Josh Hawley wants to ban TikTok nationwide. Missouri senator will introduce legislation

What I have seen on TikTok has pretty much been the same that I have seen on YT, Facebook, and Instagram. One of the more early famous Tiktok celebrities is "The Fat Electrician." He is an army vet who pretty describes different military MOS in a very funny way, along with certain military equipment. Others include making videos of lip-syncing, dancing, and comedy skits. And all of this is freedom of speech.

Thus, the first amendment applies here. The government is not allowed to impede on freedom of speech in general.

 

The problem isn't the content on tiktok. Which is why it's demise won't really mean anything.

 

Then ban it on government devices only. Problem solved. Other than that, you are violating freedom of speech because a conservative does not like the comedy sketches that make fun of DJt or other conservatives.

 

Tic tok is a danger if Chinese are gathering information...which I'm sure they do.. I installed it due to work requirements. and man....its intrusive with my contacts. Problem is...its a key part of digital marketing with influencers. It's not just kids.....adults get thrown down that rabbit hole. It's not going to disappear soon.

 

If it is not the content, then the same problem exists with ALL social media accounts if you own a smartphone. Do you want to ban smartphones because of national security threats?

 

All electronic devices connected to the internet gather information on you. It is how some defendants are convicted of their crimes, and how some defendants get off.

 

Because that's what they'll feel. Again, it's not about the cold logic of it, it's about how it feels to the person experiencing it. Think about it like this. If my wife calls and says she's picking up pizza for dinner on the way home, I get excited. If she shows up without pizza, yeah I'm disappointed. On the other hand, if I already have pizza and my wife come and takes it away from me, I feel that a lot more viscerally. I lost something I actually had instead of something that was going to happen in the future. And for folks who have more than 10k in debt and are going to be continuing to pay it anyway, the benefit of that 10k of forgiveness doesn't get felt until down the road.

I don't think you understand the teenage mindset. Vines, Twitter, these aren't parallels. If the government bans Tik Tok, you are taking something away from a young adult. They didn't lose it, it wasn't just gone because it ended or went out of business, it was TAKEN. That produces a different emotional reaction than the examples you've given. And when all those young adults who had their Tik Tok taken away do convene on other apps, what do you think they're going to be posting about?

 

You do not have to allow TikTok access to your contacts. The same is true for any app you install. You can either set in when you install the app or go into settings after wards to allow only the access you want to give it. I do this with all my apps.

 

So you think the problem is YouTube is that it's owned by the Chinese government and it collects data on teenagers?

I disagree alphabet is clearly not a Chinese company.

 

To be honest it requires less information than most apps. You are better off to ban shopping on Aliexpress than you are banning TikTok. You can literally sign up for a throw away email and install the app with that email and it has zero personal info on you. In fact I think you may be able to install and run it without an email but then you may not have a For You page. In contrast Aliexpress knows your name, address, credit card and purchasing habits.

 

yeah, they will feel lied to and used.

yeah again my eyes crossed reading five words into this nonsense.

You're saying you can lie with impunity to people and they don't think that's the reality.

I don't think you do.

Again crossing my eyes out of here boredom.

Teenagers are not going to care beyond a few weeks maybe a month or two.

There are a plethora of things that will feel the void and they will leap to that.

I remember with Myspace came out and teenagers thought that was the world and then it went away and no one cared. And then Facebook was all the rage and then Instagram was all the rage then Snapchat.

It won't matter.

I remember being a teenager and I'm not talking about some nostalgia I'm talking about my irrationality. Every week there is a catastrophe that was life altering by the time I was 22 I couldn't have cared less about it.

 

The problem is not YT, TikTok, IG, or any other social media app. It is the internet, period, and the smartphone which is the conduit in gathering that information or spying. It is how and why the Patriot Act I and II can obtain that information in META data downloads and analyzed by the NSA and other intelligence agencies. And that also includes Canada, the UK, Japan, Australia, and other countries that have similar programs. Again, if you want to make this about "national security" then ban it on government devices. I have no qualms with that since government devices are also connected to the internet.

But that does not make headlines or make it sensational. Enter the big, bad China, as the boogyman. And with a little bit of fear and a lot of ignorance, the GOP has the perfect remedy of banning a social media app that it does not like. And if TikTok is banned, how soon will other social media sites will be banned because conservatives like you don't like them and try to use the excuse of "national security."

 

Can you tell me which self-professed freedom lovers want to ban the following:

Gas stoves
Gas heaters
Gas furnaces
Wood burning fireplaces
Gas powered cars
Generators
Gas powered weed eaters
Gas powered lawn mowers
Gas powered cars
Pipe lines
Happy meals
Light bulbs
Shower heads
Cedar shake roofs
Guns
Charter schools
Anything that offends the left like tomahawk chops and mascots

The list is endless up to and including banning the requirement that people enter this country legally

 

I think your intentionally not understanding the topic.

I'm not interested in helping you understand your lack of understanding because I think it's willful.

So it's about like talking to a flat earther.

 

And there you have it. Polydectes argument is "I don't care if it is owned by anyone unless it is Chinese." If you think the Chinese are gathering information on us through TikTok, that would be morbidly stupid. They will get better intel by looking at all the websites that are both conservative and liberal to get information. They provide a lot of the intel the Chinese government needs, wants, desires, and fears about our society. The other, more important secrets, are done in the more traditional methods that do not involve TikTok. Just look at the former FBI agent who was caught helping the Russian Oligarchs and Russian Security services. How they got to him wasn't through TikTok or any social media app. Try emails and physical contact. That is how true espionage works. But the GOP thinks this is star trek time and thus creates this false narrative all because of the Chinese. Hardly.

 

I think that is has more to do with young folks using Tik Tok to organize. If he was concerned about some nefarious anti-American forces, he should look at those he literally ran from.

 

Funny. One gas stoves, heaters, and furnaces are not banned, at least not nationally. Second, wood-burning fireplaces are not banned. Oh hell, new homes being built here and across the country, traditional homes, have a one in three chance of having a fireplace. The City of Dallas is the only one I know of that banned gas-powered weed eaters. But the reason was noise pollution. Gas-powered lawnmowers are still in service and still being built. Again, more hyperbole. Pipelines are still being built, they just don't have lead in them anymore. Do you want to grow food on your farm that has lead poisoning? Shower heads are not banned, not all of them. YOu have more options on the type of showerhead. Most are now going with the Rainforest flow type shower head nowadays. Guns are not banned per se except some specific types for public safety, Even Scalia would argue that. "Assault Weapon Ban" in Indiana will probably be overturned by Scotus because of the Heller Decision. Charter schools is part of the public school system. The difference is the administrative bureaucracy.

Most of what you posted is either hyperbole or false. But it is what to expect from conservative social media and websites. A whole bunch of half-truths and outright lies all the while giving information publicly to the chinese and any other intel agency.

 

having to create a straw man to attack is telling about the weakness of your position.

I never said that. The topic is about TikTok you keep wanting to distract and I'm not having it. So out of frustration for me but taking your bait you misrepresent my position

Tiktok is the subject here I'm not taking your red herrings.

 

Lol are you serious?

 

Checking........serious as a heart attack.

 

Every thing I mentioned has either been banned in certain places or proposed to be banned which is what Hawleys bill is, a proposal. There’s more if you’re interested.

 

That's even funnier.

 

The problem with the "whataboutism" argument as I have said in the past is each case is uniquely different. The problem with banning TikTok is not like banning hi flow shower heads. In your case with the shower head someone has set a standard for how much water can flow through per minute or some other measurement. We are not banning only shower heads produced by Chinese companies. Chinese made shower heads in that market face the same restrictions. For the two things to be the same we would be banning all apps that people can share or stream video on. No one is making a case for that.

The argument could be that personal information can be obtained by TikTok through the app but as I said earlier you can turn off almost all sharing of personal information if you wish. My example that Chinese companies like Aliexpress can collect much more dangerous information on us is absolutely true. They have your credit card, home address, buying habits, etc... If we were concerned with Chinese companies and personal information that is where we should start. Or even a bigger issues is maybe we should not be selling Texas oil fields to China because think of how much information that oil company can collect. The problem is not that China is a serious threat. The problem is politician like Hawley propose these simple bills that if anyone examined in some detail would realize they do not work. It is only red meat for the base.

 

Supporting an open and free market and opposing government intervention into that market is a whole different thing than national security.

The partisan hacks will blur that line to cheerlead.

 

If all you're seeing is comedy sketches about DJT, that's because the apps algorithm has identified your TDS and is feeding you content to satisfy that. Kinda telling, and exactly how the app works.

I dont see any of that.

There is no reason to give the Chinese government the level and extent of information they clearly are using the app to collect.

Facebook Reels and YouTube Shorts is the same thing, without the concern the Chinese have manipulation opportunity and data access.