• atrielienz@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    They aren’t protecting you. They are protecting themselves from what you may give their enemies. Don’t think just because the federal government is doing something “for the people” that nominally it’s not about the government itself. National security is literally the government protecting itself by protecting its citizens.

    • Sakychu@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      3 days ago

      Pretty much this! Also it is much easier and cheaper to tell Google to stop offering tiktok in their app store then it is to build affordable housing where it is needed…

    • underisk@lemmy.ml
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      3 days ago

      Facebook sold personal data to a foreign organization called Cambridge Analytica who used it to influence our elections. If their motivations are to protect us via protecting themselves, why is Facebook not banned, and not even in the discussion of being banned?

        • underisk@lemmy.ml
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          3 days ago

          Did occurring in 2015 happen to make it less bad somehow? We sure as hell weren’t passing laws to ban facebook back then either, so I’m not sure what point you think you’ve made.

          • Nasan@sopuli.xyz
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            3 days ago

            We didn’t have the same stance on data privacy back then as we do today. GDPR wouldn’t be a thing for another year, not implemented for two more after that (2018). Legislators largely didn’t understand the risks associated with unrestricted exchanges of seemingly benign user data at the time. Yay for hindsight being 20/20.

            • underisk@lemmy.ml
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              3 days ago

              That’s great. Nothing has changed about Facebook so nothing is stopping them from banning it now for the same reason as TikTok. The only reason they wouldn’t is if they had a motivation that had nothing to do with protecting elections from foreign influence.

            • underisk@lemmy.ml
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              3 days ago

              Foresight? We’re talking about the present and the recent past dude are you okay or do you just argue in weird slogans?

      • atrielienz@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        And we should ban them too. I love this argument. We need better user data privacy laws, and this whataboutism does not change the fact that China is a hostile foreign nation.

        I can appreciate that people view Google and Meta and so on as very similar in their transgressions. But as was pointed out in the original comment, this is a cost to benefit ratio type of analysis for the federal government and they gain more by keeping Meta and Google going and can enact other measures to prevent that from hurting them (usually reactionary), so to them this is fine. It is and always has been about what the US government can to do protect itself and enrich itself. Enrichment doesn’t always come in the form of monetary value.

        If you’re upset at your own government (or government adjacent tech entities) gathering this type of data from users, you should be for banning them too, not keeping tik tok.

        • underisk@lemmy.ml
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          3 days ago

          I am for severely restricting the ability for all corporations to gather and sell user data. You think I’m making a whattaboutism or whatever debate buzzword you want to conjure up; what I’m taking issue with is the argument that the reason they’re getting banned has anything to do with that data collection or “national security”. If that had any truth to it, Facebook would have gotten the same treatment, or at the very least would be in the conversation now since they do the same exact shit. If this was about data collection they would pass regulations about that instead of targeting one specific site to unilaterally ban.

          • atrielienz@lemmy.world
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            3 days ago

            I think you brought this up as a *whatabout" to something I said as a rebuttal rather than an agreement so maybe check your tone. You didn’t say anything in your comment necessarily agreeing with the original comment at any point.

  • undefined@links.hackliberty.org
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    3 days ago

    I’m on board with the sentiment but are we really defending TikTok? I haven’t kept up on the issue but personally I wouldn’t cry if TikTok went away.

  • Flocklesscrow@lemm.ee
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    3 days ago

    *40 year inflation brought on because the government wanted 14 years of free money for Corporations.

    Monetary policy and Corporate price gouging are the drivers for inflation. Everything else is noise.

  • sweetpotato@lemmy.ml
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    3 days ago

    Ok because I see a lot of stupid shit in here, you don’t get to talk about banning tiktok if you don’t talk about banning Instagram, Reddit, X and YouTube, who use the same formula, with equal fervour.

    Now please talk about healthcare, climate crisis, the Palestinian ethnic cleansing by that cancerous, land grabbing, terrorist Israeli state and the shrinking buying power of the people all around the world.

  • TrickDacy@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    When did they protect us from TikTok? They didn’t. Other than that it would be a great point

  • Flax@feddit.uk
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    3 days ago

    “GAAAHHH! I CAN’T STICK A VACUUM CLEANER UP MY WOMB! I’M GOING TO DIE!!!”

  • OpenStars@discuss.online
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    3 days ago

    Watch? That would imply looking at the situation, so no I don’t think that’s quite the right word…

    For one side it’s more like “stand back and stand by”, if you catch my drift, while for the other it’s somewhat like claiming every four years to always have a ready supply of hot sauce stored in one’s purse. (you see, a “purse” is a bag that we poors, specifically women, use to carry things - basically it’s a nonmoving car where your butler puts all the “things” that you need for the entire day, except you are your own butler, and the purse doesn’t drive to anywhere, and it gets heavy!)