TikTok Facing Potential US Ban as Congress Passes Bill Requiring Sale

[TJ82]

Well played Zuckerberg.

Authoritarian slime all those involved in pulling this off. Rather drink my own bile than vote for any of them.

 

[nuckinfutz]

What has me worried is that that Democrats and Republicans are almost unanimous about wanting to ban TikTok.

Will the bill be applied to Telegram in the future?

Yes. Any foreign owned entity that has a social media application would be subject. The purpose of the Bill isn't to punish TikTok as much as reserve the right to close down the entire "supply chain" including levying of fines to all people that providing services for the Foreign Adversary (web hosing, payment processing you name it)

Both parties are funded by AIPAC, and they aren’t too happy with how pro-Palestine TikTok is.

Coincidentally, this TikTok ban was packaged with $26 billion in foreign aid support to Israel.

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Exactly. The Big 6 media companies and their narratives are controlled by the Govt. Shutting down foreign threats like TikTok, Aljezeera and others is key to managing the narratives from all vectors. This is so easy to see.

American citizens will sometimes state "we aren't like the German citizens that let the Nazi party take over" and I'm like "we are EXACTLY like the German people that let the Nazi Party take over, in fact we are worse because we're not under crippling economic sanctions from the Treaty of Versailles so the reality is we are worse. Fat, lazy and apathetic"

 

[Dj64Mk7]

I posted this on a Verge comments section about TikTok creating an Instagram rival:

It’s unbelievably frightening, though not unexpected, that ByteDance wants to become more to Americans than just TikTok.

People will say, “oh, Meta takes the same data from its users that ByteDance does, and we shouldn’t regulate one without regulating the other.” To that, I respond with, “Meta isn’t directly beneath, and entirely beholden to, a foreign adversary.” If ByteDance were a Russian company, for example, people would take issue with it. So, why is China any different?

As I said, unbelievably frightening.

I still stand by it.

To the commenters before me, where does the Israel-Hamas conflict even come into this? The bill that was passed only has funding for Ukraine, which is a completely different country, in a completely different region. The conspiracies about the US government wanting to silence pro-Palestinian voices is exactly that: a conspiracy. It’s not a First Amendment issue. What is a First Amendment issue, however, is a foreign adversary having direct access to millions of extremely gullible Americans, who will believe whatever they’re told to believe, and act however they’re told to act. As I said in the quote above, TikTok is not beholden to any law except the PRC, and if we give them the opportunity, they will abuse their power and influence, and they will turn whatever tools they have at their disposal, even if just a highly-addictive social media app, into a propaganda machine.

I was watching a video on TikTok the other week, and I came to this conclusion: TikTok is a cyber weapon of the Chinese Communist Party, designed to destabilize the world’s superpowers while falsely elevating the People’s Republic of China, disguised as an extremely addictive social media app.

 

[JapanApple]

Um.....well there are those in Japan that want this banned here as well. I hope it happens. This is one app no more than a brain-draining of a person's IQ. never liked it from the start. There are better things you can do with your time than using this crap.

 

[salz4life]

I mean... I see the same type of videos on Facebook, Twitter, IG, etc. One less app doesn't bother me. I get the optics, but meh.

 

[TJ82]

I posted this on a Verge comments section about TikTok creating an Instagram rival:



I still stand by it.

To the commenters before me, where does the Israel-Hamas conflict even come into this? The bill that was passed only has funding for Ukraine, which is a completely different country, in a completely different region. The conspiracies about the US government wanting to silence pro-Palestinian voices is exactly that: a conspiracy. It’s not a First Amendment issue. What is a First Amendment issue, however, is a foreign adversary having direct access to millions of extremely gullible Americans, who will believe whatever they’re told to believe, and act however they’re told to act. As I said in the quote above, TikTok is not beholden to any law except the PRC, and if we give them the opportunity, they will abuse their power and influence, and they will turn whatever tools they have at their disposal, even if just a highly-addictive social media app, into a propaganda machine.

I was watching a video on TikTok the other week, and I came to this conclusion: TikTok is a cyber weapon of the Chinese Communist Party, designed to destabilize the world’s superpowers while falsely elevating the People’s Republic of China, disguised as an extremely addictive social media app.

Jeez you really chug down the propaganda, unfiltered, word for word right from the spin machine inside gov.

For the record, not all boomers are this simple. This whole situation is to do with US tech lobbying and authoritarianism.

 

[Timo_Existencia]

Jeez you really chug down the propaganda, unfiltered, word for word right from the spin machine inside gov.

For the record, not all boomers are this simple. This whole situation is to do with US tech lobbying and authoritarianism.

So, you're opposed to authoritarianism, but don't see any problem with the CCP? How do you square that opinion?

 

[cocky jeremy]

Free speech? What about the countless kids and people that have died from those stiller Tik Tok challenges?

So, it should be banned because kids are idiots?

 

[StralyanPithecus]

Both parties are funded by AIPAC, and they aren’t too happy with how pro-Palestine TikTok is.

Coincidentally, this TikTok ban was packaged with $26 billion in foreign aid support to Israel.

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Another conspiracy theorist 🤢🤮

 

[The_Gream]

That old chestnut of delusion. You had freedom of speech before TikTok. And guess what? You still do without it.

The crazy thing with this is, and what most people forget about the first amendment, is it states “congress shell make no law …”

A business has every right to restrict what people say and do at work or on their property, as the amendment does not cover them, but this bill is (from just the purpose behind it) a first amendment violation by congress abusing their power. (Drum roll please) Yet, it isn’t the first time nor will it be the last time our “great” USA government will over step their constitutional rights.

Income tax is a violation of the constitution, yet we have it and no one seems to fight it.
Being in debt to a foreign government is also a violation of our constitutional, but whom do we own billions if not trillion of dollars too.?

I don’t use Tik Tok. I hear it is like most social apps, it has good content and worthless content. We still have Facebook and instagram etc.

 

[8CoreWhore]

They see how influential TikTok can be politically.... it isn't just about stopping China, it's about gleefully taking it for themselves to control us. Watch closely who gets their grubby little hands on it.

 

[TJ82]

So, you're opposed to authoritarianism, but don't see any problem with the CCP? How do you square that opinion?

Cringe.

If you're going to make up things I think and said, at least let your point be better than whataboutery.

 

[Timo_Existencia]

Cringe.

If you're going to make up things I think and said, at least let your point be better than whataboutery.

Then enlighten me. You clearly don't like authoritarianism, but don't think anything should be done about it? Clear up my misunderstanding.

 

[Dj64Mk7]

Um.....well there are those in Japan that want this banned here as well. I hope it happens. This is one app no more than a brain-draining of a person's IQ. never liked from the start.

It sounds like you don't disagree with what I said. So I'm curious as to why you disliked my post?

Jeez you really chug down the propaganda, unfiltered, word for word right from the spin machine inside gov.

For the record, not all boomers are this simple. This whole situation is to do with US tech lobbying and authoritarianism.

It's not possible to have it both ways...

So, you're opposed to authoritarianism, but don't see any problem with the CCP? How do you square that opinion?

They have no opinion at all.

Another conspiracy theorist 🤢🤮

The whole thing is shrouded in conspiracies. I honestly don't understand when, where, and how conspiracies became so commonplace in our society. To the point of who you replied to, though, doesn't the bill say nothing about Israel-Hamas? As far as I can tell it's only Ukraine that got aid out of this one?

---

Why is no one talking about how whatever Congress saw in those closed-door briefings being so significant that, in an age where nothing gets done, there was unanimous agreement on a bill that is about to be signed into law, in less than a months time?

 

[applesith]

Isn't that what facebook has been doing for the last 2 decades?

Yes it is. I never said TikTok should or should not have access. I said all ad platforms are able to do this.

 

[applesith]

It is identical to Meta Pixel tracking used by FaceBook. Every ad platform does this. These are easy to block with your browser.

Yes I never said this was unique to TikTok, I was pointing out this is another wealth of data for ad platforms and how articles focus on "TikTok is seeing wich videos I watch" and leaving out the website activity data they access.

 

[Edsel]

Perhaps TikTok = Espionage?

 

[DELLsFan]

They see how influential TikTok can be politically.... it isn't just about stopping China, it's about gleefully taking it for themselves to control us. Watch closely who gets their grubby little hands on it.

This.

The current US government likes free speech - free speech not in opposition to its political ideologies. It loves Facebook/Meta because of how easily its agents will gladly censor all those 'dangerous', opposing viewpoints. They haven't stopped trying to destroy Twitter/X and Musk. TikTok is simply the lowest hanging fruit for now.

 

[Timo_Existencia]

They see how influential TikTok can be politically.... it isn't just about stopping China, it's about gleefully taking it for themselves to control us. Watch closely who gets their grubby little hands on it.

So, you think this should be addressed universally, with all apps? Or you think it should just be ignored and it doesn't matter who is doing it?

 

[Executor]

What has me worried is that that Democrats and Republicans are almost unanimous about wanting to ban TikTok.

Will the bill be applied to Telegram in the future?

It is always scary when the left and the right unite against first amendment rights. If there is any credibility to their concerns, it could be solved by requiring algorithms to be transparent. This authoritarian approach will hopefully be shot down by the courts.

Both parties were given intelligence briefings about what China is doing with TikTok. Afterwards things moved quickly. The US government is no angel. But make no mistake, having a social media platform controlled by an adversary is not a good idea. For all its faults, the government is correct in this case.

 

[thebeans]

That old chestnut of delusion. You had freedom of speech before TikTok. And guess what? You still do without it.

Yep. I don’t use TikTok but I don’t think it should be banned. However, the free speech argument is just lame.

 

[siddavis]

China would need to approve any sale, but the Chinese government has already made it clear that it will "firmly oppose" such a move.

This is all you need to know.

 

[Skyscraperfan]

So if it is owned by a US company, the privacy of its users is better protected? Seriously?

 

[MVMNT]

TikTok also gets freedom of speech.

As a company to represent itself.

But beyond that, it's a platform. A soapbox. A stage for constant "look at me me me"

One terrible never-ending Insert-country-here's got Talent audition, where it's a constant 3 red buzzers.

The lowest of hanging fruit. Freedom of speech isn't an App. Bit you have the Trumps and Musks of the world appropriating App platforms under the pretence of them being intrinsically linked to Free Speech. It's become normalised that there are the places to go for free-speech-first.

 

[thebeans]

SPOT ON . the amount of children who have been killed is ridiculous. they have blood on there hands!

And what’s that number? How many have been “killed”.