pay cash for user data. This legislation is largely protectionism for our own domestic surveillance capitalism industry.

        • KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          9 months ago

          Absolutely agreed, but that’s something republicans would never vote for. This is something that actually has a chance to be implemented.

          Baby steps are better than no steps.

    • Churbleyimyam@lemm.ee
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      9 months ago

      I’m thinking of downloading Wikipedia for my kids to use offline. Apparently it’s around 300gb, so I’ll probably do it on work’s wifi one day.

    • bbuez@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Well it should come as no surprise the dictionary is in one of the most recent pushes for book bans in Florida

  • FiniteBanjo@lemmy.today
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    9 months ago

    A FORCED SALE IS NOT A BAN.

    I’ve said this like a thousand times and I hate repitition, but the USA as a whole has never tried to ban TikTok. Trump claims he did, it isn’t allowed for military servicemembers, but it has never been banned.

    • Jyek@lemmynsfw.com
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      9 months ago

      Forced sale only works if your government has any control over the organizational structure of your company which the USA does not. What they are effectively doing is forcing the American arm of Tik Tok to sell without access to it’s technology which China can absolutely deny. If the sale doesn’t go through, the US will ban its use. If they do sell, it will be without the technology and a company will be Tik Tok in name only having to essentially build the service from the ground up. This is an effective ban of Tik Tok regardless of the outcome.

      • FiniteBanjo@lemmy.today
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        9 months ago

        What makes you think the proprietary rights held by the Chinese hold any sway in the USA? If they want to try suing they can, heck they can even take it to international courts, but they won’t have much luck given the evidence that China was using it maliciously.

        • Jyek@lemmynsfw.com
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          9 months ago

          What I mean is, there is no way the Chinese headquarters of tik Tok will let the America arm of the company have access to its algorithm. Tik Tok is nothing without its algorithm. At best it’s a large install base that will dwindle once they realize til Tok kinda sucks all of a sudden.

          • FiniteBanjo@lemmy.today
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            9 months ago

            Oh that would be interesting, it seems very uneconomic for it to be that centralized because the US facilities would be useless but I suppose I could see it as a possibility. In that case, whoever they sell to could try to sue them with pretty unlikely odds of success. More likely China would just refuse to sell in that circumstance, in which case it would be the same as China themselves ending TikTok.

  • ComradeSharkfucker@lemmy.ml
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    9 months ago

    But china doesnt claim to be a paragon of freedom unlike the united states. No one cares that china banned american social media becuase its expected. People care that america bans tiktok because its hypocritical.

    Besides, tiktok isn’t even “chinese”, their government only has a 1% stake in the company while foreign investors(mostly american) hold 60% IIRC. Y’all can fact check me on that. This is an attempt by the American bourgeosie to force bytedance into being publicly traded so that Americans can have more sway over the companies decisions. This allows them to silence an alternative news source that often conflicts with their interests or make a shit ton of money if they give in and opem up to public trading.

    The American bourgeosie is nervous about actually facing competition on the online market place. They’ve dominated it so long thanks to silicone valley and they got used to it.

    • TempermentalAnomaly@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      I wholly agree with you first paragraph.

      But the 1% stake the Chinese government has in ByteDance is a golden share.

      From The Economist:

      More stunning are the terms of these investments. ciif’s 1% stake in a ByteDance subsidiary gives it the power to appoint one of three board members in a unit that holds key licences for operating its domestic short-video business.

      To what extent the CCP will exert control or what ByteDance has agreed to is unclear. And who knows if any of that matters.

      • bouh@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Ah yes, the famous “you’re free as long as you obey me”. Totally not imperialism.

        • QuaternionsRock@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          What freedoms granted by the Constitution have ever applied to foreign legal entities? And since when did sucking off 200 billion dollar corporations become part of the leftist playbook?

          • Bartsbigbugbag@lemmy.ml
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            9 months ago

            https://www.forbes.com/sites/danielfisher/2017/01/30/does-the-constitution-protect-non-citizens-judges-say-yes/?sh=c8b4d9f4f1de

            The same way it applied to enemy combatants held at the U.S. base in Guantanamo Bay in a 2008 U.S. Supreme Court decision, *Boumediene v. Bush, *which held that the basic right of habeas corpus to challenge illegal detentions extends even to non-citizens on foreign territory.

            Unless otherwise specified, the rights granted in the US constitution apply to all people of the world regardless of where they are.

            If corporations are people as defined by citizens united, then these protections apply to foreign companies also.

              • Bartsbigbugbag@lemmy.ml
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                9 months ago
                1. One can only speak for themselves. Is extremely weird to say “we support X now?”. I’m not a we, and neither are you.
                2. Nowhere did I say I supported it, the question was since when do foreign companies get rights, and my answer was merely showing a way in which they would under our current precedents.
          • bouh@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            I’m not sucking any corporation. Many people here are licking USA ass though. In support of a shameless imperialist move.

            • QuaternionsRock@lemmy.world
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              9 months ago

              Idk, I’ve looked through a lot of comments here, and there seem to be three prevailing opinions:

              1. “No social media company is a good social media company, let it burn”
              2. “I don’t actively want to see TikTok banned, but there are literally thousands of more important things to worry about than the legal troubles of an—again— $200,000,000,000 corporation
              3. ”Nooo u force ByteDance to sell TikTok that is hypocrite and liturally the same as the Great Firewall” (it isn’t, by the way; the U.S. will never block the website no matter what happens)
    • MisterMoo@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      It’s not being more like China. It’s treating them the way they treat us. Simple reciprocity. The same thing is often done when other countries level a tariff against our products.

      • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        It’s not being more like China. It’s treating them the way they treat us.

        So…acting like China acts is not being like China?

        The same thing is often done

        Did nobody ever teach you that two wrongs don’t make a right? Or about the Appeal To Tradition logical fallacy?

        when other countries level a tariff against our products.

        Which rock were you living under when Trump waged his stupid tariff war with China? Nothing good came from that bullshit, least of all for the working class people of both countries.

        • QuaternionsRock@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          It’s not “being like China” so long as the U.S. does not seek to ban platforms from countries that do not ban U.S.-owned platforms.

          The freedom of information should absolutely be bilateral between states, otherwise the permissive state cedes undue influence to the restrictive one.

          • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            Again, Tiktok ≠ China.

            While it can certainly be argued that its ties to the government are problematic, it’s not Tiktok banning US platforms.

            If Tiktok WAS banning platforms for xenophobic reasons (demonstrating intolerance), banning it for that would be prudent as per the paradox of tolerance linked above.

            That isn’t the case, though. The US ban is an intolerant and oppressive violation of the freedom of expression of the users of Tiktok and, yes, even the owners.

            Even if the oppressive Chinese government has a big influence on the platform, that influence hasn’t been proven to cause Tiktok to behave in an intolerant manner, so it’s basically a case of declaring guilt by association.


            The US government could and SHOULD introduce regulations to minimize the amount of data collection and -sharing that Tiktok, Facebook, Twitter, Google and others currently get away with and then punish all transgressions against those regulations.

            AKA regulate and punish bad behavior from anyone doing it, not banning a popular platform guilty only of what congress refuses to try to stop them and others from doing.

            • QuaternionsRock@lemmy.world
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              9 months ago

              Again, Tiktok ≠ China.

              Point to where I said TikTok = China lmao

              it’s not Tiktok banning US platforms.

              I also never said TikTok is banning U.S. platforms, either…

              The US government could and SHOULD introduce regulations to minimize the amount of data collection and -sharing that Tiktok, Facebook, Twitter, Google and others currently get away with and then punish all transgressions against those regulations.

              Yes.

              • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
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                9 months ago

                Point to where I said TikTok = China lmao

                I also never said TikTok is banning U.S. platforms

                What you DID say was that it’s ok to ban Tiktok because of the actions of China, namely the banning of some American platforms. That would only make any kind of legal sense if Tiktok indeed WAS China.

                • QuaternionsRock@lemmy.world
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                  9 months ago

                  Dude, what?

                  You claim that banning TikTok would make sense if TikTok was China. How would the U.S. “ban” China if not for banning Chinese private enterprises from U.S. markets?

      • bouh@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        What kind of brainwashed supporter can you be to say such thing? This is about freedom of speach and right of property, the things supposedly sacred in the USA.

        USA is merely demonstrating its hypocrisy here.

  • masquenox@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Oh look… the liberals are at it again.

    Your whataboutism doesn’t change the fact that the west’s claims of valuing “press freedom” turning out to be completely false posits severe implications for your ideology, liberal - not anyone’s living in China.

    • Psychodelic@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      You’re not communicating your point very well. Do you mean like neoliberal liberal or like fox news liberals?

            • Psychodelic@lemmy.world
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              9 months ago

              Alright fuck it, I’ll ask: what do you think tankie means?

              And more-importantly, what did you actually mean? lol

              • popcap200@lemmy.ml
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                9 months ago

                Like the other guy said, authoritarian communists.

                Or authoritarian communists pretending not to be. The type of people to come out and defend everything China and Russia do while decrying “the west” at every opportunity. Constantly at it with “what aboutisms” and other bad faith arguments. People who claim we should vote third party/not vote while pretending they want to make the US better through these actions, when really they just want the US to fail. Jackson Hinkle types or Infra Haz types.

                If I recall correctly, tankies are named because tanks were used to put down protests in Czechoslovakia under the USSR and tankies will defend it.

                • Psychodelic@lemmy.world
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                  9 months ago

                  Interesting. I looked at the urban dictionary definition, which was super helpful from a historical perspective (people that support sending in the tanks). But appreciate the straightforward answer. Thanks!

                  Not sure why people were offended by my comment. Maybe I could’ve worded the question better. It’s weird if people expect others to know this super obscure shit no one ever really talks about anywhere else.

              • KevonLooney@lemm.ee
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                9 months ago

                It’s very simple. “Authoritarian Communists”

                Tankie is a pejorative label generally applied to authoritarian communists, especially those who support acts of repression by such regimes or their allies.

                The term “tankie” was originally used by dissident Marxist–Leninists to describe members of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) who followed the party line of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). Specifically, it was used to distinguish party members who spoke out in defense of the Soviet use of tanks to crush the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and the 1968 Prague Spring uprising, or who more broadly adhered to pro-Soviet positions.

                https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tankie

                • Psychodelic@lemmy.world
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                  9 months ago

                  Sorry, I must be the dumbest person who ever tried to be a leftist.

                  So the first guy criticized libs (seems like the answer is fox news type libs) and then I asked him to clarify and another person replied saying he means not-tankies (so leftists that aren’t neolibs/or just communists maybe?). At that point the first guy replies saying he knows what tankie means and that the other guy actually doesn’t. That’s when I replied again.

                  Now it seems like you (and voters) are saying the guy that replied to me was in fact correct in his usage meaning she didn’t guy’s actually a tankienor maybe a conservative? I get lost there. Surely the first guy isn’t an authoritarian communist. Like what? Someone help!

                  I just want to communicate with other political junkies and nerds that want to fight capitalism… someday, somebow.

        • Psychodelic@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          Doesn’t fox refer to anyone to the left of the American center as liberal? I’m not super versed but I was thinking it wouldn’t make sense to call socialists, neoliberals, and communists all liberals and I def don’t think fox is being that specific

          • masquenox@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            Doesn’t fox refer to anyone to the left of the American center as liberal?

            Yes, they do… but this doesn’t change the fact that Fox itself peddles liberalism - ie, capitalism. That is, when it’s not peddling outright fascism - liberalism’s status quo-sustaining alter-ego.

            I was thinking it wouldn’t make sense to call socialists

            No, it doesn’t make sense to call people such as socialists - who want to dismantle all aspects of liberalism (and with it, fascism) - “liberals.”

    • areyouevenreal@lemm.ee
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      9 months ago

      China isn’t a good country either. I don’t get why your so excited to back people up who commit genocide.

      Also is banning TikTok really preventing freedom of the press? They are beholden to the Chinese government and used to suppress talk about the Uighyur cultural genocide.

      How about we instead replace it with something like Lemmy but for video?

      • masquenox@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        China isn’t a good country either.

        China never claimed to have a “free press.”

        Also is banning TikTok really preventing freedom of the press?

        What (alleged) “freedom of the press”? This (supposed) “freedom of the press” is a cornerstone of liberal ideology - not whatever it is that China is doing.

        Again… the realization that liberal ideology is full of holes (and always have been) has implications for liberals - not people living in the PRC.

  • TexMexBazooka@lemm.ee
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    9 months ago

    Honestly the brain dead obvious political move outside of monied interests is strong legislation to protect peoples information.

    But we won’t see that