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Comment by basiccalendar74 | Hacker News Reader

Even if data doesn’t leave US, we want to avoid algorithmic manipulation via TikTok feed.

This logic is not going to hold up in court. You cannot ban access to propaganda in the US.

This isn't about regulating what content American citizens are creating. It's about regulating the involvement of adversarial foreign governments to distribute that information. These are quite separate concerns.

>regulating the involvement of adversarial foreign governments to distribute that information

How is that any different than say Press TV, whose website and media are not banned and are freely viewable in the US because we have freedom of expression?

If TikTok is propaganda, they have to register as foreign agent, which they haven’t, so that will make them illegal.

However, I don’t see them being propaganda yet, but technically they can be overnight by download a new model from headquarter (and even without US user data leave US soil). The bill is trying to stop that possibility.

I don’t feel it morally sound to punish someone for sth they haven’t done yet. But what do I know? Reading many here and on Ars, most are actually thinking the two country are at war, so they can do anything to each other

I don’t think we are at war, but if enough people believe that way, does it matter?

Distributing propaganda in the US, even as a foreign country, is allowed by the 1st Amendment. Americans have a right to receive information. This bill is trying to stop something Americans have a right to

Yeah it’s sickening how the CCP is able to push their hoof cleaning agenda on americans /s

It's not a push. It's a pull.

Americans are ejecting to get this information. You have to download software, optionally allow it to send you notifications, the purposefully open and interact with it.

It's rational consumption. Simple as.

Edit: I now realize what /s means.

It's digital crack. My mind melts when I see what's going on there (American social media too though).

Surely letting someone make your populace addicted and/or stupid is problematic? In a way I consider it China's late payback for the opium wars.

If you know your mind melts when you see it, then why consume it? Why install it at all?

There are plenty of companies that offer digital crack: video games, porn, social media (including this site). But we must give agency to humans. We must acknowledge that they make decisions voluntarily.

Regardless of the source, either we should regulate data, including streaming videos of all kinds, or we don't. Singling out a company seems like a political stunt with zero real world impact. And a bad policy at that.

> If you know your mind melts when you see it, then why consume it? Why install it at all?

For the record, I don't and never have. Occasionally something leaks through to me, including epiphenomena like this discussion. HN can be stressful at times too, but it's still somewhat useful and it'll be the final thing of this sort for me, should it ever kick the bucket (hope not, though).

> We must acknowledge that they make decisions voluntarily.

There's considerable behavioral determinism when exposing a population to addictive substances and propaganda. Modern neuroscience has basically killed the myth of free will. From an adversary's perspective this is awesome. From a profiteering actor's (corporations, drug cartels, influencers, casinos) perspective this is awesome as well. Would you like some sauce with this social capital?

> Regardless of the source, either we should regulate data, including streaming videos of all kinds, or we don't. Singling out a company seems like a political stunt with zero real world impact.

Sure, for all I care we can pull the plug on all of them and be better off. The systems we had for scientific, journalistic or cultural innovation and dissemination were sufficient and much better behaved (private TV can go as well). No more "professional" streamers (haha). No more perpetual reinserting the same recycled info into the collective goldfish's mind.

This would also abolish the "need" for storing the 86263961826th minecraft let's play, freeing up exabytes of storage space in the process.

Small online communities, that can actually (federatively?) host and moderate themselves will survive as they have before the maelstrom.

You just justified legalizing all drugs, even harmful ones. And of course let me guess you want harmful drugs to be legal only in the US.

Your account has been using HN primarily for political battle and flamewar. You've also been breaking the site guidelines regularly in other ways.

We ban accounts that do this. It's not what HN is for, and destroys what it is for. I don't want to ban you because your account has been around a long time, but we need this to stop.

If you'd please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and stick to the rules when posting here, we'd appreciate it.

Edit: this has been a problem for a long time:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35777673 (May 2023)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23752945 (July 2020)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23331270 (May 2020)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19350549 (March 2019)

Is there a way to download all my data?

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