House votes to suppress Tiktok

[Lonous]

I'm sure you've heard at least some of noise concerning the current issue of Tiktok.
If you have, give me your position on the topic and a quick reason why.

Personally I am vehemently against censorship and oppose this move.
I personally think Tiktok is akin to cancer, but so is Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, etc imo.

Just in case you have heard nothing on the topic, allow me to give a quick summation.

2016: Tiktok was created and was embraced by hordes of younger aged crowd.

2020: Covid begins. Public discussion and debate rages across the internet on various platforms. U.S. intel agencies exert covert pressure on almost all sites to control and censor any and all discussion that doesn't follow the U.S. adopted narrative that the epidemic started from infected bats, and not from the Chinese laboratory of infectious diseases in the same province.

March 2020: After exerting control over all social platforms except one, Tiktok, President Trump issued an executive order in 2020 that declared that TikTok threatened “the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States,”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Tr ... ontroversy

June 2021: President 'I'm a charisma monster' Biden decides that Tiktok could be useful if it is controlled. He decides to unban them and charm them instead.
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-57413227

October 2022: President dancing Joe reaches out and starts to woo Tiktok influencers, inviting the top couple dozen content creators to the white house.
https://www.npr.org/2022/10/09/11272119 ... unger-audi

October 2023: The Hamas/Israel conflict erupts. Lots of data and videos start appearing on social media platforms at first, then censorship kicks in again, and all content that disputes the official narrative begin to get censored.... except on Tiktok. Shortly after that the the President of the ADL Jonathon Greenblatt gets one of his cellphone calls intercepted and record, stating that Tiktok is a "major major problem"


But Greenblatt also reached out to the audience so they could join the ADL in New York and donate money to them, posting the appeal on Tiktok .. lol
https://www.tiktok.com/@adl/video/7335213583707573550

So shortly after that select U.S. congressmen and senators began speaking about the evils of having a Chinese ran social media platform corrupting American youth.
They even summoned the CEO of Tiktok for questioning, asking what was China's true motives... only to find out the evil Chinese CEO isn't Chinese.


March 2024: Doesn't matter, the issue of a Tiktok ban goes into congress for debate. Plenty of intelligent dissent takes place including this short clip of Representative Thomas Massie asking why certain exemptions were placed in the bill



In the end, the house voted to either ban Tiktok, or to force it to be placed under American control.

House passes bill that could lead to US ban of TikTok
https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/ ... index.html

https://www.ccn.com/wp-content/uploads/ ... in-us.webp

********************************************************
AND NOW YOU KNOW THE REST OF THE STORY
You're welcome

[Dukasaur]

Personally I am vehemently against censorship and oppose this move.
I personally think Tiktok is akin to cancer, but so is Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, etc imo.

I tend to agree with you.

I think the successive attacks on Tiktok are just successive Presidents trying to act like tough guys on China.

When Trump was president, he wanted to force the sale of Tiktok, and the Dems thought it was a bad idea. Now that Biden is president, he wants to force the sale of Tiktok and Trump thinks its a bad idea.

For the record, it's not censorship. The content isn't likely to change when the owners do. As long as the content doesn't change, nothing has been censored.

But the Chinese are right that this is banditry. It's the local mob boss saying, "only my soldiers are allowed to rip people off in my neighbourhood."

[mookiemcgee]

I'd have more respect for the Chinese opinion that it's banditry if they didn't wholesale ignore US trademark/patent/copyright laws for the bulk of my lifetime.

At the end of the day this is being sold as protecting US user metadata but it's a bit like polishing brass on the titanic. May have some value in a zero day exploit situation.

[bigtoughralf]

I'd have more respect for the Chinese opinion that it's banditry if they didn't wholesale ignore US trademark/patent/copyright laws for the bulk of my lifetime.

'I agree that it's wrong but it's being done to someone I don't like so it's fine'.

This comment should be moved over to the Israel thread and stickied.

[mookiemcgee]

I'd have more respect for the Chinese opinion that it's banditry if they didn't wholesale ignore US trademark/patent/copyright laws for the bulk of my lifetime.

'I agree that it's wrong but it's being done to someone I don't like so it's fine'.

This comment should be moved over to the Israel thread and stickied.

They finally had an innovation they didn't steal and now they are mad the US is going to steal one back from them? Seems they just don't like the taste of their own medicine to me.

[bigtoughralf]

ITT mook supports theft if the victim is Chinese

[Dukasaur]

I'd have more respect for the Chinese opinion that it's banditry if they didn't wholesale ignore US trademark/patent/copyright laws for the bulk of my lifetime.

'I agree that it's wrong but it's being done to someone I don't like so it's fine'.

This comment should be moved over to the Israel thread and stickied.

They finally had an innovation they didn't steal and now they are mad the US is going to steal one back from them? Seems they just don't like the taste of their own medicine to me.

All true. Even so, two wrongs don't make a right.


(Or two Wongs don't make a white, lol.)

[jusplay4fun]

Damned if we do and damned if we don't. No easy answer or rationale here, it seems.

[saxitoxin]

I agree with Lonous on this as I agree with Lonous on everything.

[sarausa]

If I were allowed to vote, I would also vote yes because Tiktok does not secure user information. Suika game

[Pack Rat]

The Communist Party of China is a threat to our allies in Asia. They have been ripping off our patents, copyrights and does idustrialespionage of our companies.

I do use tik-tok, but I would not miss it, as youtube has a better platform.

Here is probably my last tik-tok copy/paste

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTLFTcpsL/

[bigtoughralf]

https://x.com/not_tooloee/status/176977 ... 71610?s=20

[Dukasaur]

https://x.com/not_tooloee/status/1769772235839971610?s=20

[Lonous]

**UPDATE**

A few things have happened/come to light over the last week or so.
Allow me to walk you through.
Using small steps so as to not exclude those that don't typically follow this type of stuff.

This is Steve Mnuchin
He was a Wallstreet banker that worked at Goldman Sachs. President Trump tapped him to join his cabinet as the Secretary of the Treasury.

Steven Mnuchin was born on December 21, 1962, in New York City, the second-youngest son in his family.[8][9] Mnuchin's family is Jewish.[9][10][11] He is the son of Robert E. Mnuchin of Washington, Connecticut, and Elaine Terner Cooper of New York.[12] Robert Mnuchin was a partner at Goldman Sachs in charge of equity trading and a member of the management committee. He is also the founder of an art gallery in New York City, the Mnuchin Gallery.[12][13] Mnuchin's great-grandfather, Aaron Mnuchin, a Russian-born diamond dealer who later resided in Belgium, emigrated to the U.S. in 1916.[14]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Mnuchin

After leaving the White House, Steve used his connections to create an investment group.
Note some of his connections

Scoop: Israeli spy chief in talks to join Mnuchin's investment fund

The boss of Israel's spy agency has been in private talks with former Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin about joining his investment fund ...//... Why it matters: Yossi Cohen, director of the Mossad, is retiring next week. But the discussions between him and Mnuchin occurred while he was still serving in his government role

https://www.axios.com/2021/05/26/israel ... tment-fund

Back in January, Mnuchin said he was planning on investing in Israel

Time to invest in Israel, says former US treasury secretary Mnuchin
Foreign investors should have confidence in investing in Israel today, even amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, former US Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday.

https://www.jpost.com/business-and-inno ... cle-781836

And then last week Mnuchin said he was moving forward with a plan to but Tiktok.

Former Treasury Secretary Mnuchin is putting together an investor group to buy TikTok

The House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a bipartisan bill that if signed into law would force ByteDance to either divest its flagship global app or face an effective ban on TikTok within the U.S.
“I think the legislation should pass and I think it should be sold,” Mnuchin, who leads Liberty Strategic Capital, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Thursday. “It’s a great business and I’m going to put together a group to buy TikTok.”

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/03/14/former- ... iktok.html

In conclusion, I hope the people that are concerned about Russia, about big corporate banks, and about foreign influence over American youth, are pleased that this Russian descendant whom worked on Wallstreet his entire life, will buy Tiktok and move it to Israel with his Mossad partners.

[saxitoxin]

My favorite photo of Mrs. Mnuchin. Total mean girl pose.

[mookiemcgee]

(Or two Wongs don't make a white, lol.)

So I IRL today heard some tell a joke that started 'why can't two Chinese people have a white baby?'

[Dukasaur]

(Or two Wongs don't make a white, lol.)

So I IRL today heard some tell a joke that started 'why can't two Chinese people have a white baby?'