Vdawgp t1_jcitb9n wrote on March 17, 2023 at 3:17 AM

Reply to comment by cookingboy in WSJ News Exclusive | U.S. Threatens Ban if TikTok’s Chinese Owners Don’t Sell Stakes by TheAngelMutants

I respect and agree with the argument that we need comprehensive data protection and algorithm transparency laws. That makes sense.

My fundamental disagreement with you is the level of concern about TikTok specifically. The fact is that ByteDance has to, whether willingly or unwillingly, do what the CCP asks. There is evidence of algorithm manipulation. The CCP does have those levers. We’ve seen ByteDance work with the CCP very openly. As Ben Thompson says, China is using their access to push their ideals. And as Matt Yglesias says, allowing TikTok would be no different from the US allowing the Soviets to buy NBC during the Cold War.

For me banning or forcing TikTok to divest is a five alarm fire we have to take care of, while comprehensive user protection laws are the asbestos in the walls of the house next door that probably should’ve been removed a while ago, but not the main concern with the fire going.

cookingboy t1_jciw9ku wrote on March 17, 2023 at 3:44 AM

> We’ve seen ByteDance work with the CCP very openly. As Ben Thompson says, China is using their access to push their ideals.

A lot of people say a lot of things these days when it comes to China. But at the end of the day even the US government has not presented any concrete proof as to TikTok’s collaboration with the CCP.

> allowing TikTok would be no different from the US allowing the Soviets to buy NBC during the Cold War.

Well I fundamentally disagree. The US and China are not enemies at the moment and we aren’t even in a Cold War, and the economic ties and relationship between two countries are very different from what the US had with Soviet Union. We have a lot of business interest in them as they do in us. The trade between the two countries just reached all time high: https://www.politico.com/news/2023/02/07/trade-china-relations-economies-00081301

You think there is a fire going on meanwhile even the best evidence brought up by the most staunch anti-China politicians so far is “there could be a fire”.

I personally think this is just the new Red Scare and we are trending toward a new era of McCarthyism. And of course SnapChat and Meta have been funding this whole effort, just look at their stock price in the past few days.

Either way I appreciate your level headed discussion, we may disagree but it’s more pleasant than most discussions I’ve on Reddit when it comes to this topic.