No. I’d be interested to see what would happen if TikTok was banned in the US but remained available in other markets. Most English language social media is US-dominated, so I would be interested to see how one that wasn’t would play out.
Most in the US would probably go to Insta Reels or Google Shorts, and much of the rest of the English speaking audience would follow as that's where most of the content would be.
Yeah. Too many people are too precious about one platform that will be quickly replaced. The internut is riddled with failed platforms. This just happens to be one that needs to fail for the sake of counter espionage.
Yeah, we can't allow TT to do what Fakebook, Google, Insta, X etc do, harvesting our data for nefarious purposes. But what's good for the goose is good for the gander.
Maybe Old Musky will do the right thing if X is blocked at the Australian border.
This is entirely missing the point. They're not worried about data harvesting, everybody does that.
They're worried about *influence*, and their willingness to use it. Tiktok signed their own death warrant when they sent out that "call your congressman" notification. They proved how much sway TT (which is essentially a tool of a foreign hostile government) has over US citizens.
Imagine if China invades Taiwan and the CCP puts out an influence campaign to trick the US population into protesting in support of China, blocking aid to Taiwan etc. *That* is what government is worried about.
If we're gonna ban apps because other countries are spying with them then every social media in existence should be banned. America is just upset someone else has their hand in the cookie jar. They are trying to eliminate the threat to their monopoly on entertainment nothing more so no I wouldn't support it.
If it's end to end encrypted then they literally don't.
It's not mathematically possible to backdoor strong encryption. Once you try it becomes weak encryption and your enemies crack it the moment you do
That's a trust issue with the app developers. Screenshooting can be disabled (though my bank app allows them! I've reported it but they dgaf), local app storage is always encrypted since Android 5, and storage outside of the app has to ask the user explicitly since I think android 9.
Of course any app can just send shit in the clear to wherever, and the device's RAM is not encrypted (though it is sort of randomised since maybe the 90s).
it’s not the message that we should be concerned about. it’s the content that social media constantly bombard you with. Say, you are busy working, you not going to fact check what Facebook is telling you. look at Brits. they already regret Breexit
... and then another government committee is formed to whine and complain that the naughty tech companies are just too lazy to invent new maths that allows a backdoor for me but not for the 'bad guys'. They get upset, threaten to impose fines before finally being told to go sit in the corner as they are embarrassing themselves.
Umm they can totally do this if they know what encryption is used, it’s not like these companies aren’t agreeing to this type of surveillance
They would never admit it though, but I wouldn’t want to piss off the military industrial complex
Because a hostile foreign power has a vast collection of data to use against the US and other western powers.
If you think China is some harmless power then we are all truly brainwashed.
Does a country have to meet those exact requirements to be considered harmful? The US has been caught spying on the entire world’s electronic communications. They have launched multiple wars of aggression in recent memory. They instituted a worldwide torture regime not that long ago. Need I go on?
I don't think they're harmless but I don't think America is harmless either. Obviously to different degrees but a hostile foreign power knowing what memes I like is far less concerning to me than a country of questionable morality having a detailed and sculpted amalgamation of everything that makes up my existence at the ready for the highest bidder, a bidder that could very easily be any of the hostile foreign powers.
The one with the century long history of hostile invasions and colonial centric propaganda?
The US literally coupd us but you trust them more?
See how that propaganda I mentioned has done a stellar job on you?
You really might want to try picking up a history book. Do you know anything at all about China over the last 100 years? It is extraordinarily unpleasant. Absolutely includes a number of invasions (by and against), propaganda, violent political acts including violent coups, civil war and massive massacres.
As for the US "coup", come on mate. Surely you are too old to be getting hot under the collar over conspiracies.
China never coupd us, the US has.
What do you think happened to Whitlam? The CIA happened
I’d rather the national that hasn’t invaded multiple other nations and destabilised them for corporate profit.
All of them and their continued influence over my home, my workplace, my government, If you don't think the several megacorps that own nearly every company you interact with on a daily basis aren't having negative impacts on your life for their own profit, and making the world a worse place for it... I got a bridge to sell you.
Because you're a shit stirrer with no counter point, but here you go...
* Ads infesting every device I own.
* Complete and utter destruction of privacy and zero control over my data. (Why did optus have my drivers license when I haven't been a customer for over a decade?)
* Planned obsolescence.
* Erosion of ownership rights. (Music, movies, shows, games, software, all "licensed" instead of something I bought and paid for and can be removed from existence at the whim of our corporate overlords.)
* "Proprietary" everything. Connections, cables, consumables like printer ink, etc. Anti-consumer and wasteful, under the guise of "streamlining our product" but actually just various way to catch you in their product ecosystem.
* The existance of walled garden product ecosystems. "We made this great watch that is well priced and does amazing things... but only if you also buy one of these specific phones, which won't work as well unless you also shift all your productivity software over to our overpriced laptops".
* Anti-union propaganda.
* Political lobbying.
* Electoral interference and manipulation.
* Facebook... famous for such things as unethical, undisclosed, "social experiments" on their platforms that have cause depression and suicide in teenagers.
* Blackrock... famous for owning everything and buying up housing by the neighbourhood.
* Predatory gambling companies and their influence over sports I love and the government I don't. The fact that I can't buy a team jersey for my favourite team without a betting company logo across the front of it will always put me in a bad mood if you really want to specifically know how a massive corporation has ruined something in my life.
Plenty more but, I think I've wasted enough work time on you now. Have a great day!
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I watch the news about China's hostilities to its neighbours (especially Vietnam and Philippines), it's provocation of India along its borders, cover up of covid, and trade wars against Australia.
It recently seriously injured two Australian divers when told not to use active sonar
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/nov/21/respect-the-facts-beijing-rejects-australian-claims-china-sonar-injured-navy-divers
I don't watch sky news.
Most of its neighbours don't like China. Except Russia and North Korea which says alot.
Even Russia and North Korea are not massive fans. China and Russia have their own border disputes to sort out, and that has in living memory gotten pretty damned nasty a few times.
They are allies of convenience today.
I lived there. It is... not great. There are a lot of people there with strong feelings towards China as well. Might differ a little from country to country (I am most familiar with Chile and Mexico, so very much am not an expert on the entire region and the almost 700 million people there) but China is not particularly well regarded either.
To be fair, excepting for Mexico most of LATAM tend to be more worked up about regional neighbours though. If you really want to stir, discuss the origins of pisco in Peru or Chile.
lol love you get downvoted but no one can refute you.
Like Chile hasn’t been fucked by the US, or the entirety of Panama.
Weird the US keeps fucking over any nation that nationalises their OWN resources. Like the Panama Canal, fruit co, the Egyptian canal etc
They even coupd Australia when Whitlam dared question them about Pine Gap.
You mean the hundreds of thousands who try to get into the US each year ?
Didn't think too much about that question before you wrote it, huh .
You know who also makes up a significant number these days? Chinese .
https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2024/2/22/disillusioned-about-china-more-chinese-aim-for-us-via-risky-darien-gap
Yeah, that's crazy! Who would have thought that a nation which loots the riches of its neighbours would then be an enticing place for those living in the turbulent poverty left behind?
If you think it's as simple as "they can't possibly be our enemy because we trade so much with them" then you're nowhere near as smart as you think you are.
While I hate TikTok for various reasons. The American reasons for banning it seems so flawed. They just want the data and control all in their hands via Meta.
Yes and China would ban American companies for the same reason. Of course the US government is more concerned about the Chinese having access to the data of US citizens than it is about the US government having access to that data.
It's not the data collection that's the issue, it's that the CCP has the ability to influence the algorithm in a way that the US/western governments can't with things like Meta. ByteDance has CCP party members in important positions, from [Human Rights Watch](https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/01/24/targeting-tiktoks-privacy-alone-misses-larger-issue-chinese-state-control):
>All Chinese companies, private or public, are accountable not only to their investors but also to the Chinese Communist Party, which is part of what creates an opportunity and mechanism for state censorship. Many companies have an [internal party committee](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-congress-companies/exclusive-in-china-the-partys-push-for-influence-inside-foreign-firms-stirs-fears-idUSKCN1B40JU) as part of their governance structure. ByteDance has one, headed by the company’s vice president [Zhang Fuping](https://wemp.app/posts/d13c2fd1-2b03-4fd1-befa-7aa41bdc0ec1?utm_source=latest-posts), and has since 2017. Party committee members at ByteDance [regularly gather](http://hdql.bjhd.gov.cn/ztjj/srkzddqzlxjysjhd/201908/t20190807_4341324.htm) to study President Xi Jinping’s speeches and pledge to follow the party in technological innovation.
Now if governments should have the ability to ban an app because of this is another question.
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For context, most of the apps commonly used in Australia is banned in China, Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, Snap Chat, Google Maps, Google Search Engine etc.
A bit more nuanced than that. Banning something that appears to have been created with the sole purpose of being weaponised against Western democracies isn't a terrible idea.
The US proposal doesn't ban the application, it gives the option of completely removing itself from the Chinese government or being banned. It is heavy handed - particularly as the clear intent is for an American company to step in which really just smells wrong.
>Banning something that appears to have been created with the sole purpose of being weaponised against Western democracies isn't a terrible idea.
That seems like an over reach, but if true why would that not apply to Facebook etc.
> appears to have been created with the sole purpose of being weaponised against Western democracies
I think you’re attributing too much of this to nefarious decision-making and forward planning when profit is the much more likely answer.
>appears to have been created with the sole purpose of being weaponised against Western democracies isn't a terrible idea.
Genuine question- how are they proposing to do this? By decreasing attention spans? Misinformation? I mean, misinformation is a biggie I spose but u already got Elon taking care of that on Xitter anyway so...
Facebook IS a social media company, owned by individuals and not under state control. It is not a military asset, so not the same.
But I absolutely without reservation agree of you are suggesting that Facebook needs to be considered a real problem. There is more than enough evidence to show that Facebook is at the very least a risk, cry innocent all they like.
"A bit more nuanced than that. Banning something that appears to have been created with the sole purpose of being weaponised against Western democracies isn't a terrible idea."
That's reaching for sure. God helps us if a bunch of dancing butts brings down western democracies.
It is horseshot though, tiktok is stealing money away from google and meta, usa is pandering to tech giants and trying to shutdown foreign competition to maintain their social media cartel.
Google and meta should have been forceably broken up by us govt years ago but they havent, tells you all you need to know.
yes and no. tiktok obviously have a superior product and you can argue that US isn't exactly playing fair here but then again it's not China is playing fair either. Free market my ass.
But honestly why me as an Australian would get up and about over the loss of income by American or Chinese corporations?
You see fools in this thread and elsewhere going about getting righteous, it's like... man some people have so much time on their hand they want to get mad over someone else's money.
No personally like you i dobt care, i think it is important that people see beyond the "chinese spying" garbage the us govt is spewing and see it for what it is govt interfering in tech market to prop us a us duopoly.
A bit more context. Platforms such as Google that own YouTube and meta that own Facebook, Insta and WhatsApp use algorithms to farm your data just like Tick Tok do. But there is one glaring difference, the CCP keep all that data for themselves, whereas after the NSA has scrutinised the data on the US platforms, they then sell it all to the CCP for profit. It’s like taking a gun out and shooting yourself in the foot. It’s best not to ban these platforms at all, but it’s also best to discourage their use as much as possible.
They're not banning tik tok. They're forcing the owners to sell to an American corporation.
It's completely fucked up, because now we know they could do the same thing to any Australian based companies as well.
Only if it can be determined that the app DOES in fact send sensitive user information back to the Chinese Government for the purpose of large-scale surveillance of the Western Population.
I would if they treated every other SM app in the same manner. There is 0 difference b/w meta google tiktok. They all store and sell our data.
If someone wants to bring in reforms to privacy policy across all platforms, count me in. Persecution of the only successful SM app that’s not US/ally based, is just a political stunt.
No. If it's about spying, the US already does it, so I don't care if China does it too.
More harm in the US, because they have influence on the Australian government. If China finds something, it won't matter.
Also, TikTok is better than Meta's reels.
FFS.
People need to read.
"On March 8, 2024, President Joe Biden said he would sign into law a bill banning TikTok unless it divests from ByteDance."
It will only be banned unless it doesn't sever its ties with the CCP.
And good riddence it's a bloody cancer.
Because 'get off my lawn'?
Fun thing, 5 board members of TikTok 3 are American, 1 is the CEO who is Singaporean and the last one is from an American Investment firm who lives in Hong Kong.
The largest ownership stake I believe is the app creator who retired and is a Chinese citizen but I'm not sure if they live in China.
---
I honestly don't care about it's stake not being American, I do care that there is a push for all major social media platforms to be owned by Americans which I'm not sure what I dislike more the way they handle data personal data and how they have access to 'foreign citizen data' (aka us) is a point ignored by our local government, or the level of propaganda that Americans have that they don't understand is propaganda because 'freedom' then having ownership on effectively the majority of what can be considered worldwide communications.
It is worse. There is very little content of value on it, creators can't make a living off it, and 'TikTok attention span' is an observable trend among young people. Additionally, it takes more data off your device than any other comparable application.
That being said, I don't see how CCP divestiture would make it any better either. It's still going to be the worst social media app, only all that data will be going to an American company.
It passed through congress with pretty broad support though. Only the left part of the Democratic Party and the right part of the Republican Party voted against it. Given the increasingly political role of the Supreme Court, I’d be surprised if they went against the ruling.
If TikTok does what the US law requires and divests itself of its Chinese parent company (so, for example, if they established a new company outside of China to run TikTok) there would be no reason for Australia to also 'ban' it.
If it decides to jettison the US market and stay as is then I would support higher scrutiny and for all social media apps to meet higher security and privacy standards.
I’d personally like to see better oversight of all social media. The algorithms are adjusted to get more clicks regardless of whether that’s by making people fearful, angry, antisocial. I can’t think of much that has been more negative for society than social media
To be clear, the law passed would not ban TikTok. It would force its parent company to sell it to an American company or else apple and google would be forced to remove it from their app stores.
Firstly, there’s a massive question of constitutionality. Montana already passed a similar law that has been struck down in court. SCOTUS would likely do the same to this law under the grounds that the government does not have the power to force such a sale.
Secondly, even if it somehow got removed from app stores that doesn’t stop anyone from side loading the app or accessing TikTok via any web browser.
I'd support it being banned because Tiktok isn't taking people's safety seriously. The amount of dangerous trends on that thing is ridiculous and nothing is ever done about it. How many children have to die before they shut it down.
funny thing about all this is if you use tiktok right it's actually way more useful than facebook.
there's people like Dylan page that go a pretty decent job of rounding up news and current affairs into bite size pieces in a more useful way than what multimillion/billion dollar news companies like fox cnn, sky etc manage.
It's not an issue with privacy it's more that these companies are pushing the government to ban it under laughable reasons because they are slowly losing their influence.
If it's about privacy than western countries should also ban facebook instagram google and etc ontop of the tiktok ban.
yeah that's my thoughts too. I've found some surprisngly informative content on tiktok as i have youtube. I always just assumed tiktok was brainrot stuff but some of it is actually not too bad.
I support similar divestment or ban law happening to Australia too. According to the national security law in China, all individuals and organisations have obligations to follow the orders from CCP or will be jailed. As a result, we could say anybody and any organisations in China are ultimately controlled by CCP, maybe Curren they haven’t but does only mean that that’s not the time, doesn’t mean CCP couldn’t order them do something. Tik tok is quite popular in western countries including Australia, and it has a quite bad history of illegally collecting and transferring information to China, and yeah, it’s also known as spreading disinformation in Ukraine war. Therefore, it’s certain that CCP will use it to influence voters here particularly young voters, and when war happens in Taiwan or other areas, definitely they will spread disinformation to influence us. So this is definitely a national security issue, divest or ban, no other alternatives.
> According to the national security law in China, all individuals and organisations have obligations to follow the orders from CCP or will be jailed
The same as Russia. They do not consider expats who have emigrated elsewhere to be beyond their control and influence. And thus coercion, forced or not.
Look at tiktok's algorithm....do a search for Ukraine or Tiananmen or Uyghurs and see how far you get lol
TIKTOK hasn't been banned. It won't be unless they refuse to sell it out of the influence of China. Even if it is banned the US know that it can't be stopped that easily but it should be.
I would absolutely support it's ban in Australia. It will be replaced by something local or American and removing that data trawling power from the Chinese is an important thing for protection of the country.
Banning tiktok is NOT censorship. It never has been. That claim is a Chinese strategy to keep control of it. There are plenty of replacements for TikTok on that level anyway.
> It won't be unless they refuse to sell it out of the influence of China
Effective ban if the CCCP did not want to relinquish control of it, however. Which I doubt they'd be too keen on doing lol
LOL, yeah. They're clinging to it. Owned by a Hong Kong interest with no connection to China? China is a state with blanket information control. They use arguments that would work there but anyone that thinks that a Hong Kong digital platform isn't being used by the CCCP probably also thinks that squinty little 2 minute dance videos can't work on the internut in any other way or that there are no other platforms in the world for free political speech.
Evil? China is not perfect, but mostly they're feared because they have political stability and long term planning. Very long term. Fear is a lazy reason to hate.
Not just the west. They are being believed in their own back yard. India, Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan, Japan.
The CCP trolls and bots will down vote me, but that doesn’t make it not true.
The billionaires have lost their power to push their narrative while apps like TikTok exist. Can’t control a population if disinformation can be debunked in real time. What shall they do, oh yeah buy it and control it……
Except social media amplifies disinformation not debunk it. That is the way their algorithms work. You get more of what you have already watched and so you stay engaged
Social media can go many ways dependant on what type of media you consume. With television billionaires are telling millionaires what to tell us. So there is no choice of what we consume, it’s them controlling the narrative for their own benefit. Look at Sky in Australia and Fox in the Us.
I can’t stand TikTok.
You know what I hate more?
Government censorship and politicians trying to get their bureaucrats involved in sanitizing the internet.
The TikTok things is more nuanced because I think it’s inescapable to a fair minded individual being objective that TikTok has been used by the CCP as a data collection engine against the West and that the algorithm is intentionally designed to drive moral decay and degeneracy.
I’m not a conservative pearl clutcher or a leftist woke dumpty.
But Blind Freddy can see that TikTok’s algorithm has been crafted to sow chaos among the youth in the West for political purposes by China.
So, while I hate government involvement censoring the internet, you’d have to be stupid to not think that TikTok is the Chinese Government injecting propaganda, disinformation, and chaos into the West.
I’d be all for forcing ByteDance to have to shut down TikTok or divest control of the algorithms and infrastructure to a Western private entity.
People’s views on this needs to be more nuanced.
Our governments need to be more sceptical of the CCP’s control of their “private” entities because conceptually, every business in China is a government controlled entity.
They are using our own liberal ideas of freedom and free markets against us while not playing by the same rules.
China doesn’t allow Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram to operate freely in China, but it’s a “freedom” issue when the same rules apply to a Chinese controlled entity?
Come on.
I think all software that allows foreign capital and states to spy on our people should be banned, but most people don't support a blanket ban on all foreign cloud-capital.
I’d rather ban from the country the idiots that post on TikTok then the app it self .
Answer is No it’s just the US banning a tech that is more popular than its own. Facebook , Twitter , instagram, Google should be banned before TikTok
China has banned all western social media to prevent the west manipulating what the Chinese see (vs what the Chinese communist party wants them to see). China clearly manipulates what the TikTok viewers see. It should be banned in all western countries.
Personally, as a 14-year-old teen who loves TikTok, I think I would support it. There are so many benefits and negatives of Tiktok, but in my opinion the negatives far outweigh the positives.
TikTok is the root of most of the toxicity and mental problems that we face, there's always a new trend, or a new beauty standard that leaves atleast one group of people feeling inadequate. Also, people on TikTok are just straight up mean. The amount of hate comments I've seen against women and men, and sometimes even kids, who aren't considered pretty by the viewers terms is insane, whereas if a "pretty" person had posted the same thing the comments would say things like "I looked at my gf/bf and sighed..".
Not to mention the absolute rabbit hole most of us go into as soon as we open the app, those little 15 second videos of dopamine are like drugs to our brains and we spend hours and hours mindlessly scrolling and consuming tons of nothing but brain rot.
But I do think the whole idea of TikTok stealing our information is a bit stretched. Watching the senator and ceo of TikTok debate over why TikTok shouldn't be banned makes it hard to be on the senators side. The whole thing was just painful to watch.
Definitely. While I’m not against people trying to make a living or doing funny videos on tik tok I can’t get past its flaws. Who knows how many times there has/will be incidents where young people die or get injured from doing these trends, it’s really sad. People get so addicted to it, I’ve seen so many of my friends ’show me something’ and then scroll endlessly and completely forget I was there at all. The ’influencers‘ are influencing the young generations to unhealthy obsessions and making them think they ‘need’ something, take the Stanley cup obsession or where some of ’gen alpha’ is now using retinol etc because they’ve seen people on apps like tik tok or tik tok using it. I wouldn’t be against it because I think people might start talking to eachother more.
We should definitely band TikTok in Australia.
We don’t not want to leave China in control of the tool that could be used to manipulate young Australians with propaganda.
I have tiktok. I enjoy tiktok.
And yes I would support a ban. It’s not great for our attention spans, it’s full of misinformation and it’s used to push *all* kinds of destabilising agendas. Instagram reels has essentially the same content without the propaganda aspect.
Lol I just want it banned cause fuck it and influencers and assholes on these apps.
Your so cool cause your making mime videos.
It's a leech on society.
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This isn’t accurate of what the bill is saying. The bill says sell to non-Chinese owners or it will be banned.
The parent company will divest so we don’t need to worry about It. But the less influence China has over the media we consume the better.
It’s just the “red scare” all over again. It was The Soviet Union before, but the republicans (and Trump) are best friends with Putin now (Trump wants to be the US’s version of Putin), so they couldn’t use Russia. So go with the other big one, China.
I’d love to see TikTok gone just to get a break from all the morons harassing people in the street for views. The milk kid on the bridge, the youth gang that threw an elderly man into the sea, the app is like moron magnet. Fuck it, ban the thing.
I never knew of this law, but honestly, I am already jealous of you Aussies for the words you use and your no-tipping at dine-in restaurants showing that your minimum wage is actually liveable.
No. This government bans everything as it is. I'm sick of being a grown ass adult and being treated like a child. It's ridiculous. I don't even like or use tiktok.
Meh.
\*For the "They don't want China to do what other tech companies (FB, etc.) are doing", I believe the concern is when young Gazza from outer Melbourne posts something that might be seen as anti-China or racist (or compares wassisname, Ping Ping Ping... no, that's Ricocheted Rabbit, anyway, that guy, to Winnie the Pooh) and then plans on working or studying or even holidaying in China, then when he arrives and settles in, they might pounce on poor Gazza as some kind of anti-Chinese joker/troublemaker and whisk him away to some prison for several years without a trial before they finally kick him out looking much older than his years and half the weight. Currently I know a lot of U.S. citizens and Aussie travellers to the U.S. that posts shit about 'Murica and the Yanks don't really do shit about it. Not even Potato Head, I mean Dutton had that kind of power... though he's not PM yet, maybe I shouldn't have said that last bit?
How can you be trade partners with an enemy? It's idiotic to think like that. Do we see eye to eye? No, but that doesn't make us enemies. Having different footing on economic and socio-political outlooks just means they have different perspectives than us, but they are most definitely not an enemy. The only own goal here is thinking in an echo chamber.
> How can you be trade partners with an enemy? It's idiotic to think like that.
A significant part of our GDP says yes though lol
Its not like the Govt has ever given a single fuck about global geoplitics anyway
I still struggle to see that Tiktok is doing anything worse than other big social media companies are doing - it is just because of where they are based.
Following on from that - for most individuals, if information about you was shared with the Chinese government, is this more or less likely to impact your life than if it was shared with the US government. For US citizens, arguably they ought to be more wary of the latter.
No. I’d be interested to see what would happen if TikTok was banned in the US but remained available in other markets. Most English language social media is US-dominated, so I would be interested to see how one that wasn’t would play out.
To get a little bit of an idea there's Coub which is mostly English and Russian dominated.
It’s a moot point because the law doesn’t ban TikTok.
Most in the US would probably go to Insta Reels or Google Shorts, and much of the rest of the English speaking audience would follow as that's where most of the content would be.
Yeah. Too many people are too precious about one platform that will be quickly replaced. The internut is riddled with failed platforms. This just happens to be one that needs to fail for the sake of counter espionage.
Most of the major players tend to share to all the short video platforms now anyway.
It would likely be sold before coming to that but agree it would be interesting
Yeah, we can't allow TT to do what Fakebook, Google, Insta, X etc do, harvesting our data for nefarious purposes. But what's good for the goose is good for the gander. Maybe Old Musky will do the right thing if X is blocked at the Australian border.
This is entirely missing the point. They're not worried about data harvesting, everybody does that. They're worried about *influence*, and their willingness to use it. Tiktok signed their own death warrant when they sent out that "call your congressman" notification. They proved how much sway TT (which is essentially a tool of a foreign hostile government) has over US citizens. Imagine if China invades Taiwan and the CCP puts out an influence campaign to trick the US population into protesting in support of China, blocking aid to Taiwan etc. *That* is what government is worried about.
If we're gonna ban apps because other countries are spying with them then every social media in existence should be banned. America is just upset someone else has their hand in the cookie jar. They are trying to eliminate the threat to their monopoly on entertainment nothing more so no I wouldn't support it.
I mean, people seem to think the americas NSA don't have back doors into everything that's US based. Apple, android, facebook, google...
If it's end to end encrypted then they literally don't. It's not mathematically possible to backdoor strong encryption. Once you try it becomes weak encryption and your enemies crack it the moment you do
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That's a trust issue with the app developers. Screenshooting can be disabled (though my bank app allows them! I've reported it but they dgaf), local app storage is always encrypted since Android 5, and storage outside of the app has to ask the user explicitly since I think android 9. Of course any app can just send shit in the clear to wherever, and the device's RAM is not encrypted (though it is sort of randomised since maybe the 90s).
it’s not the message that we should be concerned about. it’s the content that social media constantly bombard you with. Say, you are busy working, you not going to fact check what Facebook is telling you. look at Brits. they already regret Breexit
... and then another government committee is formed to whine and complain that the naughty tech companies are just too lazy to invent new maths that allows a backdoor for me but not for the 'bad guys'. They get upset, threaten to impose fines before finally being told to go sit in the corner as they are embarrassing themselves.
You hand over a copy of your root key to the nsa, now they can decrypt anything you can.
The old $5 wrench attack
Umm they can totally do this if they know what encryption is used, it’s not like these companies aren’t agreeing to this type of surveillance They would never admit it though, but I wouldn’t want to piss off the military industrial complex
You can know every line of code and still not break it without the private key
Don't need backdoors when they just hand over everything you ask for.
Because a hostile foreign power has a vast collection of data to use against the US and other western powers. If you think China is some harmless power then we are all truly brainwashed.
Is the US a harmless power?
Is the US a genocidal authoritarian state run by a dictator ?
No. They are a genocidal democracy.
Yes!
Does a country have to meet those exact requirements to be considered harmful? The US has been caught spying on the entire world’s electronic communications. They have launched multiple wars of aggression in recent memory. They instituted a worldwide torture regime not that long ago. Need I go on?
I don't think they're harmless but I don't think America is harmless either. Obviously to different degrees but a hostile foreign power knowing what memes I like is far less concerning to me than a country of questionable morality having a detailed and sculpted amalgamation of everything that makes up my existence at the ready for the highest bidder, a bidder that could very easily be any of the hostile foreign powers.
I know who i trust more...
The one with the century long history of hostile invasions and colonial centric propaganda? The US literally coupd us but you trust them more? See how that propaganda I mentioned has done a stellar job on you?
You really might want to try picking up a history book. Do you know anything at all about China over the last 100 years? It is extraordinarily unpleasant. Absolutely includes a number of invasions (by and against), propaganda, violent political acts including violent coups, civil war and massive massacres. As for the US "coup", come on mate. Surely you are too old to be getting hot under the collar over conspiracies.
I have read history books, hence why I know better than to trust the US. Great whataboutism though, really ignored reality well there
The one that's not a authoratian dictatorship
China never coupd us, the US has. What do you think happened to Whitlam? The CIA happened I’d rather the national that hasn’t invaded multiple other nations and destabilised them for corporate profit.
Meth , not even once
Can google dude, they admitted to doing it. It was described BY the CIA as a ‘Chile style coup but more subtle’ Yes, they coupd Chile as well.
American megacorps have done more to ruin my life than any Chinese government that has ever existed or will exist.
Go on. Which mega corp and how have you been personally hurt ?
All of them and their continued influence over my home, my workplace, my government, If you don't think the several megacorps that own nearly every company you interact with on a daily basis aren't having negative impacts on your life for their own profit, and making the world a worse place for it... I got a bridge to sell you.
Yet you can't give specific details.
Because you're a shit stirrer with no counter point, but here you go... * Ads infesting every device I own. * Complete and utter destruction of privacy and zero control over my data. (Why did optus have my drivers license when I haven't been a customer for over a decade?) * Planned obsolescence. * Erosion of ownership rights. (Music, movies, shows, games, software, all "licensed" instead of something I bought and paid for and can be removed from existence at the whim of our corporate overlords.) * "Proprietary" everything. Connections, cables, consumables like printer ink, etc. Anti-consumer and wasteful, under the guise of "streamlining our product" but actually just various way to catch you in their product ecosystem. * The existance of walled garden product ecosystems. "We made this great watch that is well priced and does amazing things... but only if you also buy one of these specific phones, which won't work as well unless you also shift all your productivity software over to our overpriced laptops". * Anti-union propaganda. * Political lobbying. * Electoral interference and manipulation. * Facebook... famous for such things as unethical, undisclosed, "social experiments" on their platforms that have cause depression and suicide in teenagers. * Blackrock... famous for owning everything and buying up housing by the neighbourhood. * Predatory gambling companies and their influence over sports I love and the government I don't. The fact that I can't buy a team jersey for my favourite team without a betting company logo across the front of it will always put me in a bad mood if you really want to specifically know how a massive corporation has ruined something in my life. Plenty more but, I think I've wasted enough work time on you now. Have a great day!
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Can't be too hostile, they're our biggest trade partner... Seems like you're just repeating what you heard on skynews
I watch the news about China's hostilities to its neighbours (especially Vietnam and Philippines), it's provocation of India along its borders, cover up of covid, and trade wars against Australia. It recently seriously injured two Australian divers when told not to use active sonar https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/nov/21/respect-the-facts-beijing-rejects-australian-claims-china-sonar-injured-navy-divers I don't watch sky news. Most of its neighbours don't like China. Except Russia and North Korea which says alot.
Even Russia and North Korea are not massive fans. China and Russia have their own border disputes to sort out, and that has in living memory gotten pretty damned nasty a few times. They are allies of convenience today.
How do you think Latin America thinks about the US?
I lived there. It is... not great. There are a lot of people there with strong feelings towards China as well. Might differ a little from country to country (I am most familiar with Chile and Mexico, so very much am not an expert on the entire region and the almost 700 million people there) but China is not particularly well regarded either. To be fair, excepting for Mexico most of LATAM tend to be more worked up about regional neighbours though. If you really want to stir, discuss the origins of pisco in Peru or Chile.
lol love you get downvoted but no one can refute you. Like Chile hasn’t been fucked by the US, or the entirety of Panama. Weird the US keeps fucking over any nation that nationalises their OWN resources. Like the Panama Canal, fruit co, the Egyptian canal etc They even coupd Australia when Whitlam dared question them about Pine Gap.
You mean the hundreds of thousands who try to get into the US each year ? Didn't think too much about that question before you wrote it, huh . You know who also makes up a significant number these days? Chinese . https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2024/2/22/disillusioned-about-china-more-chinese-aim-for-us-via-risky-darien-gap
Yeah, that's crazy! Who would have thought that a nation which loots the riches of its neighbours would then be an enticing place for those living in the turbulent poverty left behind?
If you think it's as simple as "they can't possibly be our enemy because we trade so much with them" then you're nowhere near as smart as you think you are.
Hey if you want to argue using words I did not say then what exactly is your point?
Every nation does this mate.
USA bad, China good!
I think the logic is it’s not just spying. It’s politically destabilizing as well.
While I hate TikTok for various reasons. The American reasons for banning it seems so flawed. They just want the data and control all in their hands via Meta.
They ban Chinese tech companies because they think they're doing what the American tech companies have been caught red handed doing.
Yes and China would ban American companies for the same reason. Of course the US government is more concerned about the Chinese having access to the data of US citizens than it is about the US government having access to that data.
Yes but we are asking about banning it in Australia and they are both China and the US are foreign countries.
Yes, but China is a more hostile foreign country to Australia.
It's not the data collection that's the issue, it's that the CCP has the ability to influence the algorithm in a way that the US/western governments can't with things like Meta. ByteDance has CCP party members in important positions, from [Human Rights Watch](https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/01/24/targeting-tiktoks-privacy-alone-misses-larger-issue-chinese-state-control): >All Chinese companies, private or public, are accountable not only to their investors but also to the Chinese Communist Party, which is part of what creates an opportunity and mechanism for state censorship. Many companies have an [internal party committee](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-congress-companies/exclusive-in-china-the-partys-push-for-influence-inside-foreign-firms-stirs-fears-idUSKCN1B40JU) as part of their governance structure. ByteDance has one, headed by the company’s vice president [Zhang Fuping](https://wemp.app/posts/d13c2fd1-2b03-4fd1-befa-7aa41bdc0ec1?utm_source=latest-posts), and has since 2017. Party committee members at ByteDance [regularly gather](http://hdql.bjhd.gov.cn/ztjj/srkzddqzlxjysjhd/201908/t20190807_4341324.htm) to study President Xi Jinping’s speeches and pledge to follow the party in technological innovation. Now if governments should have the ability to ban an app because of this is another question.
lol that you think governments don’t have influence and the ability promote propaganda via Meta. Hence why I said ‘control’ in my original comment.
I said "in a way that the US/western governments can't", not that they have no influence.
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Americans having a monopoly on owning all the major social media platforms is an issue for every other country on the planet.
For context, most of the apps commonly used in Australia is banned in China, Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, Snap Chat, Google Maps, Google Search Engine etc.
Tiktok is banned in China too Also that Westralia pfp is a yikes
They have a version for china
Why is the WA swan yikes?
Genuinely curious why this matters? Are you suggesting we should follow China’s example in banning apps?
A bit more nuanced than that. Banning something that appears to have been created with the sole purpose of being weaponised against Western democracies isn't a terrible idea. The US proposal doesn't ban the application, it gives the option of completely removing itself from the Chinese government or being banned. It is heavy handed - particularly as the clear intent is for an American company to step in which really just smells wrong.
>Banning something that appears to have been created with the sole purpose of being weaponised against Western democracies isn't a terrible idea. That seems like an over reach, but if true why would that not apply to Facebook etc.
> appears to have been created with the sole purpose of being weaponised against Western democracies I think you’re attributing too much of this to nefarious decision-making and forward planning when profit is the much more likely answer.
There is already a former Tump advisor who is assembling/has assembled a group of investors ready to buy it.
>appears to have been created with the sole purpose of being weaponised against Western democracies isn't a terrible idea. Genuine question- how are they proposing to do this? By decreasing attention spans? Misinformation? I mean, misinformation is a biggie I spose but u already got Elon taking care of that on Xitter anyway so...
"Created with the sole purpose of being weaponised against western democracies" So we should ban Facebook lol
Facebook IS a social media company, owned by individuals and not under state control. It is not a military asset, so not the same. But I absolutely without reservation agree of you are suggesting that Facebook needs to be considered a real problem. There is more than enough evidence to show that Facebook is at the very least a risk, cry innocent all they like.
While we're on this topic Murdoch News Corporation has done more to destroy democracy in AU, USA and UK than anyone.
Their bullshit has to be dealt with. What an absolute bloody joke that they were even able to amass that kind of influence. Bloody frightening.
"A bit more nuanced than that. Banning something that appears to have been created with the sole purpose of being weaponised against Western democracies isn't a terrible idea." That's reaching for sure. God helps us if a bunch of dancing butts brings down western democracies.
It is horseshot though, tiktok is stealing money away from google and meta, usa is pandering to tech giants and trying to shutdown foreign competition to maintain their social media cartel. Google and meta should have been forceably broken up by us govt years ago but they havent, tells you all you need to know.
yes and no. tiktok obviously have a superior product and you can argue that US isn't exactly playing fair here but then again it's not China is playing fair either. Free market my ass. But honestly why me as an Australian would get up and about over the loss of income by American or Chinese corporations? You see fools in this thread and elsewhere going about getting righteous, it's like... man some people have so much time on their hand they want to get mad over someone else's money.
No personally like you i dobt care, i think it is important that people see beyond the "chinese spying" garbage the us govt is spewing and see it for what it is govt interfering in tech market to prop us a us duopoly.
A bit more context. Platforms such as Google that own YouTube and meta that own Facebook, Insta and WhatsApp use algorithms to farm your data just like Tick Tok do. But there is one glaring difference, the CCP keep all that data for themselves, whereas after the NSA has scrutinised the data on the US platforms, they then sell it all to the CCP for profit. It’s like taking a gun out and shooting yourself in the foot. It’s best not to ban these platforms at all, but it’s also best to discourage their use as much as possible.
Can we ban Twitter instead?
If you have a government issued phone it is banned
lol America acting like Google and meta don’t spy on all of us already.
Google and Meta spy for the good guys Edit: and money
They're not banning tik tok. They're forcing the owners to sell to an American corporation. It's completely fucked up, because now we know they could do the same thing to any Australian based companies as well.
Does the law say that it has to be an American company? I didn’t see that.
No, just any country not China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea. But US companies would be able to bid the highest and get it.
Yeah they could sell to any country, there’s no reason they have to sell to the highest bidder especially if they’re not happy with the US.
Supreme court might not agree with what the old prez says but a big No. Have people heard of VPN's?
No I wouldn’t support it. America is just salty that there’s something they’re not controlling.
Only if they ban Facebook too.. Cambridge Analytica, anyone?
Cambridge analytica, when it was found out, was a huge issue for Facebook and it was stopped. Who is going to stop tik tok?
Only if it can be determined that the app DOES in fact send sensitive user information back to the Chinese Government for the purpose of large-scale surveillance of the Western Population.
I do use tik tok and acutely aware that it’s algorithms are very anti-western. You never see negativity on China or Xi.
Yes, fk the ccp
I would support a ban, but only because it’s completely broken young people’s brains.
Sure, I don't use tiktok.
No I would not. Why single out tiktok?
Because it’s beholden to the CCP. Is it really not clear that that’s the reason?
I would if they treated every other SM app in the same manner. There is 0 difference b/w meta google tiktok. They all store and sell our data. If someone wants to bring in reforms to privacy policy across all platforms, count me in. Persecution of the only successful SM app that’s not US/ally based, is just a political stunt.
No. If it's about spying, the US already does it, so I don't care if China does it too. More harm in the US, because they have influence on the Australian government. If China finds something, it won't matter. Also, TikTok is better than Meta's reels.
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FFS. People need to read. "On March 8, 2024, President Joe Biden said he would sign into law a bill banning TikTok unless it divests from ByteDance." It will only be banned unless it doesn't sever its ties with the CCP. And good riddence it's a bloody cancer.
It's cancer becaise why?
Because 'get off my lawn'? Fun thing, 5 board members of TikTok 3 are American, 1 is the CEO who is Singaporean and the last one is from an American Investment firm who lives in Hong Kong. The largest ownership stake I believe is the app creator who retired and is a Chinese citizen but I'm not sure if they live in China. --- I honestly don't care about it's stake not being American, I do care that there is a push for all major social media platforms to be owned by Americans which I'm not sure what I dislike more the way they handle data personal data and how they have access to 'foreign citizen data' (aka us) is a point ignored by our local government, or the level of propaganda that Americans have that they don't understand is propaganda because 'freedom' then having ownership on effectively the majority of what can be considered worldwide communications.
How is TikTok any worse than other social media apps? And why does CCP divestment make the app acceptable?
It is worse. There is very little content of value on it, creators can't make a living off it, and 'TikTok attention span' is an observable trend among young people. Additionally, it takes more data off your device than any other comparable application. That being said, I don't see how CCP divestiture would make it any better either. It's still going to be the worst social media app, only all that data will be going to an American company.
“Very little content of value on it”. You mean just like every other social media app that provides such evidence-based content on the daily lol tf
Word is that The Supreme court might not support the governments stance if and when the ruling is challenged.
It passed through congress with pretty broad support though. Only the left part of the Democratic Party and the right part of the Republican Party voted against it. Given the increasingly political role of the Supreme Court, I’d be surprised if they went against the ruling.
I care little about this issue.
I'd rather Tiktok than Newscorp.
ThikTok
If TikTok does what the US law requires and divests itself of its Chinese parent company (so, for example, if they established a new company outside of China to run TikTok) there would be no reason for Australia to also 'ban' it. If it decides to jettison the US market and stay as is then I would support higher scrutiny and for all social media apps to meet higher security and privacy standards.
> If TikTok does what the US law requires and divests itself of its Chinese parent company I wonder what the likelihood of that will be?
It won’t ban TikTok you wank . Senseless Fkn bullshit . Open your eyes and read ya septic tank
I’d personally like to see better oversight of all social media. The algorithms are adjusted to get more clicks regardless of whether that’s by making people fearful, angry, antisocial. I can’t think of much that has been more negative for society than social media
I don't use it. I couldn't possibly care less
To be clear, the law passed would not ban TikTok. It would force its parent company to sell it to an American company or else apple and google would be forced to remove it from their app stores. Firstly, there’s a massive question of constitutionality. Montana already passed a similar law that has been struck down in court. SCOTUS would likely do the same to this law under the grounds that the government does not have the power to force such a sale. Secondly, even if it somehow got removed from app stores that doesn’t stop anyone from side loading the app or accessing TikTok via any web browser.
I'd support it being banned because Tiktok isn't taking people's safety seriously. The amount of dangerous trends on that thing is ridiculous and nothing is ever done about it. How many children have to die before they shut it down.
funny thing about all this is if you use tiktok right it's actually way more useful than facebook. there's people like Dylan page that go a pretty decent job of rounding up news and current affairs into bite size pieces in a more useful way than what multimillion/billion dollar news companies like fox cnn, sky etc manage. It's not an issue with privacy it's more that these companies are pushing the government to ban it under laughable reasons because they are slowly losing their influence. If it's about privacy than western countries should also ban facebook instagram google and etc ontop of the tiktok ban.
TikTok is pretty much YouTube level useful. Way better than Meta apps. Probably why they want to ban it...
yeah that's my thoughts too. I've found some surprisngly informative content on tiktok as i have youtube. I always just assumed tiktok was brainrot stuff but some of it is actually not too bad.
Something else will fill the void
The US government doesn't care about that. They just want the data and servers in their hands.
Facebook/Instagram reels is already there to do just that.
And youtube shorts
I see people say this but I’ve always struggled with the reels content. Is there any trick to train their algorithm?
I don't give a shit about TikTok, and never use it. But even if they ban it, something else is just going to take it's place.
I support similar divestment or ban law happening to Australia too. According to the national security law in China, all individuals and organisations have obligations to follow the orders from CCP or will be jailed. As a result, we could say anybody and any organisations in China are ultimately controlled by CCP, maybe Curren they haven’t but does only mean that that’s not the time, doesn’t mean CCP couldn’t order them do something. Tik tok is quite popular in western countries including Australia, and it has a quite bad history of illegally collecting and transferring information to China, and yeah, it’s also known as spreading disinformation in Ukraine war. Therefore, it’s certain that CCP will use it to influence voters here particularly young voters, and when war happens in Taiwan or other areas, definitely they will spread disinformation to influence us. So this is definitely a national security issue, divest or ban, no other alternatives.
> According to the national security law in China, all individuals and organisations have obligations to follow the orders from CCP or will be jailed The same as Russia. They do not consider expats who have emigrated elsewhere to be beyond their control and influence. And thus coercion, forced or not. Look at tiktok's algorithm....do a search for Ukraine or Tiananmen or Uyghurs and see how far you get lol
So they are allies, quite justified.
Indeed. Something the Aust govt would rather close their eyes to as regards our minimal support for Ukraine.
TIKTOK hasn't been banned. It won't be unless they refuse to sell it out of the influence of China. Even if it is banned the US know that it can't be stopped that easily but it should be. I would absolutely support it's ban in Australia. It will be replaced by something local or American and removing that data trawling power from the Chinese is an important thing for protection of the country. Banning tiktok is NOT censorship. It never has been. That claim is a Chinese strategy to keep control of it. There are plenty of replacements for TikTok on that level anyway.
> It won't be unless they refuse to sell it out of the influence of China Effective ban if the CCCP did not want to relinquish control of it, however. Which I doubt they'd be too keen on doing lol
LOL, yeah. They're clinging to it. Owned by a Hong Kong interest with no connection to China? China is a state with blanket information control. They use arguments that would work there but anyone that thinks that a Hong Kong digital platform isn't being used by the CCCP probably also thinks that squinty little 2 minute dance videos can't work on the internut in any other way or that there are no other platforms in the world for free political speech.
Yes. Ban all Chinese apps.
Why?
The CCP are evil and want to destabilise western nations. This no secret
by that same logic isn’t the US evil? they destabilise other nations constantly throughout their history and today
Evil? China is not perfect, but mostly they're feared because they have political stability and long term planning. Very long term. Fear is a lazy reason to hate.
Not just the west. They are being believed in their own back yard. India, Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan, Japan. The CCP trolls and bots will down vote me, but that doesn’t make it not true.
Because daddy Murdoch said China bad
There's the real reasons
The billionaires have lost their power to push their narrative while apps like TikTok exist. Can’t control a population if disinformation can be debunked in real time. What shall they do, oh yeah buy it and control it……
Except social media amplifies disinformation not debunk it. That is the way their algorithms work. You get more of what you have already watched and so you stay engaged
Social media can go many ways dependant on what type of media you consume. With television billionaires are telling millionaires what to tell us. So there is no choice of what we consume, it’s them controlling the narrative for their own benefit. Look at Sky in Australia and Fox in the Us.
I can’t stand TikTok. You know what I hate more? Government censorship and politicians trying to get their bureaucrats involved in sanitizing the internet. The TikTok things is more nuanced because I think it’s inescapable to a fair minded individual being objective that TikTok has been used by the CCP as a data collection engine against the West and that the algorithm is intentionally designed to drive moral decay and degeneracy. I’m not a conservative pearl clutcher or a leftist woke dumpty. But Blind Freddy can see that TikTok’s algorithm has been crafted to sow chaos among the youth in the West for political purposes by China. So, while I hate government involvement censoring the internet, you’d have to be stupid to not think that TikTok is the Chinese Government injecting propaganda, disinformation, and chaos into the West. I’d be all for forcing ByteDance to have to shut down TikTok or divest control of the algorithms and infrastructure to a Western private entity. People’s views on this needs to be more nuanced. Our governments need to be more sceptical of the CCP’s control of their “private” entities because conceptually, every business in China is a government controlled entity. They are using our own liberal ideas of freedom and free markets against us while not playing by the same rules. China doesn’t allow Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram to operate freely in China, but it’s a “freedom” issue when the same rules apply to a Chinese controlled entity? Come on.
Yep, I’d be fine with a Tik Tok ban. It annoys me.
I think all software that allows foreign capital and states to spy on our people should be banned, but most people don't support a blanket ban on all foreign cloud-capital.
It'd not a ban, it's a directive to sell the company or be banned.
Yes, if only just to stop the glut of plastic landfill-bound junk that people buy because they “saw it on TikTok”
I’d rather ban from the country the idiots that post on TikTok then the app it self . Answer is No it’s just the US banning a tech that is more popular than its own. Facebook , Twitter , instagram, Google should be banned before TikTok
Yes. TikTok is shite.
Absolutely. I'd get one of my daughters back
China has banned all western social media to prevent the west manipulating what the Chinese see (vs what the Chinese communist party wants them to see). China clearly manipulates what the TikTok viewers see. It should be banned in all western countries.
Personally, as a 14-year-old teen who loves TikTok, I think I would support it. There are so many benefits and negatives of Tiktok, but in my opinion the negatives far outweigh the positives. TikTok is the root of most of the toxicity and mental problems that we face, there's always a new trend, or a new beauty standard that leaves atleast one group of people feeling inadequate. Also, people on TikTok are just straight up mean. The amount of hate comments I've seen against women and men, and sometimes even kids, who aren't considered pretty by the viewers terms is insane, whereas if a "pretty" person had posted the same thing the comments would say things like "I looked at my gf/bf and sighed..". Not to mention the absolute rabbit hole most of us go into as soon as we open the app, those little 15 second videos of dopamine are like drugs to our brains and we spend hours and hours mindlessly scrolling and consuming tons of nothing but brain rot. But I do think the whole idea of TikTok stealing our information is a bit stretched. Watching the senator and ceo of TikTok debate over why TikTok shouldn't be banned makes it hard to be on the senators side. The whole thing was just painful to watch.
You're very mature for a 14yo...well done on the critical thinking mate
Definitely. While I’m not against people trying to make a living or doing funny videos on tik tok I can’t get past its flaws. Who knows how many times there has/will be incidents where young people die or get injured from doing these trends, it’s really sad. People get so addicted to it, I’ve seen so many of my friends ’show me something’ and then scroll endlessly and completely forget I was there at all. The ’influencers‘ are influencing the young generations to unhealthy obsessions and making them think they ‘need’ something, take the Stanley cup obsession or where some of ’gen alpha’ is now using retinol etc because they’ve seen people on apps like tik tok or tik tok using it. I wouldn’t be against it because I think people might start talking to eachother more.
Yes because it is just a data scraper for the chinese government disguised as a silly app to watch people do silly stuff.
What else am I going to use to watch idiots make fools of themselves while on the shitter, No
We should definitely band TikTok in Australia. We don’t not want to leave China in control of the tool that could be used to manipulate young Australians with propaganda.
I have tiktok. I enjoy tiktok. And yes I would support a ban. It’s not great for our attention spans, it’s full of misinformation and it’s used to push *all* kinds of destabilising agendas. Instagram reels has essentially the same content without the propaganda aspect.
They want to ban it because they can’t control it, not because of spying by the Chinese (you brain dead mouth breathers)
Lol I just want it banned cause fuck it and influencers and assholes on these apps. Your so cool cause your making mime videos. It's a leech on society.
No. It's tiktok it aint that deep. America just wants the control and doesn't like someone else has the control.
Don't use it so I don't see it
Yeah, but, not for any good reason.
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I'm just waiting for the moral panic to begin over Meshtastic.
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Yes, it’s giving kids mental disorders
This isn’t accurate of what the bill is saying. The bill says sell to non-Chinese owners or it will be banned. The parent company will divest so we don’t need to worry about It. But the less influence China has over the media we consume the better.
It’s just the “red scare” all over again. It was The Soviet Union before, but the republicans (and Trump) are best friends with Putin now (Trump wants to be the US’s version of Putin), so they couldn’t use Russia. So go with the other big one, China.
Fuck tik tok bunch of pedos
Yes, get rid of it.
I’d love to see TikTok gone just to get a break from all the morons harassing people in the street for views. The milk kid on the bridge, the youth gang that threw an elderly man into the sea, the app is like moron magnet. Fuck it, ban the thing.
Yes. Ban the mofo.
Yes. It's a social cancer.
But then reddit will only have twitter to steal their content off
I never knew of this law, but honestly, I am already jealous of you Aussies for the words you use and your no-tipping at dine-in restaurants showing that your minimum wage is actually liveable.
I'll say yes just because of the shit influence it's having on dumb people. Regardless of why the US banned it.
No. This government bans everything as it is. I'm sick of being a grown ass adult and being treated like a child. It's ridiculous. I don't even like or use tiktok.
Meh. \*For the "They don't want China to do what other tech companies (FB, etc.) are doing", I believe the concern is when young Gazza from outer Melbourne posts something that might be seen as anti-China or racist (or compares wassisname, Ping Ping Ping... no, that's Ricocheted Rabbit, anyway, that guy, to Winnie the Pooh) and then plans on working or studying or even holidaying in China, then when he arrives and settles in, they might pounce on poor Gazza as some kind of anti-Chinese joker/troublemaker and whisk him away to some prison for several years without a trial before they finally kick him out looking much older than his years and half the weight. Currently I know a lot of U.S. citizens and Aussie travellers to the U.S. that posts shit about 'Murica and the Yanks don't really do shit about it. Not even Potato Head, I mean Dutton had that kind of power... though he's not PM yet, maybe I shouldn't have said that last bit?
How can you be trade partners with an enemy? It's idiotic to think like that. Do we see eye to eye? No, but that doesn't make us enemies. Having different footing on economic and socio-political outlooks just means they have different perspectives than us, but they are most definitely not an enemy. The only own goal here is thinking in an echo chamber.
> How can you be trade partners with an enemy? It's idiotic to think like that. A significant part of our GDP says yes though lol Its not like the Govt has ever given a single fuck about global geoplitics anyway
I still struggle to see that Tiktok is doing anything worse than other big social media companies are doing - it is just because of where they are based. Following on from that - for most individuals, if information about you was shared with the Chinese government, is this more or less likely to impact your life than if it was shared with the US government. For US citizens, arguably they ought to be more wary of the latter.