Apple Removes TikTok From App Store on iPhones and iPads in the U.S.

[Krizoitz]

but you leave all other other sites open to sell their data to China, hence

Except they already can’t legally do that so your argument makes no sense.

 

[Chidoro]

Womp womp

 

[surferfb]

Enforcement is the job of the executive. Trump can choose not to enforce that law. Like it or not, that is the way the constitution is set up. Congress can impeach and remove him if they don't like it. That won't happen because this Congress and our Supreme Court are fully set on letting Trump have an imperial presidency.

Well aware (I actually used to work on Capitol Hill at the beginning of my career) - just not sure if Google and Apple’s lawyers will trust “non enforcement”, particularly given the somewhat fickle nature of our soon to be President. Will be fascinating to see.

 

[Ctrlos]

You're really gonna compare removing carcinogens from old buildings to the removal of an app? Let's just let the Govt regulate the entire internet while we are at it. The guys in Washington are never EVER lobbied by billionaires to do things in their best interests. The people in Washington always 100% have our best interests in mind 🙄

It is absolutely 100% Govt overreach. They should not be able to tell free citizens what they can and can't do on their phones unless it is explicitly against the law. Their job isn't to nanny the American people. They are our employees, but many of them seem to think they are our rulers.

If you think social media is harmless then you've not been paying attention. Lead could be removed because it wasn't designed to be addictive.

If all these platforms were was a finite fees of what your 'friends' were up to (like they were at the start) then they would be largely harmless, a way for people to stay in touch when they cannot in person. Slot a few ads in to cover running costs and Call it a day.

But they've been warped by the almighty dollar, with algorithms designed to extract your time and attention with endless feeds of cultural emptiness. Tiktok is but the poster boy. Twitter got purchased to aggrandise the ego of it's buyer. Facebook.... Well you've seen what happened to Facebook.

Tiktok has been banned due to China and not in the interests of public health it's true. But why would they ban something they can easily manipulate into an endless propaganda machine? Tiktok is only banned because it doesn't belong to them.

We've had all sorts of technical marvels over the last 3 decades that have improved and enriched our lives in all sorts of ways. Social media isn't one of them. It's tobacco all over again.

Future generations will laugh at us for using something so obviously bad for us in the same way that we laugh at old marketing campaigns aiming cigarettes at children or the Victorians thinking cholera was caused by some sort of airborne 'miasma'.

 

[surferfb]

What Apple do with the App Store is overreach also. They often tell free American citizens what they can and can't do on their phones.

Apple does no such thing. It puts restrictions on what types of apps are allowed to be listed on the App Store, yes, but that’s no different than any store choosing what products to offer or not offer.

But it’s your phone, you’re welcome to do whatever you want with it - they’re not telling you that you can’t - they’re just not obligated to help you do it.

 

[SW3029]

Americans waking up to find out they live in a censorship state. They have unlimited freedom of opinion, but no freedom of choice.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

It is absolutely 100% Govt overreach. They should not be able to tell free citizens what they can and can't do on their phones unless it is explicitly against the law. Their job isn't to nanny the American people. They are our employees, but many of them seem to think they are our rulers.

Where are you and this in all of the EU law threads? Sub in Apple as “the nanny”/rulers and our sentiments seem to completely flip. Funny how a name change works like that.

 

[spazzcat]

It’s ironic since 4547 supporters want it banned, but extreme leftists Trump haters want it to stay

The owner wrote a big check to Trump, and will be at the inauguration tomrorow. I wonder why Trump wants help?

 

[steve09090]

You're really gonna compare removing carcinogens from old buildings to the removal of an app? Let's just let the Govt regulate the entire internet while we are at it. The guys in Washington are never EVER lobbied by billionaires to do things in their best interests. The people in Washington always 100% have our best interests in mind

The Governments are already censoring the Internet. Where have you been?

There are hundreds of sites in Australia that cannot be reached through any ISP. The ISP's are not even allowed to say what those sites are, or even that they block them.

Many sites are also blocked in China (FB etc)

TikTok has been banned in India since 2020.

You think the U.S. doesn’t ban sites?

And as far as harm goes, from July, it will be illegal for children under 16 to have social media (in Australia). These sites are harmful for many reasons.

It is absolutely 100% Govt overreach. They should not be able to tell free citizens what they can and can't do on their phones unless it is explicitly against the law. Their job isn't to nanny the American people. They are our employees, but many of them seem to think they are our rulers.

It absolutely is their job. It is 100% their job to keep people safe, and if that means from their own idiot choices, then they’ll do it. It’s their job. TikTok is explicitly against the law, until Orange Man sucks up to his buddy and repeals it.

 

[Ozid]

People aren't on TikTok because it's Chinese owned TikTok. They're on it because it was the best execution of short form video that strived to create an algorithm that boosted stuff you were actually interested in, not stuff that it thinks you should be interested in.

See: Go on shorts or reels with a fresh account and don't like or interact with anything. Just watch whole videos 1x and move on.

Eventually you will be fed right wing propaganda. You'll see Charlie Kirk being blatantly racist and the proud boys within 24h. This wasn't the case on tikTok and tikTok provided the opportunity for right wingers to get fed propaganda (if they wanted) but also it let leftists like stuff that spoke to them, and create their own bubble (and get fed their own propaganda if you weren't critical). This isn't as obviously possible on other major social networks.

And because of this, the USA is using it as an excuse to say LOOK ITS THE ONLY PLATFORM SOCIALISM IS THRIVING, WE HAD TO SHUT IT DOWN. This will happen soon, because the lids already off on the motivation. "National Security" aka "protect capitalism". But it's going to fail. People are going to be mad about this and truly great democratic socialist policies and ideas will find their way into discourse on the other platforms, assuming TikTok users don't gravitate to somewhere else quickly.

So I'm not super worried about TikTok going away, just the motivation as to why.

Here's an instagram reel that very perfectly sees the hypocrisy, calls it out, and expresses why this is such a terrible decision with a personal anecdote that we'll continue to hear, just from other perspectives: https://www.instagram.com/thejedhenry/reel/DE_BgMBu9Z1/

 

[PBG4 Dude]

I mean I know he says that, but the law is pretty clear, and the Apple and Google can’t just ignore the law. While I know he can give them an extension, based on the text of the law I’m not sure he can without lying to Congress.

Unfortunately for TikTok, the incoming president would never lie to anyone, especially congress.

 

[DMG35]

The Governments are already censoring the Internet. Where have you been?

There are hundreds of sites in Australia that cannot be reached through any ISP. The ISP's are not even allowed to say what those sites are, or even that they block them.

Many sites are also blocked in China (FB etc)

TikTok has been banned in India since 2020.

You think the U.S. doesn’t ban sites?

And as far as harm goes, from July, it will be illegal for children under 16 to have social media (in Australia). These sites are harmful for many reasons.



It absolutely is their job. It is 100% their job to keep people safe, and if that means from their own idiot choices, then they’ll do it. It’s their job. TikTok is explicitly against the law, until Orange Man sucks up to his buddy and repeals it.

Lol, so because other Govt's are doing it then the US should do it too? I couldn't disagree more. It's not the Governments job to parent children and its certain not their job to tell me what media I can consume and what I can't consume. It's absolutely not their job to tell me what is "misinformation" and what isn't.

And I like how you are all "Orange Man" for the win. When Trump wanted to ban TikTok back in 2020 every single liberal in the country cried out "This is fascism and Xenophobia!" Then as soon as the Biden administration wanted to to it it was "Oh yeah this is good for National Security." I wasn't in favor of it when Trump wanted to do it and I'm not in favor of it now.

Yeah the U.S. can ban sites if they are actually truly harmful sites that show harmful images or explicit acts that are against the law. TikTok doesn't allow any of that and again, it's not the Govt's job to parent children or tell me or any other free citizen what I can and can't do on my phone as long as I'm not breaking the law. TikTok is not "explicitly against the law." What law is it "explicitly" breaking. The Govt even contends that it doesn't know what Bytedance is doing with the data but that it could be giving it to the Chinese Govt. But they have zero proof that that is happening. This is just "We think this might be happening and we don't like that this foreign company is making billions of dollars that could be going to a U.S. company instead.

If the Govt truly wanted to protect the citizens and keep people safe like you said then why are other social media apps allowed if they are so harmful. Again, it's not their job to parent my kids, period.

 

[DMG35]

Where are you and this in all of the EU law threads? Sub in Apple as “the nanny”/rulers and our sentiments seem to completely flip. Funny how a name change works like that.

I don't live in the EU so I couldn't care less about what their laws are

 

[DMG35]

Tiktok has been banned due to China and not in the interests of public health it's true. But why would they ban something they can easily manipulate into an endless propaganda machine? Tiktok is only banned because it doesn't belong to them.

This is such a tired argument. Guess what, this isn't China. Let's take a look at some dumb things that China bans:


Winnie the Pooh

Video games that show fighting

Google

Gambling

Peppa Pig

Time Travel shows and movies

Alice in Wonderland

YouTube

Putting your window down in a taxi


That argument holds exactly ZERO water. China bans things because the Govt controls everything the people do. We are a free country and the Govt has or is supposed to have limits on what they can do.

 

[I7guy]

Where are you and this in all of the EU law threads? Sub in Apple as “the nanny”/rulers and our sentiments seem to completely flip. Funny how a name change works like that.

The government is banning ticktok due to security concerns. The eu has implemented bad regulations nationalizing apple assets. See the difference ?

 

[C7 POWER]

What is hilarious, is Trump states tomorrow he will grant a 90 day extension to the app, but how everyone quickly forgets, Trump is why it was banned yesterday!! LOL. He started this ball rolling in 2020 when he was blaming CHYNA for the virus and he honed his sights on getting a ban for Tik Tok. NOW he is acting like the savior for the people lol. The CEO if Tik Tok will be at the inauguration tomorrow, so it will be back up and running tomorrow. Now that Tik Tok has benefited Trump, now he is all for having the app. Crazy how a few years go by and people forget lol

 

[steve09090]

Lol, so because other Govt's are doing it then the US should do it too? I couldn't disagree more. It's not the Governments job to parent children and its certain not their job to tell me what media I can consume and what I can't consume. It's absolutely not their job to tell me what is "misinformation" and what isn't.

And I like how you are all "Orange Man" for the win. When Trump wanted to ban TikTok back in 2020 every single liberal in the country cried out "This is fascism and Xenophobia!" Then as soon as the Biden administration wanted to to it it was "Oh yeah this is good for National Security." I wasn't in favor of it when Trump wanted to do it and I'm not in favor of it now.

Yeah the U.S. can ban sites if they are actually truly harmful sites that show harmful images or explicit acts that are against the law. TikTok doesn't allow any of that and again, it's not the Govt's job to parent children or tell me or any other free citizen what I can and can't do on my phone as long as I'm not breaking the law. TikTok is not "explicitly against the law." What law is it "explicitly" breaking. The Govt even contends that it doesn't know what Bytedance is doing with the data but that it could be giving it to the Chinese Govt. But they have zero proof that that is happening. This is just "We think this might be happening and we don't like that this foreign company is making billions of dollars that could be going to a U.S. company instead.

If the Govt truly wanted to protect the citizens and keep people safe like you said then why are other social media apps allowed if they are so harmful. Again, it's not their job to parent my kids, period.

It actually is their job to parent your kids. There are laws meaning they have to go to school, or to keep them safe. Child protection laws, laws to have them removed from home. If you don’t care for your kids, the government is required to.

So you’ve basically got it wrong, whether you like it or not.

As far as proof? What do you know? You don’t have access to that data

 

[AdonisSMU]

Imagine that. Democrats even banned social media and free speech in the name of national security. Good luck with that one. There is not place to go but down hill with this.

 

[DMG35]

It actually is their job to parent your kids. There are laws meaning they have to go to school, or to keep them safe. Child protection laws, laws to have them removed from home. If you don’t care for your kids, the government is required to.

So you’ve basically got it wrong, whether you like it or not.

As far as proof? What do you know? You don’t have access to that data

Wrong. It’s not the Govts job to parent. There is a difference between parenting your children and laws keeping them in school. Is the Govt my parent because it says I can’t commit a crime? No it isn’t. Laws are in place for the protection of everyone. No law is being broken here.

And you know what? You are 100% right. I don’t know. Neither do you, and neither does the Govt.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

The government is banning ticktok due to security concerns. The eu has implemented bad regulations nationalizing apple assets. See the difference ?

Nanny is nanny. If the argument is "let the owners of the computers decide for themselves"- and that WAS OPs argument- playing the "security" card is no better than Apple spinning "security" as the reason to preserve a single Company Store model. See the sameness?

But thanks for illustrating how different we see something by changing who is in the role of nanny. That was exactly the point of my post.

 

[anthogag]

Don’t worry TikTokers, they donated to the inauguration fund. On Wednesday the dicktator will apply his orange makeup and issue a reprieve. In the meanwhile TikTokers can binge-watch 30 second TV commercials.

 

[vantelimus]

Don’t worry TikTokers, they donated to the inauguration fund. On Wednesday the dicktator will apply his orange makeup and issue a reprieve. In the meanwhile TikTokers can binge-watch 30 second TV commercials.

Do they have the attention span to last 30 seconds on a topic?

 

[Jackbequickly]

Another 90 days will not make a difference. Either the CCP sells it or it should die!

 

[Saturn007]

Not the same thing. We should outlaw the sale of our data without opt-in explicit consent across the board.

Go one better. Outlaw the sale of personal data entirely. Ban any form of tracking. Full stop.

It’s ridiculous that we have to wade through screens to turn off cookies per website; ridiculous that pages of fine print that no one reads give corporations the right to mine data, etc.

 

[hagar]

That's not quite the same. It's like complaining of government overreach because they removed asbestos from old buildings or lead from paint.

Id argue if the government, current or impending had any balls they would have gone after every social media app, Billionaires be damned. But they won't because they won't bite the hand that feeds them.

Social media is much more harmful than you imply here. And in the next four years nothing will happen either. Facebook already fired its fact checkers because Trump thrives on misinformation.