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| Banning Tik Tok is about the Government Controlling content rather than a security risk . |
The (1)>>BANNING of TIK TOK is foremost the stupidest idea , it's (1.2)>>BIG GOVERNMENT using the China spying as gimmick to censor social media content . It’s almost impossible to tell how grounded the national security concerns about TikTok are in solid evidence It's not any different. But the point isn't whether or not the American government is better because they do or don't do the same thing. The question is whether you want to live with a Chinese standard of living or an American one. Because the level of media reach within American borders is unprecedented. American media has shaped culture in China, Russia, and around the world, and America now doesn't want to give China that reach because the American standard of living is at stake.How is that any different from what the western governments do with western media and social media?It didn't even been long since all those banned, or censored for (2)>>"misinformation" happened, it doesn't matter if it about vaccines, or political interests, like Hunter Biden and Ashley's diary so on, the dossier, etc. Banning people, blocking stories and faking news officially.-Let alone things about Ukraine where the same things reported in your sources have happened the other way around on western media, from the Ghost of Kiev to the missiles in Poland. And all this kind of miss info was allowed and admittedly so under the premise of boosting morale. To make it more so, private footage about Russian troops was allowed to allow intelligence agencies to track down and locate Russian supply lines and deployments, meanwhile Ukrainian troops movements were censored to disallow Russian intelligence of doing the same. (3)>>All this was explicitly admitted by the involved agencies.-I agree with you that ultimately is all about control. I just think it's more about our government control over us than the Chinese government control over us.- Specially so when you take into account all the other things that accompany this bill.Banning TikTok is not, as lawmakers claimed in the hearing, a sign that we’re about to get real tech reform. It will almost certainly be a PR move that lets some of the same politicians who profess outrage at TikTok get back to letting everyone from Comcast to the DMV sell your personal information, looking the other way while cops buy records of your movements or arrest you using faulty facial recognition and getting mad you’re allowed to have encryption that prevents the FBI (and probably also foreign governments) from hacking your phone. (3)>>And it will be a PR move that betrays America’s supposed commitment to free expression in the face of an increasingly splintered internet — born out of a failure to think bigger than one disfavored app. This. TikTok is an easy target because it’s “controlled by China” but let’s not pretend like the rest of our social media/search engines don’t have a vein stretched out to China effectively doing the same.Of course, this ban will have a direct impact on journalism. Thousands of journalists and media outlets use TikTok to share news stories. Millions of Americans use it to consume news. And who knows how many sources find reporters through using the app.But if we accept the arguments for banning TikTok, what might come next?While appealing to anti-China sentiment and hand wringing over ‘what the kids are doing on TikTok’ may be politically expedient, it’s deeply counterproductive and moves us away from online safety and human rights, not toward it. The ACLU today also sent a letter opposing the latest legislative attempt to ban TikTok, arguing that (4)>> it’s unconstitutional and a threat to free speech.
NOTES AND COMMENTS :
(1)>>BANNING of TIK TOK is foremost the stupidest idea . The RESTRICT Act, a proposed piece of legislation which provides one way the government might ban TikTok, contains “insanely broad” language and could lead to other apps or communications services with connections to foreign countries being banned in the U.S., multiple digital rights experts told Motherboard. UNDER THE RESTRICT ACT . VPN'S are a government target . Senate by Sen. Mark Warner (D–Va.) earlier this month. Warner's office has said his bill wouldn't do this… but its broad language leaves room for doubt. And the act is still insanely far-reaching and could have a huge range of deleterious effects, even if it doesn't criminalize people using a VPN to access TikTok.The bill’s language includes vague terms such as “desktop applications,” “mobile applications,” “gaming applications,” “payment applications,” and “web-based applications.” It also targets applicable software that has more than 1 million users in the U.S. NOW this WOULD MEAN that the U.S. government will have more power over Social Media , to control content based on " foreign adversary threats".(1.2)>>BIG GOVERNMENT . What's even more disturbing is that they also added where anything that is done under this law is not subjected to Freedom Of Information Act and any related items of these unlawful acts are taken under civil forfeiture. So everyone is liking the idea of a law that gives the government power destroy someone's livelihood and no one will know who will be accountable? (Or even know if this law dose exactly as it was meant for?) Yeah surly this is not going to be used as a hall-pass for violating rights. The stupidest part, really, of all of the times the US government has attempted to “regulate” the internet is that always — ALWAYS — the actual congress people themselves go “We don’t need experts on this. We can just wing it!” And they proceed to make up laws with no technical advice whatsoever, as if the technicalities are completely arbitrary. What fucking insane hubris must they have to think they, with zero technical background or understanding of how the internet works on any level, can make up rules about how it works, without even fucking consulting one expert?If the US government bans TikTok it will be a disaster for freedom of speech. You’ll have politicians running on the promise of banning apps ‘the libs use’ and so on. Software needs to stay free speech or things will get bad quick. (2)>>"misinformation" happened, it doesn't matter if it about vaccines, or political interests, like Hunter Biden and Ashley's diary so on, the dossier. At least 25 US states have banned the popular social media site TikTok, mainly on state-owned devices and bills have been introduced in Congress for the federal government to do the same. The reason is national security fears of the Chinese-owned company sharing information collected on the site to China. BUT, Banning Tik Tok is similar to the censorship of twitter. “Conspiracy theorists … feeding the American public misinformation” is a familiar attack line for anyone raising free-speech concerns over the FBI’s role in social media censorship. What is different is that this attack came from the country’s largest law enforcement agency, the FBI — and, since the FBI has made combatting “disinformation” a major focus of its work, the labeling of its critics is particularly menacing.It is not clear what is more chilling — the menacing role played by the FBI in Twitter’s censorship program, or its mendacious response to the disclosure of that role. The FBI has issued a series of “nothing-to-see-here” statements regarding the Twitter Files.(3)>>All this was explicitly admitted by the involved agencies. Fast forward 50-plus years and officials from both parties, with White House support, want to ban a whole social media platform, TikTok. Around 150 million Americans, including plenty of journalists, use it to communicate. The proposed ban is based largely on speculation that its parent company, ByteDance, will share data with the Chinese government to spy on America and propagandize Americans.There’s no public evidence that’s actually happening. Regardless, no one can explain how TikTok data in the hands of Chinese spies — as bad as that may be — would create the kind of grave, imminent and otherwise unavoidable threat required to justify upending First Amendment law and allowing for such an unprecedented “prior restraint.” (3)>>And it will be a PR move that betrays America’s supposed commitment to free expression in the face of an increasingly splintered internet. Oh it is. That’s why they keep saying things about it “just being about safety and security.” The whole TikTok debacle was supposed to be about Data Privacy and Security. This bill addresses none of that. But yet that’s all they focused on during the hearing that Reddit magically did talk about. When I watched the hearing on MSNBCs live on TikTok, after it finished I wanted to see what was being said in the News tab on Reddit. Nothing. I had to search TikTok Hearing to get an article to pull up, the whole comment section was wondering why they had to search to find it. The RESTRICT Act Is a Death Knell for Online Speech. Here’s the important line from the bill “…enforce any mitigation measure, to address any risk arising from any covered transaction by any person, or with any respect to any property, subject to the jurisdiction of The United States that the secretary can determine.”The $250,000-$1,000,000 fines, 20 year imprisonment, and confiscation of property/assets is at the full discretion of the Secretary.it doesn’t just cover social media. Your ring door bell? Your chat history on a console? Your security system. Anything connected to the internet.If they go “I wonder if that guy is chatting with a foreign government” they can access your photos, your chats, your texts, your home cameras. Anything they want. The bill does not require evidence or probable cause. Hell, you could play a game they deem to be “suspicious” and go after you.It also doesn’t let you file a Freedom of Information Act request on it. The bill specifically prevents you from fighting it. And also specifies that the powers can’t be reviewed by the court.Edit: when I say it prevents you from fighting it, I mean the burden of proof is pushed onto you.The bill gives access to your entire internet footprint.Can you confirm beyond a shadow of a doubt that you have never interacted with a foreign agent on Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, SnapChat, Discord, PlayStation Network, Xbox Live, Nintendo Online, Etsy, Pinterest, or any other online service in the past 10 years? Because they will have access to all of that information. And you won’t, because no one remembers something the liked, commented on, or shared a year ago. Let alone their entire internet history.Not one major media news outlet is talking about this considering many of them had interviews from department heads in regards to this bill. As we all know, when something is taken away. It’s impossible to get it back. (4)>> it’s unconstitutional and a threat to free speech. This is talked about to “ban TikTok” because the powers that be know most of us hear that and just go “meh, I don’t really care about TikTok, don’t need to worry about this, whatever”. It’s an intentional misdirect. This bill is FAR worse than the PATRIOT act!Don’t forget that there is no administrative or federal court oversight either! This gives massive power to the president with no accountability. As in, even if people used to look at Tik Tok but they don't anymore (maybe tik tok pulled themselves from the app store), it can still be looked as a "transaction" that can be banned in the general sense. Not that "Joe Smith's transaction with TikTok should be banned".I think the point about this bill being xenophobic is not great though. Don't get me wrong, It's a garbage bill that could turn the US into a surveillance state akin to china itself. But there is a difference between the Chinese population and their maniac dictatorial ruler who's oppressing the largest population in the world. This guy would be absolutely delighted to see all western countries perish. Every major company in china is deeply intertwined with the CCP and if you believe tech companies are an exception to that you're mistaken. So it's good that western countries are no longer ignoring the stupid games china is playing. That being said, taking steps against china expanding its power should not come at the cost of our freedom.
