EFF: Forcing ByteDance to sell TikTok or face a ban is unconstitutional | Hacker News Reader

EFF: Forcing ByteDance to sell TikTok or face a ban is unconstitutional

eff.org

20 pointsskilled27 comments

Maybe, but we have all kinds of laws on foreign ownership of media. And for good reason: you don’t want the primary source of input to come from a hostile government. TikTok IS the primary news source for the American youth and is used by half the country. To not intervene is to give away future minds and the country to outside influence.

And for those who say FB is also ruining minds, I don’t disagree, but at least it’s “our problem” which means it’s up to us to solve it as well.

Somehow this sounds so wrong. I really hope TikTok won't sell because what this is trying to achieve is concerning.

> TikTok IS the primary news source for the American youth

TikTok never forced their users to use TikTok

I mean, people have choices and made the decision to use TikTok.

That doesn’t change the implications of it.

It's a murky issue, but I think it really comes down to how much we trust the Chinese government. I don't, not at all, and so long as the Chinese government controls TikTok I will support the forced sale.

I don't like regulating tech, the internet should be free. No blocking, no censorship. I don't like banning TikTok, I don't like a lot of what the EU is doing with big tech, even though I like neither TikTok nor big tech. It's principle and precedent.

What should be regulated is foreign business activity, when Chinese companies try to register a regional subsidiary in the US for example. That should be possible, but with a company originating in China there should be precautions not to let the CCP have influence on the American company.

Problem solved, and you don't turn the internet into a censored splinternet.

A lot of what the EU is doing is to protect against predatory behaviour of big tech and others.

People don't deserve to be exploited if they are not capable of protecting themselves in a "wild west" Internet.

Of course. But what if I don't care? The problem is that there's no "I accept the risks, give me the unregulated version" button on the newer regulations.

For example, there's Windows N edition, which complies with older EU regulation by not including media players and some other pre-installed apps. I can choose this edition, but if I don't care then I can also just choose regular Windows in the installer. That's great.

I want this choice for all features "not available (yet) in the EU". Some foreign local news sites block all EU users because they don't want to deal with GDPR, and they can't really give me the option to continue anyway as far as I'm aware. That's a block, and I don't support that.

because lawmakers never intended to ban TikTok and its content, that is just a cover for Preventing CCP from making money from it, it's not a good-will law for its people but rather for capitalist, which is why selling TikTok was also provided as an option.

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