Political Discussion

Bull Shannon said:
There’s some stuff happening on campuses which doesn’t give me much confidence that an owner regulated by the American government would keep its hands off the wheel when it comes to pro-Palestine content…
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You think the US government is limiting speech/content on social media? That seems like a huge story. Do you also find the Chinese government to be more trustworthy than the US government in that regard?

I find the attempt by some in college leadership, local, and state government to stifle peaceful protest appalling. Relating a TikTok ban to the ongoing strife on campuses feels a bit like a red herring to me.
 
TenderLovingKiller® said:
You think the US government is limiting speech/content on social media? That seems like a huge story. Do you also find the Chinese government to be more trustworthy than the US government in that regard?

I find the attempt by some in college leadership, local, and state government to stifle peaceful protest appalling. Relating a TikTok ban to the ongoing strife on campuses feels a bit like a red herring to me.
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China is obviously more blatant about it, and the US government doesn't often directly intervene to censor things online. But they do put pressure on companies to do it sometimes and sometimes the companies do even without the outside political pressure.

This TikTok ban has been in the works since wayyyyy before anything related to the Israeli genocide of Palestinians, so I agree that it probably has minimal relation to that. Although it may be used to influence some votes from shortsighted dumb asses in Congress.
 
TenderLovingKiller® said:
You think the US government is limiting speech/content on social media? That seems like a huge story. Do you also find the Chinese government to be more trustworthy than the US government in that regard?

I find the attempt by some in college leadership, local, and state government to stifle peaceful protest appalling. Relating a TikTok ban to the ongoing strife on campuses feels a bit like a red herring to me.
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Hemotep said:
China is obviously more blatant about it, and the US government doesn't often directly intervene to censor things online. But they do put pressure on companies to do it sometimes and sometimes the companies do even without the outside political pressure.

This TikTok ban has been in the works since wayyyyy before anything related to the Israeli genocide of Palestinians, so I agree that it probably has minimal relation to that. Although it may be used to influence some votes from shortsighted dumb asses in Congress.
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This. Over the years we've seen Twitter and Facebook bow to pressure and certain stories/topics getting buried algorithmically; let alone the lack of oversight or curbing of disinformation on the other end of that spectrum and the capitalistic urge to profit off sensationalism. I'm not trying to say the sale is purely influenced by pro-Palestine content, but when a Senator tells me he's motivated to support the ban because curbing pro-Palestine information would be a perk, I believe him.

I don't mean to draw a direct line from the ban to the mobilization of militarized police on peaceful college protesters, but when the conversation is about how the Chinese government is bad, squashes free speech and mishandles personal information, and selling a Chinese-based company to an American entity will be some improvement, I just don't see it. For most any reason one could point to the Chinese government being bad, I struggle to point to the American government behaving dissimilarly. They've managed our personal information terribly, used social media to crack down on dissent by tracking protesters, and are full-throatedly expressing a desire to tamp down the flow of knowledge and information.

eta, though: I do believe the current militarized response to peaceful protest, the tasing/teargassing/tackling of students and teachers going on, is in some part retaliation for the George Floyd protests four years ago; these state governments and PDs are acting vengefully and broadcasting the message that we won't be allowed to speak up like we did last time. Twitter and Tiktok were instrumental tools in organizing protests and showing exactly how violent the police reaction was at the time. I do believe the governmental distrust of Tiktok germinated then and there. So maybe there's more connection than I'm demurring from.

Whether the sale would result in a functional change to TikTok's algorithm (keep in mind the app does censor harmful content and certain words such as references to self-harm are already programmatically removed; there's a precedent for content moderation/censorship), I call foul on the motivations having anything to do with protecting individual citizens and more about politicking.
 
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Bull Shannon said:
but when a Senator tells me he's motivated to support the ban because there's too much pro-Palestine content on there, I believe him.
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I don’t doubt that senator dickhead and many of his GOP bros are wanting the ban, at least partially; for the wrong reasons. I also don’t think they share the same rationale to others on the left are also in favor of the ban.
Bull Shannon said:
I don't mean to draw a direct line from the ban to the mobilization of militarized police on peaceful college protesters, but when the conversation is about how the Chinese government is bad, squashes free speech and mishandles personal information, and selling a Chinese-based company to an American entity will be some improvement, I just don't see it. For most any reason one could point to the Chinese government being bad, I struggle to point to the American government behaving dissimilarly. They've managed our personal information terribly, used social media to crack down on dissent by tracking protesters, and are full-throatedly expressing a desire to tamp down the flow of knowledge and information.
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What is the worst outcome you can imagine by the forced sale/ban of TikTok? Maybe I am missing something but I feel like the worst case scenario of inaction seems far worse.
 
TenderLovingKiller® said:
What is the worst outcome you can imagine by the forced sale/ban of TikTok? Maybe I am missing something but I feel like the worst case scenario of inaction seems far worse.
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I'm not sure I'm predicting something will happen (beyond a facebook/twitter style enshittification and decline in use) so much as the political theater taking place will instill in Americans the idea that there is some awful outcome from the app being owned by a Chinese company. But that ship's already sailed, it seems.
 
Im just glad we are back to the seventies. College protests are getting an armed response because of a war that no one but the powers that be wants. Also China is bad full stop.

Great times. I guess it’s cool that Crazy Horse is touring though.

Maybe we can get Jimmy Carter to serve a second term. If any old ass mofo can right the ship…
 
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