By targeting TikTok... the United States may undermine its decades-long efforts to promote an open and free internet governed by international organizations, not individual countries, digital rights advocates said. The web in recent years has fragmented as authoritarian governments in China and Russia increasingly encroach on their citizens’ internet access....
April 17, 2024
"I don’t think the obvious thing needs to be stated out loud, which is that when Russia blocks YouTube, they’ll justify it with precisely this decision of the United States."
Said the Russian opposition blogger, Aleksandr Gorbunov, quoted in "What a TikTok Ban Would Mean for the U.S. Defense of an Open Internet/Global digital rights advocates are watching to see if Congress acts, worried that other countries could follow suit with app bans of their own" (NYT).
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I don't much care what Russia does with respect to the internet in their country, and even if I did I can't imagine an enforcement action the US could take which would either be effective and/or not be saddled with unintended consequences.
I like open and free internet. I don't like the idea of countries controlling it and I like the idea of 'international organizations' governing it even worse. If I had to choose between the two, I would choose the US controls it largely overall, and then individual countries can monkey with it within their borders.
Either opposing Chinese cyberwarfare against the United States is in the US interest or it isn't on its own merits. Russian oppressors who may or may not use it as an excuse is the Russians' problem.
TikTok should be treated like heroin.
It is the same thing and has the same affect on society.
It sounds like a good argument, other than if Putin wants to ban YouTube, he does not really care if he has a justification or not. He will just do it and come up with some excuse. I suppose if he can blame the United States that would be bonus points, but otherwise Putin does what Putin does. It's like arguing that a lion would pause from hunting down and eating you because you refused to eat a steak for dinner. Yeah, that's not how this works.
LOL, DAVID FRUM. “We’re not supposed to read Biden’s refusal to debate to mean that he lacks the mental capacity to debate. Frum and others will instruct us, repeatedly, in articles repeating the talking point.”
But we all know that’s why, and that dishonest flacks are making excuses for the mental incapacity of the President they foisted on us last time around.
It is a sorry state of affairs to see that Glenn Reynolds has become such a MAGA nutcase that he is incapable of assessing the problem of Demented & Sleepy Don continuously repeating the same lies he spouted in the 2016 election runup - including the calls to jail Hillary. Methinks that Prof. Reynolds should open his eyes and wash them with some Smoky Mountain rain.
TikTok is not a free speech platform but a curated set of information provided by a government that is antagonistic to ours. The user does not control his or her feed. I do not think it is a slippery slope to ban propaganda from antagonistic foreign governments. Additionally, the data collected is also done without user consent, so we could ban it purely under consumer protection laws.
China actively bans many websites from non-Chinese countries. Why shouldn’t turnabout be fair play?
YouTube lacks a googol memory. This is the
Alphabet Spring of curation.
The principle of arrogance? Russia is aborting sources of misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation spread under the umbrella corporation with state consensus.
I like open and free internet. I don't like the idea of countries controlling it
Other countries are already controlling it, to a drastically greater extent than anything Musk or Zuckerberg is doing. You are whistling past the graveyard.
The US under Biden has completely wasted all credibility.
- Fair elections, nope, no voter id AT ALL.
- Fair judiciary, nope, republicans take it up the ***, democrats skate.
- Completely destroying what used to be off-limits SWIFT financial system. Accelerating the destruction of the petro-dollar.
- Overthrowing the government of Ukraine and then pushing them to join NATO, further encroaching on russia.
- Just bailing on afghanis and afghanistan. **** the people who were helping us.
- Censoring political opponents via social media outlets.
- Dragging CNN along when they raid a republican in their home for a process crime.
- Inciting J6.
- Murdering Ashli Babbit and then promoting the guy.
- Shutting down the country because of covid. Arresting preachers for holding sermons. Arresting people for gathering together. Taking away the licences of doctors for DARING to go against the jab. For DARING to do science about the issue.
- Promoting ( sometimes by making bail ) violent black lives matters riots, marches. ACTUALLY saying that covid is so dangerous that we must shut down the country, BUT we must also let black democrats riot.
- Promoting and supporting an invasion of the country.
- Doing everything they can to create inflation by raising energy costs.
I've never understood why other countries allow Youtube to have a monopoly. Not just for political reasons but for $$. BTW, Brazil seems intent on forcing out Twitter.
I think that the United States blocking TikTok and Russia blocking Youtube are two totally different issues. If Russia wants to ban Youtube, they won't care about how the United States would handle this kind of issue. In fact, I can't imagine Putin blocking Youtube and saying that they did it because they look to the US for national policy direction.
If Russia wants to block Youtube, they'll block Youtube no matter what we do with TikTok.
Russia will do Russia for its iwn reasons. What the USA does is irrelevant to that, except where they will try to shift blame. This is nothing new, though those who don't expect Russia to act like Russia will think it so.
BTW - Look up "The Great Firewall of China" to see how a totalitarian state really treats the internet.
tommyesq said...
I like open and free internet. I don't like the idea of countries controlling it
**
"Other countries are already controlling it, to a drastically greater extent than anything Musk or Zuckerberg is doing. You are whistling past the graveyard."
***********
Why not cite evidence so we all know which graveyards we are whistling past? We all know about China. Ditto Brazil and its attempts to throttle X/Twitter. Who else?
Once again, people are missing the point. It is not censorship of tiktok but the fact that it is aligned with the gov of China and sends your data there. Congress is pushing for China to divest from tiktok. That is all.
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