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?
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 imagine because a lot of people use it as a way to run their independent business now, TikTok accounted for $24 billion in gross GDP in 2023. Banning TikTok would be really disruptive to all the people who started using it to run a business, and while they will eventually find a new platform it will be disruptive for them in the short run https://newsroom.tiktok.com/en-us/tiktok-economic-impact-report-2024-smb
Another reason is that it’s relatively unfiltered stream of information where people can discuss issues like the genocide in Palestine that are censored on US owned platforms. If you don’t see why that’s important I don’t know what else to tell you.
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
Because it’s censorship by the goverment? also all the bad shit you mentioned can be easily found in most other social media too, should those be banned as well then?
they’re banning tiktok because people there are denouncing the crimes of israel and, and the ties to the US gvt, and they can’t force censorship like they can on US-based platforms, which are as bad, or even worse, in terms of data protection (since they keep selling & getting the data break which will inevitably end up in chinese hands anyway)
government bans social media because it makes it too easy to see the devastating results of wars that we profit off of
“Who cares about Tik Tok dances?!?!”
I hate everything the US government does
A TikTok ban would consolidate more power into the hands of Mark Zuckerberg and Meta. Arguably, that’s worse.
I don’t care about tik tok, I hate it. But its concerning how the government could just bypass the first amendment. They could ban Lemmy Instances next.
I can’t believe it, but this is like the least argued part of this whole thing. But IMO it’s the only thing that matters.
I don’t think it’s talked about because it’s missing the point, isn’t it? It’s about digital security and privacy. The fact that it’s a social media platform doesn’t make a difference. If a mobile game were able to harvest data inappropriately the same way, wouldn’t the problem be the same?
Not that I agree with the ban, but making it about freedom of speech seems like a stretch to me.
Its not about privacy or data collection they already forced TikTok to use us based servers of a us company, which by law has to give the government any data without notifying the user. Its purely about control an censorship. Also why would they allow fair competition in the free market.
I don’t think it’s talked about because it’s missing the point, isn’t it? It’s about digital security and privacy. The fact that it’s a social media platform doesn’t make a difference. If a mobile game were able to harvest data inappropriately the same way, wouldn’t the problem be the same?
If that was the actual reason then the same ban would apply to all other platforms like Meta and Google. Clearly, the US government doesn’t give two shits about security and privacy as long as they’re not cut out of the loop.
It’s about digital security and privacy.
To whom? Not the law makers who caused this to happen. If that were the case, maybe they would write laws that reflected that instead of just banning one company.
If a mobile game were able to harvest data inappropriately the same way, wouldn’t the problem be the same?
Where are all the mobile apps that Congress explicitly banned?
I enjoy tiktok (using Vanced) but I don’t care if it goes away tomorrow. With that said, I don’t like this ban as it sets a precedent where corporations can just ban the competition.
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).
It matters whether the government can do things like this at all, because if they can do it to TikTok, they can do it to anyone and anything else. TikTok may or may not be a good platform, that doesn’t matter at all.
there’s also an economic problem with banning tiktok: tens of millions of americans rely on it as a source of income and its banning will effectively become the biggest layoff in american history and will have detrimental impacts to our already fraught economic situation.
I’m extremely skeptical that tens of millions of people, a huge percentage of the working population, make any significant income from TikTok. Do you have a source for that?
it’s in the court transcripts.
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.
👆
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.
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 removed 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.”
