alt Hacker NewsI don't create for TikTok, I have never had a TikTok account, and I don't use TikTok, outside of being exposed to videos on other sites, or occasionally clicking a link.
I had been exposed to DouYin before, but my first experience of TikTok in real life was someone at a party, holding their phone, exclaiming something along the lines of "I can't look away, it's so addictive." It was uncomfortable, and I'm aware of how fake this sounds, but it happened.
But I think this is very bad.
With Section 230 in crosshairs, EARN IT being reintroduced every year or two, and access to books and sites being fragmented across the US, things are very already bad, and have the potential to get much worse. TikTok being banned is censorship, and presents a significant delta towards more censorship.
Congress didn't just "ban TikTok", Congress banned its first social media. This is case law, this is precedent, this is a path for banning other social media apps.
I think this is bad because I think this is the start of something new and something bad for the internet.
Replies
What's being targeted is TikTok's algorithm. User's videos are still legal US speech and can be posted and shared freely.
The specific rationale upheld by SCOTUS and unenumerated in the law itself (it's only like two sentences, I would recommend just reading it) was based on national security concerns and level of scrutiny.
TikTok failed the criteria. US companies do not, and laws to ban them would have to use entirely separate methods which would face a far tougher SCOTUS test. (It's not like the Justices are falling over themselves to always agree on things, especially the current court.)
Banning US companies is just politically infeasible. But the Chinese issue is pretty bipartisan (right now).
[dead]
> TikTok being banned is censorship, and presents a significant delta towards more censorship
I don't see it that way. I'm not American and I've never used TikTok.
I don't see any censorship here.
This is more of an ongoing power struggle between the US and China, tit for tat after they banned American apps.
Censorship would mean that they're banning actual content. That's not what's happening here. Any of the short form videos from TikTok can be hosted on several other video platforms, if the creators care to upload it.
Banning a platform is not censorship. It's like banning a book publishing house but allowing any other publisher to continue publishing their books.
It does appear that there is actual censorship, in the form of book banning, happening in several US states recently. But this ain't that.