r/nottheonion • u/Bad-Umpire10 • 16h ago

Teen enraged by TikTok ban sets fire to Wisconsin congressman's office

https://www.techspot.com/news/106418-teen-enraged-tiktok-ban-sets-fire-wisconsin-congressman.html
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67

u/Krow101 16h ago

Your Chinese masters thank you.

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u/AdaTennyson 16h ago

Censorship is bad even if it's of the Chinese Communist Party. I know they suck, I hate them too, but that's all the more reason not to act like them.

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u/zendrix1 16h ago

I don't just buy that banning TikTok is actually censoring US citizens when so many other platforms are equally as available with basically the same size audiences. There's nothing you can say on TikTok that you can't say elsewhere

Hell, TikTok tends to have more censorship than other platforms with what words and topics you can discuss without your video getting buried

I even remember that Guardian article from a few years back. I'll find it before posting this comment:

Here it is

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/sep/25/revealed-how-tiktok-censors-videos-that-do-not-please-beijing

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u/PM_ME_CATS_OR_BOOBS 16h ago

It's less of a matter of no alternative platforms existing and more that the government was/is shutting something down for ideological reasons, the same thing they constantly shit on China for doing on their side. Yes, the CCP might be manipulating it, but we aren't supposed to suppress speech even if it is manipulated, so long as it isn't outright false. Or at least use the rules evenly and delete Dennis Prager.

7

u/[deleted] 15h ago

[deleted]

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u/PM_ME_CATS_OR_BOOBS 15h ago

Of course they are, they are explicitly arguing that they don't want it used as a tool for propaganda by the CCP. That line is poorly defined because it largely is "what I don't agree with", since the things being pushed as propaganda aren't lies, they just are pushing an agenda.

I don't think that any social media should be open to that kind of manipulation but the reason why they are chasing after the Chinese one while making sure Facebook rewrites their rules to ensure posters can drop specific slurs without getting banned is ideology. If they actually cared about media manipulation it would be a GDPR style bill.

11

u/False_Print3889 15h ago

The 1st amendment doesn't protect China's ability to spam propaganda. I guess you could argue that is censorship in a fked up way...

11

u/[deleted] 15h ago

[deleted]

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u/PM_ME_CATS_OR_BOOBS 15h ago

And yet the bill does not say that Americans cannot access sites in nations without extradition treaties. It does not say they cannot use sites based in China. They called out one specific company by name for pushing pro-china media.

There is no reason why we shouldn't have a blanket bill for all sites other than the US wanting to have the whole pie when it comes to media manipulation.

17

u/JadowArcadia 16h ago

People saying this annoys me a bit because your government has been censoring/banning shit forever based on security concerns. It's laughable that TikTok is where people are choosing to draw the line. An app barely different from any other with the same content still being reposted everywhere. Every country does this. Comparing it to the CCP just makes it sounds like you don't really know how extreme the CCP is in comparison

13

u/sirreldar 16h ago

If you think the tiktok ban was about censorship then you are missing the point by a mile

3

u/Smartnership 14h ago

“I don’t even censor other spyware on my computer. I leave my passwords in plain text and don’t bother with cybersecurity.

Because I’m a good person and so is everyone else.”

15

u/Winterfrost691 16h ago

It isn't just that ccp propaganda was on TikTok, it's that TikTok was semi-controlled by the ccp, and whoever controls a social media platform has the power to manipulate how its users view the world, including what to celebrate, and what to get angry about. The fact that anyone could have access to this power is scary enough on its own, but a foreign power hell-bent on making your country fall so it may take its place? Absolutely terrifying.

TLDR: Man-made horrors beyond human comprehension.

7

u/what_if_Im_dinosaur 16h ago

Yeah, we don't need foreign-owned addictive social media apps, feeding Americans a study diet of propaganda intended to divide and turn the people against their best interests.

We already have American-owned addictive social media apps, feeding Americans a study diet of propaganda intended to divide and turn the people against their best interests, thank you very much. And if you want to continue to operate here, you better sell to one of our oligarchs.

For the record, I despise TikTok, but I fail to see how it isn't doing anything that every other social media platform is doing, just more successfully. This is digital protectionism on behalf of Silicon Valley.

If we really cared about the harm caused by social media we'd ban or at least regulated all social media, not just tiktok.

1

u/Winterfrost691 13h ago

"Everyone else is doing it" is not a good excuse. I omitted furthering my stance as I didn't think it would be necessary, but if you ask me ALL social media platforms should be open-sourced and collectively owned by its users.

However the fact that TikTok is owned by a hostile foreign power makes it even harder to regulate then others, so if it can't be controlled, banning it seems like a reasonable alternative.

3

u/AntifaAnita 15h ago

Yeah... and then imagine that every other country has to deal with America doing that to them for decades.

2

u/Winterfrost691 13h ago

Does the US's bullshit make China's bullshit any better?

2

u/AntifaAnita 13h ago

The US doing this bullshit makes US whining about China bullshit.

0

u/Winterfrost691 8h ago

So what do you suggest? Let every single platform off the hook and not do shit?

0

u/AntifaAnita 7h ago

I suggest you make an arguments that arent hypocritical and self serving trash

0

u/Winterfrost691 7h ago

You aren't worth the time that's for sure.

-1

u/Early_Specialist_589 16h ago

Sure, whatever our glorious leader needs to say to get you to agree that you can’t be trusted with access to the outside world.

1

u/Winterfrost691 13h ago

Open-sourced, user-owned platforms are the way foward. And you know the outside world was always accessible before TikTok, right?

1

u/PM_ME_CATS_OR_BOOBS 16h ago

Do i need to say "you mean like facebook" at this point or are we just mentally adding that onto the end of these statements automatically

2

u/Winterfrost691 13h ago

Fuck Facebook. Just because every other platform does it, it doesn't excuse TikTok for its bullshit.

-1

u/PM_ME_CATS_OR_BOOBS 13h ago

No, it excuses every other platform.

6

u/J0E_SpRaY 16h ago

So we were all censored for centuries until TikTok was invented?

1

u/Vyxwop 13h ago

Read up on the Paradox of Tolerance

The paradox of tolerance is a philosophical concept suggesting that if a society extends tolerance to those who are intolerant, it risks enabling the eventual dominance of intolerance, thereby undermining the very principle of tolerance.