US passes bill to ban TikTok unless Chinese owner sells platform

[Prannon]

I feel like it needs to be said, but it is only the US House that has voted to ban TikTok. The Senate has not voted on this, and it is an open question on whether this will survive in its current form in the Senate.

I find a lot of the reporting on this fairly insubstantial as a result.

[Prannon]

My wife was watching something last night that said the real reason the US wants to ban TikTok is some rich asshole wants to own it, can't, so he's trying to get the government to ban it to force a sale.

No idea if that's true.

I mean, Steve Mnuchin and Bobby Kotick are both hovering over this like buzzards.

That more than anything alarms me. We've seen what happens when rich assholes buy social media companies.

[Ralin]

So coming back around on this thread let me just asking the question, how exactly is the House Bill any more legal than the last three attempts to Ban Tiktok?

Before they just had Sinophobia and racism. Now they have Sinophobia, racism and old politicians who can't understand why the young people are angry about the mass murder of Palestinians and need a scapegoat for what's got them so confused and unwilling to vote right.

Dunno if that'll be enough to push it over the top, but that's the difference. If some local billionaire stands to benefit from them strong-arming a foreign company than all the better.

[Elfdart]

BUT, along your vein, the safer thing for the US government to do would be to declare 'any company working with TIKTOK, in any capacity, will be investigated for being an US Security threat'. (I can also see them 'any individual workng with Tiktok....)

Now, instead of those nice legal protections every company that operates or does business with the United States enjoy being torpedoed, those companies have a choice - work with a US Security Threat, and be considered to effectively be saying they don't want those legal protections, or stop/not do business with Tiktok.

So, to be clear, your reaction to being told it's stupid to think that the US government wouldn't be able to shut down any loopholes TikTok tried to exploit to get around Congress banning them from operating in the US is to give an example of how the US government could do that?

It would also show a shift towards Putin-esque tactics I don't think anyone would be comfortable with.

Despite being fine with taking a leaf from the Chinese government's book by banning TikTok.

The main goal of this bill is to steal something of value from non-caucasians and place it under the control of the Empire: better known as "The American Way". The fact that some of the craftier young people who share videos on the site will slip through no matter what obstacles the state puts in front of them doesn't change this. Even the dumbest of deep state bootlickers knows that censoring videos from YouTube only sends more business to Patreon or Rumble. But stupid people try anyway. I mean, Nixon started the War on Drugs and the War on Pornography because the political class came to the conclusion that the reason young people didn't support the holocaust in Vietnam is because they smoke too much Reefer (you know, those Mary Jane cigarettes) and read dirty magazines. Reagan turned these campaigns up to 11, but drugs and porn were not hindered in the slightest. The only difference is that back then, shit-libs at least offered platitudes about freedom of speech (including a fatuous quote Voltaire never wrote) and one's own person, while these days, shit-libs want to censor like Comstock on speed and are proud of themselves for it.

If Tik Tok fans want to stop this kind of police state bullfuckery, they have the means to do so: If only a fraction of the 170 million users registers to vote, and votes against the cranks who voted for this bill, the jig is up. Gun nuts, tax protesters, AIPAC and fetus christers get their way because they will gladly kneecap one of their own for crossing them. Go and do likewise, Tik Tokkers.

[Rogue 9]

My wife was watching something last night that said the real reason the US wants to ban TikTok is some rich asshole wants to own it, can't, so he's trying to get the government to ban it to force a sale.

No idea if that's true.

I mean, Steve Mnuchin and Bobby Kotick are both hovering over this like buzzards.

That more than anything alarms me. We've seen what happens when rich assholes buy social media companies.

Particularly rich assholes who served in the Trump administration.