It does seem hypocritical to me. On the other hand, Biden needs to connect with younger voters and this is a smart way to do it. He has a wicked sense of humor that connects well on social media and Trump is an easy target to his demagogery, legal issues and absence of humor. Provides a great contrast.
I don't have a problem with the fact that the Biden campaign uses Tik-Tok. It's that they decided to go that route after he made an anti TT stand.
First of all, if the US government wants your data it will get it (like with the FISA metadata thing, they took the data, got slapped on the wrist in court later). And its not like the US government is the only worry here, Meta or whoever can do plenty of nefarious things with peoples information, those corporations are basically authoritarian institutions of their own, driven by a profit motive. I'm not sure why I, a nobody would or should be concerned with the CCP over say Meta using my data for whatever purposes they have in mind. Meta is going to have much more impact on my life, because they are going to sell or use that info without my permission to do all sorts of things with (Cambridge Analytica for example).
Wait I thought our Government only had our best interest in mind, is that not true? What else should we not trust them on…
Bill that could ban TikTok in the US advances quickly in the House | AP News Looks like Congress is moving forward with a measure to possible ban TikTock in the US. I'm not a user so no impact for me. Is this government overreach? "WASHINGTON (AP) — A bill that could lead to the popular video-sharing app TikTok being unavailable in the United States is quickly gaining traction in the House as lawmakers voice concerns about the potential for the platform to surveil and manipulate Americans. The measure gained the support of House Speaker Mike Johnson and could soon come up for a full vote in the House. The bill advanced out of committee Thursday in a unanimous bipartisan vote — 50-0. The White House has provided technical support in the drafting of the bill, though White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the TikTok legislation “still needs some work” to get to a place where President Joe Biden would endorse it. The bill takes a two-pronged approach. First, it requires ByteDance Ltd., which is based in Beijing, to divest TikTok and other applications it controls within 180 days of enactment of the bill or those applications will be prohibited in the United States. Second, it creates a narrow process to let the executive branch prohibit access to an app owned by a foreign adversary if it poses a threat to national security."
That dang Biden is on TikTok! I'm going to run to my Facebook "JFK, Jr. for Vice President" group and post about how bad that is!
While I suspect TikTok will spin off an American controlled company in the end, Biden is making a big mistake by playing along with this. Tiktok is where the young liberals are and I can’t believe he is going to back the republicans on this. It would be like Trump supporting a democrat’s bill to ban talk radio…. https://www.cnbc.com/2024/03/08/ahe...s-debate-whether-to-ban-tiktok-or-use-it.html
Now Trump flips the script by questioning the need for a TikTok ban... As a parent of 2 in their 20s, this is something my kids are actually taking notice of and told me the young people are not happy with Biden... https://www.cnbc.com/2024/03/11/tru...ta-slams-facebook-as-enemy-of-the-people.html
From what I have gathered they are not actually trying to ban them at this point, they just want the Chinese held parent company to divest any interest so they don't get any data and can no longer manipulate the algorithms. Not sure that would change a whole lot of anything, but we do need to somehow figure how to stop the manipulation of the algorithms, but I guess that is what really sells it to the advertising companies. You can reach certain demographics with ads. I don't know??? I think social media is out of hand, but not sure that toothpaste will ever get remotely back in the tube! I'm not a big regulatory guy but some of the most outlandish conspiracies on just about anything get a lot of traction through social media manipulation.
Why do we need to stop the manipulation of the algorithms? ... Tiktok works because it's feeding people exactly what they want to see... my wife and daughter are convinced they are the best at that. I don't think they get whacky conspiracy stuff because that's not what they are "liking", but if that is what someone is into, they probably get a lot of it.
I understand what you are saying and based on what you like, search etc... it will give you more like that. But the algorithm is also capable of censuring anything it doesn't want you to see or more importantly the stuff it wants you to see. This is fine unless there is a nefarious agenda behind who is controlling it. A lot of people are all for wiping out student loans because the "kids" were deceived into getting into these loans. You don't think several hours daily of consumption of a false narrative will make you believe that it is factual?
I've never been clear on the precise arguments for why TikTok is an immediate threat. Crenshaw posted his arguments the other day, and I've pasted them below. Is the bill limited to TikTok only? Are people concerned about all foreign countries and companies or Chinese companies only? My understanding is that there are various apps and platforms that are owned by other foreign countries/companies, including China. Are those at issue, too? And what about Telegram, for example? Isn't that Russian? Is the main concern really about foreign adversaries telling Americans who is their member of Congress is? I imagine there are other ways for our adversaries to get that sort of demographic and political information. It doesn't seem like we're talking about more sensitive information such as social security numbers, for example, being demanded. I'd like to know more about the concerns with TikTok being "weaponized" relative to other apps, platforms, and media. Are we talking about something along the lines of what happened with Facebook and Cambridge Analytica? If that's the concern, did Congress ever pass legislation to address that or was that different? I feel like I'm missing something here. First of all, if you didn’t think TikTok would engage in malicious behavior before today, you shouldn’t think so any longer: they are preventing users from using the platform unless you share your zip code (so they can tell you which member of Congress to call and repeat their lies.) Wow. Second, the parent company of TikTok is ByteDance in China. China is not like the US. China can make companies do whatever the government wants, to include handing over data and weaponizing social media platforms for potentially the most far-reaching psych warfare operation in history. Third, today’s legislation doesnt ban TikTok. It simply says it can’t be owned by a foreign adversary like China. Under this bill, TikTok could be bought by an American company and then, hey, maybe I’ll even open an account and make some viral dance videos.
One and two are pretty weak arguments to begin with, and then he didn't provide evidence to show it was true. For One ... I've probably had to enter my zip code into every account I've ever created, so that's not necessarily part of an evil plot, and secondly, the content my family watches is user created by Americans, as far as I can tell. My wife did confirm though that she got a "pop-up" asking her to fight the ban against tiktok, like a "click here to contact your congressman" type message, so that part at least partly true, but it's not built into the videos. Also, what is wrong with given people info on how to contact their congressman? And who is lying? Congress is trying to ban tiktok... For Two ... it may be true that it is possible, but there is no evidence it's happening, and he didn't provide any. I bet China could get phone usage data on Americans is number of ways and it's not clear to me how that could be weaponized...
Now Mnuchin wants to buy TikTok. That would put MAGAs/Nazis in charge of both Twitter and TikTok and two important methods of getting information out to people unvarnished.
