Lawmaker: TikTok must “sever relationship with the Chinese Communist Party.”

  • GrundlButter@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    10 months ago

    Yeah, only domestic companies and our government is allowed to spy on us with impunity.

    Just frustrating to watch how short sighted this whole tiktok scare thing has been. It brought the data privacy problem to the forefront, and every effort was made to completely disregard privacy as a whole and focus on the China aspect instead.

  • axont [she/her, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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    10 months ago

    This is the goofiest culture war debacle I’ve seen. I’m very ancient so I remember parts of the Satanic Panic, I remember the scare about Mortal Kombat and Doom making kids into murderers, I remember scares about Jackass and knockout games and now we’re at scary phone apps. At least back then these reactionary freaks could point at something with at least the veneer of being scary. Satan, video games with blood everywhere, Johnny Knoxville tasering someone in the balls. It’s still goofy to get upset about those, but at least it’s got the outline of a basic argument.

    What is it now? The scary lipsync videos are gonna make your kids into Chinese communists? Good, I hope they all read “On Contradiction” by Mao. I fully expect a tiktok style red army by this time next year or I’m gonna be disappointed.

    Also if this is supposed to protect kids then all social media should be banned for kids. That stuff is brain rot and kids deserve better

    • flying_sheep@lemmy.ml
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      10 months ago

      I don’t get why you draw parallels here. The reactionaries are against veneer-of-spooky pieces of media because of moral outrage bullshit. Media literacy is a thing. Nobody is going to believe in dragons or Satan.

      The US government is against big China-controlled media platforms with loads of US users because platforms can control which kind of content users see. You can exert a lot of control over people if you show them only one point of view and make them think this is the majority.

      I think the US has enough of a problem with home grown radicalized conspiracy nuts, but banning a China owned TikTok is still a very different move than banning D&D would have been.

    • BrikoX@lemmy.zipOPM
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      10 months ago

      There is soft power in controlling a platform with a lot of people. Just look how TikTok used it to organize a massive campaign via hijacking TikTok feed to inform them about potential ban and redirect them to their representatives. During conflict, it can be used more nefariously. But them singling out TikTok while not doing anything against their domestic platforms does make it hypocritical and make people question their motives.

      • ToxicDivinity [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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        10 months ago

        Any app or any business that is being largely impacted by legislation will ask their customers to push for a favorable outcome. I’ve seen American businesses ask their customers to call Congress about one thing or another a bunch of times. This isn’t “nefarious” or “hijacking a platform” it’s normal business behavior

        • Amerikan Pharaoh@lemmygrad.ml
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          10 months ago

          When Anglos do it it’s “100 wholesome chungus capitalism willed by God”; when Chinese folk do it it’s “evil malicious debt-trapping CCP [slur] [slur] [slur] [ARCHAIC slur]”. Feels like an application of the Parenti quote all over again.

        • RuthlessCriticism [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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          10 months ago

          Literally all of Big Tech did this a few years ago with SOPA/PIPA and that stuff. People are acting like this is some crazy unheard of thing like they just figured out what the internet is a few months ago.

  • radiofreeval [any]@hexbear.net
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    10 months ago

    Under capitalism, profit is revered. However, if you make too much profit, a less profitable company gets to buy you for cheap because your skin is the wrong color.

    • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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      10 months ago

      This has nothing to do with skin color. It has everything to do with controlling access to data gathering tools. I don’t think either nation has the best interests of the people in mind, but don’t strawman this. Is very easy to criticize the actual thing that’s happening.

      • radiofreeval [any]@hexbear.net
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        10 months ago

        This is in the process of trying to fire up another Yellow Peril. Access to data and profit might be the driving factors, but so is creating a new enemy class to scapegoat. Just look at how the media talks about China and how anti-Asian hate has been rising in recent years. Of course race is a factor because you need race to create a racial enemy.

        • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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          10 months ago

          It’s about power, not about race. International politics is always about power. I don’t get how some people don’t understand that. You’re right that many people are creating a scapegoat out of China, but (the intelligent and influential ones) aren’t doing it out of racism. It might be racist, but they don’t buy it, they’re only selling it. It’s about solidifying power and controlling means and methods. That’s always the case for governments, no matter when or where.

          • Amerikan Pharaoh@lemmygrad.ml
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            10 months ago

            Power and racism are inextricably bound together when it’s the Americans doing things. This isn’t even about maintaining hard power; this is just about keeping the inhabitants of the Western world from seeing how the elites make the sausage.

            • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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              10 months ago

              This isn’t even about maintaining hard power; this is just about keeping the inhabitants of the Western world from seeing how the elites make the sausage.

              It’s about soft power. I don’t think it has to do with people of the western world seeing what’s being done either (they don’t and won’t if TikTok is the thing they’re using). It’s just about gathering data and also having control over a service that could be used to influence people. It wouldn’t matter if it’s China or Russia (mostly white) in control of it.

              Power and racism are inextricably bound together when it’s the Americans doing things.

              Is it? Many people saw through the racism of slavery and yet still used it, because racism was an excuse, not a reason. Usually racism is an excuse. It’s something that’s easily sold to the masses, and for some reason people still buy it, and people like you buy that that’s still the reason and not seeing what’s really being played. Sure, there are a lot of racist people, but even that is only because some people use it to gain power. Racism has the same purpose as religion. It’s a method of control, by defining “the enemy”. Usually if anyone is defining an enemy it’s a form of control for that matter. There are plenty of bad people, but it’s hard to say any group is bad by default. There are bad systems though.

              • Amerikan Pharaoh@lemmygrad.ml
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                10 months ago

                I don’t think it has to do with people of the western world seeing what’s being done either (they don’t and won’t if TikTok is the thing they’re using).

                Tiktok is literally how my nieces, nephews, and their peer groups have been learning about American malfeasance, but sure, they’re TOTALLY not seeing anything.

                It’s just about gathering data and also having control over a service that could be used to influence people. It wouldn’t matter if it’s China or Russia (mostly white) in control of it.

                Bull, if it was ‘just about gathering data’ they’d go after Zuck and Musk too. (And no, the wrist-slappings they’ve ‘endured’ thus far don’t count, Meta and Twitter bans have NEVER been floated, OR sailed through Congress as easily as this proposed Tiktok ban has.) Further, if Russia were considered ‘mostly white’, NATO wouldn’t be trying to encircle and exterminate them. Try again.

                Is it? Many people saw through the racism of slavery and yet still used it, because racism was an excuse, not a reason.

                Further bull, America’s done everything in its power to keep forms of slavery in play; specifically pipelining the minorities they used to keep as chattel into prison slavery instead. It’s always maintenance of an Anglo status quo. Don’t try again here; I know you’re not going to go look up the Fourteenth Amendment to see how the Anglos have historically played with legalese to maintain unjust systems.

                There are plenty of bad people, but it’s hard to say any group is bad by default.

                Four hundred years of slavery, genocide, resource extraction, ignorance of sovereignty, rank and blatant funding of terrorism, and extrajudicial murder says what now? Tell your handler I said hi.

                • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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                  10 months ago

                  Bull, if it was ‘just about gathering data’ they’d go after Zuck and Musk too.

                  They’re amaerican. They already have them.

                  Further, if Russia were considered ‘mostly white’, NATO wouldn’t be trying to encircle and exterminate them. Try again.

                  Dude, if NATO wanted them destroyed they wouldn’t be as passive as they have been. It has nothing to do with race. There are plenty of Russian/Caucasian people in the west.

                  Further bull, America’s done everything in its power to keep forms of slavery in play; specifically pipelining the minorities they used to keep as chattel into prison slavery instead.

                  I agree this is happening, but is it because of race or because it’s an easy excuse. You can’t tell the difference.

                  Four hundred years of slavery, genocide, resource extraction, ignorance of sovereignty, and extrajudicial murder says what now? Tell your handler I said hi.

                  Show me a nation that doesn’t have exploitation and/or genocide in their past. There isn’t one. All nations exploit. Governments are corrupt. I’m not arguing the US is good, I’m arguing all nations are bad. You are just willfully ignorant. Whatever government you support (Russia presumably, by your instance?) it has exploited people at some point in time at least. It almost certainly is even now, or someone else would be in power.

          • SSJ2Marx@hexbear.net
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            10 months ago

            If TikTok was owned by a German or English corporation, would it be facing this kind of scrutiny? Of fucking course not, don’t be dense.

            • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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              10 months ago

              No, because they’d share the information with the US. Just like China doesn’t allow US corporations into China. Don’t be dense.

              • SSJ2Marx@hexbear.net
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                10 months ago

                And I suppose the reason all of the euro countries share information with each other and don’t let China into their special club is just a natural phenomenon? Completely arbitrary and random?

                • Amerikan Pharaoh@lemmygrad.ml
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                  10 months ago

                  Definitely can’t be because they’re the original settlers with historical prejudices against ANYONE they perceive as Asian; that totally doesn’t exist according to that utter sinkhole

                • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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                  10 months ago

                  Not random for sure. They are a seperate power structure. The US does share some data with China, and also western countries don’t share a lot of data with each other as well. All nations are constantly spying on each other. It isn’t infrequent you hear about some NATO country spy being caught spying on some NATO nation. Governments are about control, and they’ll try to increase that control with any method possible.

                • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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                  10 months ago

                  Sure, you have to store data with some locality so round trip times aren’t horrible. It doesn’t mean anyone has access to it or control over it.

          • sooper_dooper_roofer [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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            10 months ago

            non-hexbear/non-lemmygrad user handle
            ridiculous kindergarten-tier reasoning

            like pottery

            “waaahhh they’re only DISPASSIONATELY SELLING the racism, they don’t actually feel it in their hearts!”

            First of all that’s irrelevant
            Second of all your work almost always becomes your personality to some extent so you’re almost certainly wrong

            • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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              10 months ago

              And you’re better, right? No. You aren’t. I’m on hexbear fairly frequently. I don’t have any issue with hexbear or lemmygrad. I’m just not ignoring the fact all these nations do this. China has an almost exclusive ecosystem, yet somehow when the US does it it’s racism? No. It isn’t about race. It’s about control. This apiea to China, Russia, and the US, and any other power in the future or past. Anyone who has the capability to gain control also has disposition to exploit their control. You don’t gain control without that.

          • Adlach@lemmygrad.ml
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            10 months ago

            Racism is an action word. Not “believing” in it is (quite literally) immaterial. If you do a racist action, you’re a racist.

            • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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              10 months ago

              Sure, but they’d do it with Russia too, and they’re “the same race”. It has nothing to do with race. Race is just a convenient way to criticize the US here without examining the actual issue. China has their own ecosystem for fucks sake. If any nation is being racist it’s them, but it’s not because of race that they have that.

              • Amerikan Pharaoh@lemmygrad.ml
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                10 months ago

                China has their own ecosystem for fucks sake. If any nation is being racist it’s them

                “WAH THEY WON’T LET US PILLAGE THEIR ECONOMY THE WAY WE PILLAGED AFRICA” do you fucking hear yourself lmfao. You fixate on this “they’re not in our ecosystem” horseshit and it’s really just starting to sound like you’re mad you don’t get to consoom their produce too, mad that your straw just can’t reach far enough into their milkshake for you to Daniel Day-Lewis it.

                And before you try to get cute about me “debating”, nope, now I’m just dragging you for filth due to your absolute blatancy. Your words are hot air and confident ignorance; there’s nothing worth debating in you.

                • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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                  10 months ago

                  I’m not complaining about them having their ecosystem. I’m pointing out that they do, and they enforce it. Any complaint about the US doing the same should be met with equal criticism of China doing the same thing except even harsher. I don’t really care that they have that, but I also don’t care that the US is forcing this. You people who came here are the ones saying it’s wrong, but it’s wrong because it’s the US and China is fine.

  • SSJ2Marx@hexbear.net
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    10 months ago

    If the application is not divested, entities in the United States would be prohibited from distributing the application through an application marketplace or store and providing web hosting services.

    I wonder if TikTok could continue to exist at the same level of popularity as an app that you download from their website, instead of using the app store?

    • RvTV95XBeo@sh.itjust.works
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      10 months ago

      Can you side load IOS apps? (Genuinely curious)

      If no, then that’s a big nail in the coffin. They could try and make it a web app, but that’s not gonna be a smooth transition.