7mo ago

TikTok could shut down unless Supreme Court blocks or delays U.S. ban

www.cbsnews.com

Summary

TikTok faces a U.S. shutdown by Jan. 19 unless the Supreme Court delays or blocks a law requiring its Chinese parent, ByteDance, to divest.

The Biden administration defends the law as a national security measure, citing potential risks of Chinese government influence. Content creators argue it violates free speech.

Donald Trump, once a supporter of the ban, seeks a delay to reach a "political resolution."

A shutdown could cost TikTok millions of users and revenue. The court’s decision, due soon, could reshape U.S. digital speech policy.

72 comments

Stricter laws restricting data collection would actually solve the problem but that will hurt the American propaganda machine just as much. China will diffuse it's propaganda through our own social media like they clearly already do. They can literally buy the data from our own data brokers, it won't even stop them from being effective.
- It's not simply about collecting data. That's only part of the problem.
  Why do people keep repeating this like it's the only thing.
  Tiktok controls the algorithm controlling which clips get shown. Combined with the data, this means they can propaganda individuals so hard it will make your head spin.
  
  Yeah! Only Facebook can propagandize my sweet ass!
  
  this means they can propaganda individuals so hard it will make your head spin.
  Until you have an open source algorithm then any organization controlling a social media site can push propaganda. Just like they do here in the US.
  The reason that Tiktok is being banned has nothing to do with data. We know this because you can just buy data about Americans legally from data brokers. This isn't about Chinese propaganda either. The real reason is that Tiktok is not easily put on a leash by the federal government. The real reason is that Tiktok has a large amount of popular leftist and anti-establishment voices. The real reason is that the US wants to funnel people into the social media sites that jump when the government tells them to.
- "It's to protect our citizens from China!"
  "Are we going to have stronger data protection laws across all 50 states and the federal government to help protect our citizens?"
  "That sounds like a terrorist wanting privacy to hide form Facebook and Google's data to the NSA!"
- Yeah, Chinese leadership was complaining about the mass migration from Twitter to Bluesky because it rendered their bit accounts useless, so it's not like it's a secret or anything.
  This has always been about how TikTok can't be bought out as a propaganda machine by American billionaires.
- Dunno why the last bit was removed. Ruins the wordplay that would apply perfectly here.
This article from 2024 gives a pretty good rundown as to why using this reasoning to ban Tiktok will set a very bad precedent:
https://www.npr.org/2024/05/14/1251086753/tiktok-ban-first-amendment-lawsuit-free-speech-project-texas
If the govt cared about your data privacy, they would create data collection regulations that they could then use to ban tiktok if/when they violate them.
- Tell that to the Leopards Eating My Face voters here advocating for censorship and government overreach.
Nothing of value will be lost.
- Idk, I think all these governments having trade and tech wars is bad for our freedom. But on the other hand, TikTok is pure misinformation slop.
  
  TikTok makes Facebook look like haute culture and maybe people don't need as much freedom as they think they do.
Why is everything so glacially slow anymore. Fucking do something! I've been hearing about the demise of TiKTok for like three YEARS. Die already. Or don't, I'm just sick of hearing about how it "might close" any fucking day now.
- The 19th is the legal deadline.
replace "data" with "ads/propaganda/right-wing content".
Sorry about the bad quality, i've resent this picture so many times now that there's barely any pixels left.
- Meanwhile, FB and Google which are courting Trump, and Elon courting both Trump and Nazis, are perfectly fine.
  
  Why do people.keep saying this? It's obviously not fine.
  These guys get dragged in front of Congress all the time. The US has the right to take measures against a business they feel they can't control, doing things they consider detrimental to it's people. Ideally that would occur in a more balanced method than now, and it would be nice if Nazi's weren't also American citizens with 1st amendment rights, but here we are.
  There are many Chinese based companies that do business on American soil with no issues. This isn't even really Chinese based, but has a major Chinese stakeholder. For some reason, this company, over many others, was believed to be a threat. It may not be the weird racism you're being led to believe. What if it actually is a very credible threat from an outside actor? Is there a world where that's possible and acceptable to you?
  Just curious because I feel like there's some strange zeoltry for TikTok that I haven't seen so much with other media corporations lately, that aren't actively pumping out propaganda. FOX News being the obvious example.
Facebook first.
Best possible outcome.
- The best possible outcome would have been a digital bill of rights that applies to all social media. Please step outside the Amazon box youre thinking out of.
  
  No no I said possible outcome.
People really cheering this? I don't like TikTok because I don't much care for that style of short form video - but let's not act like it would be better under US tech giant control. Worse, I'd say.
Officials say Chinese authorities can compel ByteDance to hand over information on TikTok's U.S. patrons
Oooooh scaaaaary. I'd feel much safer having it under the control of a government who actually affects my life. 🙄
Red scare 2.0 bullshit
- I am conditioned to be revolted by autoplay videos. Even here, when I opened this post on the mobile web version, a video autoplayed at the top and I immediately stopped it.
Don't threaten us with a good time, TikTok!
DO IT!
It's gonna happen on the 19th because otherwise TikTok could just pay Donald Trump to make it go away.
Excellent! Please do. You would be doing the world a favor.
Just remember this is was because of so much pro palestine posts on TikTok.
- The push to close TikTok happened before the Palestinian genocide.
  
  You're absolutely right. But the palestine issue pushed it over the edge. I forgot who exactly from the israeli camp but they said "we lost a whole generation"
Is there anything stopping them from just renaming the company and rebranding it to avoid this? I could care less if it goes away or not, but I am curious how easily it could be to just rename yourself or if that's actually covered somehow in this. Even still, I feel like there will definitely be loopholes that they can do to skate around it?
- All they need to do is literally sell the American branch to a US company - even one they set up themselves.
  The reason that they won't do this is because a US founded company has to play by different rules than a Chinese company can.
Great, I can smell the undeserved court injunction getting ready to spew forth from the Supreme Court. The type no regular US citizen would ever get for actual violations of the 1st amendment.
Do Meta and Xitter next
Good. They're an espionage company masquerading as social media. They're a cancer.
- What is facebook? Instagram? Google? Twitter? I dont use any of those if i can help it, nor TikTok. But supporting the ban of one of them while allowing the others free reign just because they're owned in the US is insane. Their CEOs don't have anyone's best interests in mind except their own, as has been proven time and time again.
Good.
Fit society or be ousted.

72 comments