The House on Wednesday passed a bill with broad bipartisan support that would force TikTok’s Chinese owner to either sell the hugely popular video app or be banned in the United States.

Republican leaders fast-tracked the bill through the House with limited debate, and it passed on a lopsided vote of 352-65, reflecting widespread backing for legislation that would take direct aim at China in an election year.

  • laverabe@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    The ban is a good thing because China is an autocracy. Freedom of thought is not acceptable there, otherwise you wouldn’t know what I mean when I say the great firewall of China. Their influence is already vast.

    The US isn’t a beacon of democracy, but the distance between a flawed democracy and an authoritarian regime is massive. The US Congress is largely ineffective, but this is one thing they’ve gotten right.

    TikTok, the popular Chinese-owned social network, instructs its moderators to censor videos that mention Tiananmen Square, Tibetan independence, or the banned religious group Falun Gong, according to leaked documents detailing the site’s moderation guidelines.

    https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/sep/25/revealed-how-tiktok-censors-videos-that-do-not-please-beijing

    • LucidNightmare@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      And to just further point out, because it seems like you ignored the first three sentences of my post, you’re fine with our government banding together for this singular app (lmfao) but NOT banding together to actually help the common people? What???

      You don’t think their priority should be the former, and THEN we can worry about this stupid fucking foreign app?

      You ARE insane!

    • LucidNightmare@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      I completely disagree with your reasoning. As I have stated above, all that I’ve ever been shown is some funny videos sure, but MOSTLY average people like myself who are constantly fucked by those above us all and voice their opinions, freely, on the app. I finally have an app where people aren’t posting pictures of their selves trying to pretend they’re happy. I finally have an app where I can hear others who think about the systemic injustices constantly bombarding us in this digital era.

      It’s quite funny you say they got this one right, but they also allow censoring of our “news” stations here, and the content that is on american social medias. you do see that, right? So, it’s okay in your eyes, for a foreign app to be banned, but no restrictions for the apps that american companies deploy that also have a narrative to push? you don’t think this could’ve been a SWEEPING bill that includes ALL social medias? Why just this one? It has been proven that Russia and Chinese bot farms are swamping Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Why is this not something they care about? Truly, I want to hear this from you.

      Why do you think they want to ban this ONE app? To prevent data from leaking out? What data homie? Millions of people crying out to each other that their system is rigged against them?

      Are you insane?