I wish but seriously the dumbest shit ever. China is not spying on your oafish american ass they literally could care less.

  • POKEMONGOTOTHEGULAG [none/use name]
    hexbear
    93
    edit-2
    3 months ago

    The dems woke up and were like "The active hand in genocide isn't enough. We got to alienate even more young people."

    Dems should ban kids from calling me cheugy

    • 7bicycles [he/him]
      hexbear
      43
      3 months ago

      Dems should ban kids from calling me cheugy

      This isn't as far away as you think and we're pretty much there in the UK and Germany where "Somebody called me an asshole on facebook after I announced the project start for "Turning the local skate park into a snake pit in which to throw all unruly children" has somehow become a national emergency

    • mar_k [he/him]
      hexbear
      4
      3 months ago

      or when 14 year olds hear anyone say they're over 17 and say "damn unc" to call them old 💀

  • Assian_Candor [comrade/them]
    hexbear
    90
    3 months ago

    It’s not about spying it’s about corporate theft. US can’t stomach the next big growth platform being owned by a Chinese company. A TikTok ban is a gift to meta/google as it would basically force a fire sale of that division and nobody else would have the capital to buy it.

    If they pass the ban the Chinese gov should buy it from douyin and shut it down. The salt would pour freely

    • Tankiedesantski [he/him]
      hexbear
      89
      3 months ago

      Nah I think the best thing for the Chinese government to do would be to direct Tik Tok to leave the US market. Put it on Huawei app store or something and watch all the zoomers learn how to sideload apps.

      If Tik Tok leaves the US market it'll still be a huge social media player in Europe and the rest of the world. That would be an American soft power nightmare - a global platform that Americans are blocked from influencing on by their own laws.

      • Frogmanfromlake [none/use name]
        hexbear
        66
        3 months ago

        I hope that’s the case but I can see China allowing it to be bought by an American company and doing nothing about it.

        • Adkml [he/him]
          hexbear
          44
          3 months ago

          It sucks this is what's probably going to happen because it's the worse of all options.

          Damn you China for actually being level headed and thinking with long term strategies instead of doing something funny in the short term.

          • MelianPretext [they/them]
            hexbear
            32
            edit-2
            3 months ago

            It's not going to happen.

            Nor would its proposed forced sale be "level headed" or a good "long term strategy." The rightful focus from leftists on the social health impact of short form apps has apparently also consequently given tunnel vision from seeing what's really at stake in the eyes of the American state apparatus.

            Yes, Bytedance's CEO is a complete wannabe comprador who constantly stated how much he worships the West before his company got into the crosshairs, but we've been seeing the "Tiktok Forced Sale" skit happening for 4 years now. Trump first tried to do it before in the summer of 2020 as a last feather in his cap before the election. His attempt failed as well.

            At that time, in reaction to the attack on Tiktok actually, China released a technology export law restricting the sale or transfer of sensitive algorithms. That's what this is really about on the business side, the US wanting to steal a free lunch from China and setting a long lasting precedent through Tiktok's forced sale so that future Chinese tech can be expropriated. This happened to France when Alstom was forcibly sold to GE back in 2015. That export law is what's going to ultimately block this forced sale attempt. It would be better in China's interests for Tiktok to be banned than allowed to be stolen by the US.

            Additionally, what should be said is that Tiktok really is a "threat" to the US state apparatus. All the whitewashing, misdirection and partisanship over the Twitter Files evidently has successfully misdirected people from the real bombshell confirmations they showed. Companies like Twitter and Facebook have active communication channels with US state officials, where they algorithmically boost accounts and content created by the US and suppress the visibility of contrary content via email contact directives.

            Tiktok USA/Global, while basically controlled by US personnel, including ex-NSA officials, at this point, is still ultimately connected to its parent company. This makes Tiktok a "perpetual outsider" and the establishment of similar censorship channels much more vulnerable to exposure, at least psychologically. The existence of Tiktok is, with no exaggeration, a massive challenge to the US state's complete hegemonic monopoly on social media platforms in the English speaking world.

            This is why the attempts to ban Tiktok are currently the predominant "China" concern and have been for the past 4 years.

        • Tankiedesantski [he/him]
          hexbear
          37
          3 months ago

          That might happen, yeah. I don't want to come off like a "trust the plan" type, but I do like the saying "Americans player checkers, Russians play chess, Chinese play Go".

          Let the Yanks smile as they yell "King me!"

          • citrussy_capybara [ze/hir]
            hexbear
            19
            3 months ago

            not even checkers, tic-tac-toe

            It’s an attempt to make TikTok better. Tic-tac-toe, a winner. open-biden

          • Frogmanfromlake [none/use name]
            hexbear
            16
            edit-2
            3 months ago

            That's more or less how it's going. There's still Temu and other apps that the US tries to demonize as they're widely used by the rest of the world. I don't doubt that China has other apps that will rival American apps. The blue jeans are no longer in the US and I don't think China will end up like Japan in the 90's either.

            It also got banned in India where Youtube Shorts and Indian apps like JOSH filled the gap.

            • NoLeftLeftWhereILive [none/use name, she/her]
              hexbear
              17
              3 months ago

              I also have a small pet theory about Temu and others like it and why they are entering the Western market so strongly right now: this is Chinese firms taking the lead in being the one selling treats to Westoids like me with less middle men. As they are the ones making all the things. Bezos doesn't get a cut and it's the same stuff they sell on Amazon or in my local supermarket.

              People will follow their material interest and buy from there because it's cheaper and easier. I hear a lot of Temu discourse in my country atm and everyone is ordering and not listening to the attemps to discredit it. Prices here are high enough, if you can get those gardening tools for 1/5th of the price you will not buy the expensive ones.

              Eventually Chinese firms just sell the stuff they make straight to the consumers globally and none of the Western billionaires get a cut.

        • zed_proclaimer [he/him]
          hexbear
          14
          3 months ago

          Yep and because it's the most cravenly option it's probably what's going to happen. China never fails to disappoint me outside of their borders.

    • Adkml [he/him]
      hexbear
      60
      3 months ago

      Chinese government should buy it and just exclude the American market.

      All the kids will get vpns in 48 hours and how much America sucks ass will be the main kind of content on tik tok.

      • Tabitha ☢️[she/her]
        hexbear
        20
        3 months ago

        just exclude the American market

        I really want to see how that plays out lol

    • mechwarrior2 [he/him]
      hexbear
      35
      3 months ago

      “One of the main effects of the legislation would be to decrease the sale price,” said Matt Perault, director of the University of North Carolina’s Center on Technology Policy, which gets funding from TikTok and other tech companies. “As you approach that 180-day clock, the pressure on the company to sell or risk being banned entirely would be high, which would mean probably the acquirers could get it at a lower price.”

      https://fortune.com/2024/03/13/will-tiktok-be-banned-or-acquired-walmart-oracle/

    • Teekeeus [comrade/them]
      hexbear
      16
      3 months ago

      There is also probably a zionist component to this. The ADL explicitly mentioned that TikTok was dangerous because it has a lot of content that doesn't tow the zionist line

  • Blottergrass [he/him]
    hexbear
    88
    edit-2
    3 months ago

    We should criticize israel's genocide a lot on facebook so that can be banned to. Free the boomers from mindjail.

    • Dessa [she/her]
      hexbear
      91
      3 months ago

      You can't. Facebook supresses the shit out of Pro-Palestine content. And Facebook is cutting edge on AI moderation -- It's really hard to fool the automation for very long.

    • Frank [he/him, he/him]
      hexbear
      65
      3 months ago

      You can never tell what the rules are, but content about palestine seems to be high risk for getting zucc'd. Plus only ancient people are on facebook.

      • Łumało [he/him]@lemmygrad.ml
        hexbear
        12
        3 months ago

        You forgot Poland! :jurek-krzak:

        Seriously though, Facebook is extremely popular in Poland. So much so, that Reddit, Twitter and other crap is only used by people who tend to be stereotypes of those websites. Or they are on JBZD, Wykop, Karachan or other domestic shitsites.

        • @anon5621@lemmy.ml
          hexbear
          4
          3 months ago

          Why Facebook became so popular in Poland in ur opinion comparing with social media.Young generations around the world use more messengers nowdays.

          • Łumało [he/him]@lemmygrad.ml
            hexbear
            10
            3 months ago

            To be frank, I don't quite know per say, but there's a lot of local groups, school groups, work groups, activism groups, and events. And every single one I've encountered uses Facebook, there are even meme pages which are not out of touch with the times that have quite significant user counts.

            Part of the issue would be that Facebook pushed out domestic platforms which were similar to it, like NaszaKlasa.

            Of course, TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat are popular. But a forum like site? Facebook.

    • NephewAlphaBravo [he/him]
      hexbear
      56
      edit-2
      3 months ago

      I'm sure that's part of the issue here, it's way easier for the us to censor us-owned platforms

      • combat_brandonism [they/them]
        hexbear
        23
        3 months ago

        Not really. TikTok US's leadership is full of ex-natsec ghouls.

        The issue is that it's way easier to censor/propagandize overseas on us-owned platforms.

        • NephewAlphaBravo [he/him]
          hexbear
          21
          edit-2
          3 months ago

          And even that's not enough control for them.

          Anyway what I meant was that you can't just agitate on facebook because it's already in the fully-tamed state that they're mad tiktok isn't in.

      • zed_proclaimer [he/him]
        hexbear
        14
        3 months ago

        TikTok is administered and run in the USA and complies with all US directives. They probably have a CIA consultant on staff and an NSA department that sends over the data to them.

  • Adkml [he/him]
    hexbear
    87
    edit-2
    3 months ago

    Literally just banning it so now China has to pay Facebook a nominal fee for the data.

    I genuinely hope this causes young people to radicalize. They've been asking for a decade for somebody to do something about them being murdered by the dozens in school and after doing nothing they're going to ban the social media site young people use after allowing Facebook to do the same thing the whole time under the guise of "protecting children".

    It'd be hard to come up with a more effective way to tell them electing dems doesn't accomplish anything good.

    • zed_proclaimer [he/him]
      hexbear
      32
      3 months ago

      they're "protecting children" from each other, because it's other kids posting all the pro-Palestine content that congress wants to shut down

  • HexbearGPT [comrade/them]
    hexbear
    76
    edit-2
    3 months ago

    Old people scared of china, and banning tiktok because of it, can be traced directly back to leaded gasoline brain poisoning, several studies have confirmed. brainworms

    • Tankiedesantski [he/him]
      hexbear
      21
      3 months ago

      Wasn't much leaded gasoline back when they passed the Chinese Exclusion laws. Hating Chinese people has a much longer history than leaded gas.

  • sourquincelog [he/him]
    hexbear
    73
    3 months ago

    "concerned citizens are contacting their representatives to not ban tiktok. This is a clear indicator that they are addicted and being manipulated, so we must ban tiktok"

    What prevents the intelligence apparatus from controlling tiktok content the same way they control ig/fb/twitter's content? It seems to me that they're very concerned with tiktok's ability to influence public opinion (ex: Gaza), which is part of why they want it banned.

    • SUPAVILLAIN@lemmygrad.ml
      hexbear
      61
      edit-2
      3 months ago

      It seems to me that they’re very concerned with tiktok’s ability to influence public opinion (ex: Gaza), which is part of why they want it banned.

      This. It's always about controlling the eyeballs of the chattel; and right now, the State sees a need to corral the young. Because again, yankee genociders can't compete on their own merits. It's pure protectionism and propaganda control.

    • Adkml [he/him]
      hexbear
      53
      3 months ago

      Lmao I don't think I've seem a more radicalizing comment in a long time.

      Next time somebody says if you dont like something the only acceptable form of activism is to civilly contact your representatives show them this comment which basically boils down to "we've received a bunch of comments asking us not to ban tik tok which really highlights how important it is that we abn tik tok."

      What's stopping them from using the same playback in the future.

      "A bunch of people called me and encouraged me to support universal Healthcare which is just proof universal Healthcare is a Chinese psyop meant to distract us from the real work of legalizing child slavery."

      • 7bicycles [he/him]
        hexbear
        28
        3 months ago

        wdym in the future, exchange chinese psyop for communism and that's basically been the argument for 60 years and running

  • happybadger [he/him]
    hexbear
    65
    3 months ago

    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68517607

    The BBC coverage of this is insane. Tiktok is uniquely hypnotic and the youth of today are experiencing reefer madness from this foreign seducer:

    Staffers to other lawmakers on both sides of the aisle also reported hundreds of calls to their offices, from app users young and old, who did not have a clear idea of either who or why they were calling.

    A spokesperson for Dusty Johnson told the BBC his office had received calls from people who were very upset, as well as "some people who are asking kindly if TikTok is going to be banned, and some have said TikTok wouldn't let them on the app without calling their [representative]".

    "I am deeply troubled by reports of young people calling Congress, threatening to commit suicide or otherwise harm themselves," Mr Torres said in a statement to the BBC.

    "The iron grip that TikTok has on the minds of young people is a profound public health hazard."

    Callers range from teenagers to the elderly, and most are "really confused and are calling because 'TikTok told me to'", one Republican staffer revealed.

    Florida Congressman Neal Dunn's office told the BBC it has received more than 900 calls from TikTokers, "many of which were vulnerable school-aged children"

    • hello_hello [they/them, comrade/them]
      hexbear
      72
      3 months ago

      TikTok is literally forcing Americans to participate in a consultative democracy. This is the worst nightmare of any gop or dem staffer lmao.

    • came_apart_at_Kmart [he/him, comrade/them]
      hexbear
      60
      3 months ago

      Texarkana Congressman Chestinauld "Tater" Ford-Walmart III was set upon by a gang of youths outside his family's personal bowling alley. Once he was cornered, they opened their mouths simultaneously to emit a loud static and a disembodied voice whispering violently, "The Future Is Now, We Are The Dark Sunrise." Then they all started twerking, unamericanly, forcing the Congressman to flee for his life and hide next door in his family's personal Bible Study Hall & Golden Corral.

      • happybadger [he/him]
        hexbear
        46
        3 months ago

        my son used to be patriotic but now he does china all day. i told him "its time to say the pledge of allegiance boy" and he called me a dang 白鬼 because tiktok told him to.

    • Dessa [she/her]
      hexbear
      48
      edit-2
      3 months ago

      I'm on a discord group tht has a lot of zoomers and maybe a few alphas, and they're suddenly interested in how laws are passed. This is a huge opportunity to radicalize

    • InevitableSwing [none/use name]
      hexbear
      46
      edit-2
      3 months ago

      Tiktok is uniquely hypnotic and the youth of today are experiencing reefer madness

      There needs to be a "reefer madness" phrase just for Tiktok.

    • AutomatedPossum [she/her]
      hexbear
      38
      3 months ago

      I was inclined to say "satire is dead when BBC news are like a carbon copy of a Kelly cartoon with the labels edited out", but then i remembered the labels are always the best part and that this means that actually, it's the news that are dead.

  • SorosFootSoldier [he/him, they/them]
    hexagon
    hexbear
    59
    3 months ago

    It's actually illegal in China to say "Chinese Communist Party - CCP" you HAVE to say CPC otherwise a small drone will KILL you, very handy in identifying Chinese infiltrators in Burger King.

  • homhom9000 [she/her]
    hexbear
    57
    3 months ago

    It's funny because lately my tiktok feed is full of AI voice overs, people trying to sell some crap, and viewer farming channels. Every 10-15 videos I get some watchable content and maybe 1 explicit Palestine video in a 30 min session, eventhough I follow political accounts.

    • TraschcanOfIdeology [they/them, comrade/them]
      hexbear
      38
      3 months ago

      I barely open TikTok anymore because my experience is the exact opposite: a whole bunch of people with Palestine takes or just recounting the latest harrowing thing happening in Gaza.

      • @Misconduct@startrek.website
        hexbear
        10
        3 months ago

        Y'all gotta get better at slapping your algo around when it's not working for you. If you're burned out on something tell it you're not interested until it stops. You can also go search it up later if you need to. I got stuck on chicken videos for weeks before I finally just had to start saying I wasn't interested lmao

    • Awoo [she/her]
      hexbear
      14
      3 months ago

      This is algo because my entire feed is ML posts and Palestine now.

      I miss my dance content tbh I like dances :(

      • @Misconduct@startrek.website
        hexbear
        5
        3 months ago

        Here's my favorite one I got a few minutes ago. Maybe if you interact with it you can get your algo back on track lol

        https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTLNj1gPg/

        • Awoo [she/her]
          hexbear
          2
          edit-2
          3 months ago

          Ohhhh no the stuff I'm into is like, mega weeb cosplay dances lmao.

          This kind of thing (i'm so jealous yaorenmao is so good)

          I used to get mountains of it but it's been entirely replaced with communism now and it makes me very sad to lose my funsie content. The problem I think is that I like literally every single communist thing I see to support it for algo but... Well. Now I have too much of it. It's a dilemma!

            • Awoo [she/her]
              hexbear
              3
              3 months ago

              Lol ok so I don't need to be that embarrassed for loving this stuff then haha

    • @Misconduct@startrek.website
      hexbear
      8
      3 months ago

      Mine has good days and bad days. I've noticed that I'm less likely to see creators I like on my fyp if I follow them which seems really counterintuitive lol. I stopped following people and just interacting with content I like and it got much better. I know I can just go to my following page but I swear it's broken or something. It'll say I'm out of content after showing me month old videos but when I go to their page they have more recent stuff. It's weird

      As far as palatine videos I'm the opposite. I'm drowning in the suckers. I'll even get stuff that's just posted with like 5 views. When the algo is working it is incredible but when it's not working right it feels like total ass

    • mar_k [he/him]
      hexbear
      2
      edit-2
      3 months ago

      default tiktok content is shitty it takes a bit to curate it. i feel like following doesn't matter as much, are you hitting like on those kinda videos and pressing "not interested" on the stuff you don't wanna see? commenting also matters, it's basically a second or third like regardless of what's in it. my fyp is all political stuff, memes, edits, music, anime, games, interests, pretty much exclusively stuff i might like (except for the inevitable ads/"sponsored"/"elgibile for commission" posts which are instantly skippable unlike any other platform)

  • What_Religion_R_They [none/use name]
    hexbear
    47
    3 months ago

    it irks me that every online discussion I've seen on this forced expropriation does not mention Oracle at all. The whole charade is predicated on it being Chinese owned and run but it isn't.

    • CthulhusIntern [he/him]
      hexbear
      14
      3 months ago

      That would be funny if Tiktok ends up being compliant with the law they pass, and any ISP that does try to ban it gets sued because of that, and the court rules that yes, it's compliant with the law. And Congress keeps trying to ban it but they're too geriatric and tech illiterate to actually get the right wording to ban it.

      • What_Religion_R_They [none/use name]
        hexbear
        14
        3 months ago

        Eh I wouldn't count on it. Even if they somehow fuck it up that badly, they tend to follow the spirit of the law when it's something they want but they didn't account for, or letter of the law when they're just being ghouls. Vibes based law enforcement.

      • POKEMONGOTOTHEGULAG [none/use name]
        hexbear
        29
        3 months ago

        TikTok is mandated to pay Billions to Oracle to 'audit' their code. TikTok must comply with any changes Oracle orders. For every change Oracle mandates, Oracle gets paid additional commissions.

  • TheDialectic [none/use name]
    hexbear
    44
    3 months ago

    The closest thing we have had to free speech in a while so the of course the government hates it.

  • InevitableSwing [none/use name]
    hexbear
    44
    edit-2
    3 months ago

    Serious question - what's the dem's electoral strategy here? I just don't get it. What voting bloc is worth the loss of some really pissed off people - especially young people?

    ---

    I love the word "bloc". I'm dyslexic so a part of my brain keeps telling me it's wrong even though I know it's not.

    • Tankiedesantski [he/him]
      hexbear
      53
      3 months ago

      "We're not Trump."

      That's it. That's the strategy.

      The Dems probably care less about losing than they let on. Two wings of the same party and all that. Do lawmakers make less money (including corrupt money) if they're in opposition rather than in govt?

      • Adkml [he/him]
        hexbear
        32
        3 months ago

        They make more money because instead of lecturing people about why it's unreasonable to expect them to shut down the concentration camps or not drill more oil than every country ever they get to send out fundraisers saying give them money so they can shut down the concentration camps and stop oil drilling.

    • Adkml [he/him]
      hexbear
      40
      3 months ago

      The dems electoral strategy is to lose, "concede defeat with dignity" and then get to fund raise offf of pretending they wouldn't be doing the exact same thing as republicans if they were in power.

      Losing elections is dems preferred state of being, they get to claim the moral high ground and insist they're just powerless to do the good things people want and fundraise by promising to do those good things if you give them enough money. Again.

    • BynarsAreOk [none/use name]
      hexbear
      28
      3 months ago

      IMO Biden is still the favorite they have at least 3 key points.

      1- There is no left and those to the left of him are not willing to radicalize or vote Trump to make a point. To be fair the uncommitted vote narrative may prove this wrong, but Dems likely believe this is just protest/activism rather than real conviction, you can argue both ways.

      2- They can still make promises that they wont keep and these promises hold a lot more value coming from Dems by default. There are lots of economic promises and concessions he can make.

      3- Trump is incompetent and wont successfully attack from the left. The only issue Trump could win is foreign policy and they're betting on libs being pro-Ukraine/pro-war again simply by saying it was the Republicans fault that Ukraine did not get enough military aid and therefore lost the war.

      Trump can only attack that point from the left, tell the public about Ukrainian lives, the corruption in their government, the fact men are fleeing, the fact even Europeans are against the war etc There are lots of ways to attack the Ukraine war narrative but it is very doubtful he is competent and even ideologically capable of hitting those narratives.

      Besides its not guaranteed to work anyway, the neolibs were correct to try and make the war entirely about western values. It immediately pins any opposition as being anti-western and anti-democracy and in a western world where the majority are libs by default, this is very powerful for at least 1 election cycle.

      When it comes to Palestine, if Trump doesn't propose a clear cut de-escalation and hits the same right to defend itself BS then IMO sadly liberals will vote for Biden. All Biden got to do is get a 30 day cease-fire before the election honestly.

    • buckykat [none/use name]
      hexbear
      13
      3 months ago

      Remember that thing from 2016 where they were like "for every voter we lose we pick up two in the suburbs" and then ate shit and lost? They're trying it again.

    • idkmybffjoeysteel [he/him]
      hexbear
      4
      3 months ago

      They don't care because they will mostly still remain salaried politicians whether or not they form a majority.