Comment by daft_pink | Hacker News Reader

Comment by daft_pink | Hacker News Reader

I think this is really about just not being a sucker.

Why would we allow a country that bans all our news and social media tech companies to operate their company here?

If they want to operate tiktok, then we should be allowed to operate google/Facebook/twitter/etc. They can’t ban our companies on national security grounds and then act like we are crazy for banning theirs.

The difference between europe banning us companies vs Europe banning Chinese companies is simply that europeans can operate similar companies in the United States without issue, whereas any service like this owned by europeans would be immediately banned in China.

Tit for tat policies serve as an effective standard for encouraging foreign countries to open their markets, as each side is incentivized to reduce trade barriers in response to similar actions by the other, ultimately fostering fair and balanced economic exchanges. We do it with airlines, why wouldn’t we do it with social media.

> Why would we allow a country that bans all our news and social media tech companies to operate their company here?

I agree 100%. We don’t need to make it any more complicated than this simple argument.

Europe and the US are also friendly. We know that we aren't set on destroying each other.

I would agree if this were the reason. But it's not the reason. The US gov't admits this is largely due to unrestricted Palestinians being able to post on TikTok when US social media is forced to ban them (Meta, etc.)

I just don't think my gov't should be able to ban me from seeing information online. I hate China, but I hate my government banning my own consumption of media more.

So you want to copy the tactics of an authoritarian regime like China? Your strategy to "get back at them" is to take them as inspiration out of spite?

You'd be destroying your own country by setting precedents and new legislation and suffer its implications forever, when instead you could respond with a capitalism mindset, understand the market and put together a coordinated effort to kick their asses and make them lose mindshare.

No, it’s simply to encourage basic fairness and it’s a basic component of international relations. We do this regularly in many different industries across many different countries, and so do most other countries.

It’s also a simple component of how our visa system works. The reason Americans and Europeans can travel to so many countries visa free is that if you want to travel here then you have to let us travel there.

Denying one country the ability to operate here, because they deny us the ability to operate there will still allow basic freedom, because most other countries don’t operate draconian bans like this. The reality is that by applying these rules we are more likely to spread capitalism, democracy and freedom, by demanding China open up their markets.

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