• just_an_average_joe@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    11 hours ago

    Tiktok got banned not for peddling “chinese propaganda” but instead not peddling the US one.

    All the major tech companies in the US take measures to ensure content deemed unworthy by the government never become mainstream or viral.

    This is done under the pretense of stopping “hate speech” or “terroristic propaganda” but often include things like pro-palestinian content or class struggle content (like luigi mangione stuff).

    Tiktok was bold enough to not do that by default, cuz they wanted someone to ask them to do this and then it would become a huge scandal about how the US suppresses free speech. And US gov don’t want to do that for this exact reason as well. So they decided to ban it.

    Remember talks for this “law” were initiated when all of a sudden tiktok became a host for pro-palestinian voices. We should ask ourselves, how is it that 60% of americans want the government to stop arms sales to israel but this 60% never shows up on the big social media platforms. But on other platforms like here in lemmy and tiktok, pro-palestinians is the majority.

    For further reading, listen to employees fired from big US tech companies for voicing their concerns over the palestine issue, or read Meta’s new terms and conditions specially the section on “dangerous organizations and individuals”.

    • inv3r5ion@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      4 hours ago

      It’s outright shadowbanned at best and straight up banned at the isp level at worst.

      That’s why tik tok is getting banned, because US spooks can’t control it.

    • Katana314@lemmy.world
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      7 hours ago

      Ah yes, TikTok, the land free of censorship. Where you can’t say “gay” and must insert a stupid little asterisk.

      • just_an_average_joe@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        4 hours ago

        I didn’t say tiktok is the bastion of free speech. They only do this in the Palestinian case because it does not serve them anything to be against palestine. We can criticise one party without making the other one some kind of “moral hero” of a story.

    • ToucheGoodSir@lemy.lol
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      7 hours ago

      Funny how the Chinese are using Palestinians to try to further their own geopolitical position. It’s almost like the October 7th attack as engineered by Israel AND Iran. You know who Irans allies are… Right?

        • ToucheGoodSir@lemy.lol
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          3 hours ago

          Bibi did. The guy who would be in prison for corruption charges without Hamas being retards. HURRDURR

          • dx1@lemmy.world
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            2 hours ago

            That is quite the logic. That it is the fault of the militarized resistance against a colonial state (just a political party really, but putting that aside) that the colonial state’s prime minister is using genocide against their people to hold onto power.

            At some point you have to actually ask yourself, am I apply equal standards for assigning blame across the spectrum?

    • Saryn@lemmy.world
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      8 hours ago

      Thank god for bold platforms like TikTok that refuse to push US propaganda. Really smart of them to not censor valuable information as a way of fooling the US government into exposing its evil censorship ways. TikTok’s fate in the US was never a topic before the current wave of pro-Palestinian activism started. It certainly wasn’t one of Trump’s main talking points ten years ago. Good thing he changed his mind after getting his hands on some Chinese money lucrative investmenet from Chinese citizens that are not at all connected to Tencent.

      None of this discourse on combatting foreign information manipulation started over a decade ago, its all about censoring pro-Palestine voices here and now. TikTok and China in general are known for their calm, collected attitudes toward Muslims. They certainly would never weaponize a contentious topic every which way imaginable in pursuit of financial and geopolitical goals. We need more of these open and bold platforms.

      • ilega_dh@feddit.nl
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        7 hours ago

        I wasn’t sure this was an actual a tankie rant or sarcasm until the

        TikTok and China in general are known for their calm, collected attitudes toward Muslims

    • ConnecticutKen@lemmy.world
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      11 hours ago

      They track the location of people in the US and gather large amounts of data. They didn’t get banned for refusing to spread US propaganda.

      • just_an_average_joe@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        3 hours ago

        These are very loose terms. Pretty much every major website saves IP addresses when you create an account (to prevent abuse/spam detection). And you can get location info from the IP address. Hence the first condition would be true for all of those websites.

        Next, any website/app that builds a recommendation system will save user interactions to build the “algorithm”. So every social media with an algorithm will fall into this category.

        With enough bending of terminology, we might be able to prove that the lemmy also collects user data (although it will be really hard cuz the algo here is based on upvotes and time posted iirc). And “large amount” part is just legal filler words.

      • inv3r5ion@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        4 hours ago

        As does all the American owned networks. That’s not the reason. Not pushing American propaganda is the reason.

      • underwire212@lemm.ee
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        8 hours ago

        False dichotomy. They could’ve been banned on legitimate pretenses AND other reasons threatening power.

        If they were legitimately only banned for “tracking the location in the US and gathering large amounts of data”, then just about every single social media service would be under investigation for the same reason. But do we currently see that happening?

        • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          5 hours ago

          If they were legitimately only banned for “tracking the location in the US and gathering large amounts of data”, then just about every single social media service would be under investigation for the same reason.

          We aren’t talking about TikTok simply gathering the information though, are we?

          But yes, absolutely. Let’s do it. And we know that: just because the other companies aren’t being investigated/regulated in the same way, does not mean that it shouldn’t happen at all. That’s not how it works.

          Also, you are making a fallacious argument yourself… If we were talking about banning US social media sites in China, then the comparison holds (and even then, it’s not 1:1 given the political structure of the CCP vs. that of the US). Otherwise, TikTok is clearly unique among them in that the Chinese Government ostensibly has access to any and all information that is being collected.

          There is a reason China made their own version Facebook. Because they don’t want us to have all that information on their citizens.

        • Schadrach@lemmy.sdf.org
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          6 hours ago

          Of all the social media popular in the US, only one of them is doing that tracking and is under the thumb of a foreign adversary. That is specifically the line drawn in the law. I’m actually curious if WeChat shouldn’t fall under it too?

      • Anas@lemmy.world
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        10 hours ago

        Not to defend tiktok (to this day I have not ever used it), but if the issue is the tracking and data collection, you could ban/regulate that specifically instead of singling out the app.

        • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          5 hours ago

          It is obvious that they want the other (US-based) companies to be able to continue collecting that data so they can gain access to it if they want/need it. It’s bullshit, but it’s clearly what they want.

          But that being bullshit does not mean that they are wrong in not wanting the one that is under the control of a foreign adversary having access to that data. Two separate things.

      • ubergeek@lemmy.today
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        10 hours ago

        So does facebook, twitter, google, microsoft, and pretty much every mobile app development shop.