Ban all Chinese apps?
However, I'm less worried about whatever correct/incorrect info they get about Trump or politics in general. And more worried about the disturbing cultural trends that this app and others like it are amplifying. Culture can have strong effects on people's political/voting behavior and that's what I think is being addressed (as opposed to the spying/privacy/CCP concerns which are secondary yet used as the main reason behind this ban).
I am pretty sure that Facebook/Youtube/Twitter will be targeted next in some way, but probably not with outright bans such as what they did with TikTok.
Amnesty international was refused entry to observe the Assange trial. I don't know how it is on your FB search, your twitter search, even google news search, but this is harder information to find than i'd expect.
Perhaps this genuinely isn't as newsworthy as i was thinking it should be but then i feel like i have been privvy to every minute detail of Carrie Lam (and the CCP) vs the protestors.
If you deny voting rights to a certain group of people, politicians just don't have to care about them at all. They can do things that hurt that group, and no one is going to hold them accountable.
At this point, I believe we should stop discriminating based on age.
If the age of voting is lowered to 6 (as some have asked for: [1]) or even removed altogether what stops me from producing 5-10 kids and then having them vote for a political party that I support? That is 5-10 extra votes in just a decade. And if 1000 families do that, that would significantly tilt the outcome of an election. By the time they grow up to understand what their rights are and that they were being exploited by an adult they would feel disgusted that they were used (or rather misused). You are assuming that minors have inherent understanding of political issues at that young age. Most don't. And it is not reasonable to expect them to know.
Voting should only be enabled for those who are completely aware of their rights. Children typically are not. They are not political by nature. They are playful and more interested in learning things around them. Turning them into political ballots waiting to be exploited by adults around them is the last thing we need in this already fractured World.
[1]: https://reason.com/2018/12/07/should-we-let-children-vote-th...
You might want to read about on peer pressure and age influence here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2779518/
Do you really want your children to be exposed to political influence at such a tender age when they are already dealing with peer pressure, bullying and all other negative aspects that come with school life?
Giving them voting rights at such a young age will just make them all into activists or worse politicians. I see so many child activists who are just being exploited by their parents for making a quick buck. Most of what these children utter on TV is just stuff that have been told by their parents. If you talk to them outside of all this media circus you'll know that they are innocent and don't have much idea about the World except for doing what they are told.
This is what happens when you engage children in politics/activism: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVUhKpnv8-k
They are just not prepared for it. The moment you go off script the cookie crumbles. But keep aside politics/activism for a moment. Do you think it is fair that a child has to go through this sort of exploitation for what should be adults coming out with solutions? Because let us face it. This is exploitation. The child needs to be in school studying and enjoying with friends. She will never get back this youthful life again. We as adults are literally using children as props to settle our political issues. This is immoral and not right.
It may be a bad idea to do it, but this isn't the reason.
What exactly is stopping the Chinese from buying that same data? Name one hindrance they will face, please.
The delusional jingoism on HN is painful to fight.
You’re also ignoring the fact that they can use their apps to easily spread propaganda and influence elections. They’ve already censored videos that criticized the Chinese government. And inside the app then they have a very prominent “Covid-19” button where they can cherrypick what information to display.. they’ve for instance chosen to omit the fact that the Wuhan Virus originated in China.
Any social media platforms using the term "Wuhan Virus" would be a bigger sign of governmental propaganda than the lack is.
This trick is very effective in erasing the obvious link between the virus and its origin.
See https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/03/20/coronavirus...
Nobody is trying to erase "history" or anything. Anybody actually interested can always read about the origin location of the virus in Wikipedia. This is all about keeping things straightforward for the otherwise uninformed.
Note that this is a standard virus naming methodology. The Ebola virus was similarly intentionally named to avoid unintentionally creating a target for discrimination.
It shouldn't matter whether you think Wuhan virus or COVID is the propaganda-name, a company just defaulting to the most common term for their market is not a useful sign of propaganda.
Using Tik Tok's Covid information as proof of propaganda is just looking at noise and pretending it's data.