• Alien Nathan Edward@lemm.ee
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    11 months ago

    once again - not a ban, a seizure. Steve Mnuchin is heading a group of government insiders who want to buy TikTok, and this bill bans it if and only if they don’t sell. The government has decided that TikTok is a dangerous propaganda and espionage network and intends to steal it and run it themselves. Even if you think that TikTok is that dangerous you have to ask yourself: why is it legal for everyone else and why does our government want so badly to do it themselves?

    • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Yup. And the precedent this sets is horrifying. Even monopolies get due process. Being able to declare a company as a foreign enemy and force them to leave the market or be bought out is a ridiculous measure in a supposedly free society.

    • Buttons@programming.dev
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      11 months ago

      If China really is using TikTok for psyops, then they will refused to sell, flood TikTok with anti-government sentiment for its remaining days, and then direct people to just use the TikTok website hosted in China (is our government going to start blocking access to websites too?).

      One silver line here is “the youths” will learn, in an unusually clear way, that the government effects their lives and can screw up their lives.

      • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        You know TikTok is global right?

        But yeah Biden is just over here casually giving Trump better chances.

        • Buttons@programming.dev
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          11 months ago

          I can understand your frustration. I currently feel that way towards a certain political party, but I have to keep an open mind because things change.

          For example, I don’t doubt what you said Democrats was true in past decades, but today I believe the Democrats are more friendly towards LGBT rights than Republicans are. It appears things have changed on those specific issues.

          Maybe we wont agree, but let’s at lets at least find clarity: Do you believe Republicans or Democrats are currently more friendly towards LGBT people?

            • Buttons@programming.dev
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              11 months ago

              All fair criticisms of Democrats in my opinion.

              The only thing I have a problem with is your “never vote Democrat” rule. You do you, but I believe voting in a way that will most help LGBT people, and most help women’s reproductive rights, etc–I believe that if you want to cast votes that most support those causes, it will sometimes require voting for a Democrat.

                • Buttons@programming.dev
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                  11 months ago

                  Earlier you said:

                  i’m permanently anti democrat party

                  and I read that as “I will never vote democrat”. I see now that’s not what you said.

                  I too would love to see us do better than the two deeply flawed parties we have now. I wish we had a better voting system that allowed better parties.

            • Buttons@programming.dev
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              11 months ago

              Also, to get that clarity I was seeking. Do you:

              1. Recommend people vote for Democrats (sounds like no).
              2. Recommend people vote for Republicans.
              3. Recommend people vote for third-parties or not vote at all.

              These are the only 3 possibilities. Which are you?

              For example, if you believe that Republicans are better for LGBT issues, then I want to hear you say it: “I think Republicans are better on LGBT issues”. I have my own opinion on this which I will keep to myself, I really just want you to be clear about your view and then let everyone judge for themselves what they think is right.

        • Alien Nathan Edward@lemm.ee
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          11 months ago

          this happened to be back in the 90’s & 00’s when biden et al. spearheaded non-dischargeable student loan debt; anti-gay marriage; and a ban on gays in the military and now i’m permanently anti the party that rolled back don’t ask don’t tell, embraced marriage and healthcare rights for queer people and have forgiven tons of student loan debt. I’m definitely not a psy-op. Pay no attention to the fact that no one calls them ‘the democrat party’ except people who have 1000+ hours viewing fox news.

    • melpomenesclevage@lemm.ee
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      11 months ago

      so they can do the death penalty on a company, they have a model

      they just don’t do it to Exxon or Facebook or Monsanto or…

    • RedAggroBest@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      First off, source? Second, the npr interview I heard mentioned specifically that China has to approve the sale because the algorithm is proprietary to a Chinese company. So anyone “buying TikTok” is buying a name and none of the actual bones of the social media platform

      • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Aren’t the bones the cheap part now? Think truth social for instance, why was it supposedly worth so much if anyone can spin up a Mastadon instance and make it the same restrictions over the weekend. The userbase numbers are all that mattered there I assume. Why is reddit worth more than Lemmy? Is it because the bones are expensive? Or is it that they have access to a large userbase already.

  • recapitated@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    All parties involved are asinine. The lawmakers, the company, both governments, the voters and the users.

  • NoLifeGaming@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    I honestly don’t like tiktok but this is clearly done to censor the pro palestine content and for exposing the US gov along many others as hypocrites

  • alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml
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    11 months ago

    If I was Biden and I wanted to make sure absolutely nobody under 35 voted for me, first thing I’d do is genocide.

    If that didn’t work, then I’d restart student loans.

    If that didn’t work, I’d ban Tiktok.

    Edit: To the people downvoting me: Do you think giving Israel the bombs they use to carry out genocide, restarting student loans, and banning tiktok helps Biden’s reelection chances?

    Are you republicans who don’t want him to change course? Are you democrats perpetually stuck in 2016, blaming voters rather than asking “What policies caused us to lose? What changes do we need to make to win?”

      • alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml
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        11 months ago

        Pressure Biden to do the things he needs to do to get elected. Voters are gonna do what they’re gonna do. You cannot shame millions of voters into taking an unpaid day off to vote for someone who has told them through his actions that he does not and will not represent them.

        Trying to silence such analysis just helps the DNC maintain the delusion that they can win while standing up to the very voters they need instead of doing what they are telling the democrats to do.

          • alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml
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            11 months ago

            Nobody is saying the captain needs to be replaced, we’re saying stop sailing directly towards those fucking rocks. No matter how hard we paddle, Biden cannot win the muslim votes he needs if he is facilitating genocide of muslims. He will not get the young votes he needs if he bans tiktok after restarting student loans.

            Nothing we can do can change this. Only Biden can.

              • alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml
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                11 months ago

                What I don’t hear are realistic solutions to the problems

                Stop sending Israel the tools to carry out genocide. Problem solved. This is the only way you can make a credible argument to muslims that trump would be worse, because you are no longer facilitating a literal genocide.

                Forgive all student loans. Yes, this is realistic, the Department of Education studied the problem and said so. Problem solved. Dare republicans to undo it. This is the only way you can make a can make a credible argument to young people that you actually want this thing and if they don’t vote for you, republicans will make it worse. You can’t credibly make that argument when you’re the one who restarted loan payments and you’ve only undone a tiny portion of the harm that caused via forgiveness.

                Order military hospitals to provide abortion care and free contraceptives. You’re the commander in chief, you can do that.

                Order the military to destroy the child drowning fence along the rio. Again, commander in chief.

                You act like TikTok isn’t a mouthpiece for the CCP

                It’s not, they spent a lot of money setting up servers in the US and getting former spooks in charge of US operations in 2020.

                But that’s irrelevant, tiktok is popular. Banning a popular thing in an election year is a dogshit strategy to get reelected.

                Well, instead of saying that, maybe you should be saying, “If you think Biden is bad, wait until the great orange dictator takes office. He already has family talking about flipping Gaza real estate.”

                You have learned nothing from 2016, and are bound to repeat it.

                Actions speak infinitely louder than words, this isn’t a problem messaging can solve.

      • Ultragigagigantic@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        ’ll hold Biden accountable for his transgressions

        Pure comedy gold. You’re both delusional. Me too, thanks.

        Work to do away with first past the post voting in your state yall.

    • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      They are the second bit. They’ve been going hard on saying anyone who won’t vote for Biden is actually a bigot who loves Trump and wants a domestic genocide.

    • Thorny_Insight@lemm.ee
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      11 months ago

      The government telling us which social media platforms we’re allowed to use? No I don’t think we agree and I don’t even use TikTok.

      • psycho_driver@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        That’s kind of how I feel about it. Don’t use it (or any other social media actually) but if the government is unwilling to shut down hate platforms like truth social then they really shouldn’t meddle with something like tiktok that’s mostly just kids being dumb.