Thoughts on TikTok Hearing?

The members of Congress already made their mind up before the hearing. I think TikTok eventually gets banned. Tough seeing the CEO getting interrupted every 10 seconds and getting asked the same question again and again. 

Wonder what everyone else thought of the hearing and what the implications are moving forward

40 Comments
 

I don't think TikTok should get banned.

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

monkeyuser1010101

Why

I'm on TikTok all the time - I like it. I mainly post poker videos. The site is very entertaining overall.

And also yeah because the US is a free country.

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 
Phil Leotardo

Banning TikTok is no better than what the CCP does with the Great Firewall.  The US is a free country.

It’s no different except that it’s completely different to have, in a republic, representatives who are accountable to the electorate trying to suppress harmful lies. Unlike in China where the civil authorities are illegitimately in power by force of the gun and tank suppressing truth. Yeah, exactly the same. 

 
Most Helpful

Tbh a lot of this seems economically motivated more than anything else + nationalistic. Claims of Tik Tok over collecting info seems like BS, does FB not collect a bunch too? Avg. person wouldn’t buy this drivel. Where tik tok is unique is it’s the largest app created out of the US aka not in our control. Can’t say we have private enterprise if we’re trying to control what private citizens use. And our agencies are known to spy on civilians all the time - what they’re accusing China of. No evidence from CPC for this just media leaks of tik tok employees looking up info sad but not illegal

 

Completely agree. T4 of 5 most downloaded apps in US are Chinese...US just feels threatened economically. India will do the same in the coming years, competiion is so brutal in India / China that when these apps come to the US it's a walk in the park. US is losing share of innovation and is inventing up excuses to change the rules of the game. So much for 'democracy' and 'free country'

 

Nothing more than political theater to divert one’s attention from real issues. I guarantee nothing will happen as a result of the hearing.

 
WolfofWSO

Nothing more than political theater to divert one's attention from real issues. I guarantee nothing will happen as a result of the hearing.

Typical libertarian nonsense. The most popular app among a generation of youth addicting them and pushing all manner of derangement on to them is “meh.” Let’s get back to “real” issues like the marginal tax rate as an entire generation of people is taught to hate America, to embrace mental illness, and to cut off their healthy body parts. All by a foreign power that doesn’t allow that nonsense in their own country.

 
Controversial

TikTok is very smart. They've admitted for very invasive data collection to China, that round faced CEO basically dodged the majority of questions. In China, TikTok is very educational and patriotic, having content for children to learn. In America, TikTok purposly promotes Babylonesque anti-American values so our next generation could be weakened! Ban TikTok now!

Edit: To the Chinese bots monkey shitting on me, kiss my ass

 

1) Perfect example of why there needs to be forced retirement in government at all levels. Too many goofy old farts who don't understand the basics of technology and have no business contemplating any sort of policy or legislation in the modern era. 

2) Tik Tok is a Chinese social weapon and should be banned in both the US and Europe. Full stop.

I will circle back later when I have more time to fully write out my thoughts on the 2nd point. The people who are comparing it like it's no different than Facebook are missing the point and not thinking through the full implications of the platform. Not their fault, they probably haven't read the actual clinical data that's been analyzed regarding the effects of Tik Tok on children, but suffice to say that the data is harrowing. If this is not addressed swiftly and with an absolute measure, not something half-assed where they can make some minor changes and go about their business, the West will suffer massively as these upcoming generations reach maturity.

The continued existence of this application is a great case for the concept of self-destructive tolerance.

Amazing substack overview (talked about in the vid below):

TikTok is a Time Bomb: The ultimate weapon of mass distraction

Great video to start with that gets the conversation rolling:

"If you don't have any enemies in life you have never stood up for anything" - Winston Churchill | "It's a testament to the sheer belligerence of the profession that people would rather argue about the 'risk-adjusted returns' of using inferior tooth cleaning methods." - kellycriterion
 

Finally

I won't tread on your follow-up, but TikTok is a disaster in the making. You left out the part where since the parent is Bytedance, that means pieces of the see see pee have their fingers in the pie by law despite him talking about being out of Singapore and Europe. Not like our gov't are angels either, but that's it's own thread because of how long that list would be. But still, at least they're our own demons to fight where we can't touch C hyna.

The poster formerly known as theAudiophile. Just turned up to 11, like the stereo.
 

Can you share with me the clinical data please? People close to me have kids who’s eyes are glued to TikTok/ByteDance everyday…My qualitative observation is that it isn’t a good influence for the children and it is tragic that they are exposed to it during key developmental years.

 

Just to stay intellectually honest, you would have been in favor of banning Vine if that app still existed? And YouTube Shorts, and Instagram Reels? Because those all do exactly the same thing to the developing brain with regards to ruining dopamine and attention span. TikTok just happens to be the most popular website right now, and there will be another in its place immediately afterward.

Be excellent to each other, and party on, dudes.
 

Synergy_or_Syzygy

Just to stay intellectually honest, you would have been in favor of banning Vine if that app still existed? And YouTube Shorts, and Instagram Reels? Because those all do exactly the same thing to the developing brain with regards to ruining dopamine and attention span. TikTok just happens to be the most popular website right now, and there will be another in its place immediately afterward.

It isn't intellectually honest because no, they do not do the exact same thing and anyone who argues otherwise is either being intellectually dishonest or coming from a genuine place of ignorance. I don't fault them for the latter because I myself only recently (the last year or so) became aware of the threat it poses. It collects vastly more data than the aforementioned applications (the CEO in the hearing just flat out lied, but since it's not a trial there's no consequences) and chief above all else is that the parentco, Bytedance, is under the control of the CCP.

There is a reason that the Tik Tok we see outside China is wholly different than what they have inside China. Their government KNOWS how dangerous it is, particularly for young people. There is a huge difference the effect on children's attention spans & cognitive function when watching a continuous stream of ultra-short form content vs sitting down to watch a 10, 20, 30+ min video on a specific topic on YouTube for example, not even touching on the content that is promoted abroad vs domestically. I would argue that Reels and Shorts are also potentially as damaging (to my own horror I have burned more time than I'm proud of on Reels when I got back on IG for a bit), but there isn't data that I'm aware of yet that shows it's on the same level as TT. Since they're American vs CCP-owned there is also more of a challenge to regulating/outright banning them.

To be intellectually consistent through as you're trying to argue, I would agree that in general social media companies once they reach a particular scale (debate to be had where that line is drawn) need to see heavier regulation in terms of the algorithms they can experiment on their users with. It pains me to say that with how anti-government I generally am, but I think that there are certain tiers of technology that our government must take action on and limit how it's at least leveraged inside the US with respect to our own citizens - primarily social media, biotechnology (gene editing, GoF, etc.), and weapons technology (autonomous/AI-controlled weapons/security).

"If you don't have any enemies in life you have never stood up for anything" - Winston Churchill | "It's a testament to the sheer belligerence of the profession that people would rather argue about the 'risk-adjusted returns' of using inferior tooth cleaning methods." - kellycriterion
 

Synergy_or_Syzygy

Just to stay intellectually honest, you would have been in favor of banning Vine if that app still existed? And YouTube Shorts, and Instagram Reels? Because those all do exactly the same thing to the developing brain with regards to ruining dopamine and attention span. TikTok just happens to be the most popular website right now, and there will be another in its place immediately afterward.

I think there should be a law that shuts down all social media, online dating, and porn apps for 1 week, once a quarter, in the United States. A complete detox 4 times a year by law. I think use of these apps would completely plummet when people have the opportunity to experience life without them. There is an entire generation of people born after 2000 who have never experienced life without the yoke of social media and dating apps destroying their lives. They’re like fish in water, not consciously aware that they are surrounded by water. 
 

This is self-government, and the people should be able to work through their elected government to suppress evil and promote good. 

 
CDOsAndThiccHoes

I think it should be banned, however I don't think it will be. It's so incredibly popular with young people that I think the shrieking would be too much for anyone to really have the spine to ban it.

Also for shits and gigs, I want the "influencers" to freak out about having to get a real job lol

It’s why it’s important that it’s bipartisan. If it’s bipartisan then there is realistically no way to redress their grievances should the app be banned. 

 

These types of hearings are absolute jokes and just shows everyone how stupid so many elected officials are. Some of these questions really show how ignorant these people are - who have no interest in hearing an actual answer but just want to hear themselves talk and sound important. They asked the stupidest questions I have ever heard, that would get you laughed out of any high school or college classroom, and should get you laughed out of Congress. I don't know what will happen to TikTok, but I doubt these hearings will impact anyone's opinions. 

 

Don't think I'd go so far as nuking them, but US leaders definitely did the world a disservice by not taking out the CCP when they had absolute military superiority back then and the public momentum / popular support for fighting commies.

"If you don't have any enemies in life you have never stood up for anything" - Winston Churchill | "It's a testament to the sheer belligerence of the profession that people would rather argue about the 'risk-adjusted returns' of using inferior tooth cleaning methods." - kellycriterion
 

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