House passes bill to force ByteDance to divest TikTok

[tony67]

neo-McCarthyism

Only the Chinese?

Anyway - this seems to be a way for some US company to buy TikTok on the cheap and make a big profit I wonder who will have stock in that company.....

 

[AurumPunzel]

Only the Chinese?

Well, they're already dominating the tech world, and they're also taking the EV market by storm, with a combination of low price, high feature and high quality. But while it is similar to what happened when the Japanese conquered the world of consumer electronics and cars in the late 20th Century, there is the added dimension of "Red Scare", which is leading to more active efforts than the numerous attempts at using patent laws to try and stop the likes of Panasonic from gaining a foothold in the US.

 

[_19disnA]

taking the EV market by storm...........

How many Chinese made EV's are currently sold in the US? I don't get what you are referring to.

 

[AurumPunzel]

How many Chinese made EV's are currently sold in the US? I don't get what you are referring to.

They're expanding in many continents, including Europe, where BYD, GWM Ora, SAIC (including MG), Xpeng and Geely, as well as through existing joint ventures with Honda and BMW, are making huge gains in the EV market. Though as for whether any of the brands have a US presence, Polestar (actually a Sino-Swedish product, with US market models assembled in Ridgeville, SC) seems to be the only one selling passenger cars, while BYD has factories in Los Angeles and Canada, but at the moment, they only assemble buses and energy products there, as they've yet to establish a passenger car presence in the North American market.

 

[Praying Colonel]

Well, they're already dominating the tech world, and they're also taking the EV market by storm, with a combination of low price, high feature and high quality. But while it is similar to what happened when the Japanese conquered the world of consumer electronics and cars in the late 20th Century, there is the added dimension of "Red Scare", which is leading to more active efforts than the numerous attempts at using patent laws to try and stop the likes of Panasonic from gaining a foothold in the US.

And spyware--don't forget spyware:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/02/29/us-investigation-chinese-vehicles/

 

[AurumPunzel]

And spyware--don't forget spyware:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/02/29/us-investigation-chinese-vehicles/

Well, if other countries are happy with them, then it seems to be only Washington who sees a problem, yet there's been no documented case that the vehicles are being used to spy on the populace.

 

[bcla]

How many Chinese made EV's are currently sold in the US? I don't get what you are referring to.

Polestar has Chinese assembled EVs. Also Volvo, although the EX30 hasn't been delivered yet. I think the other Volvo EVs sold in the US are assembled in the US.

I suppose a concern would be all the data collection that could be done with modern tracking.

 

[LuvOrlando]

I bet there is more to this than we know. You don't get 197 Republican and 155 Democrat votes on a bill like unless there is something really bad going on with this app. I suspect they have had briefings about dangers that they can't talk about.

You are so right, these are people who would argue about the sun coming up but can agree here...

 

[bcla]

Only the Chinese?

Anyway - this seems to be a way for some US company to buy TikTok on the cheap and make a big profit I wonder who will have stock in that company.....

I looked over the bill text and it refers to "adversary nations" (defined by another law) including China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran. If there's any forced divestiture, it only needs to go to an entity that theoretically isn't subject to the control of one of those nations.

TikTok and ByteDance are specifically noted in the bill, but theoretically the President could set in motion a process to declare other companies subject to similar divestiture.

 

[LuvOrlando]

I looked over the bill text and it refers to "adversary nations" (defined by another law) including China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran. If there's any forced divestiture, it only needs to go to an entity that theoretically isn't subject to the control of one of those nations.

TikTok and ByteDance are specifically noted in the bill, but theoretically the President could set in motion a process to declare other companies subject to similar divestiture.

We can only hope.

I think it is about time the US started to protect it's people, it's felt like open season on Americans for quite some time now & it doesn't work for me, like at all. I am fed up, this is one but by far not the only glaring exploitation.

 

[tony67]

I looked over the bill text and it refers to "adversary nations" (defined by another law) including China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran. If there's any forced divestiture, it only needs to go to an entity that theoretically isn't subject to the control of one of those nations.

TikTok and ByteDance are specifically noted in the bill, but theoretically the President could set in motion a process to declare other companies subject to similar divestiture.

I was referencing the other neo-McCarthyism I've seen from the government the last few years, but yeah I was aware of the rest of it - but its still good to bring up - thanks

 

[AurumPunzel]

Polestar has Chinese assembled EVs. Also Volvo, although the EX30 hasn't been delivered yet. I think the other Volvo EVs sold in the US are assembled in the US.

I suppose a concern would be all the data collection that could be done with modern tracking.

I wonder if any concerns have been raised about similar systems being used by the Detroit Three as well, particularly the OnStar system used by General Motors.

 

[bcla]

I wonder if any concerns have been raised about similar systems being used by the Detroit Three as well, particularly the OnStar system used by General Motors.

At least with this bill, the concern would be that the Chinese government has laws that require that Chinese companies must hand over information from their companies at their government’s request. I think the major concern with TikTok is that the Chinese government might interfere with the operation of TikTok in order to arrange its recommendation algorithms in order to interfere with American elections.

Of course TikTok claims that it’s run independently and follows US laws for their information without interference by the Chinese government.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

Yeah, but has that actually been used in practice, or is this yet another example of neo-McCarthyism that seems to single out Chinese tech firms on the grounds of allegations of arms-length CCP links that could compromise national security? The USA missed out on some excellent smartphones, yet it overlooks the fact that even US brands like Apple routinely makes their smartphones in China. But they're scared of Huawei beating them so they just end up banning them.

Yeah. I mean if China was really interested in spying on us, they'd simply secretly put that capability into our phones. They wouldn't even need tictok.

 

[AurumPunzel]

Yeah. I mean if China was really interested in spying on us, they'd simply secretly put that capability into our phones. They wouldn't even need tictok.

Even Wyze cameras can turn an average suburban family man into James Bond unwittingly, if Beijing wanted to. But in practice, what would they gain out of it?

 

[Genie+]

Some say the nail in the coffin was TikTok encouraging users to reach out to their representatives in hopes to prevent passing the bill. It was proof of concept for the influence danger and backfired. The barrage of phonecalls only made the perception of TikTok worse. The app set up calling local reps with a few clicks.

The bill may have passed regardless but I doubt TikTok helped itself here.

 

[DisneyOma]

I'm getting whiffs of Fahrenheit 451, and it's coming from people addicted to TikTok (and cellphones in general). I get that it's just a huge scrolling advertisement app, but why would anyone want to spend hours a day scrolling through garbage like that anyways?

 

[PrincessJo]

2 things:

Members of Congress said they got thousands of calls from young people threatening suicide if tiktok is banned. That's a problem.

And 2, tiktok controls algorithms that lead kids into dangerous places they shouldn't go. Research it. It's scary. Parents should already know this.

 

[AurumPunzel]

2 things:

Members of Congress said they got thousands of calls from young people threatening suicide if tiktok is banned. That's a problem.

And 2, tiktok controls algorithms that lead kids into dangerous places they shouldn't go. Research it. It's scary. Parents should already know this.

I can never trust algorithms. I've seen them cause haphazard ad results, I've seen them cause unnecessary censorship. Even YouTube's use of algorithms has backfired when they attempted to address COPPA concerns amidst Elsagate.

As for the suicide threats, that is rather unhinged. So I'm not surprised that it's led to rare bipartisan support for banning TikTok.

 

[LuvOrlando]

Yeah, but has that actually been used in practice, or is this yet another example of neo-McCarthyism that seems to single out Chinese tech firms on the grounds of allegations of arms-length CCP links that could compromise national security? The USA missed out on some excellent smartphones, yet it overlooks the fact that even US brands like Apple routinely makes their smartphones in China. But they're scared of Huawei beating them so they just end up banning them.

To each their own on how they feel but I don't think anyone wants to single anyone out, most people want ALL THREATS to be shown the door but if the Gov can only manage threats one by one because herding cats is hard, so be it.

I don't think it is neo anything to want to protect our country from exploitation, actually protectionism is the ONLY actual real role of government and many in these roles have been asleep on the job for a while now, either on accident or on purpose - as of late it is tough to say. I keep hearing this very very very old Poly Sci term that has no place in our world anymore, it was a call to arms way before my time and I'm a bit on the older side so it actually amuses me to see it used at all anymore. Like, who is it speaking to now anyway, not that many around alive in the 40's and 50's these days? Well that and Isolationism like it is a bad thing, which is what, like a hundred years old and also, just seriously has no place. Normal people close and lock their doors of their homes at night because there is a fundamental realization that bad things often happen when doors are not closed.

These terms were used before women could even have their own checking accounts in 1974, soooo really really really antique ideas that, at best, maybe belong in a history book somewhere when people talk about, "remember when?"

Seems the real culture wars coming are about this. My country is on fire and cities seem to be dying so I reject anything that is not 100% intended to benefit the American People above all else for the forseeable future. It seems I am not alone.