I’m not sure, but locals tagged “Deny, Defend, Depose” near me. If nothing else, seems there’ll be good branding made of it.

honestly at this point, why even use real numbers? Just ask for a bazillion rubles, it’s about as likely as 2 undecillion.

Cool, now I can try and remember to get fully migrated to Linux before October next year.

I’ll bet $50 this is because they plan on pulling the plug on old reddit soon, and don’t want to allow the inevitable protests.

Temu isn’t a social media network that has been known to boost specific narratives with their algorithm. The U.S. isn’t saying that China can’t sell and market to the American audience, just that they’ll need a supervisor if they want to mess with media.

You didn’t have to mention his party, everyone knew he was a Republican from the headline.

In case you weren’t aware, it’s actually pretty easy to pay for a VPN in unmarked funds. Most will allow for BTC transactions, but some VPNs will even allow you to use giftcards for a place like Target.

They should, and the EU should logically ban both if they’re unwilling to moderate the hate-speech and lies that infest their platforms.

They have been. The problem is twofold; Airbuses are limited in the U.S., and airlines have increased the rates on those tickets because I guess a working airplane is now considered a premium.

Nah he’s great. He should take the rest of those brain worms, I think the worms should be in charge!

Yeah, except China has been committing a genocide and would gladly commit an atrocity on the scale of Israel x Palestine to Taiwan if the U.S. blinks.

Yes, the U.S. is evil as hell, and yet China is still worse. The U.S. doesn’t have citizen reeducation camps, people don’t get disappeared for talking out against dear leader. If you can’t understand why giving an adversary like that unfettered access to people’s minds is a security risk, I’ve no interest in arguing geopolitics with you.

Propoganda does have a legal definition though, it’s not nearly as nebulous as all biased information. It does need to be purposefully distorting, either by falsifying information or by withholding relevant information. It also needs to be produced by an organized group or government, just making up nonsense about yourself doesn’t count.

Sure, but if you tried to explain TikTok to the ruling judge on the 1965 case, I think their head would explode. The ruling isn’t some all powerful precedent that shuts down the ban before the suit can begin, it’s old and outdated. Something like TikTok was not even getting theorized at the time, you can’t seriously expect it to be treated the same way.

I can agree with that, but it becomes muddier when it’s a social media platform where your participation on the platform lends it credibility. As an example, the Hong Kong protests were supressed on TikTok at the behest of the CCP. You could argue that by creating the content that ByteDance’s algorithm used to bury the videos being posted on TikTok, regular unwitting Americans were assisting the CCP in covering up the protests.

It’ll be on ByteDance to prove those kinds of concerns invalid, just as it will be the US’ job to demonstrate the threat posed by TikTok to Americans.

I’m aware of the precedent, but there’s a pretty massive difference between being able to receive printed media, and being able to have continual access to post and contribute content to a foreign propoganda tool that uses an algorithm to purposefully suppress subjects the CCP disapproves of. I don’t believe the precedent is going to be applicable here, but IANAL, and maybe ByteDance’s lawyers think this defense will be a slam dunk.

It’ll be interesting to see how this one plays out. In my head this argument is a little shaky, since it seems to be effectively arguing that Americans have the right to access foreign propoganda machines? There is legal precedent here, but the nature of propoganda has massively changed since the 60s.

This is going to be a very interesting court case that has broad reaching implications, but expect no Americans to give a shit because it’s not going to feature a trash fire to gawk at.

What do you want them to do, shout it from the rooftops so Spotify catches on? Some tools are better left quiet, so only people “in the know” use them.

TikTok users are already in darkness, unless you think it’s a happy coincidence that their algorithm suppresses anti-China views, support for Hong Kong, and support for Taiwan. Just because you can’t notice you’re being deceived doesn’t mean you aren’t.

That’s fair. The reasoning is sound, I can certainly understand ByteDance’s intention to keep the details of their algorithm a secret no matter what, but it’s always a good idea to take any leak with a grain of salt.

I’m very surprised by this. I’d figured ByteDance had a final trick up their sleeve, some unscrupulous billionaire like Bobby Kotick who they could technically “divest” to while maintaining functional independence. Either they’re incredibly confident in their legal team, or they’re betting on popular protest to overturn the government’s decision in the next year. Unfortunately for them, there’s a global crisis currently ongoing that is a liiiittle bit more important to protest, and they might have to wait awhile.