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Comments (122)

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  vdupras
  Whoa, it should be bigger news. I too was under the impression that it was a done deal, with Larry Ellison coming in to mop the floor.It would be so funny if ByteDance and China continued to successfully mock the US in this silly posturing.
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  tehjoker
  It is true and documented that the reason TikTok was challenged and censored was because it was exposing too many people to Israeli crimes in the genocide in Gaza. This was stated by high level officials. Of course, it also provides grist for accusing China of interfering in American politics, but of course, doing so would be a voice of morality, and you can't have that.https://forward.com/culture/688840/tiktok-ban-gaza-palestine...Edit: As a Jew, I also want to note that there is at least one dead comment mixing this with actual antisemitism, which has been apparently increasingly promoted by the right-wing media. My presumption is this is an attempt to create an actual anti-semitism crisis Israel can point to in order to shut down criticism from the left.
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  kemotep
  You think we are going to get to a whole year of Byte Dance operating illegally in the United States?
• effnorwood
  well come on people, tik tok
• SilverElfin
  Given that Trump and Hegseth seem to now be friendly with China and talking about a “G2” (as opposed to G7), I feel the TikTok ban that should have happened months ago is just going to not happen, as long as (my speculation) someone in the Trump family is able to profit off business dealings with China. It makes no sense not to enact the ban that Congress passed.
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  jmyeet
  As a reminder of the timeline:- November 2023: audio leaked of Apartheid Defense League CEO Jonathon Greenblatt saying they had a Tiktok problem [1] because Tiktok didn't sufficiently censor live broadcast of the genocide, unlike, say, Meta [2]- 5 March 2024: the bill to ban Tiktok was introduced to the Senate [3];- 7 March 2024: the bill passes the Senate;- 13 March 2024: the bill passes the House;- 24 April 2024: Biden signs the bill into law.So yes the Tiktok "ban" was about a foreign government, just not the one usually stated.Larry Ellison is the world's second richest man. His son, David Ellison, now heads Paramount Skydance and are key players in the Tiktok acquisition. David Ellison acquired CBS News and put Bari Weiss in charge of it. Why was CBS News for sale? Because 60 Minutes said one slightly negative thing about Israel's involvement in Gaza so Shari Redstone sold it to Paramount [4].What I find both funny and depressing is that the US government is doing exactly what they accuse China of doing. It's not even a partisan issue. On foreign policy, America is uniparty, just like China.For anyone who follows legislative affairs, this rocketed through.[1]: https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/inside-adl-anti-defa...[2]: https://www.hrw.org/report/2023/12/21/metas-broken-promises/...[3]: https://nolabels.org/the-latest/tiktok-ban-timeline-how-trum...[4]: https://www.cjr.org/feature/cbs-news-redstone-ellison-60-min...
• anon
  undefined
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  amelius
  Honestly. The last people I'm going to feel sorry for is TikTok investors.
• nine_zeros
  [dead]
• MPSFounder
  [flagged]
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  songodongo
  [flagged]
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  amanaplanacanal
  Are they claiming that the US president lied? Say it ain't so!
• ecommerceguy
  Tiko Toko TACO lolo
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  Buttons840
  This whole situations is such a sad clown show.There was a legitimate debate to be had about the dangers of TikTok and the importance of free speech. Do we ban TikTok and squash free speech, or is free speech of supreme importance, even if it means allowing a dangerous foreign app--these were the questions of a few years ago.So what happened? Let's recap:Congress passed a law banning TikTok. Free speech was trampled.The Supreme Court upheld the ban. Free speech was trampled again.Then, the law just doesn't get enforced. The dangers of TikTok remain.Everyone loses and the entire political process around this has been a joke.We've learned that Congress can just ban apps by name, effectively, and yet the great danger that made us cross this line in the first place remains in use under the control of China.
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  hughlomas
  People seem to forget that China is a fully authoritarian state. The fact is that China is an adversary and blocks virtually every western social network, including YouTube, Instagram, and Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_websites_blocked_in_ma...The CCP has absolute authority over internal companies to bend them to their will, and regularly disappears political dissidents including tech leaders like Jack Ma.TikTok has over 150 million users in the United States, skewing young. We have seen the massive misinformation campaigns from other adversaries like Russia, with the goal of sowing dissent and malcontent.All it takes is leaning on the algorithmic levers. Today the controversy may be over the issue you are passionate about, tomorrow it will a different issue, the only thing that matters is that TikTok is an open door to unduly influence public opinion in America.The immense scale of data collection, from personal information to location tracking data, is also a clear concern.Anyone that thinks it is reasonable for a geopolitical rival to control this company, especially a country known to reach its hand deep into company policy, is incredibly naive and self-sabotaging.TikTok must be banned or fully controlled by a US based company.