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Comment by hot_gril | Hacker News Reader

I was always in favor of banning it for this reason, but I'm concerned that Biden is now banning it for a different reason. The timing is interesting. Certain lobby groups have been urging Congress on this due to TikTok videos about the war in Gaza. Then again, Trump was also trying to ban it for his own reasons.

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Yep. TikTok is the only major social media app in the US that does not downrank pro-Palestinian content. No one in the US government cared about TikTok until the latest conflict in Israel. This is the only reason for the ban.

I thought Trump wanted TikTok banned when he was president?

Yes he did. Funny enough, he now criticizes this.

He is one of the best political game player. Look at immigration (he does not allow bipartisan law to smooth the issue out) and abortion (he enabled it but does not want this to be the matter during election year).

Agree his policy might many of us not. But player great he is.

I'm having trouble squaring that with data, since the trends go back to 2020 and 2022: https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%205-y&ge...

There was no bipartisan consensus until Israel's atrocities began last year.

Yes, you and another user have claimed that but provided no sources or proof. For my part, I'm a dem and it always seemed that Dems weren't very vocal about it but were highly concerned about Tik Toks data sovereignty. They've kinda had bigger issues in their face since 2016.

I don't think it's accurate to say Biden is banning it. The vote in the House was very bipartisan. R's were like 92% in favor and D's more like 75%.

    Yes: 155 D + 197 R
    No:   50 D +  15 R

On Monday the White House clarified its position:

    "We do not want to ban apps like TikTok. What we want – and what the 
    legislation we support would do – is ensure that TikTok becomes owned by an 
    American company so that our and our children's sensitive personal data stays 
    here instead of going to China and so that Americans' understandings and 
    views can't be manipulated by algorithms potentially controlled by the PRC."

The bill gives the US President, currently Biden, the ability to designate social media apps as sufficiently popular and its owning nation as adversarial, mandating a forced sale. Biden approved the law and chose to use it on TikTok. So you could say it's to be sold or else banned (and China has already said they won't sell), but anyway it's in Biden's hands.

Does that that would apply to any foreign country owned website ?

so they want to outsource to nations where paucity of labor and environmental laws give corporations higher margins, but is ready to force a ban if US laws cannot control the narrative and influence people. Okay

Yeah, the White House doesn't pretend it's not about influencing public opinion. So it's a natural question, what opinion are they worried about. Maybe there's no particular one, but idk.

The clear implication is the CCP.

> The vote in the House was very bipartisan.

That's a sure sign the citizens are getting screwed.

That's the real reason!

AIPAC wants Tiktok gone because young people are getting objective information rather than the propaganda of mainstream "responsible" media. [1]

Tiktok is not a good thing for Genocide Joe either! He has been an Israeli puppet for decades. Thanks to Tiktok, being an Israeli puppet has become a political liability because Israel has lost its control over American minds.

[1] https://twitter.com/SweatieAngle/status/1725897178038595901

Has AIPAC in particular said this too? Because I've seen JFNA's letter to Congress encouraging a ban but nothing from AIPAC so far.

AIPAC works behind the scenes.

They are very busy trying to get Finkelstein banned from Youtube as a "terrorist sympathiser"[1]

[1] https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=norman+finkelst...

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