> TikTok also undermined the claim that they’re not an effort to manipulate American opinion on a massive scale by enacting a very public attempt to manipulate American opinion on a massive scale.
I haven't exactly been thrilled by seeing this take everywhere, because it seems obvious that if you are any kind of platform and the government wants to threaten your existence, using your platform to ask citizens to petition the government is the exact thing you are supposed to do. What kind of logic is it where protesting your innocence and trying to rally support for your cause is taken as evidence of your guilt? I believe in some circles they call this a "Kafkatrap".
I say this because I think our societal norms around guilt and innocence, speech, and process are important. I think TikTok is resisting a forced sale because their new buyer is going to see a mountain of shady shit they were doing, and I support the bill overall - but I nonetheless think this particular argument against TikTok is very concerning because of the corrosive principle behind it.
I'd also like to add, that as a long time computer geek, there's something about how the app works that made me uninstalled it over a year ago. I can't really explain what it is but it makes all the computer geek alarms go off in my brain. These are the same alarms that have kept me from ever getting a virus on any of my computers ever. I wish I could quantify this but I can't. The app just behaves weirdly. I don't trust it. (and I know this sounds silly but whatever. Sometimes I listen to the voices in my head.)
Of course Tik Tok should be banned in the US for being a tool of the CCP. The ban should be rescinded when it’s allowed to be used in China by the Chinese people.
I have problems with the bill for giving too much power to the Executive Branch, because I’m old enough to remember the Patriot Act, however I 100% agree with forced divestment, my evidence for the case being that the CCP is against selling it and said so outright last week.
Xi is willing to let $100 billion burn and let the app be banned rather than have a company from, not just America, but any country not of the 4 listed in the bill, take a look under the hood.
Why? Because they’re warping the algorithm to destabilize America in particular, and exposing exactly how they have been doing that would be so dangerous that Xi will let it burn, and also, as the joke in the first sentence suggests, as an avenue for sexual blackmail. If just one of those 50 year olds holds a security clearance? Statistically more than one will.
Xi wants the fabrication plants in Taiwan, so he can control 90% of advanced semiconductor production, thereby controlling the entire electronics supply change and effectively rule the world.
Tiktok is a psychological weapon to make that easier to accomplish by shattering social cohesion in America before the hypersonic missiles slam into our aircraft carriers. Divide the beliefs of the young and old in a country. Excellent strategy, and exactly what I would do if I had his goals.
But they need to narrow the bill and have it only apply to Tiktok, or at the very least, only apply to Chinese apps.
Jeff, I may not be around long enough to see if you will be "about as likely to give my son a smartphone at a young age as I am to give him a pack of Winston’s". You leave yourself a lot of wiggle room with the young-age clause: three, five, eight, seventeen? Also, being a newbie parent, you totally under estimate the power of a whining child. It's potent stuff, exponentially powerful if there is a doting grandparent, or even sympathetic aunt, around. I say to you, good luck and God's speed, you'll need it.
Tried to upgrade to paid--gave up when the algorithm said, "Something went wrong" and bounced me to the insufferable "I am Not a Robot" guessing game with itty-bitty picvtures of something or other.
Thank you, Jeff, for injecting a dose of much-needed sanity into this conversation. As someone hailing from the traditional media —yes, that ancient land where social "media" wasn't the central hub of all discourse—I have so much trouble with all the digital noise. While traditional media certainly played its role in shaping the narrative, the spectacle we're witnessing today feels like the credits rolling on the world as we knew it. And now, I'm off to condense this entire saga into a 1:30 video—because if you can't beat the algorithm, why not join it in the most spectacularly meta way possible?
Hold the line on the smartphone - let some other parent be the "cool" one who gets their kid a phone just so they can say they have one. To me as a parent, that's a battle worth having.
My moral compass is clearly broken, because I do despise TikTok but now I kinda want to go there and see sexy ladies jumping on trampolines in bikinis acquired from Grave Robber Dave’s Strange-Smelling Suit Depot.
> TikTok also undermined the claim that they’re not an effort to manipulate American opinion on a massive scale by enacting a very public attempt to manipulate American opinion on a massive scale.
I haven't exactly been thrilled by seeing this take everywhere, because it seems obvious that if you are any kind of platform and the government wants to threaten your existence, using your platform to ask citizens to petition the government is the exact thing you are supposed to do. What kind of logic is it where protesting your innocence and trying to rally support for your cause is taken as evidence of your guilt? I believe in some circles they call this a "Kafkatrap".
I say this because I think our societal norms around guilt and innocence, speech, and process are important. I think TikTok is resisting a forced sale because their new buyer is going to see a mountain of shady shit they were doing, and I support the bill overall - but I nonetheless think this particular argument against TikTok is very concerning because of the corrosive principle behind it.
The government has proven that it will censor for political reasons. It cannot be trusted with more power in this arena.
I agree with your article completely.
I'd also like to add, that as a long time computer geek, there's something about how the app works that made me uninstalled it over a year ago. I can't really explain what it is but it makes all the computer geek alarms go off in my brain. These are the same alarms that have kept me from ever getting a virus on any of my computers ever. I wish I could quantify this but I can't. The app just behaves weirdly. I don't trust it. (and I know this sounds silly but whatever. Sometimes I listen to the voices in my head.)
Of course Tik Tok should be banned in the US for being a tool of the CCP. The ban should be rescinded when it’s allowed to be used in China by the Chinese people.
I have problems with the bill for giving too much power to the Executive Branch, because I’m old enough to remember the Patriot Act, however I 100% agree with forced divestment, my evidence for the case being that the CCP is against selling it and said so outright last week.
Xi is willing to let $100 billion burn and let the app be banned rather than have a company from, not just America, but any country not of the 4 listed in the bill, take a look under the hood.
Why? Because they’re warping the algorithm to destabilize America in particular, and exposing exactly how they have been doing that would be so dangerous that Xi will let it burn, and also, as the joke in the first sentence suggests, as an avenue for sexual blackmail. If just one of those 50 year olds holds a security clearance? Statistically more than one will.
Xi wants the fabrication plants in Taiwan, so he can control 90% of advanced semiconductor production, thereby controlling the entire electronics supply change and effectively rule the world.
Tiktok is a psychological weapon to make that easier to accomplish by shattering social cohesion in America before the hypersonic missiles slam into our aircraft carriers. Divide the beliefs of the young and old in a country. Excellent strategy, and exactly what I would do if I had his goals.
But they need to narrow the bill and have it only apply to Tiktok, or at the very least, only apply to Chinese apps.
Jeff, I may not be around long enough to see if you will be "about as likely to give my son a smartphone at a young age as I am to give him a pack of Winston’s". You leave yourself a lot of wiggle room with the young-age clause: three, five, eight, seventeen? Also, being a newbie parent, you totally under estimate the power of a whining child. It's potent stuff, exponentially powerful if there is a doting grandparent, or even sympathetic aunt, around. I say to you, good luck and God's speed, you'll need it.
Tried to upgrade to paid--gave up when the algorithm said, "Something went wrong" and bounced me to the insufferable "I am Not a Robot" guessing game with itty-bitty picvtures of something or other.
Thank you, Jeff, for injecting a dose of much-needed sanity into this conversation. As someone hailing from the traditional media —yes, that ancient land where social "media" wasn't the central hub of all discourse—I have so much trouble with all the digital noise. While traditional media certainly played its role in shaping the narrative, the spectacle we're witnessing today feels like the credits rolling on the world as we knew it. And now, I'm off to condense this entire saga into a 1:30 video—because if you can't beat the algorithm, why not join it in the most spectacularly meta way possible?
JK (do ppl use this anymore?)
Hold the line on the smartphone - let some other parent be the "cool" one who gets their kid a phone just so they can say they have one. To me as a parent, that's a battle worth having.
Agreed, social media is bad enough without having its biggest player in the hands of a Chinese firm.
In the meantime, enjoy this video of the Principal Violist of the New York Philharmonic “playing” a duet with Chuck Schumer.
https://www.tiktok.com/@ry_violamom/video/7194415048490552622
My moral compass is clearly broken, because I do despise TikTok but now I kinda want to go there and see sexy ladies jumping on trampolines in bikinis acquired from Grave Robber Dave’s Strange-Smelling Suit Depot.