This debate was framed improperly. You can think the US should ban TikTok and also think this particular piece of legislation is not the way to do it. I don’t think they were debating the same question.
The Poison Pill in this thing is the power handed to the President to shut down any platform or writer he deems a threat "to Democracy.". Granting anyone that power is insane. And, to top it off, the only Appeal is to the DC Ct of Appeals. Oh yeah. They'll be objective. This "banning TikTok" is a Trojan Horse to give the UniParty the power to ban people it doesn't like; possibly Bari et al.
As Walter and Taibbi have said, that power will likely first be used to intimidate. "Nice Platform (or Substack) ya got there. Be a real shame if something happened to it.". No different than the Mob.
People need to demand legislation to protect our privacy. There needs to be ways we can prevent apps and phones from tracking out locations, browsing histories and private data. This wholesale abuse of our privacy needs to end and apps need to be subscription based to allow them to stay in business. At least offer an option of a privacy based app approach we can pay for. That won;t happen as the NSA is the biggest agent that is spying on us and far more dangerous to our freedom than the Chinese. WAKE UP PEOPLE!!
No new ground here. As was mentioned, foreigners cannot own a controlling interest in your local TV station. Why should they be allowed to own a controlling interest in social media.
This bill really isn’t about Tik Tok it’s about giving the President the power to ban a website that he finds objectionable and to keep other sites in line lest they be banned too. The reason for banning a website in the bill is intentionally given in generalities so the President can ban one for most any reason. It’s a clear violation of the First Amendment and the Supreme Court should overturn it in spite of dingbats like Jackson-Brown and Kagen supporting it.
The bill goes into effect in 180 days which is a couple of months before the election…the timing isn’t a coincidence. When the bill passes Tik Tok will still be around.
If there is one thing that Hitler did that today’s totalitarians and communist thugs realize, it is that he used democracy in Weimar Germany to destroy it. He ran for president and used democracy to elect enough of his party to the Reichstag to force Hindenburg to appoint him chancellor where in the space of less than a year he took over the government and made himself dictator after Hindenburg died.
Today, the totalitarian heirs of Hitler who reside in Beijing, Moscow, and Teheran understand that the key to defeating America and the west is to use both liberal values and market openness to insert their viruses of propaganda and acceleration of partisanship into impressionable minds to divide and conquer without firing a shot; just like the Dominion tried to do in Star Trek Deep Space Nine with spies and false flags to weaken the Federation. Nothing is new about this; TikTok is their ticket in especially because a majority of people are now using it for their primary news source; that is a lot of power for one group or government to have, especially a government that considers us to be an enemy. You do not invite the fox into the henhouse; it doesn’t take a PHD to understand that.
“Totalitarianism doesn’t need armies. It only needs to control a couple of things: the media, and the ability to dispense privilege to some, and withhold it from others. And of course, a weak and divided people helps.”- Amerika.
“Education is a weapon whose effects depend on who holds it in his hands and at whom it is aimed.”- Joseph Stalin
“Ideological education is the key link to be grasped in uniting the whole party for great political struggles. Unless this is done, the party cannot accomplish any of its political tasks.”- Mao Zedong.
“Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities,”- Voltaire.
As usual GC is refusing to answer any of WK's questions, and they are questions that SHOULD be answered. Like "What EXACTLY is the threat from TikTok. Exactly HOW does TikTok differ from innumerable other apps like X and Reddit who serve up tailored content in the hopes of addicting users to their service. And EXACTLY what is the "limiting principle" that prevents this new law from being used by the next president to arbitrarily shut down anything he/she doesn't like.
Imagine the TikTok bill passes, and in November Trump wins - what stops now-President Trump from designating Google, Facebook and any other platforms he doesn't like as 'agents of a foreign power'? Remember, that the law allows the president SOLE DISCRETION in this. Note also that EVERY news organization now gets most of its revenue from their respective internet platforms, so in principle, ALL of them could be designated as 'agents of a foreign power'. Do you really believe that Biden (if he wins), or Trump (if he wins) won't stoop to using this law for political purposes?
"America is in a sad state. It can’t compete, so it resorts to expropriating from those who can"
America can compete, no thanks to people like this guy.
I used to laugh at people complaining about communists, I thought it was a hysterical overreaction. I was wrong. They are here and they want to destroy the best country in history of civilization, and replace it with a tyrannical bureaucracy governed by elites.
I'm not afraid to say that I hate communists and I think it's time to take out the trash.
So for me, I see it as censorship and an attempt to increase federal government control, take away another freedom.
I also sense the DOJ vs Apple is about control and showing favor for Microsoft and google as they buy into and support the policies of the socialist party. (The old democrat party) and the deep state and oligarchs.
You know I came into this thinking definitely we should ban tiktok because I've seen first hand what it's done to my generation. But Walter's response at 18:06 made me start to question that. A lot of people were on board with the Patriot Act when it was first proposed because we were all scared. But the fallout from the Patriot Act was far greater than any potential good it has done, if any.
This bill was put forth as a way of protecting Americans from having their data harvested by the Chinese government. But when Kirn asked for evidence of this, he got no answer. Stopping Chinese propaganda is not sufficient reason to give the US government more power to clamp down on ideas they don't like.
If we really want to protect our young people from dangerous influence of destructive ideas, we need to tear down and rebuild our educational system, from kindergarten to grad school. Alas, that's probably not going to happen, as the current power elites like things as they are.
This is part of the Biden administration's grand desire to censor, erase, and stigmatize speech on issues from climate change, vaccines, health policies, green energy and the favorite Davos, WEF, and Soros issues. Getting foreign actors as bogeymen fits right into the arguments made in Murthy v Missouri. "Your" government needs the freedom to keep America safe from bad foreign actors. Note that the Chairman of TikTok appeared with Zuckerberg and others in front of our moronic Congress. He was accused of much, even of being Chinese and under the control of their government. Unfortunately, he updated the questioner to note that he was a national of Singapore.
This debate was framed improperly. You can think the US should ban TikTok and also think this particular piece of legislation is not the way to do it. I don’t think they were debating the same question.
The Poison Pill in this thing is the power handed to the President to shut down any platform or writer he deems a threat "to Democracy.". Granting anyone that power is insane. And, to top it off, the only Appeal is to the DC Ct of Appeals. Oh yeah. They'll be objective. This "banning TikTok" is a Trojan Horse to give the UniParty the power to ban people it doesn't like; possibly Bari et al.
As Walter and Taibbi have said, that power will likely first be used to intimidate. "Nice Platform (or Substack) ya got there. Be a real shame if something happened to it.". No different than the Mob.
Yes ban it. It is Chinese spy-ware.
People need to demand legislation to protect our privacy. There needs to be ways we can prevent apps and phones from tracking out locations, browsing histories and private data. This wholesale abuse of our privacy needs to end and apps need to be subscription based to allow them to stay in business. At least offer an option of a privacy based app approach we can pay for. That won;t happen as the NSA is the biggest agent that is spying on us and far more dangerous to our freedom than the Chinese. WAKE UP PEOPLE!!
No new ground here. As was mentioned, foreigners cannot own a controlling interest in your local TV station. Why should they be allowed to own a controlling interest in social media.
This bill really isn’t about Tik Tok it’s about giving the President the power to ban a website that he finds objectionable and to keep other sites in line lest they be banned too. The reason for banning a website in the bill is intentionally given in generalities so the President can ban one for most any reason. It’s a clear violation of the First Amendment and the Supreme Court should overturn it in spite of dingbats like Jackson-Brown and Kagen supporting it.
The bill goes into effect in 180 days which is a couple of months before the election…the timing isn’t a coincidence. When the bill passes Tik Tok will still be around.
If there is one thing that Hitler did that today’s totalitarians and communist thugs realize, it is that he used democracy in Weimar Germany to destroy it. He ran for president and used democracy to elect enough of his party to the Reichstag to force Hindenburg to appoint him chancellor where in the space of less than a year he took over the government and made himself dictator after Hindenburg died.
Today, the totalitarian heirs of Hitler who reside in Beijing, Moscow, and Teheran understand that the key to defeating America and the west is to use both liberal values and market openness to insert their viruses of propaganda and acceleration of partisanship into impressionable minds to divide and conquer without firing a shot; just like the Dominion tried to do in Star Trek Deep Space Nine with spies and false flags to weaken the Federation. Nothing is new about this; TikTok is their ticket in especially because a majority of people are now using it for their primary news source; that is a lot of power for one group or government to have, especially a government that considers us to be an enemy. You do not invite the fox into the henhouse; it doesn’t take a PHD to understand that.
“Totalitarianism doesn’t need armies. It only needs to control a couple of things: the media, and the ability to dispense privilege to some, and withhold it from others. And of course, a weak and divided people helps.”- Amerika.
“Education is a weapon whose effects depend on who holds it in his hands and at whom it is aimed.”- Joseph Stalin
“Ideological education is the key link to be grasped in uniting the whole party for great political struggles. Unless this is done, the party cannot accomplish any of its political tasks.”- Mao Zedong.
“Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities,”- Voltaire.
I think TikTok should be destroyed . Any platform that allows an illegal to post how to for squatters doesn’t deserve to be in existence.
What a non-debate. It is the definition of CCP propaganda. You think they would allow any US media company in China? Hard no.
As usual GC is refusing to answer any of WK's questions, and they are questions that SHOULD be answered. Like "What EXACTLY is the threat from TikTok. Exactly HOW does TikTok differ from innumerable other apps like X and Reddit who serve up tailored content in the hopes of addicting users to their service. And EXACTLY what is the "limiting principle" that prevents this new law from being used by the next president to arbitrarily shut down anything he/she doesn't like.
Imagine the TikTok bill passes, and in November Trump wins - what stops now-President Trump from designating Google, Facebook and any other platforms he doesn't like as 'agents of a foreign power'? Remember, that the law allows the president SOLE DISCRETION in this. Note also that EVERY news organization now gets most of its revenue from their respective internet platforms, so in principle, ALL of them could be designated as 'agents of a foreign power'. Do you really believe that Biden (if he wins), or Trump (if he wins) won't stoop to using this law for political purposes?
"America is in a sad state. It can’t compete, so it resorts to expropriating from those who can"
America can compete, no thanks to people like this guy.
I used to laugh at people complaining about communists, I thought it was a hysterical overreaction. I was wrong. They are here and they want to destroy the best country in history of civilization, and replace it with a tyrannical bureaucracy governed by elites.
I'm not afraid to say that I hate communists and I think it's time to take out the trash.
So for me, I see it as censorship and an attempt to increase federal government control, take away another freedom.
I also sense the DOJ vs Apple is about control and showing favor for Microsoft and google as they buy into and support the policies of the socialist party. (The old democrat party) and the deep state and oligarchs.
Follow the money
You know I came into this thinking definitely we should ban tiktok because I've seen first hand what it's done to my generation. But Walter's response at 18:06 made me start to question that. A lot of people were on board with the Patriot Act when it was first proposed because we were all scared. But the fallout from the Patriot Act was far greater than any potential good it has done, if any.
This bill was put forth as a way of protecting Americans from having their data harvested by the Chinese government. But when Kirn asked for evidence of this, he got no answer. Stopping Chinese propaganda is not sufficient reason to give the US government more power to clamp down on ideas they don't like.
If we really want to protect our young people from dangerous influence of destructive ideas, we need to tear down and rebuild our educational system, from kindergarten to grad school. Alas, that's probably not going to happen, as the current power elites like things as they are.
Dump it. When kids threaten to kill themselves over its potential loss what further proof do we need. Or dump just to show China we can.
We were once called “ugly Americans”. Let’s be ugly and pricks.
Once we were proud of American Exceptionalism. Let’s redefine “exceptionalism” to mean big foam finger number 1 vs exceptionally soft.
This is part of the Biden administration's grand desire to censor, erase, and stigmatize speech on issues from climate change, vaccines, health policies, green energy and the favorite Davos, WEF, and Soros issues. Getting foreign actors as bogeymen fits right into the arguments made in Murthy v Missouri. "Your" government needs the freedom to keep America safe from bad foreign actors. Note that the Chairman of TikTok appeared with Zuckerberg and others in front of our moronic Congress. He was accused of much, even of being Chinese and under the control of their government. Unfortunately, he updated the questioner to note that he was a national of Singapore.