Like, I know why it’s being banned or has been banned or whatever. I just don’t understand the rage behind to keep this shitty ass social media platform that is essentially Vine 2.0
TikTok has been the detriment to society today as Facebook was and is. People doing stupid challenges. People’s attention span getting lower and lower. People pretending they’re more popular than life itself because of their faux acting and lip-syncing.
Why keep the piece of shit?
Short answer: because doing a good thing for a bad reason - particularly when it establishes a bad legal precedent - is often a very bad thing in the long run.
I fucking detest TikTok for a variety of reasons (largely around the societal impact it has), but playing the national security card and then not applying it consistently (e.g. meta, twitter, insta, etc are not getting NEARLY the same level of scrutiny, despite very similar ways in which they influence society at both a national and global level) is a recipe for trouble, because that card can be (and often is) played for esoteric bullshit reasons. And I fully expect the incoming admin to use esoteric bullshit reasons for pretty much anything they possibly can.
For me it’s not about TikTok. It’s about using whatever flimsy, poorly worded law they will make to ban a platform I don’t use to open the door for further bans and possible censorship in the future. A platform should be allowed to function if it can. If it’s horribly made, or supremely unprofitable it’ll find its own way out. I don’t use it, I don’t plan on ever using it, and honestly it doesn’t affect my daily life outside of my mother in law thinking that some of the pallet crafts on there are worthwhile and me having to explain that they’ll look good for a moment and then fall apart rather quickly.
Like the other user said, this is clearly a problem if you allow any platform to exist. Let’s take this to an extreme extent. Say a company invents a platform that is 100% addicting, because they’ve figured out how to mind control you. Watching a single video means you will never stop using the platform and you will say whatever the creators want. Clearly that shouldn’t be allowed to exist. Things that social media sites do approximate that. They manipulate users brains into doing things that they normally wouldn’t do. This is why regulation exists. Clearly my example is farcical, but it’s meant to explain why you don’t allow just anything to exist. As a society, certain things are more dangerous than others, and we regulate those things.
Clearly this ban isn’t about that, it’s about a Chinese government doing something that the US government only wants US companies to be able to do.
That’s exactly how I feel… I see my parents being addicted to YouTube shorts/amazon/TEMU… And it makes me really sad to see them in that addiction state :(.
Those things should be illegal…
Clearly this ban isn’t about that, it’s about a Chinese government doing something that the US government only wants US companies to be able to do.
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A platform should be allowed to function if it can. If it’s horribly made, or supremely unprofitable it’ll find its own way out.
I mean, this doesn’t allow for any form of ethical analysis, though. Should every drug be legalized? How about gambling?
I’m not saying I am for the TikTok ban persay, but if the only conditionals for whether a product or service should exist are “is it ‘well made’ and does it make money,” we are setting ourselves up to achieve a corporate dystopia rather quickly.
They government should consider what parts of TikTok make it not okay, and target those forms and functions with well reasoned laws. Unfortunately, as you said, I suspect they’ll target things that are good and users like, while pretending that the issue is entirely about one small portion of the complete law. Ie, stress that the issue is one of security, and then write a law saying that all social media in the US must be willing to submit it’s data to the American government. (To be clear, I have no idea what the actual law they wrote is, but this is the kind of shit I expect them to get up to )
I know it’s not really the topic you considered… But yes, I do believe every drug should be legalized. If you consider the benefits alone it should be obvious that it is the correct choice.
Drugs made by lisenced people/locations that use safe ingredients and are open to litigation if they end up making a bad batch.
The revenue collected isn’t going to some drug lord overseas, it’s going into the country which you live instead.
Dispensaries can be used secondary as a councelling/rehabilitation center.
The long and the short if it is that if people want them, they will get them. I live in a place that hasn’t legalized weed yet… But if you are around certain neighborhoods at around 9am, it starts to smell very obvious that legality doesn’t matter. While currently that’s not surprising as many states near mine have legalized, we’ll before that happened things were exactly the same.
I don’t want people to be addicted to drugs, but I don’t see why we as a society shouldn’t benefit at all from someone who is.
I’m not talking about weed, though. It’s been traditionally over policed but that doesn’t mean we should stop policing all drugs. There’s hardly any sense in saying that severely addictive drugs with visible negative effects on the human body should be sold for recreational use for profit. The majority of opiods are a good example of this.
But more to the point, giving moral purchase to profit justifies the abuse of the consumer. I can’t say for certain whether the TikTok ban is government overreach, as I’m not knowledgeable enough on the topic to speak with any authority, but “it makes money, so it’s fine” really shouldn’t be the end of the conversation.
TikTok apparently pays creators significantly more than other apps.
Look, TikTok is trash, but clearly the people championing this ban don’t care at all about data privacy or social media manipulation. Ban none, or ban them all.
The one true way to resolve this issue (IMO) is to pass a digital bill of rights, regulating these social media corporations, and forcing them to make their products safe for all ages.
Banning one of many is pissing in the wind, and I don’t enjoy urine in my face (no judgement if that’s your thing, it’s just not mine).
The one true way to resolve this issue (IMO) is to pass a digital bill of rights, regulating these social media corporations, and forcing them to make their products safe for all ages.
Nope it doesn’t work that way, it’s much more complicated than that.
“regulating these social media corporations” how? how exactly are you gonna regulate them?
no matter what you do, somebody complains. put good filters in to only show good news sites, and people complain it’s not “free speech”. Make free speech, and you get hate content.
also, “safe for all ages” is bullshit, it would require digital age verification, like PornHub in Florida. Check out how that went.
I thought the ban was a threat. What they really want is the success of Tiktok to be owned by the US. That’s why they were happy at one point if Tiktok sold to a US company.
Made in the USA… or taken by force.
Honestly you’re wrong. Tiktok has a lot of slop but it also has a lot of the front line reporting about social movements and crimes that Reddit thinks it has or maybe used to have.
Okay so you’re comparing one shitty platform with a shittier platform, who both believe that they’re informing people with shitty uninformed hot takes on said social movements and crimes.
I hope that’s sarcasm.
It’s about your rights.
I want to decide if tik tok is a horrible thing that I don’t want to use and then choose not to use it. I don’t need the government telling me what is okay and not okay. I’m a grown up and can make that decision for myself.
Cheat sheet: look at all government policies and politicians this way. Regardless if you agree or disagree with the topic/results look at what idea or concept or precedence it sets forth and decide from there. (I personally hate tik tok for many reasons, both socio and political in nature and think it should be burned from he earth - but I don’t support a ban on it) Second cheat sheet: if after that analysis you decide you support an idea, then ask how it gets paid for (whats the soirce of the financing) and who’s in charge of it (how the money gets spent) and what checks and measures are in place to keep it productive (how it gets regulated).
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The legal framework and argumentation used to justify the ban is worrisome and can be applied overbroadly in the suppression of speech.
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Despite this broad possible argumentation, it has just been, and will likely continue to be, wielded in a way targeted towards suppression of speech in a targeted, nationalistic, and at times overtly racist ways. (See: “Senator, I’m Singaporean, not Chinese.”)
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Like it or not, it’s become a large repository of internet history and online conversation. The loss of the platform is the loss of that history.
If the government had particular problems with the platform’s practices and behaviors, it would have been able to field an actual lawsuit with real charges, or levy fines. This “sell or be banned” is a clear grab for power more than any actual gesture towards protecting the people.
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I don’t use tiktok, I’ve never been interested in using tiktok, and if it was just going out of business or something then I would give precisely zero fuckaroos.
But I don’t need the government making the decision to block it for me arbitrarily. I confess that I’m not studied up on the reasoning behind blocking it (I’ve mostly heard about security concerns), but if Congress and the supreme court actually cared about digital security, then they’d be passing a bill of digital rights right now. Instead of doing that, they’re set on going after TikTok specifically, which tells us two things:
- Because they aren’t passing blanket digital privacy rights, it’s likely that TikTok is not the only company committing these privacy violations, but they don’t want to punish the “wrong” company.
- Given the previous point, it follows that they don’t actually care about digital privacy (duh), so the actual reason for banning them is likely something else. Other people in this thread have pointed out that the US government can’t control propaganda on TikTok like they can other social media, but it could also be as simple as clearing the way for American competitors/lobbyists who stand to profit from the ban.
So yeah, like you I don’t use tiktok so I’m not directly affected by the ban, I might’ve even supported it if it was due to an impartial bill of digital rights, but reasoning behind the actual ban is clearly bullshit on principle just by being so specific, and it sets a dangerous precedent. You saying that TikTok is shit so you don’t care if it gets injustly and unconstitutionally banned is no different then saying that George Floyd was a criminal so you don’t care if he was murdered by cops sans-due-process. You’re being distracted, soulifix. Think about it, if the government cared about addressing the issues with TikTok that you brought up in your post, why are they going after TikTok specifically instead of addressing that behavior generally?
Here’s Mitt Romney and Anthony Blinken’s explanation for the ban’s passage:
TLDR:
Then Romney explained that the TikTok ban overwhelmingly passed both chambers of Congress because of the widespread Palestinian advocacy on the app.
Thanks, and yeah that figures
Oh yeah I forgot they claimed all the Gaza footage on the app was faked by the Chinese and Russians…
God they’re so transparent sometimes.
I think it’s often personal, as opposed to objective. A lot of people simply like it and do not want to lose access to something they like.
It has its bads and a lot of the content is worthless trash, but it’s also a really good way to see what’s going on around the world from those people’s perspectives. You see a lot of stuff that doesn’t make it to Reddit or Twitter.
It’s a lot harder to be against Ukraine when you can see the horrors minutes after a Russian strike.
The government hates it because they can’t control it. They’d rather people only see what the mainstream media says, and not the fact everyone sympathizes with Luigi.
The free speech argument is genuine, despite how much I hate the shady practices of the platform.
I find it interesting that people here appear to be valuing the “free speech” aspects of tiktok, but Meta has been hounded this week for the change in its moderation this week leaving it much more up to the community and less autocratic.
striking a good recommendation algorithm is impossible.
no matter what you do, somebody will complain. if you filter “good” news sources, some complain about it not being “free” enough. If you allow everybody to say what they say, you’re gonna end up with a lot of hate speech.
TikTok for me has been this refreshing different media which wasn’t mostly about politics, but about private artists creating whatever they do.
The only people who support the ban are boot licking idiots who don’t know the real reason why it’s being banned in the first place. The only reason TikTok is being banned is Marky Mark and Muskrat don’t like competition to their own platforms. Platforms they are happy to censor for the US government’s own devices. TikTok isn’t doing anything other social media platforms are doing as far as data collection, they are just not based in the USA so Uncle Sam can’t step in and demand the data. The whole thing is a production of hypocrisy and goose stepping politics.
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Because it is a source of addiction imho
Because it’s clearly being banned, not because of privacy violations, not because of the nefarious impact of a foreign government, but because of the content that is shared on it. It is the only major social media platform with a strong pro-Palestinian viewpoint on it. And the people in Congress have been caught on camera explicitly stating this is why they want to ban it.
I hate Tiktok. I don’t use it. Never have. But I still don’t want to see the US turn its internet into the Great Firewall of China 2.0.
The leaders in Congress cannot stand the idea of there being a social media platform that is popular in the US that isn’t hosted in the US. Why? The answer is simple - control. All the US social media platforms are heavily influenced by the US government. Hell, most of them openly contract with the NSA. Facebook is an NSA contractor. These platforms get a ton of money from the US government. And despite what conservatives bitch at in regards to “being censored,” the real censorship is against anything that doesn’t advance US power and influence. Outside of Tiktok, the major platforms heavily censor pro-Palestinian messages and stories. Go to r/worldnews and post anything other than “Palestinians deserve to be vaporized,” and you’ll be banned within 5 minutes. It’s literally that bad. Even when outright bans aren’t in place, the platforms will severely down shift any pro-Palestinian content and keep it out of peoples’ feeds.
“Beware of he would would deny you access to information, for in his heart, he dreams himself your master.”
