Trump threatens to ban TikTok in the US

[pietillidie]

<split from Post Inauguration Trump thread>

There are always reasons for wrecking the joint: terrorism, tyrants, resource shortages, insult, revenge, evil, god's will, whatever. The problem is, once you've wrecked the joint they no longer matter anymore because you've got a much bigger and much more immediate problem to deal with. Much like going from, say, Afghanistan to Iraq and then on into a GFC.

I know, I know. This time it's different. For a start, could there be a wiser, more insightful, moral, stable, learned and respected individual in which to invest absolute power? I mean if you had to invest absolute power in someone, this would surely be the right time to do it.

President Trump on Friday said he plans to ban the social media platform TikTok from operating in the United States.

“As far as TikTok is concerned, we’re banning them from the United States,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.

The president said he could use emergency economic powers or an executive order as early as Saturday to officially bar the Chinese-owned company from the U.S. He signaled he was not supportive of allowing an American company to acquire TikTok.

https://thehill.com/policy/technology/5 ... -in-the-us

[David]

First they came for TikTok, but I said nothing, for I was not a TikTok teen...

[pietillidie]

^Haha. It's actually a stunning market interference, Trump desensitisation notwithstanding. Trade fascism is still fascism, just as trade wars are still wars.

As they say in the classics: within every Libertarian is a fasco-protectionist just screaming to get out. The crickets are deafening.

[Jezza]

A real shame Australia hasn't banned the Chinese spyware app already.

[stui magpie]

^

don't worry, it wont be long.

Today's cyber attack on Telstra won't endear anyone to the Chinese either.

[David]

Looks like Telstra went a bit early on that one:

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/tho ... 55hq9.html

[pietillidie]

A real shame Australia hasn't banned the Chinese spyware app already.

Far better to use that Aussie you beaut app! Oh. Ok, an American one that sells your data to malicious international actors will be just fine, then. Any platform that's not a haven for young people who mock the Dear Leader. Perhaps consult the Dear Leader and ask his preference.

Or is there a list of apps that Cambridge Analytica have approved for Khmer Rouge Hats?

[stui magpie]

I don't understand.

a) why you turned into a cheerleader for China
b) why you think you will change anyone's mind with your approach.

[think positive]

I don't understand.

a) why you turned into a cheerleader for China
b) why you think you will change anyone's mind with your approach.

Where are those big Hands clapping!

[pietillidie]

I don't understand.

a) why you turned into a cheerleader for China
b) why you think you will change anyone's mind with your approach.

Where have I 'cheered' for China? That's a deceit off the bat, which says you've fallen for the 'us' versus 'them' childishness Trump has fed you. God help us us.

Do I not support strong defence as a realist? Do I not begrudgingly accept the US alliance as a necessary evil? Do I not hate authoritarian thugs, including the CCP and its cronies? Do I not support the US having a balancing role in East Asia? Get your facts straight.

Clearly, as stated, I oppose the idiots in our own culture who keep making the same mistakes time and again when dealing with complexity, causing disaster after disaster. As we speak, they're failing domestically and internationally and setting us all up for war and poverty.

Do you enjoy global economic suppression, or have you just given up caring? At some point you might want to start distinguishing between merely annoying (Kevin Rudd, whom you carried on about like a pork chop), and wreckers like Abbott and Trump, whom you tolerate, but make you poorer.

[stui magpie]

FFS I haven't swallowed anything of Trump. Let that go, Trump and China are not linked/

[pietillidie]

I don't understand.

a) why you turned into a cheerleader for China
b) why you think you will change anyone's mind with your approach.

Where are those big Hands clapping!

Clapping or lying?

The first time you repeated this lie I said put up or shut up. Don't try to weasel it back in on Stui's back.

[stui magpie]

viewtopic.php?t=87394

Yawn

[David]

Before this discussion gets too far off track (and for what it’s worth, I don’t think it’s either fair or accurate to describe PTID as a cheerleader for China, and I think the posters doing so are allowing their own hostility to the country to distort their judgement), I have to say I honestly don’t care whether Trump bans TikTok or not. The app has numerous documented security issues that have less to do with nefarious Chinese government activities than with it being a user-generated video platform for kids who apparently have little control over who has access to their content. That it might double as a data-harvesting service for corporations or Chinese government agencies is just another reason to worry about it. Yes, Facebook and Google are terrible in this regard too; no, that doesn’t make TikTok fine.

We all know that Trump is just trying to pick fights with China right now and that he wouldn’t contemplate this otherwise. That will annoy the Chinese government and may lead to mild reprisals, but it’s nowhere near as bad as the trade-war stuff he’s been doing for years, and it doesn’t seem dramatically different to what happened to Huawei over similar (legitimate) security concerns. So again, I don’t see the big fuss here.

For what it’s worth, TikTok have moved quickly to divest from its Chinese parent company in the US, and they’ve offered to let Microsoft manage their data. It’s unclear whether it’ll be enough to stay Trump’s hand, but if it does then I’d say that’s a win-win. And if it doesn’t, I won’t be losing any sleep.

[pietillidie]

^My main worry is that Trump has single-handedly forced a company to take a US partner by damaging its value without any legal evidence of wrongdoing on its part. This is exactly what the CCP would do and part of the reform's China needs to make. It's just so counterproductive it's absurd.

Frankly, I don't care for the social media companies, but even they need to be allowed to trade freely.

(I notice that FB hid another major privacy breach in a tiny announcement not that long ago: https://www.standard.co.uk/tech/faceboo ... 87916.html).

My main interest here is maintaining a strong democratic structure from which to pressure countries like China without triggering mutual loss or worse, war or economic collapse. You can't have one person, let alone one drooling madman like Trump, arbitrarily wrecking companies, manipulating stock price at whim, and then going on about the CCP. This is not trivial hypocrisy; it's massively destructive inconsistency that undermines everything, especially when the platform is a home for political opponents.

Global alliances with neighbours, counter-defence and market pressure are the sane and sober pressures you turn to in order to push reform within China. As it gets wealthier price alone will drive companies to SE Asia (so Korean companies which have already left) and pressure it to reform, but nationalistic trade wars will only muddy the waters and strengthen conservative CCP hands.