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In case you think this is some esoteric issue involving kids’ stuff — keep in mind that the founder of TikTok was one of the most balanced voices within China,
by numair 5y ago
In case you think this is some esoteric issue involving kids’ stuff — keep in mind that the founder of TikTok was one of the most balanced voices within China, who argued that the country needed to engage with the West in a healthier manner. Zuckerberg et al and their incessant lobbying for that TikTok ban basically vaporized that guy’s pull within China, which eliminated a super-valuable asset for the West.
So, yeah, Facebook continues to be the single greatest threat to Western society outside of Russia. These are serious issues with serious consequences.
- eunos 5y agoTrump (and Pompeo) destroys the liberal oriented ideology in China much more effectively than whatever Xi did.
- steve76 5y ago[dead]
- vixen99 5y agoPlease explain?
- Jackpillar 5y ago
- j16sdiz 5y ago> one of the most balanced voices within China Except TikTok, like Facebook, is not available in China. The 抖音 platform cannot see posts from tiktok.
- TheRealNGenius 5y agoThey're talking about the founder. You'd know this if your reading comprehension skills were up to par with your knowledge of what country TikTok isn't in. Otherwise, that tidbit is tangential at best, and doesn't provide any evidence to the contrary of the quoted claim.
- TSiege 5y agoI don't disagree with what you're saying, but I think it's probably overstating the impact. We've seen China exert a huge amount of influence in Chinese tech space and really clamp down loosened controls. Maybe this was the excuse Chinese press gave, but I think this would have likely happened anyways given the power and direction Xi is moving China in. See their moves in the tutoring, construction, crypto, and e-commerce spaces too
- curiousgal 5y ago> the single greatest threat to Western society outside of Russia I can't help but roll my eyes whenever I come across such statements. Which one is it now guys? Russia or China or Iran or Muslims or Liberals or etc.? The single greatest threat to Western society is itself.
- user3939382 5y ago
- eli_gottlieb 5y ago>I’d say the single greatest threat at the moment is hyper-aggressive, unnecessary NATO expansion at the behest of the “defense” industry provoking other nuclear powers into armed conflicts. Nobody was proposing to expand NATO until Russia invaded a country that had no other defense umbrella.
- user3939382 5y ago> Nobody was proposing to expand NATO “We reiterate the decision made at the 2008 Bucharest Summit that Ukraine will become a member of the Alliance” June 2021 https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/news_185000.htm https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/news_185000.htm Also for those “flagging” my verifiable facts: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_involvement_in_regime_change https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_involvement_in... https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/04/politics/igor-danchenko-arrested/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/04/politics/igor-danchenko-arres...
- jollybean 5y ago"Facebook continues to be the single greatest threat to Western society outside of Russia" This is ridiculous hyperbole. And TikTok, as a Chinese company whereupon they can be compelled to do the bidding of the CCP at any time, in whatever terms, remains problematic. It doesn't matter what the 'founder' thinks.
- Spivak 5y agoDo you apply this logic to all companies not in the US? Do you worry that the American Honda Motor Company is a sleeper cell for Japanese state interests?
- kmlx 5y agooh my. are we equating Japan with China?
- pessimizer 5y agoIs it bizarre to compare countries with other countries generally, or only when one is on the official enemies list?
- jollybean 5y agoThere's nothing wrong with comparing countries, but it's ridiculous to compare countries which have systems of de facto central control, vs systems that do not. Xi (and the CCP) don't interfere directly very often, but he can and will do so as he chooses. He's an Emperor. Nobody has that kind of power in Japan.
- des1nderlase 5y agoAny government can and will control any present company if "national" interests are in question.
- 5y ago
- Leary 5y agoRegardless of what people think about Facebook or Tiktok, this kind of behaviour is anti competitive. If Facebook did this to Tiktok, you can bet it tried similar tactics against Snapchat.
- MuffinFlavored 5y agoI won't pretend to know all of the details but this comes off as kind of conspiracy-theory. Why is Zuckerberg the boogieman? He just wants to run his company well and get as many eyeballs on paid advertisements as possible... right? Why is there some notion that he wants to push either a liberal or conservative agenda internationally? It's near impossible to moderate a billion people posting crap on a social media platform well enough to the point where you keep everybody happy. How does this make him "the single greatest threat to Western society outside of Russia"?
- roamerz 5y agoConspiracy theory? He did everything in his power to get liberals into political power. Yes he is a very large threat to Western society, the United States of America and world peace. The current state of affairs should be the proof anyone needs.
- zenmaster10665 5y agoWell there we go... Last one turn out the lights, this guy has solved it.
- bostonsre 5y ago> He just wants to run his company well and get as many eyeballs on paid advertisements as possible... right? Yes, I would definitely agree that this is the case and I think that is a large part of the problem. The Machiavellian ends justifying the means equates to him not caring about the negative impacts that he has on society while trying to attract the most eyeballs possible.
- vixen99 5y agoAren't those negative impacts on society a matter for government? Basically any company will 'try it on' until it's stopped. And 'stopping' is what governments are about, I used to think. It doesn't seem to happen and it's not surprising that some have written darkly about the marriage of huge corporations with government and its dire consequences.
- dqpb 5y ago> Facebook continues to be the single greatest threat to Western society outside of Russia. No it’s not. The greatest threat to any society is its own ineptitude.
- kmlx 5y ago> Facebook continues to be the single greatest threat to Western society outside of Russia. this statement is both hyperbolic and naive at the same time.
- bostonsre 5y agoWhy is it hyperbolic and why is it naive? It was a tool used to influence elections in the United States, I can't think of any other entity that has had a larger negative impact on our society recently (maybe coronavirus?).
- Jackpillar 5y ago[dead]
- bko 5y ago> It was a tool used to influence elections in the United States Are you talking about fake Russian accounts buying $100k worth of facebook ads in 2016? That constitutes 0.00625% of total spending (1.6 bn) on the 2016 election. Or are you talking about something else? https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/facebook-sold-100000-ads-fake-russian-accounts-presidential/story?id=49667831 https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/facebook-sold-100000-ads-fak...
- martingoodson 5y agoThe IRA Russian troll farm had 1000 employees in 2015. They used Facebook as a tool to influence elections in the United States. This is very well documented https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Research_Agency https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Research_Agency And I don’t know why the sister comment about Facebook being used to commit genocide in Myanmar was flagged and killed. This is also well documented by eg the NYT and the UN. It was also admitted by Facebook itself. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/06/technology/myanmar-facebook.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/06/technology/myanmar-facebo...
- tracker1 5y agoIt swings in every direction. Not just what they allow in terms of ads but what gets suppressed, promoted, shown/reshown. Visibility and not.
- throwaway4good 5y agoFor many Chinese, the US has showed its true face in the past couple of years. Unfortunately this digs a lot deeper than Facebook. Facebook is guilty of poor management; involving themselves in partisan politics in order to get a competitor banned is an incredible stupid risk to take.
- boc 5y agoThe US hasn't changed - it's always been a country of crazy people and smart people and zealots and honest, hard working folks. There's no such thing as our "true face" - American was populated by the radicals and risk-takers from other, older societies. We've always been a nation of slightly insane people.
- bllguo 5y agoAbsurd, of course there is a "true face." Whether the country has stayed the same or not has nothing to do with it, this is a discussion about how the US is perceived internationally. We have been flooding the rest of the world with its messaging and cultural exports for decades. In many places, China included, people genuinely looked up to the US. That has changed meaningfully across the globe.
- boc 5y agoRespectfully, Americans don't care at all what other countries think of America. China had their chance to challenge America in the 21st Century, but they threw it away the moment Xi became too obsessed with his own power and ambitions. The focus on building a Han ethnostate is costing them dearly, both in the eyes of the world and in terms of population growth. Without immigration, China's demographic window is closing rapidly and they will grow old before they grow rich.
- spoonjim 5y agoLOL. The single greatest threat to Western society is Western society itself. Declining fertility, mass immigration at the border but brutally hard immigration for high skill workers, civil wars over pointless culture war issues, and the destruction of the social norms that once held us together. But go blame Facebook if you want.
- naravara 5y agoFacebook is a major contributor to the pointless cultural war obsession and the erosion of pro-social norms though.
- pessimizer 5y agoSo are the telephone and families getting together for the holidays.
- naravara 5y agoSurely you realize how much of a stretch that is. If you wanted to say broadcast television or radio you might have a point but analogizing an algorithmic feed tuned to stoke outrage to families spending time together is just a farcically bad faith approach.
- michaelmrose 5y agoYour telephone company doesn't choose to filter a selection of incoming callers including not only friends but friends of friends of friends in order to expose you to the folks who will keep you on the phone the longest which accidentally turns out to be the folks that play on your existing deep seated anxieties and deficiencies.
- michaelmrose 5y agoDeclining fertility is probably one part bad health and one part inequality. It has zero parts to do with too many brown folks coming to live in our nation. It is a logical absurdity to suppose that folks coming to America are a threat to the integrity of western civilization while those who descended from immigrants are part of it. We are all of us who grew up in the west and who have chosen to come live here a part of western civilization. There is no them we are all us.