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I don't use TikTok at all, but what's with so much support for the government banning a piece of software in hacker communities? Where's the hacker energy from

by fnfjfk 3y ago

I don't use TikTok at all, but what's with so much support for the government banning a piece of software in hacker communities? Where's the hacker energy from when the government declared encryption a "munition"? Where's the "fuck software patents" energy? I don't want the government telling me what software I can use.

chimeracoder 3y ago
> I don't use TikTok at all, but what's with so much support for the government banning a piece of software in hacker communities? Where's the hacker energy from when the government declared encryption a "munition"? Where's the "fuck software patents" energy? Lawmakers like Richard Blumenthal have discovered that xenophobia is a powerful enough force that it will override people's other principles. Look at the comment sections on HN every time this topic comes up, and you'll see the pattern on full display.
- somedude895 3y ago
  Criticizing China or the CCP is not xenophobia.
lolinder 3y ago
TikTok isn't free software. It's at best an enormous social media company designed to profit off of manipulating naive users' attention, and at worst an arm of one of the largest world governments. I'm sure most people on HN simply don't care about TikTok at all and don't comment, but among those who do care it's hardly surprising that it's harder to drum up support for TikTok than for the idea of encryption itself.
- fnfjfk 3y ago
  I don't think it being free software is necessary. There is plenty of anger when Apple blocks some non-free software from the App Store, like the whole Epic/Fortnite situation, or many other cases with smaller indie developers. It seems much, much worse for the government to be doing that, doesn't it? With the Apple situation, you can choose to use Android or Linux instead, if it's the government, you... need to emigrate to use the software?
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - lolinder 3y ago
    Epic vs Apple is at a different point along the spectrum—there are plenty of people who argue that Apple is within their rights (and even pro-consumer) to have the rules that they do, but there are plenty that are opposed. Epic is more palatable than a social media company but less obviously good than encryption.
- angryasian 3y ago
  >It's at best an enormous social media company designed to profit off of manipulating naive users' attention, and at worst an arm of one of the largest world governments. This is absurd. you sound as ridiculous as the politicians. If they are concerned pass data protection laws for every company
ThisIsMyAltAcct 3y ago
Forming an opinion based on what "energy" it has is a stupid thing to do.
- fnfjfk 3y ago
  The "energy" here is the collective set of opinions of hackers, which seems to be tipping heavily towards TikTok (TikTok.app/TikTok.apk) being banned. My belief is that the government should not ban software, and that we should be free to install anything that we wish on our computers. That's all.
bitshiftfaced 3y ago
> I don't want the government telling me what software I can use. But you're ok with a foreign government controlling what your kids see on their app?
- archagon 3y ago
  Yes! Should we ban books published by foreign governments as well? An absurd argument.
  - bitshiftfaced 3y ago
    The analogy is more like if the government of China decided which books should go on display in our libraries. Only, American teens are on TikTok way more than they visit the library. You might have trouble finding books about the Tiananmen Square protests, too.
Jensson 3y ago
> I don't want the government telling me what software I can use. You can still use the software they wont force you to delete it, you just wont be able communicate with the TikTok entity with it. So this isn't a software ban, it is just a ban on Tiktok the entity. Or can you show me where they say they will punish people for keeping the tiktok app installed?

by fnfjfk 3y ago

chimeracoder 3y ago

> I don't use TikTok at all, but what's with so much support for the government banning a piece of software in hacker communities? Where's the hacker energy from when the government declared encryption a "munition"? Where's the "fuck software patents" energy? Lawmakers like Richard Blumenthal have discovered that xenophobia is a powerful enough force that it will override people's other principles. Look at the comment sections on HN every time this topic comes up, and you'll see the pattern on full display.

somedude895 3y ago
Criticizing China or the CCP is not xenophobia.

lolinder 3y ago

TikTok isn't free software. It's at best an enormous social media company designed to profit off of manipulating naive users' attention, and at worst an arm of one of the largest world governments. I'm sure most people on HN simply don't care about TikTok at all and don't comment, but among those who do care it's hardly surprising that it's harder to drum up support for TikTok than for the idea of encryption itself.

fnfjfk 3y ago
I don't think it being free software is necessary. There is plenty of anger when Apple blocks some non-free software from the App Store, like the whole Epic/Fortnite situation, or many other cases with smaller indie developers. It seems much, much worse for the government to be doing that, doesn't it? With the Apple situation, you can choose to use Android or Linux instead, if it's the government, you... need to emigrate to use the software?
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- lolinder 3y ago
  Epic vs Apple is at a different point along the spectrum—there are plenty of people who argue that Apple is within their rights (and even pro-consumer) to have the rules that they do, but there are plenty that are opposed. Epic is more palatable than a social media company but less obviously good than encryption.
angryasian 3y ago
>It's at best an enormous social media company designed to profit off of manipulating naive users' attention, and at worst an arm of one of the largest world governments. This is absurd. you sound as ridiculous as the politicians. If they are concerned pass data protection laws for every company

ThisIsMyAltAcct 3y ago

Forming an opinion based on what "energy" it has is a stupid thing to do.

fnfjfk 3y ago
The "energy" here is the collective set of opinions of hackers, which seems to be tipping heavily towards TikTok (TikTok.app/TikTok.apk) being banned. My belief is that the government should not ban software, and that we should be free to install anything that we wish on our computers. That's all.

bitshiftfaced 3y ago

> I don't want the government telling me what software I can use. But you're ok with a foreign government controlling what your kids see on their app?

archagon 3y ago
Yes! Should we ban books published by foreign governments as well? An absurd argument.
- bitshiftfaced 3y ago
  The analogy is more like if the government of China decided which books should go on display in our libraries. Only, American teens are on TikTok way more than they visit the library. You might have trouble finding books about the Tiananmen Square protests, too.

Jensson 3y ago

> I don't want the government telling me what software I can use. You can still use the software they wont force you to delete it, you just wont be able communicate with the TikTok entity with it. So this isn't a software ban, it is just a ban on Tiktok the entity. Or can you show me where they say they will punish people for keeping the tiktok app installed?