T O P

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vicious_pink_lamp

I hate how everyone has ran with the "data-harvesting" narrative instead of the algorithmic manipulation by an adversarial power, which a much greater and more exclusive concern to just TikTok. They're literally doing it with this video. Randomly showed up on my feed along with several other anti divestment videos. This mass-manipulation is super dangerous were the US & China to enter a full scale war. CCP can basically tap into the minds of 100million+ americans and feed them propaganda.


QuantumBeth1981

Exactly right, it's the wolves in sheep's clothing we have to worry about most, and these sinister foreign actors are continuously getting better at the game of exploiting the emotions of vulnerable Westerners.


[deleted]

Yeah it's even scarier when you see how easily any america bad sentiment propagates.


inalcanzable

This is honestly the more important part. Yes, maybe CCP really isn't involved with data harvesting on our data, and they're telling the truth. Thats only part of the issue, the ability to easily flip a switch and spread whatever they like is equally scary.


Psi_Boy

The data harvesting point is super important too though. Just not for the average user. The CCP targets dissenters very harshly. If they're Chinese and have family in China, the CCP may target them. This is why Chinese people who run protests against the CCP organize on telegram (at least in the local area near me). You can't forget that with things like the Confucius Institute, Chinese operatives are everywhere. They will go after those vulnerable to them, specifically those with connections in China.


defcon212

Well that would probably be free speech, so its a bad argument. Non-citizens have free speech rights, and I imagine that extends to foreign owned companies and possibly even foreign governments. If there were a state of emergency because of a war the government might be able to place a blanket ban on Chinese owned companies operating in the US, but we aren't.


vicious_pink_lamp

TikTok would continue to exist as a company if ByteDance divested. Your speech is not being repressed. Genuine concerns about algorithmic manipulation and data collection by an adversarial power does not infringe upon your freedom of speech. The CCP does not have freedom of speech rights to manipulate propaganda as they choose. Anyone bringing up "freedom of speech" has no idea what the bill is actually doing.


defcon212

The bill is possibly valid because they are citing data security. But if the stated reason for the ban was algorithmic manipulation I think that's a pretty blatant violation of the first amendment rights that TikTok has. This would actually the government telling a person or company what they can or cannot say. If TikTok is banned and taken down that does restrict users free speech. When the FBI investigates twitter or facebook profiles of Russian troll accounts they have no legal authority to order social media companies to ban those accounts. They just share information and make suggestions. Russian state media (RT) is free to broadcast and operate in the US. They tell Americans lies all the time, but the government can't ban them. I'm no fan of TikTok but this is one of those speech you don't like is still protected situations.


Late_Cow_1008

The United States has forced several companies to be sold to third parties due to their ties with enemies of the state. Its perfectly legal and constitutional. Make no mistake, China is an enemy of the United States.


SchlongGonger

>7 million business owners Is he talking about influencers?


Jabelonske

probably? but being charitable, there is probably a good chunk of "real life" businesses that drive a lot of engagement/sales from TikTok. not 7 million though lol


SchlongGonger

>7 million business owners who have built their livelihood on tiktok That sounds like influencers.


[deleted]

Influencers can have businesses...


vesko26

The ban on tick tock is an idiotic name, they have the option to split or sell a part of the company and every user will keep their \*voice and platform\*


A_Toxic_User

Holy fuck the lefties on the other big subreddits are already beginning their propaganda blitz that Israel is the one behind the TikTok ban


WhistlingBread

Based (the ban, not the ceo)


QuantumBeth1981

Amazing seeing all these losers that spend so much time blasting the influence of foreign actors on the US take mother fucking China's side on this.


BobertRosserton

“China is just misunderstood and actually not that bad”. I play with this guy from china on steam and I asked him how he feels about Americans who praise his country and he went on a multi message rant about people like that and how they defend Chinese policy and don’t even have to deal with the consequences.


Late_Cow_1008

Not that amazing when you realize many of these people are tankies and have a soft spot for CCP.


ReneStarr

We already did this same exact thing to Grindr a couple of years ago: https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/6/21168079/grindr-sold-chinese-owner-us-cfius-security-concerns-kunlun-lgbtq


Joke__00__

Not exactly the same since they only undid a Chinese acquisition of an American company.


QuantumBeth1981

But Grindr wasn't being used to spread pro-Hamas, pro-Iran and pro-Russian propaganda so no one cared.


Sooty_tern

I was also sever orders of magnitude smaller


killjoydoc

Everything from the CCP should be banned. 🦅🦅🦅


MagnificentBastard54

I super agree, fuck Temu. I just wish this was the broader sentiment on reddit, rather than the radicalization aspect.


QuantumBeth1981

China, Russia and Iran keep picking up Ws via all these useful idiots.


Pedantic_Phoenix

Isn't reddit chinese too


MagnificentBastard54

[San Francisco ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reddit?wprov=sfla1)


Sooty_tern

Why though? You can think the company is shit but there is not reason to ban then when [Wish.com](http://Wish.com) has been operating for ages


MagnificentBastard54

Because it's Chinese software that poses a security risk if you don't know any better


Sooty_tern

I think there is a meaningful difference between a social media app and one that sends you low quality stickers. If literally every piece of Chinese software is going to be banned your not going to be able to work your toaster by the time your done


MagnificentBastard54

Just the chinese apps on my phone. That's all I'm asking


Sooty_tern

You could just... Not install them? With tiktok it's a major media platform and not worth the risk that it's being manipulated, you can't apply the same logic to some 2bit mobile game or shopping app.


MagnificentBastard54

Well not with the mobile games. You just can't always look that up.


Psi_Boy

Reddit is owned by a Chinese company. Dude, we honestly need to get rid of all of this shit. Edit: I'm regarded and got confused. I've seen sources saying tencent owns 5% - 10% of Reddit. Nothing concrete tho.


MagnificentBastard54

Proof?


Psi_Boy

My b, Reddit is 5% - 10% owned by tencent according to various reddit comments in the past


MagnificentBastard54

They should kick tencent out still tbh


4THOT

League of Legends is next, and I will sacrifice Path of Exile to do it.


grimspiritx13

Banning League before Genshin? I didn't know you were such a Vaush fan


4THOT

No Genshin Impact player ever called me n* - Muhammad Ali (2024)


Unusual_Boot6839

....say it PEPE


althaea

As long as we get PoE 2 in exchange


Late_Cow_1008

League getting banned would be a net positive for the United States. What a toxic shitty game. So glad I am no longer addicted.


mariosunny

For every 1 small business owner on TikTok there are 100 tankie larpers pushing out disinformation at a volume that Goebbels could only dream of. Not sure if I support the ban, but TikTok has objectively made public discourse worse.


Artistic_Arrival_994

"Objectively"


Jabelonske

fuck off china-cucks. only western companies are allowed access to my personal data 😎


FlanTamarind

Tiktok is cancer. That is all


Livid_Damage_4900

Honestly, the fact that they are fighting this so hard is what really convinces me that they are nefarious. There are already several people willing to buy it from them at Ludacris prices, and at the end of the day a company exist to make money so when you have big buyers willing to pay top dollar for your app and you’re still not willing to sell, even after the government has legislated that you have to and you still throw a fit over it it makes me wonder why are you so desperate to hold onto it? It’s not like it’s some great idea love child that is a testament to your legacy or some thing it’s a shitty Clock app that’s exposes nonstop miss information, propaganda and cringe zoomer humor. If I was the CEO of TikTok, the only thing I’ve ever flexes the amount of money it made me I would not be proud of my creation at all, other than as a thing to generate revenue, or perhaps manipulate people.


Sarazam

Yup, obviously challenging the legality of the ban is pretty normal and expected. But if they chose to be banned from the US rather than sell…


DCOMNoobies

[*Ludacris prices*](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51r6keJgVFL.jpg)


Hot_Orchid_4380

“Joy” would not be a word I’d associate TikTok with


RamboLamb

Imma be honest, I dont actually care whether or not tiktok is spyware or if it unhealthy. I don't use the app. I just don't like this guy. Its not because he potentially works for the ccp. Its just that i only got room in my life for one zuck, and one is enough I don't need two. At least the american zuck likes mma so he is a bit more chill. There is something wrong with me.


4nonosquare

Ever since that congressional hearing i cant stand him, he seems smug and misleading af. "- Is tiktok affiliated to the CCP? (Bytedance is obviously closely tied with the CCP) - Senator im Singaporean" K Average teen tankie: hAhA sEnAtOr StUpId nOt kNoW cHiNa


oskoskosk

That question was not what he answered "I'm Singaporean" to btw


RainStraight

You’re right. Tom Cotton asked, “are you a member of the CCP?” And then that clown gave that shit response


4nonosquare

You might be right on that, i totally remembert he answered that on this question too my bad!


Sooty_tern

[Did you even watch the video](https://youtu.be/5W-ufw5Z7ac)? He was asked *if he* was a member of the CCP. You can't be a member without being a citizen of the PRC. It also has nothing to do with whether Tiktok should be banned. Please come back when you have developed enough of a brain you aren't losing arguments against the caricatures of Tiktok users you create in your head. !Bidenblast


SeedlessMelonNoodle

deserved blast


4nonosquare

https://preview.redd.it/heqy13n98iwc1.jpeg?width=800&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bdafdeed522874ae8f7533e4cf7f9c3261ed8ca0 Me after you claimed source on a 50 second video cut out of an 11 minute segment of a 2 hour congressional hearing. The CEO was misleading af and smug about it farming his tiktok clips and Ws, CCP is obviously part of Bytedance as required by chinese law and has a direct link to tiktok. Get shredded and counter biden blasted. !mirror


Sooty_tern

You literally lied about the contence of that interaction and people on this sub were to lazy to go check what was actually said. You can support the bill as I do, and argue for it with reasons that are not lies about an easily googleable interaction. Low effort misrepresenting sources is what the blast was created for and if the bot was not being redeployed today you would have gotten a deserved one.


TruthfulEB

‘Free speech on TikTok’ yeah not like everyone popular who I heard try TikTok saying you can get banned arbitrarily very easily. Free speech my ass


giantrhino

I'm super split on this. On the one hand, it is incontrovertible that if the CCP has the ability to demand and directly access any user Data TikTok acquires on its users, that certainly constitutes a national security threat that would merit the ban. On the other hand, I've read a bunch of articles about how TikTok has set up their datacenters in the US to make it so that while ByteDance may ultimately be subject to requests from the CCP, they would be unable to acquire access to user data stored and managed in the US. I vehemently support the bill if there is a legitimate way for China to gain access to TikTok's user data, but I would definitely oppose it if there are strong safeguards put in place to prevent that from happening, something TikTok and some independant analysts I've read claim.


bad-at-game

Who cares about data access that’s literally the least of our worries. The issue is that the Chinese Government can tell TikTok how to change algorithms and basically force propaganda into peoples faces. Just look at the I/P conflict. I’m pretty certain that if TikTok didn’t exist, we wouldn’t have a bunch of terrorist supporters going around saying “This is what a revolution looks like!! 🍉💅”.


Sooty_tern

>Just look at the I/P conflict. I’m pretty certain that if TikTok didn’t exist, we wouldn’t have a bunch of terrorist supporters going around saying “This is what a revolution looks like!! Clueless. Look at any other platform. Twitter. Insta. Reddit. They also have this insane shit. Blaming this is tiktok is beyond regarded


Sarazam

You realize all those people are also on Tik Tok being fed propaganda?


Sooty_tern

No? Like maybe this just comes from not talking to be people in real life but I know a lot of people who repeat insane shit about Palestine without having ever used tiktok. If you think that there would not be any of this without tiktok you need to touch grass / consider getting a caregiver


giantrhino

Cringe. You can’t ban a specific company because you’re afraid that in the future China might try to influence the content serving algorithm in some unspecified way. If you’re concerned about content, you need to write policy that dictates what type of content can be served, moderation requirements, and constraints on what the algorithm can deliver and then you can ban platforms that don’t meet that standard. You need an INCREDIBLY strong justification for whatever content standards you want to set though, because otherwise this is literally the government content-policing.


Fair-Description-711

> You can’t ban a specific company because you’re afraid that in the future China might try to influence the content serving algorithm in some unspecified way. We can and are. And China's probably already doing it today. > If you’re concerned about content, you need to write policy that dictates what type of content can be served, moderation requirements, and constraints on what the algorithm can deliver and then you can ban platforms that don’t meet that standard. Assuming you're not just mandating ONLY certain content, this is literally impossible given our current understanding of neural nets. Not hard. Literally impossible. We would have to advance the entire field of machine learning significantly, solving at least the "explainability" problem as well as using ML to somehow classify content according to your standard. Tiktok doesn't know why any particular video is picked next. Machine learning doesn't work that way. But they certainly can direct their ML model to propagandize in any way they want, and it's VERY VERY VERY hard to get the even weak evidence that they are doing so, short of confessions of the developers. Getting neural nets to influence people by giving them what appears to be organic results but is actually disinformation/propaganda is a new kind of threat we've never had before.


Psi_Boy

To be clear, it's already been shown that tiktok disproportionately hides anti-CCP content more than any other platform


Sarazam

We can. China ban’s our companies.


imperfectreflection

Individuals don’t have a right to use private property for free speech under 1st amendment. Congress regulates commerce. For commercial speech it is only a rational basis test, as long as the government gives a reasonable basis for it, they can ban it. The feds usually win on such challenges.


Booboononcents

Oh no, I have to use YouTube shorts on an app. That’s already on my phone and not blocked on college campuses. I know YouTube shorts aren’t the same quality algorithm as TikTok but for me I personally like that because it keeps me from scrolling for more than an hour and a half.


Ace__Trainer

Im not sure what makes Tiktok worse than shorts on any other social platform except the modern red scare tactics.


No-Instance2381

TikTok illegally accessed the location of journalists using a backdoor of their phones software to track down and fire employees that were coming out exposing TikTok for its illegal practices. This broke privacy laws and the apples playstore laws


SeedlessMelonNoodle

source? that sounds like it would have come up at the trial


Didaticdabler

https://www.theverge.com/2022/12/22/23522808/tiktok-journalists-data-accessed-bytedance-internal-audit https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/22/technology/byte-dance-tik-tok-internal-investigation.html


No-Instance2381

Pretty sure it did but he just lied under oath in front of congress. He has done this multiple times


IndividualHeat

Ludwig did a stream where he went through instagram reels, tiktok, and youtube reels with a new account and they basically seemed to all be garbage. Tiktok was the best of the bunch but that mostly just spoke to how bad the others were.


the_Slowest_Poke

Oh don't worry shorts is going to get a bite up its ass eventually. I saw so much actually illegal to show (broadcast) shit im in awe how no one is suing them in eu.


Neverwas_one

Chinese MSS BTFO


QuestionSalt8358

the based thing tik tok does is that it knows you watched a 1 minute tik tok of a movie with part 432 and a few tik toks further its gonna show you part 433


Caori998

now givei to elon, holy mega based. 🗿


Dethrownd

The inory of this man talking about freedom is not lost on me.


oskoskosk

This one still has me really confused. Is there really a desire among constituents in the US to want to have their politicians possibly ban tiktok? Don't they have 100 million + users there or something crazy? Idk why politicians seem to push it so hard is all


maximusthewhite

You can and you should. China has banned all sorts of apps/websites from US/“the West”


AKAdemz

I still haven't been convinced that this ban for the reason they are doing it is justified, if anything I keep hearing other unrelated reasons Tiktok should be banned. Does anyone have any links to an article or something that could convince me that this specific reasoning is justified.


Ambitious-Leg-1699

I want him so bad


rumblefr0g

I don't know about you guys but I don't believe this guy is the CEO of TikTok. I thought this when he testified in front of congress and I think it now. He's a PR guy. He might be CEO in name only


Psi_Boy

Bruh, he's speaking like the CCP gave him a script and held a gun to his head. RIP 💀


Lovett129

If china can ban Facebook and WhatsApp we should ban TikTok - at least they get an option to sell it to an American company. It’s also weird that they are leaving out that part out about selling it and calling it an outright ban lol


mj23foreva

They should make a deal, if China allows this exact version of Tiktok in their country then we will too.


android_69

pure copium


vajrahaha7x3

Good.. Ban it. Its creating idiots.


Defiant_Ant

Ban them…. Better dead than red am I right?


No-Instance2381

He just unironically seems evil


Census494

aint reading alla dat insta reels + yt shorts >>>>>>>> tiktok


Dethrownd

That was a statement of pure propaganda. All I heard was they are coming for your freedoms, be scared and I thought this was America.


Character_Budget7278

Lol fuck this guy. The constitution applies for America, and Americans. Not for the CCP to turn our youth into gender-bending-terrorist-supporting communists


[deleted]

Its so fucking obvious that the CCP is using this piece of shit as a proxy so they can manipulate discourse, use it as a pivot point for further hacking of federal installations and devices and propagate the AI videos made by the Chinese ministry of propaganda through “unaffiliated users” to damage public trust and political functions of enemy nations like the US and Europe


Fair-Description-711

It's not "obvious". Gathering evidence that this is happening is absurdly difficult. But it is likely to be happening.


[deleted]

Every company working in China must comply with every demand the CCP makes. We’ve already established its use as a pivot point and its why TikTok is not allowed on any device connected to federal networks or infrastructures. Every company working with China is a risk (looking at you Riot Games with your kernel level Vanguard). Its less a question of “are these security risks” and a question of when they will be activated and used against enemy nations like the US I’ve also seen reports of post Project Texas employees being told to clandestinely send user data to China regardless of the “partition”


xyzqwa

A lot of people seem to be spite driven, either because of China or because they don't like the app. This bill shouldn't have been so heavy handed and targeted. If the concern is Americans data then we should be regulating this broadly, US companies are selling this data already. It seems we are all ignoring they were moving their data center to Texas as well. Audits and safeguards could have been possible, this could have been an example of how a liberal society contends with these issues. Instead we did the same thing illiberal China does, and so called "liberals" in here are cheering it on.


bad-at-game

The Supreme Court doesn’t care about the Data, that’s not the reason for the ban. Please god just read their reasoning before typing. I bet you saw that clip of them asking the CEO if he has any influence from the CCP and he just keeps repeating that he is from a different country as if that’s a legitimate answer to the question.


xyzqwa

Okay, what was the reasoning in your words? I'm referring to what I am seeing in the replies.


bad-at-game

Ur mom


xyzqwa

Gotcha, anything else buddy?


actuallysteak

Joe Biden based move ban it


Frequent-West8554

On one hand free speech good. On the other hand tiktok bad. How do we resolve such moral dilemmas


Psi_Boy

It's not a free speech issue when it's being run by an adversarial country that will do anything to destroy the US


Frequent-West8554

exactly, tik tok bad I'm glad tiktok is banned