TikTok Closer to Potential U.S. Ban as House Passes Bill Requiring Sale

[3530025]

Certainly they could. The past allegation that WSJ reported of the CCP accessing actual TikTok user data still hasn't been substantiated. But it certainly doesn't hurt to remove that thought completely by utilizing a separate entity.

Honestly I'm not seeing how separate entity would prevent from CCP accessing TikTok user data.

It's safe to assume the newly created (US) entity to be led by the puppet controlled by the CCP yet again.

As for access prevention - I would really like to see how to practically prevent some company to periodically dump data to some log server which may have (VPN) tunnel to some intermediate jump server outside of the US (not directly in the China) which can be then accessed by the CCP yet again.

And I'm saying all of that while obviously not supporting CCP at all. It's just I don't get how all these steps can technically prevent such thing. Seems impossible to me.

 

[icanhazmac]

I wish the general public were simply smart enough to say no to TikTok on their own.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Honestly I'm not seeing how separate entity would prevent from CCP accessing TikTok user data.

Nothing will stop CCP from seeing TikTok user data
Anyone thinking otherwise is a little out of touch with the realities in play here

 

[Mousse]

The U.S. House of Representatives today approved legislation that would force TikTok owner ByteDance to sell the social media network or face a ban in the United States. The Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act will now go to the Senate, where its fate is unclear.

Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act

PAFFACAA: Paf-Fa-Caa? That name isn't marketable. US laws don't pass unless they have a catchy name like Obamacare, Reaganomics or Homeland Security.

Call it the John Wick Act and this bill will pass through both houses faster than Mexican water through a first time tourist.😁

 

[ohthehorror]

Should we ban other platforms that spread misinformation and contribute to election interference through bad actors?

Yes. Why not.

 

[coffeemilktea]

U.S. lawmakers want TikTok to be sold to a company outside of China due to concerns that the Chinese government could force ByteDance to hand over data from users located in the United States.

So I guess sometime in the next six months, ByteDance will sell TikTok to, uh.... DyteBance, which is a totally different company that's officially based outside of China — at least on paper, which therefore makes it true, as far as lawyers are concerned — and thus has zero ties to the Chinese government (pinky swear)? 🤔

...okay, it's probably not going to happen like that. But no matter what actually happens, one thing is for sure: Mark Zuckerberg is going to profit immensely out of all of this.

 

[Analog Kid]

I don't use TikTok, and personally have it blocked through my content blockers. I think social media as a whole is a plague. I disagree with China's policies on many things including their firewalls.

All of that said, the US banning TikTok is just dumb and short sighted.

They're collecting personal data? That's what social media does. If the US wants to continue exporting Meta, Google and Hollywood, they can't start banning imports without a broader threat than misinformation and data collection.

Bar government employees from having it on devices they bring to work? Sure. But blocking it at the borders before there's hard evidence it's being used for espionage or as a trojan is dumb.

 

[Mojohanna32]

If you read article correctly, it's just about TikTok needs to change from chinese ByteDance to US entity. Solved. TikTok is not going to disappear from the US. It's quite easy for ByteDance to create US company for this purpose. Especially when they already separated the US infrastructure in the last years.

It cannot be owned by the chinese based on how I am interpreting this. So you would need to carve out the value of the US portion, sell it to someone the DOJ would approve of (meaning not Google, Meta, Apple, MS, Amazon, etc). and house all of the data here. This is a slippery slope.
What if the Chinese pull the same thing with companies like MS or Apple?

 

[jedimasterkyle]

Nothing will stop CCP from seeing TikTok user data
Anyone thinking otherwise is a little out of touch with the realities in play here

Honestly, this is just prolonging the inevitable. Whether it's handed over to China, the US, a third party company, the EU or just outright hacked, TikTok data is the gold mine that any country would love to get it's hands on. The only difference is that the US is trying to pretend that we have the moral high-ground on this when we really dont. Like, how are WE as a country the ones to say "ByteDance, give us all of your user data because it's safer with us than in the hands of the communists but we dont have any data protection laws of our own and our companies get hacked on a daily basis but it's totally secure with us!"

 

[Eorlas]

This law may run afoul of it anyway and get struck down

we have the most politicized SC in history, not likely that decisions are made solely on the letter of the law.

 

[AlastorKatriona]

Should we ban other platforms that spread misinformation and contribute to election interference through bad actors?

It's only election interference when you disagree with the information.

How about we just stop banning information and let people make up their own minds. If you personally disagree with what they decide, that doesn't make them wrong or misinformed.

 

[brofkand]

Torn on this. I agree we shouldn't be giving our data to foreign nations. But at the same time doesn't this just hand the market over to Alphabet and Meta on a silver platter?

 

[Ameer_1]

I don't see whats bad about TikTok? I learn so much even my parents enjoy learning new things. Instagram reels is just full with inappropriate videos and facebook is just boring. Why not ban Facebook/Instagram due to antitrust

 

[Bearxor]

This is never going to happen. Bytedance will sue as soon as it’s signed in to law, get a stay on the requirement to divest while litigation is ongoing, and SCOTUS will rule this as unconstitutional.

 

[sw1tcher]

Well, TikTok started the trend.

I just don't like this culture where everyone is trying to be a celebrity. And they'll go to extremes no matter how stupid or foolish to try to get attention.

TikTok did not start the influencer trend or creator economy.

TikTok wasn't available in the U.S. until late 2016 and it didn't explode in popularity until 2018.

Influencers have existed on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter way before that.... at least a decade before TikTok really took off.

 

[TigerNike23]

we have the most politicized SC in history, not likely that decisions are made solely on the letter of the law.

Right, I was saying we can’t just ban bad speech, there has to be a national security threat somewhere for this to have even a small chance of becoming law.

 

[TigerNike23]

TikTok did not start the influencer trend or creator economy.

TikTok wasn't available in the U.S. until late 2016 and it didn't explode in popularity until 2018.

Influencers have existed on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter way before that.... at least a decade before TikTok really took off.

Here’s my question. Why did TikTok move away from music based content? They still have a music note as their logo. It used to be short videos of people singing or dancing to a specific song. That was TikTok’s schtick.

 

[techwhiz]

It cannot be owned by the chinese based on how I am interpreting this. So you would need to carve out the value of the US portion, sell it to someone the DOJ would approve of (meaning not Google, Meta, Apple, MS, Amazon, etc). and house all of the data here. This is a slippery slope.
What if the Chinese pull the same thing with companies like MS or Apple?

They already pulled it with Google and non CCP search and social media companies.

Since MS.osnt a social media company, not such a worry.

Apple already complies with China and limits the software they install and has a curated App store.

The issue here is the CCP access to American user and personal data and the security risks it poses. While I understand the risks, the data could be hosted on AWS or Oracle with monitored export and access. It's possible. It just happens to be a solution that the government doesn't like.

 

[cocky jeremy]

Should we ban other platforms that spread misinformation and contribute to election interference through bad actors?

We shouldn't ban anything. Let people choose for themselves if they want to use a platform or not.

 

[Mitochris]

You can imagine how many times the US Government has forced Microsoft and Oracle to hand over all the info on their software from foreign countries to the US. And Apple... Foreign countries know that the US basically uses iPhone to spy. Not to mention all the routers and hardware designed in the US. I'd guess it's time for foreign countries to stop buying any software from US based companies. Samsung is a company basically run by the Korean Govt. and is loaded with spyware they sell to the highest bidder.

Tinfoil hat much?

 

[cocky jeremy]

It cannot be owned by the chinese based on how I am interpreting this. So you would need to carve out the value of the US portion, sell it to someone the DOJ would approve of (meaning not Google, Meta, Apple, MS, Amazon, etc). and house all of the data here. This is a slippery slope.
What if the Chinese pull the same thing with companies like MS or Apple?

Why couldn't Apple buy it? They have no social media at all.

 

[dandyryan]

it's the way the US does everything it accuses China of doing 🤣 what happened to the free market? we're resorting to censorship now?

 

[Mitochris]

We shouldn't ban anything. Let people choose for themselves if they want to use a platform or not.

Make them responsible for the content that is on their platforms.

 

[Eorlas]

Right, I was saying we can’t just ban bad speech, there has to be a national security threat somewhere for this to have even a small chance of becoming law.

calling china a bad actor to justify legislation is the oldest form of fear-mongering US politicians have available to them.

"communism is bad and is lurking in the shadows everywhere you go" is the only political language the US has spoken since like, the 50s.

 

[cocky jeremy]

Make them responsible for the content that is on their platforms.

Why? they don't have any control over what other people do or say, as they shouldn't.