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This morning I felt the urge to download TikTok for the first time. I did, but I didn't bother creating an account. There is a passage in the book Life of Pi,
by firefoxd 2y ago
This morning I felt the urge to download TikTok for the first time. I did, but I didn't bother creating an account.
There is a passage in the book Life of Pi, where Pi's family is gathered and ready to leave India for Canada. And his mother does something out of the ordinary:
> The day before our departure she pointed at a cigarette wallah and earnestly asked, "Should we get a pack or two?"
> Father replied, "They have tobacco in Canada. And why do you want to buy cigarettes? We don't smoke."
> Yes, they have tobacco in Canada-but do they have Gold Flake cigarettes? Do they have Arun ice cream? Are the bicycles Heroes? Are the televisions Onidas? Are the cars Ambassadors? Are the bookshops Higginbothams'? Such, I suspect, were the questions that swirled in Mother's mind as she contemplated buying cigarettes.
Do I use TikTok? No, I've always advocated against it. Will I use it if it is reinstated? Probably not. But I downloaded it anyway the same way Mrs Gita Patel wanted to buy cigarettes. It wasn’t about need or use. It was about the loss.
I would stand behind a tiktok ban if it was for the right reasons. But this ban is only because it failed to conform to manufactured consent.
- reedf1 2y agoMake no mistake - it conforms to manufactured consent.
- imgabe 2y agoThe only difference is the manufacturer. But this is an important difference.
- whoitwas 2y agoI would like to understand your position. China doesn't allow US apps. If Chinese apps are allowed, then China has a big advantage over USA. Do you understand what kind of information can be derived from 150 million smart phones?
- necovek 2y agoOne is a "bastion of democracy", and another is the "center of human rights violation". Would you not expect the rules to be different? If it's only about reciprocity and global hegemony, well then...
- unknownsky 2y agoAre you saying the United States is a bastion of democracy? It's not even classified as a full democracy. The list of full democracies are Canada, Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Costa Rica, Uruguay, Australia, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, Taiwan, and Mauritius. United States is classified as a flawed democracy. Partly because sweeping decisions like this one are made by Supreme Court Justices who nobody voted for and who hold their position for life. Or maybe that's what you meant and you were being sarcastic with the quotation marks around "bastion of democracy"?
- mirzap 2y agoIn almost every country, the President or the Parliament selects Supreme Court Justices. In some countries, the President picks x, and the Parliament picks y. They don't have terms. Direct democracy does not make sense when selecting justices.
- necovek 2y agoI am not making a statement, mostly portraying the official stance from the USA government that has just had their decision to ban TikTok come into effect. As in, due to their official stance, we should not expect reciprocity at all. But you did pique my curiosity, where did you get that list of "full democracies"?
- macbr 2y agoTheir source is the “The Economist Democracy Index” [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Economist_Democracy_Index https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Economist_Democracy_Index
- lmz 2y agoIs this supposed to be China only or should the rest of the world also be suspicious and ban e.g. Meta services especially since they don't have any competing service that is popular in the US?
- red_admiral 2y agoI presume meta is banned in China.
- darkwater 2y agoOh but we are allies! The USA will never ever use the information gathered on allies for their own profit!
- fulafel 2y agoAlso Twitter (Trump/Musk) would never push for regime changes in Europe. (For anyone out of the loop, see https://www.dw.com/en/elon-musk-backs-far-right-afd-in-controversial-german-op-ed/a-71176801 https://www.dw.com/en/elon-musk-backs-far-right-afd-in-contr...)
- imgabe 2y agoStop. This is stupid. People are allowed to have opinions on politics in other countries. Every other country in the world sure as hell isn’t shy about opining on US elections. Then you want to act all indignant if the US opines on your elections? Fuck off.
- fulafel 2y agoI was talking about what agendas the powers that control the TikTok/Twitter/Meta might have, not (only) protesting the opinion. And in this case they are known to be exceptionally ruthless and part of Trump's administration.
- kalleboo 2y agoThe thing is that Elon Musk is not just some guy with an opinion. He's some guy who has an opinion and owns a major social media platform where he tweaks the algorithm to serve his own purposes, similar to what TikTok is being accused of.
- logicchains 2y ago>If Chinese apps are allowed, then China has a big advantage over USA Historically speaking the biggest threat by far to the lives and livelihood of US citizens is the US government and corporate elite. Giving them more power to control what information the population can access is much more dangerous to the average American than giving the Chinese government some data.
- sirisaysgpt 2y agoThere is a statement from India’s information technology ministry, after 20 Indian soldiers died during border skirmish with China. When India banned TikTok in 2020 [0] > Chinese mobile apps were stealing and surreptitiously transmitting users’ data. > The compilation of such data, and its mining and profiling by elements hostile to India is a matter of very deep and immediate concern which requires emergency measures [0] https://apnews.com/article/bd02ecd62ff9da6b1301868f0308e297 https://apnews.com/article/bd02ecd62ff9da6b1301868f0308e297
- pixelatedindex 2y agoIndia is also an authoritarian government, is that something to celebrate? Also it is hilarious that they complain about TikTok but when you live in India, you realize that half their mobile phones themselves are from Chinese manufacturers. Some of them have Indian manufacturing units but it doesn’t take much scrutiny to realize that this is all political theater.
- rsanek 2y agohuge false equivalency. true India is maybe not a model image of a democracy but they are way more free than China. take a look at the freedom house reports for more details.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- potamic 2y agoIf they were really concerned about privacy, they would strengthen privacy laws. Adopt a GDPR like framework with opt-in consent and force platforms to implement a GrapheneOS like model with mock permissions and scoped consent. Banning apps is just a veiled attempt to appease other interests.
- tushar-r 2y agoYou mean like the DPDPA [1]? [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Personal_Data_Protection_Act,_2023 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Personal_Data_Protecti...
- xandrius 2y agoIf you're on iPhone that might make sense but on Android there is no need, lots of ways to get access to it after you moved to Canada, if you ever want to pick up smoking.
- qingcharles 2y ago> Do I use TikTok? No, I've always advocated against it. This, to me, is a weird stance. On what grounds did you advocate against it? I just had to create a new account tonight after the ban[0] to keep using it. When you first start TikTok you might be presented with a wave of seemingly crap, bizarre or boring videos, but after several minutes of liking and watching the good stuff the algorithm very quickly starts serving you some excellent content. There is some really, really great, really smart content on TikTok. I have always advocated for TikTok on those grounds. [0] my accounts are all on USA servers and you can't log into them even through a VPN
- ThrowawayTestr 2y ago>On what grounds did you advocate against it? It's owned by the Chinese government and I don't trust the Chinese government.
- x3n0ph3n3 2y agoNot OP, but the users of it I know my person seem hypermobilized by what I consider brainrot ideologies amd generally seem to have highly destabilized psychologies.
- incoming1211 2y agoI find the hard core defenders of tiktok, such as yourself, weird. I know for a fact you get propaganda videos shoved in between your feed of 'good stuff' that you enjoy watching, but I know you wont admit that, or downplay it or say you can scroll past it. It doesn't change the fact the platform is used by the CCP to push a narrative, and while it might not work on you, there's some 120m users in America on TT. That's an awful lot of people who are being fed bullshit and lies. > my accounts are all on USA servers Keep telling yourself that ;)
- qingcharles 2y agoWhat do these "propaganda" videos look like and how do I recognize them? I did once see a cat that was named "Chairman Meow" in one video, which might have been very subtle CCP reprogramming now that I think on it.
- etothet 2y agoIt feels like you downloaded it primarily so you could share this related passage.
- redcobra762 2y ago> But this ban is only because it failed to conform to manufactured consent. Are you saying that TikTok was banned because the company would not generate specific content? That's not at all how the app works, so maybe I am misunderstanding what your claim here is.
- firefoxd 2y agoNot at all, the same way the US government does not ask Facebook or other media to produce specific content. However they still send take down requests and guidelines. TikTok being a foreign entity was under no obligation to conform to the US government, well at least not until now. With the exception to illegal content.
- redcobra762 2y agoSo you're saying then that because TikTok could refuse lawful orders from the United States government, the US had to ban it?