White House backs bill that could give it power to ban TikTok nationwide

Like you can't install any software on iPhone that has not been "blessed" (aka signed) by one Apple's private keys. Well unless you find an exploit to free the device from their control. What is so crazy about this is Apple does not even own the hardware after they sell it, but they won't let you disable signing in the boot ROM or at the OS level. If it were about security they would at least let you load your own signing keys. It's not though in my opinion it's about control. I even consider it a violation of property rights.

This is simply because if you own something you should be able have full enjoyment of your property without interference. Further, one major fundamental aspect of owning tangible property is the right of exclusion. The cryptographic system Apple has setup allows Apple to control the right of exclusion when it comes to deciding what software the CPU will and will not run. Apple is effectively reserving the right of exclusion regarding what CPU can execute via cryptography. Crucially, when something is sold legally this means all property rights are transferred to the buyer with few exceptions. One being copyright the original holder of the intangible property reserves/retains the right to copy/reproduce. Despite not legally having the right of exclusion Apple decides what can be excluded from running on other peoples hardware even after selling it.

The short and simple is I should be able to decide what to include or exclude from something I own. In this case, one must ask Apple first which shows how your right of exclusion has been infringed.

This also applies to other devices not just iDevices, but anything with locked down boot ROMs/loaders, but Apple is well known for their "walled garden" (I don't like this term nothing garden like about property right violations).

As for tik tok it's an easy target for such government overreach.

The theoretical argument will be national security and “protect the children”.

> What happened to "personal liberty and freedom"?

Flies out the door for the causes mentioned above. Reasonable? No. Reality? Yes.

> Are they going to ban particular websites next?

This already happens at some levels. Note that The Guardian website was not accessible on DoD computers during the Snowden revelations. There was a practical reason (mass spillage is a PITA for folks who diligently report and process the reports of such things), but it was also a futile exercise of control.

> And what exactly is so threatening about TikTok to make it a legitimate national security threat?

1. Lots and lots of tracking data.

2. Lots and lots of real time on-the-ground info.

3. The ability to shape the discourse and mood within certain groups via the algo (assuming that the algo can be influenced by the PRC government, which folks widely believe it can).

You may not believe these things are significant, but I encourage you to chat up some sigint (esp. analysts) and psyops folks to see what they have to say about this type of data and medium.

It helps Meta and Google, to gain back U.S. social media market share. Which is why Meta has been lobbying for it: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/03/30/faceboo...

The first Red Scare. Eugene Debs was imprisoned for opposing WW1.

But the US has only ever been in favour of free trade when it benefits them, they did similar things with tariffs against Japan in the late 1980s, have blown up the Nordstream pipelines, etc.

People should have the freedom to run whatever software they choose. That does not mean the government should allow a country like China to operate within the US. And of course spying done by Meta is a whole different conversation.

Competition for US-based companies.

Ticktock is almost as good as YouTube and way, way better than most social media to learn stuff. History, science, but also cooking techniques (my sister worked at a starred restaurant and still learned from it), tech and CS tips. Actually it seems better than YouTube on that last point as you don't have to watch the full 20 minutes to find the code example.

Still inferior to text, but Ticktock 'numbing the mind' : less than most other social media apps, as much as YouTube.

> Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

The Constitution also says "the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." The Chinese are people and tanks are arms, but that doesn't mean the Constitution protects their right to drive a column of tanks up to the White House.

The Constitution is not a suicide pact, but broad and literal readings of certain sections would make it so.

The balkanization of the internet has been a thing for a while (e.g., China, online poker/gambling, region restrictions for streaming, etc.).

I expect this to continue, and it may get to levels of “ridiculous tv show”.

All that said, I think that there will be a tacit understanding that tech savvy people will almost always have work arounds, and that will be conveniently overlooked by most powers-that-be.

"Many countries have banned or temporarily limited access to Facebook. Use of the website has also been restricted in various ways in other countries. As of July 2022, the only countries to continually ban access to the social networking site are China, Iran, North Korea, Uganda and Russia."

I don't see how. To prevent citizens from visiting websites, you'd have to ban VPNs, since ISPs have no visibility into VPN traffic. Banning VPN use could be done, but it would have a lot of economic effects since businesses use VPNs a lot for security purposes. You could also make a special government-approved VPN with a backdoor for the government, and only allow citizens to use that. Or, you could require citizens to install special spyware on their devices. All of these solutions to the VPN problem would be rather cumbersome and difficult for a government to implement and enforce, however.

How exactly would this work?

dev: "Here's a merge request, please approve it."

team lead: "Why are you changing the encryption? What is the purpose of this? And why are you working on this task when it's not part of our sprint planning? Where did you get the idea for it?"

dev: "I can't tell you that. You have no right to read this code change! You need to approve this MR now, or else!"

team lead: "See me in my office. We need to talk to HR."

And as far as propaganda, emotional and psychological control, manufacturing consent, etc. go, Tiktok has nothing on the incestuous relationship between American social media and the incentives of data capitalism, and the military industrial complex.

Meanwhile, the government of Texas wants to censor the internet to make access to information about abortion illegal. We don't have to posit a slippery slope scenario for this, shit's already sliding. The precedent created by letting governments ban access to social media and create ideologically-driven silos of information is much worse.