this post was submitted on 15 Mar 2024
147 points (80.0% liked)

Technology

34454 readers
324 users here now

This is the official technology community of Lemmy.ml for all news related to creation and use of technology, and to facilitate civil, meaningful discussion around it.


Ask in DM before posting product reviews or ads. All such posts otherwise are subject to removal.


Rules:

1: All Lemmy rules apply

2: Do not post low effort posts

3: NEVER post naziped*gore stuff

4: Always post article URLs or their archived version URLs as sources, NOT screenshots. Help the blind users.

5: personal rants of Big Tech CEOs like Elon Musk are unwelcome (does not include posts about their companies affecting wide range of people)

6: no advertisement posts unless verified as legitimate and non-exploitative/non-consumerist

7: crypto related posts, unless essential, are disallowed

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] themurphy@lemmy.world 55 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Are we acting like the US isn't the biggest surveillance state existing in all history?

So because there's one app they don't control the data on, we need to ban it? Sounds like the free market to me.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Delphia@lemmy.world 43 points 6 months ago (13 children)

Yes, and?

Does anyone think that China is just full of the warm fuzzies and wants us all to hold hands, make smores and sing kumbaya? They are every bit after power as the US is to hold onto it.

[–] OldWoodFrame@lemm.ee 6 points 6 months ago

Yeah it's sort of like accusing a presidential campaign of being "all about gaining political power". Of course that's the goal. That's not the metric by which you should judge its actions.

load more comments (12 replies)
[–] FluffyPotato@lemm.ee 38 points 6 months ago

Large centralised social media platform should all be banned. I miss the times when all you had was forums hosted in someone's basement, the Internet was a better place. Short form video content is the worst of the bunch though.

[–] delirious_owl@discuss.online 21 points 6 months ago

Democrats have convinced themselves taking over TikTok is the solution to their problems, but the reality is that if Joe Biden signs this bill into law when he is already tanking in the polls, particularly with young voters, he will hand the election to Trump. The youth will not forgive a party that was so extreme it banned or hijacked their favourite platform to censor them in order to keep a genocide going.

Best line is at the end

[–] Facebones@reddthat.com 14 points 6 months ago

They didn't care about it being China owned

They didn't care about data sharing

Share info on the platform the US can't censor though and then it's ban time 😂

[–] makeasnek@lemmy.ml 10 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (8 children)

Yes, I too would love the US president to decide which social media platforms I am allowed to legally use and who I can legally communicate with. I'm so scared China is going to, checks notes, influence my opinion that I'm willing to sacrifice my free speech rights in the process. Regulate me harder, daddy! 😍

[–] maryjayjay@lemmy.world 6 points 6 months ago

It's actually Congress

load more comments (7 replies)
[–] Varyk@sh.itjust.works 9 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

Yikes, what a flawed set of premises.

" What if Canada did the same thing to the US? They did!"

No, they didn't. Canada tried to boost Canadian media presence on American streaming platforms.

Making sure gooby gets an international viewing is very different from transmitting information to an overtly hostile government known for cyber attacks on its international peers.

"The platform isn't a national security threat".

It's a fact that the app TikTok is based off of, Douyin, sends the private data of every user straight to bytedance, owned in powerful minority stake by the Chinese government and that tiktok did the same thing with US user data until they promised they stopped a couple years ago.

As of January 2024 however, whoops, US citizen data(names, birthdates, location) is still being sent back to bytedance: https://www.wsj.com/tech/tiktok-pledged-to-protect-u-s-data-1-5-billion-later-its-still-struggling-cbccf203?mod=followamazon

It's not some baseless concern, it's a national security consequence against data disclosures that were already carried out and have continued to this year despite assurances 2 years ago that data leaks to bytedance are not happening.

"Instrument of soft power"

Marvel movies becoming super popular internationally is an example of soft power. Gathering the personal information of users with a continuing precedent attacking US digital infrastructures and democratic institutions is not soft power, it is hostile statecraft.

I am not a proponent of monolithic tech companies nor am I particularly aligned against international competition in tech supremacy, but this ban isn't about theoretical cultural competition.

This tiktok ban is about the recent gathering of personal information that can be used to assess and attack digital infrastructures and electoral behaviors by entities that are continually attacking digital infrastructures and electoral processes, entities focused on consolidating power not within some international free market of soft cultural influence but by gathering and consolidating power and using that power to forward state ambitions.

[–] firefly@neon.nightbulb.net 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

@Varyk@sh.itjust.works @davel@lemmy.ml

If we wanted national data and communication security we would shut off the transatlantic cables and physically separate the U.S. Internet from the rest of the world. All matters of diplomacy could be conducted in public courts at the coastlines instead of over telephone wires and emails. Problem solved. We could set up a nice star-spangled curtain and let all the globalists rot from the fallout.

[–] Varyk@sh.itjust.works 2 points 6 months ago (5 children)

"Afraid of your neighbor's dog? Never leave your room, add a harness to your bed and strap in, wear plate armor at all times".

Not exactly practical.

There are ways to improve security without immobilizing yourself.

Blocking the widespread distribution and use of an app that sends personal and national data to a hostile government actively collecting and using that data to conduct digital and electoral attacks is not immobilizing, it's a simple step with zero downside that safeguards hundreds of millions of people.

load more comments (5 replies)
[–] mynamesnotrick@lemmy.zip 8 points 6 months ago (1 children)

The probability of a war between the US and China is very high as judged by the US military. Prominently over the Taiwan situation. Having service members with tiktok on their devices would be terrible for opsec. To me this confirms that we are continuing to track on that train of thought. With that line of thinking this seems to an increased likelihood. Be careful out there folks.

Just my thoughts...

[–] Chozo@fedia.io 16 points 6 months ago (7 children)

I thought government employees were already banned from having TikTok on their devices. Does that not also apply to military personnel?

[–] ZapBeebz_@lemmy.world 9 points 6 months ago

TikTok is banned from official devices, i.e. and phone provided by the DoD, etc. There is no ban on it being on a personal phone; just a strong recommendation against having the app.

load more comments (6 replies)
[–] delirious_owl@discuss.online 5 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Bans can be bypassed, but my concern is if the new law makes it criminal to use tiktok. If so, the media should stop saying "tiktok ban" and instead say "new law makes it a crime to use tiktok"

[–] gorgori@lemmy.world 4 points 6 months ago (3 children)

It's a hosting ban on US servers and app stores. People already downloaded the app will continue to be able to use it.

That is if Bytedance doesn't sell.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] Omega_Haxors@lemmy.ml 3 points 6 months ago

Seeing as how Mussolini has a daughter who is alive today and just as fascist as their father, is this person Marx' descendant?

load more comments
view more: next ›