China has strongly criticized a bill moving through the U.S. Congress, which could potentially lead to the ban of TikTok in the country,

China has strongly criticized a bill moving through the U.S. Congress, which could potentially lead to the ban of TikTok in the country,

  • MelllvarEnglish
    127·
    7 months ago

    It’s kind of hard to take their criticism seriously when western sites and apps like the BBC or Instagram are blocked in China.

      • MelllvarEnglish
        211·
        7 months ago

        It’s possible to be a hypocrite and wrong, too.

              • MelllvarEnglish
                19·
                7 months ago

                What’s obvious is that you have an axe to grind that goes beyond what I’ve been talking about.

                Don’t worry, I won’t be responding to you anymore.

    • Omega_Haxors@lemmy.mlEnglish
      133·
      7 months ago

      The core problem is that the reason of removal is not based on fact, but just plain racism. They’re not even trying to hide it either. If you’ve been paying attention to the intelligence community, they’ve been trying to drum up a justification for a war with China for awhile now.

    • Joncash2@lemmy.ml
      9·
      7 months ago

      Well the question isn’t about taking China seriously, but admitting that China was right in the first place. US’s argument is that China can spread disinformation on Tik Tok, which is exactly what China was saying about Facebook etc… So, China, which doesn’t have freedom of speech banned those sites for promoting foreign interests. US is now trying to do exactly the same to Tik Tok.

      IF you accept USA’s argument here, then you implicitly accept China’s argument since they’re the same argument. So, again, it doesn’t matter what China says, what matters is what you just said:

      It’s kind of hard to take their criticism seriously when western sites and apps like the BBC or Instagram are blocked in China.

      So there by admitting, China was right, countries SHOULD block foreign influence.

      *Edit: Man the timing of this article

      https://www.msn.com/en-za/news/politics/exclusive-trump-launched-cia-covert-influence-operation-against-china/ar-BB1jSnFz

      Like I said, China seems to be right here.

              • NuclearDolphin@lemmy.ml
                61·
                7 months ago

                China bad for blocking insta. USA good for blocking Tiktok. Its consistent when you are a dog for the state department

                • HumanPenguin@feddit.ukEnglish
                  1·
                  7 months ago

                  Also consistent when you remember tit for tat bans are bloody common in the world.

                  And sorta the point of modern caparilistic politics.

                  You stop our nations companies selling to your citizens and we will do the same here. Lets face it. If any gov refuses to do so. Its rather disrespectful to their companies.

                  The fact that each nation uses the spying excuse. When China is as likely doing it for control of its citizens and profit restriction. Just like the US.

                  Lets face it. No 9ne sane thinks these types of apps are not spying. Just weather the respective governments have access to the data. And let’s face it. If you think either dose not. Beach front property in land locked areas for sale etc.

                  It really just points them all as hypocrits.

                  PS not American. But my nation is no better. And I am in no way saying any nation is atm. Or at least any nation with any power on the world stage.

              • MelllvarEnglish
                1·
                7 months ago

                I’m ambivalent. On the one hand, forced divestiture on national security grounds is not unprecedented, and the bill is not actually imposing prior restraint on the users’ speech. The law also has some interesting features like giving users the right to demand a complete copy of all their data.

                I’d say this bill bears a closer resemblance to European privacy laws than to the Great Firewall of China.

                Moreover, the law could only be applied to apps/websites owned by Chinese, North Korean, Iranian, and Russian companies, which are already subject to restrictions in what American industries they can be involved in. The only really novel part of this bill is that it targets social media platforms instead of a physical industry.

                On the other hand, there are clear 1st amendment implications. If and when this bill is challenged the court will apply strict scrutiny, and so will probably strike it down. But there is a case to be made that banning invasive software from specific adversary countries (and let’s face it, all social media apps are invasive) serves a compelling government interest. This bill could actually be upheld despite 1st amendment concerns: “The Constitution is not a suicide pact.”

                So, do I support the bill? Sort of. I mean I get what it’s trying to accomplish. And I think it’s pretty clear that social media has become a major tool for disinformation and manipulation of public opinion, and that it has been weaponized against the US by state actors and non-state actors alike. And the bill is actually pretty narrowly tailored–almost too narrowly. It might just squeeze through, and I might be OK with it.