I wish but seriously the dumbest shit ever. China is not spying on your oafish american ass they literally could care less.

    • 7bicycles [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      8 months ago

      Dems should ban kids from calling me cheugy

      This isn’t as far away as you think and we’re pretty much there in the UK and Germany where "Somebody called me an asshole on facebook after I announced the project start for “Turning the local skate park into a snake pit in which to throw all unruly children” has somehow become a national emergency

  • Assian_Candor [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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    It’s not about spying it’s about corporate theft. US can’t stomach the next big growth platform being owned by a Chinese company. A TikTok ban is a gift to meta/google as it would basically force a fire sale of that division and nobody else would have the capital to buy it.

    If they pass the ban the Chinese gov should buy it from douyin and shut it down. The salt would pour freely

    • Tankiedesantski [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      Nah I think the best thing for the Chinese government to do would be to direct Tik Tok to leave the US market. Put it on Huawei app store or something and watch all the zoomers learn how to sideload apps.

      If Tik Tok leaves the US market it’ll still be a huge social media player in Europe and the rest of the world. That would be an American soft power nightmare - a global platform that Americans are blocked from influencing on by their own laws.

        • Adkml [he/him]@hexbear.net
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          It sucks this is what’s probably going to happen because it’s the worse of all options.

          Damn you China for actually being level headed and thinking with long term strategies instead of doing something funny in the short term.

          • MelianPretext [they/them]@hexbear.net
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            It’s not going to happen.

            Nor would its proposed forced sale be “level headed” or a good “long term strategy.” The rightful focus from leftists on the social health impact of short form apps has apparently also consequently given tunnel vision from seeing what’s really at stake in the eyes of the American state apparatus.

            Yes, Bytedance’s CEO is a complete wannabe comprador who constantly stated how much he worships the West before his company got into the crosshairs, but we’ve been seeing the “Tiktok Forced Sale” skit happening for 4 years now. Trump first tried to do it before in the summer of 2020 as a last feather in his cap before the election. His attempt failed as well.

            At that time, in reaction to the attack on Tiktok actually, China released a technology export law restricting the sale or transfer of sensitive algorithms. That’s what this is really about on the business side, the US wanting to steal a free lunch from China and setting a long lasting precedent through Tiktok’s forced sale so that future Chinese tech can be expropriated. This happened to France when Alstom was forcibly sold to GE back in 2015. That export law is what’s going to ultimately block this forced sale attempt. It would be better in China’s interests for Tiktok to be banned than allowed to be stolen by the US.

            Additionally, what should be said is that Tiktok really is a “threat” to the US state apparatus. All the whitewashing, misdirection and partisanship over the Twitter Files evidently has successfully misdirected people from the real bombshell confirmations they showed. Companies like Twitter and Facebook have active communication channels with US state officials, where they algorithmically boost accounts and content created by the US and suppress the visibility of contrary content via email contact directives.

            Tiktok USA/Global, while basically controlled by US personnel, including ex-NSA officials, at this point, is still ultimately connected to its parent company. This makes Tiktok a “perpetual outsider” and the establishment of similar censorship channels much more vulnerable to exposure, at least psychologically. The existence of Tiktok is, with no exaggeration, a massive challenge to the US state’s complete hegemonic monopoly on social media platforms in the English speaking world.

            This is why the attempts to ban Tiktok are currently the predominant “China” concern and have been for the past 4 years.

        • Tankiedesantski [he/him]@hexbear.net
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          That might happen, yeah. I don’t want to come off like a “trust the plan” type, but I do like the saying “Americans player checkers, Russians play chess, Chinese play Go”.

          Let the Yanks smile as they yell “King me!”

          • Frogmanfromlake [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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            That’s more or less how it’s going. There’s still Temu and other apps that the US tries to demonize as they’re widely used by the rest of the world. I don’t doubt that China has other apps that will rival American apps. The blue jeans are no longer in the US and I don’t think China will end up like Japan in the 90’s either.

            It also got banned in India where Youtube Shorts and Indian apps like JOSH filled the gap.

            • NoLeftLeftWhereILive@hexbear.net
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              I also have a small pet theory about Temu and others like it and why they are entering the Western market so strongly right now: this is Chinese firms taking the lead in being the one selling treats to Westoids like me with less middle men. As they are the ones making all the things. Bezos doesn’t get a cut and it’s the same stuff they sell on Amazon or in my local supermarket.

              People will follow their material interest and buy from there because it’s cheaper and easier. I hear a lot of Temu discourse in my country atm and everyone is ordering and not listening to the attemps to discredit it. Prices here are high enough, if you can get those gardening tools for 1/5th of the price you will not buy the expensive ones.

              Eventually Chinese firms just sell the stuff they make straight to the consumers globally and none of the Western billionaires get a cut.

        • zed_proclaimer [he/him]@hexbear.net
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          Yep and because it’s the most cravenly option it’s probably what’s going to happen. China never fails to disappoint me outside of their borders.

    • Adkml [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      8 months ago

      Chinese government should buy it and just exclude the American market.

      All the kids will get vpns in 48 hours and how much America sucks ass will be the main kind of content on tik tok.

    • mechwarrior2 [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      “One of the main effects of the legislation would be to decrease the sale price,” said Matt Perault, director of the University of North Carolina’s Center on Technology Policy, which gets funding from TikTok and other tech companies. “As you approach that 180-day clock, the pressure on the company to sell or risk being banned entirely would be high, which would mean probably the acquirers could get it at a lower price.”

      https://fortune.com/2024/03/13/will-tiktok-be-banned-or-acquired-walmart-oracle/

  • Adkml [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    Literally just banning it so now China has to pay Facebook a nominal fee for the data.

    I genuinely hope this causes young people to radicalize. They’ve been asking for a decade for somebody to do something about them being murdered by the dozens in school and after doing nothing they’re going to ban the social media site young people use after allowing Facebook to do the same thing the whole time under the guise of “protecting children”.

    It’d be hard to come up with a more effective way to tell them electing dems doesn’t accomplish anything good.

    • zed_proclaimer [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      8 months ago

      they’re “protecting children” from each other, because it’s other kids posting all the pro-Palestine content that congress wants to shut down

  • HexbearGPT [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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    Old people scared of china, and banning tiktok because of it, can be traced directly back to leaded gasoline brain poisoning, several studies have confirmed. brainworms

  • sourquincelog [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    “concerned citizens are contacting their representatives to not ban tiktok. This is a clear indicator that they are addicted and being manipulated, so we must ban tiktok”

    What prevents the intelligence apparatus from controlling tiktok content the same way they control ig/fb/twitter’s content? It seems to me that they’re very concerned with tiktok’s ability to influence public opinion (ex: Gaza), which is part of why they want it banned.

    • Amerikan Pharaoh@lemmygrad.ml
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      It seems to me that they’re very concerned with tiktok’s ability to influence public opinion (ex: Gaza), which is part of why they want it banned.

      This. It’s always about controlling the eyeballs of the chattel; and right now, the State sees a need to corral the young. Because again, yankee genociders can’t compete on their own merits. It’s pure protectionism and propaganda control.

    • Adkml [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      Lmao I don’t think I’ve seem a more radicalizing comment in a long time.

      Next time somebody says if you dont like something the only acceptable form of activism is to civilly contact your representatives show them this comment which basically boils down to “we’ve received a bunch of comments asking us not to ban tik tok which really highlights how important it is that we abn tik tok.”

      What’s stopping them from using the same playback in the future.

      “A bunch of people called me and encouraged me to support universal Healthcare which is just proof universal Healthcare is a Chinese psyop meant to distract us from the real work of legalizing child slavery.”

  • happybadger [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    8 months ago

    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68517607

    The BBC coverage of this is insane. Tiktok is uniquely hypnotic and the youth of today are experiencing reefer madness from this foreign seducer:

    Staffers to other lawmakers on both sides of the aisle also reported hundreds of calls to their offices, from app users young and old, who did not have a clear idea of either who or why they were calling.

    A spokesperson for Dusty Johnson told the BBC his office had received calls from people who were very upset, as well as “some people who are asking kindly if TikTok is going to be banned, and some have said TikTok wouldn’t let them on the app without calling their [representative]”.

    “I am deeply troubled by reports of young people calling Congress, threatening to commit suicide or otherwise harm themselves,” Mr Torres said in a statement to the BBC.

    “The iron grip that TikTok has on the minds of young people is a profound public health hazard.”

    Callers range from teenagers to the elderly, and most are “really confused and are calling because ‘TikTok told me to’”, one Republican staffer revealed.

    Florida Congressman Neal Dunn’s office told the BBC it has received more than 900 calls from TikTokers, “many of which were vulnerable school-aged children”

    • Texarkana Congressman Chestinauld “Tater” Ford-Walmart III was set upon by a gang of youths outside his family’s personal bowling alley. Once he was cornered, they opened their mouths simultaneously to emit a loud static and a disembodied voice whispering violently, “The Future Is Now, We Are The Dark Sunrise.” Then they all started twerking, unamericanly, forcing the Congressman to flee for his life and hide next door in his family’s personal Bible Study Hall & Golden Corral.

      • happybadger [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        my son used to be patriotic but now he does china all day. i told him “its time to say the pledge of allegiance boy” and he called me a dang 白鬼 because tiktok told him to.

    • Dessa [she/her]@hexbear.net
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      I’m on a discord group tht has a lot of zoomers and maybe a few alphas, and they’re suddenly interested in how laws are passed. This is a huge opportunity to radicalize

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      I was inclined to say “satire is dead when BBC news are like a carbon copy of a Kelly cartoon with the labels edited out”, but then i remembered the labels are always the best part and that this means that actually, it’s the news that are dead.

  • SorosFootSoldier [he/him, they/them]@hexbear.netOP
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    It’s actually illegal in China to say “Chinese Communist Party - CCP” you HAVE to say CPC otherwise a small drone will KILL you, very handy in identifying Chinese infiltrators in Burger King.

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    It’s funny because lately my tiktok feed is full of AI voice overs, people trying to sell some crap, and viewer farming channels. Every 10-15 videos I get some watchable content and maybe 1 explicit Palestine video in a 30 min session, eventhough I follow political accounts.

      • Misconduct@startrek.website
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        Y’all gotta get better at slapping your algo around when it’s not working for you. If you’re burned out on something tell it you’re not interested until it stops. You can also go search it up later if you need to. I got stuck on chicken videos for weeks before I finally just had to start saying I wasn’t interested lmao

    • Awoo [she/her]@hexbear.net
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      This is algo because my entire feed is ML posts and Palestine now.

      I miss my dance content tbh I like dances :(

    • Misconduct@startrek.website
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      Mine has good days and bad days. I’ve noticed that I’m less likely to see creators I like on my fyp if I follow them which seems really counterintuitive lol. I stopped following people and just interacting with content I like and it got much better. I know I can just go to my following page but I swear it’s broken or something. It’ll say I’m out of content after showing me month old videos but when I go to their page they have more recent stuff. It’s weird

      As far as palatine videos I’m the opposite. I’m drowning in the suckers. I’ll even get stuff that’s just posted with like 5 views. When the algo is working it is incredible but when it’s not working right it feels like total ass

    • mar_k [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      default tiktok content is shitty it takes a bit to curate it. i feel like following doesn’t matter as much, are you hitting like on those kinda videos and pressing “not interested” on the stuff you don’t wanna see? commenting also matters, it’s basically a second or third like regardless of what’s in it. my fyp is all political stuff, memes, edits, music, anime, games, interests, pretty much exclusively stuff i might like (except for the inevitable ads/“sponsored”/“elgibile for commission” posts which are instantly skippable unlike any other platform)

  • InevitableSwing [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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    Serious question - what’s the dem’s electoral strategy here? I just don’t get it. What voting bloc is worth the loss of some really pissed off people - especially young people?

    -–

    I love the word “bloc”. I’m dyslexic so a part of my brain keeps telling me it’s wrong even though I know it’s not.

    • Tankiedesantski [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      “We’re not Trump.”

      That’s it. That’s the strategy.

      The Dems probably care less about losing than they let on. Two wings of the same party and all that. Do lawmakers make less money (including corrupt money) if they’re in opposition rather than in govt?

      • Adkml [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        They make more money because instead of lecturing people about why it’s unreasonable to expect them to shut down the concentration camps or not drill more oil than every country ever they get to send out fundraisers saying give them money so they can shut down the concentration camps and stop oil drilling.

    • Adkml [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      The dems electoral strategy is to lose, “concede defeat with dignity” and then get to fund raise offf of pretending they wouldn’t be doing the exact same thing as republicans if they were in power.

      Losing elections is dems preferred state of being, they get to claim the moral high ground and insist they’re just powerless to do the good things people want and fundraise by promising to do those good things if you give them enough money. Again.

    • BynarsAreOk [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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      IMO Biden is still the favorite they have at least 3 key points.

      1- There is no left and those to the left of him are not willing to radicalize or vote Trump to make a point. To be fair the uncommitted vote narrative may prove this wrong, but Dems likely believe this is just protest/activism rather than real conviction, you can argue both ways.

      2- They can still make promises that they wont keep and these promises hold a lot more value coming from Dems by default. There are lots of economic promises and concessions he can make.

      3- Trump is incompetent and wont successfully attack from the left. The only issue Trump could win is foreign policy and they’re betting on libs being pro-Ukraine/pro-war again simply by saying it was the Republicans fault that Ukraine did not get enough military aid and therefore lost the war.

      Trump can only attack that point from the left, tell the public about Ukrainian lives, the corruption in their government, the fact men are fleeing, the fact even Europeans are against the war etc There are lots of ways to attack the Ukraine war narrative but it is very doubtful he is competent and even ideologically capable of hitting those narratives.

      Besides its not guaranteed to work anyway, the neolibs were correct to try and make the war entirely about western values. It immediately pins any opposition as being anti-western and anti-democracy and in a western world where the majority are libs by default, this is very powerful for at least 1 election cycle.

      When it comes to Palestine, if Trump doesn’t propose a clear cut de-escalation and hits the same right to defend itself BS then IMO sadly liberals will vote for Biden. All Biden got to do is get a 30 day cease-fire before the election honestly.

    • buckykat [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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      Remember that thing from 2016 where they were like “for every voter we lose we pick up two in the suburbs” and then ate shit and lost? They’re trying it again.