From "House TikTok bill gives ByteDance 6 months to sell. That’s unlikely. A deal probably would be too complicated and costly for such a short time frame, experts say. Opponents of the bill say that means the app would probably be banned under the legislation" (WaPo).
In short, realistically, it's a ban.
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...posing financial, technical and geopolitical challenges that experts said could render a sale impractical and increase the likelihood the app will be banned nationwide...
I think the word they were looking for is "impracticable."
Every Repub who voted yes for this should be grilled. Did they not read the bill? Did they get a boost in their bank account from google? Are they too geriatric to understand what TikTok is and how social media works? I can't see any good reason for the party of free speech, the party that's been socially eviscerated because they dismiss the importance of the internet public square, to let this pass.
Good. Chinese companies are intertwined with the CCP and PLA, and it's not anti-capitalist to demand that connection be severed.
how would it compare? to the forced breakup of the Bell System?
how would it compare? to the forced breakup of the Standard Oil System?
meanwhile.. Why is China allowed to own the US meat packing industry?
""House TikTok bill gives ByteDance 6 months to sell. That’s unlikely. A deal probably would be too complicated and costly for such a short time frame, experts say. Opponents of the bill say that means the app would probably be banned under the legislation" (WaPo)."
Resembles the position New York has put Trump in, vis-a-vis a forced sale of assets.
Sounds rough.
They'll be banned here AND in China.
Seems fitting.
The US should never have allowed foreign entities here. All should have been required to become a subsidiary of a US company to do business here.
I had heard a lot of noise about the ban, but I just went and read the text, to make sure that I was being given the straight poop, and, well, I was being given "poop" I agree that it is effectively a ban, but I don't really have a huge problem with the legislation forbidding the Chinese, or the Russians, or the Israelis, even, from having this much control over the propaganda we get fed. As long as it is clear that there is no wiggle room to ban a platform due to wrongthink, you know, of the kind that leads to "WrongVote."
Just because an adversary is making a point, doesn't make it not true, and just because our government is saying something, doesn't make it true. Once we get to that point, we may as well just admit that we have lost our democratic republic, and do away with voting. The real problem our elites have with voting is "populism," which is where the turkeys start voting against Thanksgiving; that can't be allowed, because is a threat to the farm's "democracy."
File under censorship we like
Here is the text, BTW. It's not a very long bill.
https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/7521/text
Biden has not been particularly for or against this. It was interesting to watch Trump flip flop his position though.
The only surprise about this is that they have waited for election season to do it. It's obviously an electoral liability to pursue... right up to the point you succeed in forcing a sale and then look like a US hero. Should have been done early in the administration when the fearmongering that it would lead to a shutdown could be more easily ridden out. Going to be interesting to watch whether China decides to use it to elect Trump by blocking a sale and tying it up in court cases, or whether they give Biden the win by letting it go through and letting him look successfully tough on China.
We can not trust our government to do anything transparently anymore. NOTHING. Jobs report, GDP report, all reports. Spun
Hopefully, the Chinese will refuse to sell, and just stop allowing USA use. Then all the TikTok users can pressure congress to unban it. We don't need Google or Facebook adding to their monopolies. Nor do we need a bunch of NYC hedgefund managers swooping in and buying it up, so it can be gatekeeped and censored just like Google and facebook.
This is all being done for "national security" the last refuge of the scoundrel. Everytime the CIA/FBI/Congress/Biden say we have to do something for mysterious "national security" reasons. OR they can't release info because its "classified" "very hush hush" Or needed for "an ongoing investigation" you know its bullshit. They don't want to release it because it show they're lying or it will make them look bad.
Stop falling for the scam!
"The US should never have allowed foreign entities here. All should have been required to become a subsidiary of a US company to do business here."
We should have never allowed the Chinese CP use our internet for cyberwarefare.
I'm of two minds on banning TikTok. One side knows the Chinese government isn't above messing with the algorithms to influence users' opinions. (And how is that different than what Google, Meta, et.al. already do?) The other side knows that if you give our government a tool, it will want to use it just to keep their tool-users occupied. (I'm looking at you, DHS, FBI, CIA, IRS, etc.)
All things considered, I'd lean to keeping things as open as possible. The potential badness is worse than the current badness.
Is there a bill of attainder problem here?
I wasn't too sure about this, but then I saw "experts say". How fortunate we are, that the diligent fabulists at the WaPo took the time to go that additional mile, and invent some experts to confirm their lies. You and I would likely have been content to dream up a single expert, but the WaPosians dug deep, and found an "s", so that their lies are multiply confirmed. This shows that they attended, and may well have graduated from, a School of Journalism. Of course, the really outstanding journalists are over at the NYT. Their "experts" are "knowledgeable", or even "well-informed". What a difference an adjective makes! I dirty-dog-double believe the lies that dribble out of their mouths, in a steady stream, almost without their cognizance.
"The US should never have allowed foreign entities here. All should have been required to become a subsidiary of a US company to do business here."
Jeeze.
It's a completely wrong-headed move. Republicans and conservatives in general should have nothing to do with it.
- Krumhorn
What the government can't control, it will ban.
Frankly, the legislation is stupid. But I’d prefer a ban to having the former secretary of the treasury scoop it up.
These folks are so immersed in Grady that they don’t even think about the optics. China will use this as an example of anti capitalist behavior for ever
The excuses said to be making this legislation necessary, are as weak as the counts against Trump. It's extraordinary. The senate usually rejects novelty of this kind, let's hope they do so again. The power grab is making up for what the Patriot Act left out. It's worse than the Patriot Act.
This means I'm going to write my senators. It's the least I could do.
In short, realistically, it's a ban.
Works with me. Then again, I've always been an anti-communist.
Doesn't this just ban tiktok in the hands of ByteDance?
If so, it is just a witch hunt: if ByteDance is a legitimate business, it can sell it to another company, but they stand to loose their shirts. If it's a government entity in the guise of a legitimate business, same thing and the end result is we have tiktok under another name but still under Chinese control: china can keep playing these games forever.
If it is not necessarily just ByteDance, but uses them as an example, doesn't this apply to any foreign (not-US) software?
Isn't every country a Foreign Adversary Country? If China is defines as an 'adversary' why has everything from China not been banned? Americans are pouring money into China...
But then, that's not the problem though, is it? the US government is the Adversary in this case. Just like the Chinese government, they want to control the people.
They'd rather be banned than be severed from their CCP masters. That tells you what the service is really all about.
So far two candidate buyers are Mnuchin's group and Rumble or perhaps a combo of the two.
Both closely associated with our president emeritus and his non-fascist views.
I think it would be hilarious and terrific if tiktok became a MAGA outlet.
Truthsocial.com could also buy it.
If Congress forces a sale, could they also force a buyer? If Google offered 25% more than Rumble, could Bytedance say screw you, we're selling to rumble. Or could congress make them sell to the high bidder?
I guess the answer is that under fascism, govt can do whatever they want.
John Henry
This is a serious question: How does the Govt prevent me from going to a disapproved website? Its called (or used to be called) the "world-wide web" www. So if the legislation passes and I type www.tiktok.com, what stops my computer from connecting to tiktok?
I’m not impressed by bans.
Soon the feds will be playing whack-a-mole. The players will all have untraceable Chinese documentation.
If America's young people continue to use social media -- including getting their news -- to the same extent they do now, we are done as a country. Banning TikTok will not help. We need to figure out, as a society, how to make young people want to engage with others without using screens. We need to get them to think critically and not to glom onto the cause of the day.
This is similar to something I noticed during the SOU speech. Biden's goal is to make cheap insulin available to everybody. Shouldn't the government's goal really be to improve the health of Americans so diabetes is not such a large -- and growing -- problem?
"Shouldn't the government's goal really be to improve the health of Americans..."
Government's goal should be to limit itself to the tasks assigned to it by the Constitution. Yeah, I know- like that would ever happen.
China routinely blocks many American tech websites including Facebook, Twitter (X), and Amazon. I don't see why turnabout is not fair play.
Wikipedia gives us a "list of websites blocked in mainland China." It starts with Google, YouTube, Facebook, Wikipedia and continues with 76 more.
Wikipedia
What stops my computer from going to tiktok.com?
The CCP have The Great Firewall. Maybe the Americans will have The Great Canyon.
The best that can be said in TikTok’s favour is that US government propaganda is no better than CCP propaganda. Maybe not, but it is better than the cyber warfare that the CCP is using TikTok to engage in.
The problem with the legislation is not that opposing commies is somehow bad for capitalism, it’s that the legislation is broader than what is needed to achieve that goal and will be used (indications are it already is being used) to go after any internet company that is inconvenient to the ruling party,
It's a doable skinny-boy ban to scare the AI monster.
For the constitutional lawyers - why isn’t this a “taking.”
I don't grasp either the legal or the technical details, and pretty much confine myself to a few blogs and whatever UToob coughs up when it comes to social media.
So, I probably won't notice any changes if they ban the Commie tricknology. Sometimes it's good to adopt late, or never.
resistance from China, which has pledged to block any deal...."
The CCP refusing to give up control of TikTok is a solid argument for killing it
Patriot Act 2.0. In the face of a legitimate issue, give the government a bunch of power that will end up being used against Americans.
Sun Tzu hardest hit.
Would Time Magazine name Hitler Man of the Year?
Would the New York Times ignore the Holocaust?
Would the New York Times lie about Holodomor?
Why not let China lead your kids around by their noses?
They spend more time with China than they do with you!
Kate said...
Are they too geriatric to understand what TikTok is and how social media works?
Nope. and they're smart enough to understand it's our enemy.
I can't see any good reason for the party of free speech, the party that's been socially eviscerated because they dismiss the importance of the internet public square, to let this pass.
Then you're either a moron, or a liar.
TikTok is controlled by the Chinese Communist Party, the CCP, an emery of the US.
The CCP is convinced their tool is so destructive that they refuse to allow it to be used in China.
If you have a problem with preventing an enemy of American from controlling part of our public square, then you must also be an enemy of America
LLR-democratical Rich: "Going to be interesting to watch whether China decides to use it to elect Trump..."
LOL!
There can be no clearer evidence the New Soviet Democraticals know their relaunch of the Russia Collusion Hoax is failing than launching a new hoax where they pretend Biden's paymasters and handlers in Beijing want Trump to win!
Hmmm, wasn't a certain LLR-democratical posting earlier today about the "problem" of misinformation on Teh Interwebs?!
Too funny.
@Godfather says 17:28: "This is a serious question: How does the Govt prevent me from going to a disapproved website? Its called (or used to be called) the "world-wide web" www. "
They don't prevent you from going there. They prevent the website from being there, using a system of steadily-escalating fines. They prevent advertisers from spending their revenue there, the same way. You are not part of this. You are powerless, without voice or representation.
Thanks for playing.
"TikTok is banned in the People's Republic of China".
As AA says, it is effectively a ban.
Tim in Vermont, posted a link, it’s a pretty easy read. It’s actually quite disturbing, in how government ban or controls something. They shift the responsibility to someone or some entity who has a vested interest in doing what government says. In this case, Section 2 (a)(1) …”it shall be unlawful for an entity to distribute, maintain or update…”
So, any company providing a link to or host the ‘foreign adversary controlled application’ is performing an illegal act. Since your phone is ‘hosting’ the application, you are performing an illegal act. Of course subsection (A) and (B) actually rules out you performing an illegal act unless you provide a service to ‘distribute, maintain or update’ and as long as you are not an internet provider providing a service that enables the same.
This the equivalent of making suppliers of certain drugs, illegal, but not necessarily the drugs themselves; or making distribution of ammunition illegal, but not banning guns.
Like a lot of statues, though, once it is on the books, it’s easy to modify to apply to other situations - what do you think congress does most of the time when you aren’t looking? It is easy to modify this statute (if it becomes one) by tagging on to a ‘help the homeless’ bill.
So really, TikTok isn’t banned, just that those who would provide the application, and thus the content, are performing an illegal act. Businesses, no matter how big you are cannot stand up the the hammer of government and will comply.
Larry J said...
China routinely blocks many American tech websites including Facebook, Twitter (X), and Amazon. I don't see why turnabout is not fair play.
Because the USA is purportedly a free country and China is a totalitarian shithole that we should not try to emulate. Pretty simple.
Rich: "Going to be interesting to watch whether China decides to use it to elect Trump..."
Xi is not a friend of Trump.
Because the USA is purportedly a free country and China is a totalitarian shithole that we should not try to emulate.
But we can still vicariously enjoy their slave State - Muslims, no less, DEI, environmental arbitrage for Green effect, capital investments, transnational immigration reform, etc. A case of a baby, her profitable parts at Planned Parenthood, her carbon sequestered in a sanctuary State, and have her, too.
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