He's got two days left in office, of course he won't. He's got more important shit to focus his attention on.
this post was submitted on 17 Jan 2025
84 points (89.6% liked)
Technology
60526 readers
6368 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related content.
- Be excellent to each another!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
Approved Bots
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Here is a list of the other 34 countries that have banned it and their reasons why: https://time.com/6971009/tiktok-banned-restrictions-worldwide-countries-united-states-law/
Most countries concerned about disinformation campaigns influencing politics, or brainwashing children (probably some adults too)
It’s literally all bans on government devices. Which is totally reasonable. Ban it from govt devices.
That's not fair. It's totally banned in at least Afghanistan, Iran, and North Korea.
India too iirc
Bad title. Biden won't enforce it because “Given the sheer fact of timing, this Administration recognizes that actions to implement the law simply must fall to the next Administration, which takes office on Monday”. Trump takes office literally the next day, so he's going to have to enforce it (or not).
Nah, midnight orders are a thing. But the event isn't on the 20th, it's on the 19th. The administration could absolutely shut it down.
I understand the "but I like TikTok" crowd, but China bans US companies from operating in China all the time. Why is it all of a sudden a problem when we do it to them?
It makes a lot of sense from the perspective of the US, but a lot of countries will likely have the same debate about not only TikTok, but american social media sites and their influence on their democracies now. Especially giving the timing. Not only is Xitter known to shrug off EU regulations in actively pushing disinformation campaigns but apparently Facebook and Google are joining in too now. All the while there’s a war happening in Europe right now. The EU could make the wise decision to make the same demands to those companies that the US made towards TikTok. For our own safety.
So is the argument now we should act like China? Thought this was America, land of freedom of speech or whatever.
So is the argument now we should act like China?
Unironically, I think most people who are going to Red Note might think so.
Facebook had less than a million users in China before it was banned in 2009. It was struggling against domestic platforms like Webo.
TikTok has 150 million active monthly users and is one of the largest social media apps in the US.
Number of users is not a valid argument on this type of debate
The fact that a counter-intelligence campaign has so many users is exactly why it needs to be banned
A. Counter-Intelligence is when you are countering intelligence gathering activities.
B. Nobody has released any evidence that TikTok is an intelligence gathering tool.
C. This law is unconstitutional by the plain text of the Constitution. SCOTUS has truly gone over the edge.
Where's the evidence that it's "counter intelligence" I hear a lot of completely unverified claims that sound like 1950s reds under the bed nationalist hysteria
Misinformation is counter-intelligence, lots of evidence out there, search "TikTok misinformation"
Sorry, I meant disinformation : Disinformation is a form of offensive counterintelligence via deception and neutralization in order to strategically manipulate an audience or create further fractures in existing divisions. Disinformation strategies include leaking, lying, seeding, and smearing.
I think tiktok should probably be banned, but I think that "it's ok because the chinese government does it" is a pretty flimsy argument.
Because US government is weak! Trump will show'em how it is done. If Trump lets Tik Tok to continue to exist then Trump is weak!
But Trump will in 3 days, and then his buddy Musk can buy it up.
And better yet China will turn around and weaponize this against us. Forcing companies manufacturing over there to sell off their interest in the manufacturing plants Etc. This s*** can go both ways and everyone's about to learn the hard way.
China doesn't care. They have a good life over there. Don't want to rattle the oligarchy we have here.
Musk will no doubt try to buy it with stock that devalues like 1923 Papiermarks.
Whether or not this particular ban is enforced is irrelevant. The point was simply to establish the precedent that the government can restrict citizens' access to social media.
The thing people aren't getting about this law is it's extremely broad, with no due process. The definition they use for organizations that are subject to this law could literally include the New York Times. And designating an organization as controlled by a foreign adversary is a declaration by the Secretary of Commerce.
There's no court, no hearing, no public notice, no juries, and only one judge (the secretary).
The point of taking down TikTok is twofold. One, they have a Boogeyman they can use to push it through. Two, if they can shut down an app with 170 million users then they can shut down anyone. That's half the country that uses TikTok. If they can do that without protests then they can shut down anyone.
The point of taking down TikTok is twofold. One, they have a Boogeyman they can use to push it through. Two, if they can shut down an app with 170 million users then they can shut down anyone.
Exactly.
They needed a pretense for taking down a social media site in spite of the fact that it's not violating any existing laws and in spite of widespread opposition to the takedown,and TikTok served both of those purposes.
And now, armed with Supreme Court approval, they can set about barring access to pretty much any site they want, for whatever reason they want, regardless of public opinion.
Yes, yes it can. Ask pornhub
Pornhub is different though, because they could base it in existing laws barring minors from accessing pornography. It didn't really establish any new precedents, but instead simply expanded enforcement of existing statutes to the internet.
That's not to say it was a good thing - it just doesn't pose the same sort of existential threat that this poses.
The difference here is that there are no existing laws that pertain to TikTok, so it's not justvthe application of existing law to the internet. This is an entirely new power - the authority to simply pass a law decreeing that a particular site is to be banned in the US, entirely regardless of the legal standing of the site or its content, but solely because those with the authority to do so have decided that that's what they want to do
Pornhub isn't different. You as an adult and parent should monitor your fucking child, not let the government do it for you because you are a lazy selfish cunt raising a special snowflake piece of shit human who won't be able to think or do anything themselves when they grow up.
I mean they're also banning chinese networking hardware, chinese phone manufacturers, chinese software in cars, considering banning chinese drones, potentially banning tencent games, etc etc
I'm feeling pretty confident that the goal here is banning chinese spying considering all the other bans.
No government ever oppresses its citizenry by announcing that they're setting out to oppress the citizenry.
They always, without exception, do it by first targeting someone the bulk of the populace thinks deserves it, and then only later incrementally expanding their reach.
That's true, and that's why so many internet censorship it spying bills are officially to counter pedophiles.
Banning tiktok is clearly controversial though, and I honestly don't think it's trying to soften people up to the government banning social media.
That's true, and that's why so many internet censorship it spying bills are officially to counter pedophiles.
Yes.
But that was just an interim strategy, and could never serve their long-term goal, since all it could allow them to do is to institutionalize the authority to censor in cases of activity already deemed criminal.
The difference with the TikTok ban is that neither TikTok nor its users have been accused of any crime. This ban is being enacted in spite of the fact that there's nothing criminal about the site, and that's a new power.
I honestly don't think it's trying to soften people up to the government banning social media.
I guarantee that that's exactly what it's about.
It's not a coincidence that all of the domestic social media overlords have already lined up to swear their fealty to Trump (and to hand him big piles of money). They know which way the wind is blowing, and they're ensuring that they don't get TikToked.
You're dealing with what is likely restricted intelligence here. The reason people haven't been backing up claims with proof of interference is because that proof isn't declassified. It isn't hard to understand that. Nobody was particularly up in arms about the potential TP Link ban, and that can be fixed with updated firmware.
Additionally, two things can be true at once. It can be rue that the government took Meta lobby money in exchange for this ban, and true that Tik Tok is a danger to national security. It would not be the first time the government had their cake and ate it too.
Its being banned because of Zionist lobbying to censor pro Palestinian content. The China spying story is a cover.
US Social media platforms like Meta have been aggressively censoring Palestinian content.
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/meta-censorship-devastating-palestinian-news-sources
Jonathan Greenblatt. ADL director gave it away last year in a leaked recording when he said "we have a TikTok problem".