TikTok Sues U.S. Government Over Bill Requiring Sale

[Beau10]

I'm just surprised they haven't established a US branch of operations to get around this issue.

"Nintendo of America Inc" etc.

TikTok itself has a US branch of operations. That's not the issue. The government is looking for its parent company ByteDance to divest itself completely from Chinese ownership, essentially so there isn't any CCP influence into its operations, data collection operations, etc, whatsoever.

 

[subjonas]

For the same reason we (ostensibly) don't censor the internet or news, the reason arrest records are public (so you can't just disappear people), the reason we have the Bill of Rights in the first place.

Because we (ostensibly) believe in freedom of information and freedom of speech.

I do understand the sentiment, but this is very tricky. Don't forget that most of the real reason for this is to further enrich Larry Ellison by forcing ByteDance to subcontract Oracle.

If US Congress actually cared about US citizens' privacy, they would enact effective laws that cover this and all the other companies, foreign and domestic, which do the exact same thing.

People here are conflating issues.

Banning or requiring the sale of TikTok is not a freedom of speech issue. No one is silencing anyone. Platforms come and go and there are plenty to choose from.

It’s not a freedom to operate any business you want issue—because that’s not a thing.

It’s not even a personal privacy issue. Everyone knows it’s a rampant problem, but that’s not what this proposal is trying to fix.

It’s simply about how much information and power we’re offering to China.

 

[Arsenikdote]

AM talk radio in America is dominated by extremist right wing propaganda. Far more so than cable news and with far greater reach. That’s the context that leads to these exceptionally factionalized landscapes. So the answer to your questions is “yes.”

I am sure there are a lot of extremists on many formats, including AM radio. However, I don't believe that the medium creates the source. What I mean by that is that if the source of the problem wasn't creating so much of the issue, traction would not exist on any platform, AM radio or otherwise. How much traction is gained on a particular platform would be important in fighting symptoms. I think energy though might be better focused on fixing the source of the infection rather than the symptoms. It also allows all sides of a table to come together since it will equally affect everyone. This is not a United States issue specifically with right/left wing politics. This is a global issues facing all countries who consume large amounts of social media. Every "side" contributes to the problem and everyone is going to have to be part of the solution.

 

[Surf Monkey]

I am sure there are a lot of extremists on many formats, including AM radio. However, I don't believe that the medium creates the source. What I mean by that is that if the source of the problem wasn't creating so much of the issue, traction would not exist on any platform, AM radio or otherwise. How much traction is gained on a particular platform would be important in fighting symptoms. I think energy though might be better focused on fixing the source of the infection rather than the symptoms. It also allows all sides of a table to come together since it will equally affect everyone. This is not a United States issue specifically with right/left wing politics. This is a global issues facing all countries who consume large amounts of social media. Every "side" contributes to the problem and everyone is going to have to be part of the solution.

Nope. The dominance of AM radio is driven by boardrooms, not demand. For example: I live in Portland Oregon, one of the most liberal places on the west coast. But what’s on AM radio here? Station after station of extremist right wingers. The content isn’t made here. It’s streamed by the network. There’s no actual connection between the market and the content. The reason it’s on air here is because the parent company dictates it. No other content can gain traction because most of the stations nationally are in the hands of one company. One company with a very specific agenda.

 

[Arsenikdote]

Nope. The dominance of AM radio is driven by boardrooms, not demand. For example: I live in Portland Oregon, one of the most liberal places on the west coast. But what’s on AM radio here? Station after station of extremist right wingers. The content isn’t made here. It’s streamed by the network. There’s no actual connection between the market and the content. The reason it’s on air here is because the parent company dictates it. No other content can gain traction because most of the stations nationally are in the hands of one company. One company with a very specific agenda.

It seems like you have a very strong opinion about AM radio. I am not trying to take that away from you. My point, which is getting lost when you are digging in your heels, is that extremists have always existed. They have always had someone with resources agree with them. But this is the only time in American history that they are able to gain traction. This directly correlates at a global level to what is occurring in other countries. This is not a "their" problem, it is a problem facing all of humanity. This is not an "Oregon" problem or an "AM Radio" problem. This is a "how do we disagree and still communicate instead of devolving into agruments."

While I am sure your area has a specific version of this, it is not area specific, not even country specific. You can see the same issues globally, and not just from more expected countries like the US and UK, but also countries who don't have the same economies/social structures like Egypt, Peru, or even theCzech Republic. It is a global problem. And I am speaking from experience. I have the privilege of traveling all over the world and get to have heart to heart conversations with people from all kinds of different cultures and backgrounds. The theme is there through everything. The internet and its impact on communications (making the world smaller and producing so much more information at a fingertip away) has created some pretty rough seas. Not sure how old you are but thinking about how we understood local, national, and global news in the 80's vs today is so dramatically different. People disagreed back then, people disagree today. Points of view have always been different. But as we lose the healthy exchange of information it creates more polarization and creates an indifferent mass populous that would rather get upset to feel like they can belong to a side than truly exchange information and understand an issue. Bit sized pieces of TikTok, bite sized pieces of climate change, bite sizes pieces of issues with race. Bit sized sensationalized everything. Humanity will find a way through, but I worry about what that journey might look like if we don't come together to figure it out instead of worrying about who is right.

 

[Alameda]

Fine, it can stay as soon as China lifts the ban on a ton of apps developed by US companies.

Apple Pulls WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal, and Threads From App Store in China Following Order

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