Summary
TikTok faces a U.S. shutdown by Jan. 19 unless the Supreme Court delays or blocks a law requiring its Chinese parent, ByteDance, to divest.
The Biden administration defends the law as a national security measure, citing potential risks of Chinese government influence. Content creators argue it violates free speech.
Donald Trump, once a supporter of the ban, seeks a delay to reach a “political resolution.”
A shutdown could cost TikTok millions of users and revenue. The court’s decision, due soon, could reshape U.S. digital speech policy.
replace “data” with “ads/propaganda/right-wing content”.
Sorry about the bad quality, i’ve resent this picture so many times now that there’s barely any pixels left.
Meanwhile, FB and Google which are courting Trump, and Elon courting both Trump and Nazis, are perfectly fine.
Why do people.keep saying this? It’s obviously not fine.
These guys get dragged in front of Congress all the time. The US has the right to take measures against a business they feel they can’t control, doing things they consider detrimental to it’s people. Ideally that would occur in a more balanced method than now, and it would be nice if Nazi’s weren’t also American citizens with 1st amendment rights, but here we are.
There are many Chinese based companies that do business on American soil with no issues. This isn’t even really Chinese based, but has a major Chinese stakeholder. For some reason, this company, over many others, was believed to be a threat. It may not be the weird racism you’re being led to believe. What if it actually is a very credible threat from an outside actor? Is there a world where that’s possible and acceptable to you?
Just curious because I feel like there’s some strange zeoltry for TikTok that I haven’t seen so much with other media corporations lately, that aren’t actively pumping out propaganda. FOX News being the obvious example.
No one thinks it’s a case of “weird racism”, but it does seem politically and/or financially motivated. If it was a legitimate threat, they could have informed the public as to the actual threat. The fact that they didn’t implies doing so would undermine the decision.
Beyond that, most folks are not mad TikTok is getting banned, they (myself included) are mad that obvious and legitimate threats to the public relating to social media and data harvesting are being ignored. And to avoid having that conversation, TikTok is getting a blanket ban.
What if it actually is a very credible threat from an outside actor? Is there a world where that’s possible and acceptable to you?
So to answer this question, yes, that is possible and acceptable in two (not mutually exclusive) worlds. One where the actual threat is revealed so it is obvious why it needs to be addressed. Or two, where the government is (or better yet already was) acting in good faith to protect Americans from the other more obvious threats of social media and data privacy violations.
Without one or both of those worlds, it is extremely difficult to assume this was a decision made in good faith. Afterall, they didn’t create rules to prevent TikTok from harvesting data, nor create rules that propaganda needs to be monitored and labeled. They didn’t draft up a Digital Bill of Rights to protect Americans, and then ban TikTok for violating it. They just dropped the ban hammer with a “trust me bro”.
And given that, it also shows how far the government is willing to go to avoid holding American companies accountable. Which, imho, is the crux of why so many folks are peeved with this ban.
Stricter laws restricting data collection would actually solve the problem but that will hurt the American propaganda machine just as much. China will diffuse it’s propaganda through our own social media like they clearly already do. They can literally buy the data from our own data brokers, it won’t even stop them from being effective.
“It’s to protect our citizens from China!”
“Are we going to have stronger data protection laws across all 50 states and the federal government to help protect our citizens?”
“That sounds like a terrorist wanting privacy to hide form Facebook and Google’s data to the NSA!”
Yeah, Chinese leadership was complaining about the mass migration from Twitter to Bluesky because it rendered their bit accounts useless, so it’s not like it’s a secret or anything.
This has always been about how TikTok can’t be bought out as a propaganda machine by American billionaires.
Dunno why the last bit was removed. Ruins the wordplay that would apply perfectly here.
There we go.
Do Meta and Xitter next
It’s gonna happen on the 19th because otherwise TikTok could just pay Donald Trump to make it go away.
This article from 2024 gives a pretty good rundown as to why using this reasoning to ban Tiktok will set a very bad precedent:
If the govt cared about your data privacy, they would create data collection regulations that they could then use to ban tiktok if/when they violate them.
Tell that to the Leopards Eating My Face voters here advocating for censorship and government overreach.
Facebook first.
Why is everything so glacially slow anymore. Fucking do something! I’ve been hearing about the demise of TiKTok for like three YEARS. Die already. Or don’t, I’m just sick of hearing about how it “might close” any fucking day now.
The 19th is the legal deadline.
so basically, if tiktok prevails, they were able to bribe uncle tom & co enough to outbid their competition. if not, the competition outbid tiktok.
Nothing of value will be lost.
Idk, I think all these governments having trade and tech wars is bad for our freedom. But on the other hand, TikTok is pure misinformation slop.
TikTok makes Facebook look like haute culture and maybe people don’t need as much freedom as they think they do.
maybe people don’t need as much freedom as they think they do.
The quiet part is a bit loud here my blue conservative friend.
You got that all from that comment?
Impressive, you should be a detective.
That’s not how freedom is defined in the constitution though. We are not in China or North Korea but are heading in that direction.
Really?
You think you have a constitutional right to use brainrot apps?
I don’t think the government has the right to control what you do in your private time on your private device.
1st amendment is right to free press and right to free speech. Several amendments imply a right to privacy from the government, such as the 3rd 4th and 9th.
The government should not regulate how I make my speech. That’s ridiculous to give them the right to remove how people are allowed to speak.
Good to know people are willing to give themselves more chains to a fascist Trump government if they don’t like the UI of an app.
I don’t think the government has the right to control what you do in your private time on your private device.
[Laughs in War in Drugs.]
All drugs should be legal.
There are already government regulations on what you can do on your ‘private’ device and what you can do on your private time.
Cool, so why stop there! Just make it so they always have access to my phone! Why would I need the right to use anything I want?
The government now needs needs me to get court approval to speak my mind to Trump. Require paperwork just to develop an app.
Surely nothing bad will happen if we just let this pot of water rise with frogs advocating it to get hotter.
Actually yes, I dont know why you would think otherwise
What is it, the sixty-ninth amendment?
‘An unregulated internet, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear apps, shall not be infringed’?
This just in, nothing ever changes. Black people are still 3/5th of a person, women don’t have the right to vote, the vice president is 2nd place winner, and people don’t elect senators.
Good. They’re an espionage company masquerading as social media. They’re a cancer.
What is facebook? Instagram? Google? Twitter? I dont use any of those if i can help it, nor TikTok. But supporting the ban of one of them while allowing the others free reign just because they’re owned in the US is insane. Their CEOs don’t have anyone’s best interests in mind except their own, as has been proven time and time again.
A cancer that has allowed tens to hundreds of thousands of people to make money without being employed by anyone else, while providing entertainment for people that can’t or don’t need to pay.
Everyone spies on everything all the time. Either write a privacy law or stop complaining some rich white people arent making enough money – because that is all this ban is.
People really cheering this? I don’t like TikTok because I don’t much care for that style of short form video - but let’s not act like it would be better under US tech giant control. Worse, I’d say.
Officials say Chinese authorities can compel ByteDance to hand over information on TikTok’s U.S. patrons
Oooooh scaaaaary. I’d feel much safer having it under the control of a government who actually affects my life. 🙄
Red scare 2.0 bullshit
I am conditioned to be revolted by autoplay videos. Even here, when I opened this post on the mobile web version, a video autoplayed at the top and I immediately stopped it.
Best possible outcome.
The best possible outcome would have been a digital bill of rights that applies to all social media. Please step outside the Amazon box youre thinking out of.
No no I said possible outcome.
Don’t threaten us with a good time, TikTok!
