US Congress is like "We're gonna ban a website to prove that we're not like China".
@Alex TikTok is CCP spyware and mind poison. If Tiktok wants to operate in the states than they must sell the intellectual property, domain name and algorithm to a U.S. company. Don't forget that the CCP has a level of control over its citizens that Kim Jong Un could only dream of, and they are perfectly willing to censor people in the United States by exercising their soft power of U.S. companies. The CCP actively hates us and pushes destructive ideologies on us to weaken our country.
@realjosephknapp This is not even remotely a reasonable take. I've heard plenty of claims of data harvesting and propagandizing, but I have yet to actually see any real evidence of these claims. Real world analysis shows that TikTok is gathering the same data every other social media service does. If you want to fix that, pass federal privacy laws...
What you're saying comes across nothing more than anti-China ideology, which is not an ideology I take particularly seriously.
@GrantRVD @Alex I never said that. I fully support a legal standard of opt out by default. I also support repealing the 3rd party doctrine and I support the California consumer privacy act as a model for other U.S. states. The legal system is only a temporary solution, we need privacy by design as a long term solution. I think for social networking NOSTR and Activitypub can lead the way if the fediverse gets out of its own way.
@Alex @realjosephknapp okay, that’s fine and all, but none of it is relevant to the point you seemed to be pushing about tiktok being villainous just because it’s from a Chinese company.
First, tiktok isn’t unique in being an app developed in China - there are many other popular apps that fit that description and are conspicuously absent from any alarmist claims. Second, tiktok isn’t even the biggest offender harvesting or selling data. The emphasis on it is ludicrous.
@GrantRVD @Alex Until Chinese citizens can use facebook, gmail, mastodon, youtube, gab, bitchute, twitter etc then America can do without tiktok. If China does not respect the right of our websites to exist across the global internet then neither should we. I agree with you that the restrict act is way too overbroad to achieve this purpose and is likely unconstitutional. For me this is a trade issue not a moral panic.
@GrantRVD @Alex I see it as a trade issue. If the CCP wont let American apps compete on a level playing field, then congress should not let Chinese apps compete on a level playing field. I say no US company can advertise on tiktok and any money flowing towards Chinese apps be tariffed at 19.89% and any data broker selling to any chinese company or company that in turn sells it to China be fined $17500 per data point and $25000 per person and 3.4% of their yearly revenue before taxes.
@realjosephknapp @GrantRVD There are no winners in a trade war.
@Alex @GrantRVD Maybe there are not, but do you really want to let other countries get away with giving their companies special preferential treatment at the expense of our domestic businesses. It is clear that being a part of the CCPs propaganda arm makes tiktok too big to fail. If china doesn't let American websites make themselves available to chinese readers under reasonable rules, then neither should any chinese company, not just tiktok, but temu and wechat too.
@realjosephknapp @Alex your points were not compelling 9 months ago, and they're not compelling now
@GrantRVD @Alex It is not about trade, it is about protecting our people from having their jobs sucked overseas and sending the message that if they do not want to play fair than neither will we. I only want to forbid the sending of money, commodities, advertisements and data, not prevent people from seeing it.
@realjosephknapp @GrantRVD How is that not about trade?
@realjosephknapp @Alex
“The communists are harvesting our data.”
“Okay, then legislate strong data protections for social apps ala GDPR.”
“No that’s what communists do.”
Tale as old as time