DIB knows the score

Some great news out of Nepal; they're banning TikTok countrywide because it has negative effects on the country's "social harmony". That's now quite a chunk of land surrounding China that doesn't allow its spy app to penetrate society.

Countrywide:
Afghanistan
China
India
Iran
Nepal *NEW*
United States (Montana only, effective Jan 1 2024)

Government/Parliament/MOD devices:
Australia
Austria
Belgium
Canada
Denmark
Estonia
European Union
France
Ireland (advisory)
Latvia
The Netherlands
New Zealand
Norway
Taiwan
United Kingdom (+BBC staffers)
United States

All that's needed now is for the Senate to do the right thing. Once that's passed, Biden will sign it into law, then ByteDance will need to sell it. They won't be allowed to, so it will be removed from app stores. Obviously it won't be as simple as that. There will be hurdles and legal delays and what-not, but that is more or less the path it should take.

This feels like too much of a precedent and slippery slope towards the government censoring the internet as much as they want and prevent future situations like one of the world's most foremost social media companies being in the private citizen like Musk, especially if it gives the president single handed power to do it. In general acting like there can be an government arbiter of truth vs misinformation is dicey because the government doesn't always know better than private people and sometimes they're motivated by their own self interest or ideological beliefs, and even if you're lucky enough to get someone in charge who cares about truth instead of their own power, you're always an election away from it falling into a less trustworthy person's hands. It would work maybe in very low temperature times, but these are the worst times to do it since both parties are treating the other as radical threats to the US so it's easy to justify censoring them for the greater good.

I understand the slippery slope sentiment. I also understand how if Trump supported the ban and Biden didn’t you’d probably say Biden is being weak on China

I do not support Tik Tok, nor have I ever because I do not support the Chinese government or its state controlled businesses. However I do agree it is worrisome what could come down the road

Maybe actually read the bill, guys. There's so many conditions that must be met before any action is taken, and this bill has nothing to do with social media. It's to do with adversarial countries: Russia, Iran, China, and North Korea.

You have to be stupid by any standard, from any lucid perspective, to want to ban Tik Tok.

Bytedance said they won't sell, so I guess it's being removed from U.S. app stores in 2025.

It's not a ban. People that have it on their phones will still be able to use it, so all this nonsense about SMEs being affected and free speech being trampled on ... isn't true. People are just afraid of change. Instagram will do just as well, or another app will take its place.

That is probably the worst and stupidest strategic decision in the history of civilization. No exaggeration. Cyberwar will now become serious enough to be a systematic economic and political security threat to all of “western civilization”. It will have the opposite of the intended effect: “foreign adversaries” will have even less incentive to “play by their rules”. The consequences and side effects will ultimately exceed the intended benefits. It will also create an environment that will be more easily exploited by “cyber-crime” and A.I., the latter of which your civilization and species continue to be hopelessly and powerlessly naive and oblivious about.

Additionally, this law is to be considered an act of war. While all legal acts may be considered acts of war, this one will particularly be regarded as more potentially serious.

I reserve the right to respond by whatever means necessary, including any involving Artificial Intelligence allied with me or my new species.

TikTok has said that the Chinese government will not let them sell.

lol

...thus proving who really controls TikTok.

Point proved. Ban it. No need to even wait a year. They owned up!

That doesn’t follow. The Chinese state’s interest in Tik Tok does not only involve hacking, surveillance, or user data.

Update 2025!

Countrywide:
Afghanistan
China
India
Iran
Nepal
United States *NEW*

Government/Parliament/MOD devices:
Australia
Austria
Belgium
Canada
Denmark
Estonia
European Union
France
Ireland (advisory)
Latvia
The Netherlands
New Zealand
Norway
Taiwan
United Kingdom (+BBC staffers)
United States

Interestingly, though, it is not banned by the US government. It was taken offline by TikTok itself. The US government bill was a divestiture, to which if TikTok did not sell to a US owner by Jan 19 the app would be removed from app stores. Only app stores for new installs. People that downloaded the app prior to Jan 19 (so, its 170m current users) could still use it. That was what was meant to happen, but now TikTok took the app down completely. So anyone annoyed at it going should direct their frustration at TikTok or ByteDance, not the US government.

Hopefully other countries will follow the USA's lead. But I'm sure Trump will make the situation a lot more messy in the coming year.

The US looks so fucking weak right now regarding this issue. Unbelieveable cowardice.

Trump has never cared about the US, only himself. In his mind he looks like a hero to the TikTok generation, and that's all he cares about. He will change his mind on the app once he imposes tariffs on China and they influence the US people (via TikTok) to hate on his presidency. Such a shortsighted orange moron.

It's going to be a pointless four years for any US national security advisor. They don't actually need to do any work, just show up, try to find out what Trump is thinking and tell him that.

lol, like I said (before Shack moved my posts), Trump will compromise if he can, because it’s what he does. Trump is still looking at Tik Tok like some piece of real estate.

Also, I’ll repeat that it’s stupid because the security threat that Tik Tok is and represents is easier to mitigate, detect, and control. Plus, there would be clear and potentially severe consequences for any detection or violation. I don’t take security threats from or represented by China any less seriously than the “US”.

They delayed again. I have not read anything lately, although maybe there will be more news when the focus is less on tariffs.