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Lawmakers liken TikTok's widening influence in the US to "digital fentanyl":
In September, President Joe Biden announced that TikTok would remain accessible in the US once a deal could be worked out to assuage national security concerns. At that time, Biden said it would take months for his administration to weigh all the potential risks involved in inking the deal. Among detractors of the brewing deal, Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Congressman Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) emerged, alleging in a Washington Post op-ed that any deal that Biden arranged with the Chinese-owned social media platform "would dangerously compromise national security."
Now, Marco and Gallagher have teamed up with Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) to introduce new bipartisan legislation in the Senate and House of Representatives, formally calling for a ban on TikTok. It's the only way, lawmakers feel, that TikTok can truly be stopped from collecting sensitive data on Americans for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and censoring content to influence elections, sow discord, or potentially even "indoctrinate" users.
[...] The bill—officially known as the ''Averting the National Threat of Internet Surveillance, Oppressive Censorship and Influence, and Algorithmic Learning by the Chinese Communist Party Act'' or the ''ANTI-SOCIAL CCP Act"—is designed to block and prohibit all transactions by social media companies controlled or influenced by "countries of concern." The legislation specifically names TikTok and owner ByteDance as existing national security threats. But if passed, its provisions would also extend to any social media platform controlled by other US foreign adversaries, including Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, and Venezuela.
TikTok spokesperson Brooke Oberwetter told Ars that the company considers the bipartisan legislation most recently introduced "politically motivated."
"It is troubling that rather than encouraging the [Biden] Administration to conclude its national security review of TikTok, some members of Congress have decided to push for a politically motivated ban that will do nothing to advance the national security of the United States," Oberwetter told Ars.
[...] While Congress weighs the ANTI-SOCIAL CCP Act, Oberwetter said that TikTok plans to keep working to persuade US officials that TikTok isn't a national security risk.
"We will continue to brief members of Congress on the plans that have been developed under the oversight of our country's top national security agencies—plans that we are well underway in implementing—to further secure our platform in the United States," Oberwetter told Ars.
(Score: 2) by Sjolfr on Friday December 16 2022, @10:16PM (10 children)
Blocking an app from another country is not censorship. It's like a tarrif on Russian goods, a ban on Russian oil, preferring US steel over Chinese streel, etc.. I'm all for taking US money, and information/data, out of CCP hands.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by RamiK on Friday December 16 2022, @11:22PM
Funny you should mention: https://www.wsj.com/articles/wto-rules-against-u-s-tariffs-on-imported-steel-aluminum-11670611598 [wsj.com]
And effect: https://www.reuters.com/article/china-mining-cmrg/chinas-new-state-run-agency-to-start-iron-ore-purchases-bloomberg-news-idUKKBN2T00MX [reuters.com]
compiling...
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday December 17 2022, @02:15AM (8 children)
OTOH, blocking a communication app from another country is censorship for real even if it is also like a tariff.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Saturday December 17 2022, @08:52PM (7 children)
How is outlawing quill pens going to stop anyone from using ballpoint pens, pencils, or printing presses? Out of all the stupid social media sites and apps, you truly believe that stopping one FROM AN ADVERSARY WHO WOULD SPY ON US AND VANDALIZE US is censorship?
The Stupid-Ass Voter Evisceration act: SAVE Trump and his family from prison
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday December 17 2022, @11:52PM (6 children)
The obvious rebuttal is that this isn't like outlawing quill pens for several reasons. After all, you can just use those other tools - it's might take a few minutes to dig one up or a few tens of minutes to drive to a store and pick up a replacement. In addition, given the lack of serious reason for banning quill pens, then maybe we should be worrying about them banning those other things next.
You can't so easily transfer your existing speech and community network from one network to another.
YES, I DO BELIEVE THAT IS CENSORSHIP BECAUSE IT IS CENSORSHIP. And the above is a pretty silly rationalization too. One can always invent an adversary to shut down a communication system. For example, we have nefarious True Scotsmen manipulating SN behind the scenes. They're foreigners too so that's plus ungood. That is, if stuff like this passes and survives the courts. My take is that it won't.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 18 2022, @01:49AM (1 child)
cntrl-C ... cntrl-V
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday December 18 2022, @08:03AM
Of what? It takes more than that to copy displayed HTML with links and formatting. And that won't copy over your readers and friends.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Monday December 19 2022, @09:47PM (3 children)
I see everything wrong with censoring US citizens. I see nothing wrong with censoring foreign adversaries.
The Stupid-Ass Voter Evisceration act: SAVE Trump and his family from prison
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday December 20 2022, @02:17AM (2 children)
Are the US citizen users of Tiktok foreign adversaries?
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Tuesday December 20 2022, @03:56PM (1 child)
The US citizens aren't being censored any more than Twitter censors twits like Trump. Taking away your Chinese toy doesn't shut anyone up. Your argument insults my intelligence; I apologize if you're simply learning impaired.
The Stupid-Ass Voter Evisceration act: SAVE Trump and his family from prison
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday December 21 2022, @12:02AM
You propose to take away their platform. Of course, they would be censored in that case.