The U.S. is threatening to ban TikTok? Good luck

[beijingwalker]

The U.S. is threatening to ban TikTok? Good luck​

March 22, 20236:13 PM ET

Manuela López Restrepo

TikTok has become baked into the culture.
Leon Neal/Getty Images

TikTok is on trial as U.S. authorities consider a ban. There's just one problem: it's not only an app for silly videos anymore, it is now entwined with our culture.

Who are they? The TikTok generation. You might think of them as tweens shaking their hips to a Megan Thee Stallion song. In actuality, more than 1 in 3 Americans are using the app.

• Just this week, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew said the app had reached 150 million active users in the United States. That's up from the 100 million the app said it had in 2020.
• It has changed the online experience well beyond its own platform, with almost every other major social media platform pivoting to video.

The Biden administration is demanding that TikTok be sold away from Beijing-based ByteDance.
Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
What's the big deal?

• Any potential ban of the app wouldn't just be a regulatory or legal battle. It would have to reckon with how American culture has become significantly altered and intertwined with the foreign-owned app.
• Like it or not, TikTok is setting the discourse on beauty standards, cultural appropriation, finances, privacy and parenting, and impacting consumption habits from books to music, boosting small businesses and keeping users privy to avian illness drama.
• Pew research found a small but growing number of U.S. adults are also now getting their news on TikTok, even as news consumption on other social media platforms stagnates or declines.
• It's that very reach that appears to have the Biden administration worried. It has cited national security concerns over TikTok being owned by the Beijing-based company, ByteDance, which is subject to Chinese laws that would compel it to comply with requests to hand over information to the government about its customers. White House officials have told TikTok that it must divest from ByteDance or face the possibility of a ban.

What are people saying

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew in his prepared remarks before the U.S House Committee on Energy and Commerce:

Let me state this unequivocally: ByteDance is not an agent of China or any other country. However ... you don't simply have to take my word on that. Rather, our approach has been to work transparently and cooperatively with the U.S. government and Oracle to design robust solutions to address concerns about TikTok's heritage.

Author and lecturer Trevor Boffone, in the 2022 book TikTok Cultures in the United States:

TikTok has fully penetrated U.S. culture. Take for instance a trip to grocery chain Trader Joe's, which features an "as seen on TikTok" section promoting foods made popular by TikTok. Or, for example, Barnes & Noble stores, with tables dedicated to #BookTok. And, of course, TikTok has perhaps had the most obvious influence on the music industry; trending songs on TikTok find commercial success and land at the top of the charts.

Katerina Eva Matsa, an associate director of research at Pew, in a 2022 report:

In just two years, the share of U.S. adults who say they regularly get news from TikTok has roughly tripled, from 3% in 2020 to 10% in 2022. The video-sharing platform has reported high earnings the past year and has become especially popular among teens – two-thirds of whom report using it in some way – as well as young adults.

https://www.npr.org/2023/03/22/1165375400/tiktok-ban-app-us-china-bytedance-biden-security

 

[beijingwalker]

Creators, lawmakers oppose ban of TikTok at Capitol rally​

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

Creators, lawmakers oppose ban of TikTok at Capitol rally​

Chinese PDF Members:
The protestors in China are just people paid by the CIA.

American PDF Members:
The protestors in the US are just people paid by China's version of the CIA.

 

[BHAN85]

If USA wants, they can create a Tiktok-clon in a week, but they dont want it.

So all this mess is only to know how people react to a banned foreign app, I think.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

If USA wants, they can create a Tiktok-clon in a week, but they dont want it.

ChatGPT to the rescue.

 

[大汉奸柳传志]

If USA wants, they can create a Tiktok-clon in a week, but they dont want it.

So all this mess is only to know how people react to a banned foreign app, I think.

Credit Swiss got into trouble since it froze lots of Russian asset, foreign money lost faith in its neutrality and safety.

US banning tiktok would have the similar effect, foreign investors will lose faith in its business environment.

ChatGPT to the rescue.

you are such a chatgpt fanboy man I hope one day it helps you find god.

 

[BHAN85]

ChatGPT to the rescue.

It's hard to know who is real and who is a bot nowadays.

But I think it doesnt matter as the bot information is useful.

Credit Swiss got into trouble since it froze lots of Russian asset, foreign money lost faith in its neutrality and safety.

US banning tiktok would have the similar effect, foreign investors will lose faith in its business environment.


you are such a chatgpt fanboy man I hope one day it helps you find god.

It's not a problem I think, they want it.

They dont want competence to steal big internet companies data.

I think Internet companies for final users is not a business itself for USA, it's just a way to get military intelligence, really it's not a big business, it's artificially sustained financially. The real target is information, it's not money.

 

[mike2000 is back]

Chinese PDF Members:
The protestors in China are just people paid by the CIA.

American PDF Members:
The protestors in the US are just people paid by China's version of the CIA.

Don't mind some Chinese (not just Chinese though, Iranian, Russians, and other developing countries behave the same ). For them any protests in their country is a US sponsored attack against their government/leader and the US trying to create a "colour revolution" .
Yet when the same type of protests happens in the U.S/U.K or any western country you don't here westerners saying its a Chinese/CCP/Russian etc sponsored protests to bring down the U.S/U.K government or whatever. Lol
I think what this shows is that these developing countries government always feel insecure and they are not used to public protests by their people against the central government/president/leader since theylir system is more authoritarian/dictatorial and so the president/governmentis not used to being challenged/criticised. So any major protests by the people against the government/leader is taken with panic and fear. So they have to blame the U.S/West to descredit the protesters and arrest the protesters to set an example for others.

 

[beijingwalker]

Don't mind Zsome Chinese here(not just Chinese though, Iranian, Russians, and other developing countries behave the same ) For them any protests in their countries is a US sponsored attack against their government and the US trying to create a colour revolution . Yet when the same type of protests happens in the U.S/U.K or any western country you don't here westerners saying its a Chinese/CCP sponsored protests to bring down the U.S/U.K government or whatever. Lol
I think what this shows is that these developing countries government always feel insecure and they are not use to public protests by their people against the central government/president/leader. So any major protests by the people against the government/leader is taken with panic and fear. So they have to blame the U.S/West to descredit the protesters and arrest the protesters to set an example for others.

Don't how who you are talking about, I always say those protests in China are spontaneous including the recent anti covid lockdown ones.

 

[mike2000 is back]

The U.S. is threatening to ban TikTok? Good luck​

March 22, 20236:13 PM ET

Manuela López Restrepo

TikTok has become baked into the culture.
Leon Neal/Getty Images

TikTok is on trial as U.S. authorities consider a ban. There's just one problem: it's not only an app for silly videos anymore, it is now entwined with our culture.

Who are they? The TikTok generation. You might think of them as tweens shaking their hips to a Megan Thee Stallion song. In actuality, more than 1 in 3 Americans are using the app.

• Just this week, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew said the app had reached 150 million active users in the United States. That's up from the 100 million the app said it had in 2020.
• It has changed the online experience well beyond its own platform, with almost every other major social media platform pivoting to video.

The Biden administration is demanding that TikTok be sold away from Beijing-based ByteDance.
Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
What's the big deal?

• Any potential ban of the app wouldn't just be a regulatory or legal battle. It would have to reckon with how American culture has become significantly altered and intertwined with the foreign-owned app.
• Like it or not, TikTok is setting the discourse on beauty standards, cultural appropriation, finances, privacy and parenting, and impacting consumption habits from books to music, boosting small businesses and keeping users privy to avian illness drama.
• Pew research found a small but growing number of U.S. adults are also now getting their news on TikTok, even as news consumption on other social media platforms stagnates or declines.
• It's that very reach that appears to have the Biden administration worried. It has cited national security concerns over TikTok being owned by the Beijing-based company, ByteDance, which is subject to Chinese laws that would compel it to comply with requests to hand over information to the government about its customers. White House officials have told TikTok that it must divest from ByteDance or face the possibility of a ban.

What are people saying

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew in his prepared remarks before the U.S House Committee on Energy and Commerce:


Author and lecturer Trevor Boffone, in the 2022 book TikTok Cultures in the United States:


Katerina Eva Matsa, an associate director of research at Pew, in a 2022 report:

https://www.npr.org/2023/03/22/1165375400/tiktok-ban-app-us-china-bytedance-biden-security

To be fair, the U.S is wrong here, Tiktok is just an app for GOD'S sake. As far as they store their data in the U.S and the data is managed and regulated by a U.S company then I dont see the issue here. The U.S government is just targeting them for no reason other than to get at China's government to be honest.

Moreover, I don't think U.S president can ban the app even if he wants to. Trump tried and failed. It goes against U.S law to ban an app just based on flimsy reasons. Afterall, in a country with the rule of law its more difficult to do something like that. Unlike dictatorships where you only need the president saying one word to ban anything. Doesn't work like that in a democracy with checks and balances. So Biden(just like Trump before him) will find it hard to ban tiktok since its merely an app, so the threat isn't much. So I don't think it will pass. Plus even if he tries, not only will he face opposition and lawsuits from the judiciary but also pressure and protests from the American people who are quite selfish with their freedom and right to choose and use what they like.
Plus, Tiktok has basically nothing that is Chinese apart from the holding company being a Chinese company. The App itself works mostly as a western app with western content throughout. So this talk of China using the app to push its soft power is nonesense. Have never come across anything on the app that is Chinese ever. So that point is moot as well. I see no reason to ban them. At most the government can ban them on government /public system for security reasons or whatever. But that's it.

Don't how who you are talking about, I always say those protests in China are spontaneous including the recent anti covid lockdown ones.

Yeah agree, you were actually one of the only Chinese member here to say that. But some of your brothers were adamant that the protestors were U.S inspired protests and ecen traitors. Lol it happened on this forum several times. I have witnessed that so many times here. For many members on here most protests/uprisings around the world(as far as it's a non western country) is the fault of the U.S/West. Lol

 

[Skull and Bones]

US reading a leaf out Indian book, I see.