https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/7521
Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act
This bill prohibits distributing, maintaining, or providing internet hosting services for a foreign adversary controlled application (e.g., TikTok). However, the prohibition does not apply to a covered application that executes a qualified divestiture as determined by the President.
Under the bill, a foreign adversary controlled application is directly or indirectly operated by (1) ByteDance, Ltd. or TikTok (including their subsidiaries or successors); or (2) a social media company that is controlled by a foreign adversary and has been determined by the President to present a significant threat to national security. The prohibition does not apply to an application that is primarily used to post product reviews, business reviews, or travel information and reviews.
The bill authorizes the Department of Justice to investigate violations of the bill and enforce the bill’s provisions. Entities that violate the bill are subject to civil penalties based on the number of users.
The bill requires a covered application to provide a user with all available account data (including posts, photos, and videos) at the user’s request before the prohibition takes effect.
The bill gives the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia exclusive jurisdiction over any challenge to the bill. Further, a challenge to the bill must be brought within 165 days after the bill’s enactment date. A challenge to any action, finding, or determination under the bill must be brought with 90 days of the action, finding, or determination.
It also ignores the reality of the good social media has done for the world.
The Arab Spring is almost always cited as Twitter being good. But it was also good for a lot of activism and reporting regarding the BLM protests, police brutality, etc. And that was all while twitter had incredibly restrictive rules on what could be posted without getting banned or shadowbanned (just ask sex workers).
And… even Tiktok has been a good force for that. It largely slotted into that similar role and, propaganda issues aside, is still a great source to educate people on the genocide in Palestine and the failed attempt at genocide in Ukraine.
Oh sure. If not for the Arab Spring, we wouldn’t have slave markets in Libya and Houthis firing rockets into the Gulf of Adan.
The organizing and activism that gave birth to BLM in 2014 was corrupted and occluded by social media, with dozens of astroturfed groups popping up to take credit and grift people out of donations. There was a brief period of massive public organizing through these online systems, but once law enforcement and business got on the same page, real organizations got stiffled by administrators and mass surveillance while only the toxic / scammy accounts were allowed to remain. A number of leading BLM activists died under mysterious circumstances while subsequent incarnations were little more than parasites on the movement
There’s definitely some benefit to a social media system that exists outside the grasping hand of domestic police and private finance. But this is still a firm being run out of a Singapore conglomerate’s international media office. Not exactly a bastion of good governance and equitable public service.
TikTok might not be an arm of the national security state, but it is still a profit motivated business enterprise. If it is a force for any kind of good, that is tangential to its mission of maximizing revenues and minimizing costs.
Also cannot be overstated how these only tools become addictive and socially transformative in ways that aren’t particularly good.
TrueAnon had a great piece on this, exploring how people continuously exposing themselves to the mannerisms and hysterics of TikTok influencers were developing all sorts of weird social quirks and neurosises, as they implicitly begin mimicking the behaviors of performers.
This isn’t in any way unique to TikTok. Continuous consumption of old fashion TV has produced similar effects. But its illustrative of an innate social harm caused by attention-grabbing phone apps and continuous, disjointed, extremely loud and incredibly close displays have on human cognition.
Yes. If “just” protesting guaranteed a good outcome, the world would be a better place. And if we could know the long term outcome of any event then things would also be a lot better.
But the fact of the matter is: Twitter provided people with a way to not only see the outside world but to also coordinate protests and activism. It ALSO allowed bad actors to do the same. If you can find a way to enable the former while preventing the latter… I would say you have a trillion dollar idea but you probably just have a trip to a black site in your future.
So… what you are saying is that having a discussion and organization platform is good until there is government (because cops are basically the government) intervention?
Mostly your post is just the textbook internet “but it isn’t perfect so it is horrible”
As for
Its almost like I also complained about that when talking about how I am conflicted on this ban.
But, as you acknowledge, this is nothing new. Speech patterns have taken on a LOT of “california-isms” due to so much of media being filmed in California (or a few hours away by plane in Vancouver). And there are a LOT of concerns over what that means for language. We make fun of Quebec and France but there are also languages that are more or less dead at this point because of cultural blending. And while there are a LOT of good aspects to that, there are also a lot of “bad” aspects.
I do not like what tiktok is doing to the world. But one of the things that bothers me the most is the editing of audio to remove ANY pauses. But I am also self-aware enough to understand that “Ugh. I don’t need to know that I turn left at the place that used to be a barn. Just give me the address” is a similar feeling.
Which is why I don’t think “tiktok is bad for culture” is an argument unless it is backed up by medical and sociological research.
But instead we sent in the French Air Force to destabilize Libya and funneled billions in weapons to Israel in our proxy war with Syria and Lebanon and Iran - all of which underwent their own protests and none of which seemed to meaningfully improve from the revolts. The revolution in Egypt only lasted long enough to hold elections, which were immediately undone by a western backed military coup (because the winners were too Muslim-y for our tastes). Meanwhile, the Saudis managed to escape the Green Revolution comparatively unscathed for mysterious reasons nobody seems interested in talking about. And in Palestine, well… Anyone want to ask what happened to the peace marchers in Gaza in 2018??
Several left-wing activists had their Twitter accounts suspended after a false-report campaign by far-right users
This isn’t the first time its happened or even the only social media system that’s done it. Reddit, Facebook, YouTube…
Social media feels more and more like a honeypot. If nothing else, it is a graveyard of movements - from OWS to BLM - that never develop any kind of party character and always get overrun with grifters in the end.
Which the podcast I linked goes into.