Some of you may have heard that the House voted to ban TikTok. It now goes to the Senate, and if it passes there, to the President.
I will admit, I don’t understand some of the finer points involved in this fracas. As someone who stepped into the World Wide Web as an adult, I knew that this particular form of media would save everything. If I put it onto the web, into an email, on a video, then it would be saved forever. I instilled this knowledge in my children, though I have been somewhat less successful in making them understand it. For them, there has ALWAYS been an World Wide Web. Regardless, I know that if it’s online, then people have access to it. That’s why I don’t store credit card info or personal information online. So how is TikTok any different than other social media?
After talking with people who are more “in the know” than myself, I believe that the only real difference is that it’s China holding onto the information. It was pointed out to me that if anyone with a security clearance has TikTok, then it’s possible for the Chinese to put two and two together to make classified documents. That seems like a fairly reasonable reason to keep TikTok out of government and military offices… but then again, I can’t think of a reason why a General or a military scientist would be indulging in TikTok on base anyhow. Still, that doesn’t mean the general public should have their toy taken away.
The information that TikTok contains in its gizzards is available from many places. While it may not be as easy to pull the pieces together, it’s still all there. If it’s online at all, then everyone has at least potential access to it. This is why I don’t have a problem using Temu. I know that the information being gathered by Temu is much the same as the information being gathered by Amazon and other places. If China really wants to sift through 170 million users’ worth of information, mining for a gold nugget, then let them. Maybe it’ll keep them too busy to do other obnoxious things.
More important than all of the above, though, is the knowledge that if TikTok is axed, then other social media platforms won’t be long in joining them. Whether it’s Truth Social, or X, or Facebook, someone will get their panties in a knot and court will happen, and the TikTok ban will be used as precedent. This is 100% a case of those unintended consequences we often talk about. Republicans need to NOT shoot themselves (and the rest of the country, thank-you-very-much) in the foot by passing this along. The American people, in droves, have decided they like TikTok. I happen to like it myself, though that’s not germane to this discussion. If our government “takes it away,” there very well might be hell to pay, and there absolutely will be unintended consequences galore.
It’s really quite simple actually. Tiktok is 100% owned an operated by the Chinese Communist Party. It is intentionally used as a tool to damage America. That’s not a conspiracy theory either, that’s a fact. The Chinese version of tiktok is curated and has educational content on it. The western versions have been proven to intentionally steer suicidal kids to content intended to push them over the edge. It’s a total psyop by a nation that wants to see us fall.
And while that may be true, its still a first amendment issue to try and ban it. Congress is specifically banned from making such laws. This bill doesn’t just go after Tik Tok its very vague on purpose. If they named Tik Tok specifically it would be a bill of attainder and that would also be unconstitutional.
Not a first amendment issue at all. Foreign nations don’t get free speech rights in the US. There’s nothing that prevents congress from banning foreign ownership of companies acting in the US. That’s actually one of their proper functions in fact…
Everything you posted Birdog357 has been fully vetted and proven to be true. It is a program which is societally engineered to destroy critical thought disciplines, using subliminal influences which trigger dopamine spikes resulting in one dimensional self-gratification emotional experiences which distract the user from reality–essentially creating a false sense of self existence—I am a victim because life doesn’t end up revolving around me like I feel it should.
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TikTok has nothing to do with free speech, and everything to do with destroying the foundation of the nation—The American Family. A nation is only as strong as its family structure. Destroy the nation’s families, and the nation will be taken over without firing a single shot……eventually, Tik Tok, Tik Tok, Tik Tok, etc. – The End.
Steve, you’re correct. However the enemies of the US Constitution and Bill of Rights are using the freedoms those foundational documents protect to implode the nation under the weight of its freedoms. Tik Tok and any other social platform which is designed to produce a false reality in the minds of the youth and immature, exploit our freedoms in an act of gross abuse of the original reasonings, which was to limit government to but a few protections for the purpose of healthy societal engineering, resulting in strong family structures based on a father, mother, and their children.
This bill is not really about Tick Tok. The first warning is that the swamp creatures on both sides of the aisle want to pass it. It is really an anti free speech bill. Don’t forget we have to pass it to find out what is in it. Once its passed it is going to be in the courts for years.
Tik Tok is a propaganda tool. It’s content currently has pro Palisimian posts outnumbering pro Israeli posts by so e 5 to 1. It curates postings for other subjects similarly. What the Tik Tok brass want seen is pushed…hard. Anything they don’t want seen is rapidly memory holed. The platform serve no useful purpose and has plenty of negatives involved. The same can also be said for Faecesbook…
I do not think this law is banning TikTok, but it is disallowing the CCP run company from owning it for use in the US.
Either the CCP sells the software to a non-State company, or turn it off in the USA.
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This is not the first time the US has forbidden software or IT products, and it will not be the last.
You hit a key point that is obfuscated most of the time (including, to my dismay, by the WSJ headline writers). The law bans ownership of a social media platform by an enemy government. And that is clearly proper under the Constitutional duty to provide for the national defense.
“.. is the knowledge that if TikTok is axed, then other social media platforms won’t be long in joining them. Whether it’s Truth Social, or X, or Facebook, someone will get their panties in a knot and court will happen, and the TikTok ban will be used as precedent.”
And, the downside to that is…..what?
There’s mounting evidence that social media can be addictive and that addiction is mentally unhealthy, especially to adolescents. Are we better off as a society with social media, or were we better off as a society without social media ?