America threatening to ban TikTok shows the West's decline

Politics International Politics
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I seem to remember a time where we would all point our finger at countries like China, and make fun of their restrictive internet laws, proclaiming that free market capitalism and competition will ultimately win out.

People would migrate to America to seek freedom, now, at least if you really, really like TikTok, you may have to move to China.

Not that America ever competed fairly (if you look at history, it mostly did it at the point of a gun) there was still some semblance of competition and capitalism amongs the general population. I guess that only lasted until there was some actual competition.

China stealing data apparently is the excuse, but itā€™s the peopleā€™s decision who they share data with, and Iā€™d rather share my data with China than with Facebook or Google.

This to me shows a further step in the decline of the West. As traditionally viewed totalitarian countries grow more free, powerful and rich, the West grows more restrictive, weaker and poorer, and as it does, we begin to see itā€™s true colours coming out in desperation.

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Love this post.

Calls for banning ideas, purging journalists, purging educators, state control of media, state direction and takeover of business against environmental initiatives. Only cowards ban ideas and fear free markets and the free exchange of ideas.

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Yeah I have a suggestion for you. Why donā€™t you move to china so you can enjoy unfettered tiktok access and avoid the decline of the west?

Sounds like a win win cooperation for you?

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Love the delicious irony of Taiwan based posters yammering about how theyā€™re all for freedom and dislike China because itā€™s socialist and then throwing their weight behind an authoritarian socialist calling for bans on free speech and purging universities and scientists. I wonder if anyone will notice, but I doubt it.

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Lesser of two evils. At least I will be on the right side of history unlike yo brainwashed types.

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Socialism is evil. Whether itā€™s Xi or DeSantis.

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China pretty much bans FB, the US wants to ban Tik Tok, nah no double standards there :rofl:. There are some places in the US where you cannot even get a BJ of your own wife :joy::joy::joy::joy::joy:

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Why is it when the US does something people claim ā€œThe west is in decline.ā€? The rest of the west isnā€™t in decline, just the US.

The US hasnā€™t been very ā€˜freeā€™ for a long time. It isnā€™t even in the top 10. The 10 are all western countries.

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Weā€™re supposed to be better than them, right?

Since when did Americans embrace censorship?

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Pretty much since 9/11

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I donā€™t know you. But in HK if they searched my phone as an ethnic Han and ROC national, their national security laws seems to indicate I would be trialed behind closed doors facing crimes of succession.

China has a 99.9% conviction rate.

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jesusā€¦the loss of brain cells from reading this thread was certainly not small. Thanks for the stupidity infusion.

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I have three thoughts on this.

  1. I think tiktok is a study of western youthā€™s behaviors. And yes I think China is interested in that.
  2. That said, I bet it collects the same amount of data as a typical social media app so it would be hypocritical to ban one and not them all. If the app is literally sending personal data back to China the US government should make the code open source and prove it, once confirmed then it would make sense to ban it.
  3. Iā€™d like to see all data collecting apps banned, no matter who is data collecting.
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I donā€™t know about the Westā€™s decline, but it certainly shows that American companies canā€™t compete. Companies like Facebook, Google, etc have tried a ton of things to unseat TikTok, and they failed, so this is not about data security, etc, itā€™s basically just ā€œwe canā€™t beat these guys, so we are going to cheat and call the Governmentā€. Whatā€™s different between this and the recent bank bailouts?

  1. SVB, Silvergate, and Signature banks. Bank regulations are hampering innovation says the tech guys. Trouble comes along and the tech bros are all calling the government to bail them out.
  2. Silicon Valley tech companies canā€™t beat TikTok. Same trick. Letā€™s just call the government!!! I donā€™t care about TikTok, never used it, but the real question here is why canā€™t the top tech talents in Silicon Valley beat TikTok in the open market? Had they been able to do it, the whole thing about banning TikTok would not even come up in the first place.

Socialism for the rich, different rules for everyone else.

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Capitalism is Satan?

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And a way to control them, now and in the future. Easy to pull up data and punish people.

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I have no interest in authoritarianism, but reciprocation. China should be treated equally. Ban our stuff and your stuff gets banned too, why not? Iā€™m all for it.

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China wind either way. either they get to keep their propaganda going and slowly win over the world that route. or they erode free countries by causing them to ban china, looking like hypocrites. Win Win for china.

I dont see anyone calling this good. nor would I call the USA good. most people I know, when in a deeper conversation, rarely praise the modern day United States. They are merely a better than China situation.

2 wrongs dont make a right. How do you suggest tackling propaganda and chinas oppression?

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Me too! Facebook, Twitter etc are all pretty terrible. Dont need to ban them, just ban data collection of more details.

end of the day though, it is true. they are private companies and people are choosing without being forced to give it all up.

Back to, we need to teach our children better and hope for their grandchildrenā€™s generation.

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different