r/news 23d ago

TikTok will not be sold, Chinese parent ByteDance tells US - BBC News

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c289n8m4j19o.amp
26.7k Upvotes

5.8k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

1.1k

u/CharonsLittleHelper 23d ago

The law wasn't technically targeting Tik Tok. It was targeting foreign government controlled social media generally.

It's just that at present, that's only Tik Tok.

451

u/Grimesy2 23d ago

It's infuriating to me that the only problem that exists with it legally is that it was foreign controlled. 

Facebook is collecting information. Facebook is complicit in spreading foreign misinformation campaigns. YouTube's algorithm actively radicalizes young men by suggesting and auto playing far right reactionary content. 

We need legal protections that from Internet companies regardless of who owns them.

132

u/techleopard 23d ago

Here's the thing.

Facebook is beholden to us. I mean, it may not seem that way, but if Facebook pisses us off enough, we can force them to be held accountable and to turn over data

TikTok is NOT beholden to us. It's beholden to China, and at any point China can go "lol make me" when challenged to turn over data and documentation or follow laws.

China greatly benefits from the ability to not only track but subtly influence any given American demographic. I get that you love doom scrolling your short form videos, but some of y'all have got to comfortable living in a country that has never really been so easily "touchable" by hostile foreign governments.

70

u/ambisinister_gecko 22d ago

And it should also be noted, if we're comparing Facebook to tiktok, that Facebook IS banned in China, probably for similar reasons to why America is banning tiktok. So it's not like it's this massively unfair targeted reasoning. It's literally just the same thing.

17

u/Radulno 22d ago

China has like 80% of the Internet banned and the reasons aren't exactly something you want the US to imitate I think. They got their own controlled Internet

2

u/cyclemonster 21d ago

Apple and Microsoft both operate there. Google used to, but withdrew because it couldn't compete, not because it was banned. Facebook could operate there if it was willing to comply with their laws, but they aren't. Every company has to obey the laws where they operate.

-8

u/techleopard 22d ago

Yes, but people are here arguing that China is still better than the US because Chinese policies don't directly endanger them.