Congress versus TikTok
There’s a movement afoot in Congress to force a TikTok sale:
Lawmakers say TikTok’s owner ByteDance has links with the Chinese Communist Party – something denied by ByteDance and TikTok.
The bill makes specific reference to ByteDance – which would be forced under the terms of the bill to sell TikTok, or face removal from mobile app stores in the US.
It does not contain any provision for individual users of the app to face legal action.
“America’s foremost adversary has no business controlling a dominant media platform in the United States,” said committee chairman Mike Gallagher, a Republican of Wisconsin.
The bill has bipartisan support. But TikTok “confirmed to the BBC it had sent a notification urging TikTokers to ‘call your representative now’ to urge them to vote against the measure.” Many of these TikTokers are children, who have made calls such as this one:
“I will kill you if you fucking shut down TikTok,” a teenage boy warned to a member of Congress in a voicemail reviewed by The Spectator. “I will really really fuck you up. So don’t shut down TikTok. Bye bye!”
This week, Capitol Hill was inundated with a series of unusual callers — children, some as young as six years old. They had been enlisted by TikTok to forcibly push back against a bill that’s on track to sail through the House next week which forces the divestiture of a series of companies owned by foreign adversaries, like China in the case of the globally popular video app. TikTok is regularly accused of everything from feeding eating disorder content to girls to spying on journalists to extensively tracking user data — at the behest of the Chinese Communist Party, no less.
The aforementioned assassination threat was far from an isolated incident.
By the way, in addition to “feeding eating disordes” and the like, TikTok is heavily implicated in spreading anti-Semitism among youth around the world. And TikTok is highly habit-forming [emphasis mine]:
“The truth is that they are being flooded with content that gives them an extremely distorted view of themselves, their bodies, their mental health, and how they compare to other people,” he added.
Ahmed said his organisation’s research suggested that changing a user’s name from “Sarah” to “Sarah Lose Weight” on TikTok could result in its algorithm serving 12 times more self-harm content.
“The algorithm recognises vulnerability and, instead of seeing it as something it should be careful around, it sees it as a potential point of addiction – of helping to maximise time on the platform for that child by serving them up content that might trigger some of the pre-existing concerns.”
Ahmed said that the centre’s research, which was based on 13-year-old users in the UK, US, Canada and Australia, suggested that, within about two-and-a-half minutes of setting up a TikTok account, young people could be pushed self-harm content – and eating disorder content within eight.
A more recent investigation, he said, suggested a 14-year-old boy on the platform was likely to be pushed content from the virulently misogynist Andrew Tate in less than three minutes of setting up an account.
That article is from about a year ago. Now the same push is including anti-Israel and anti-Jewish content as well.
Chinese propaganda refocused to Progressive/WOKE propaganda?! Not sure which would be worse. Never tried it. Heck, what could possibly be worse than the American Public School system (and beyond) for American kids!?
Have Telegram set up on WP blog for posts on Ukraine, Russia, Putin, etc., but am a novice at it so WP handles it depending on what categories I insert. Never did figure out what Instagram was about—have the account but stopped using it. X I use quite a bit (for me) since Musk stole Twitter.
If remember correctly, President Trump wanted to end its use but the Marxists prevailed and Sundowner administration seems to join TikTok whole heartily
To me sure seems TikTok is also out to separate kids form western civilization and family.
The responses of these minors is reason enough to outright ban it. I hope enough in Congress have the fortitude to carry through, though I don’t expect the repellent Biden would sign such a bill.
And that teenage boy threatening a member of congress needs to tracked down and punished to the full extent of the law.
Ban TikTok… do it for the children…
Why didn’t someone see the downside of social media when it was being developed.
We saw the problems with movies and TV, setting up standards and even controlling bodies to keep it somewhat within reasonable societal bounds. Surely, when the cellphones became more powerful than a computer, we should have known that there was a downside, and some significant regulations were necessary.
The cellphone and social media have combined to create a monster that’s going to be very hard to put back in its cage.
Tik Tok is a double-edged sword. Not only is it aimed at ruining teens but is a tool of CCP propaganda and information gathering. What a mess! I hope they will, at the very least, force its sale to an American entity and consider writing regulations for all social media purveyors.
IMO, had anyone foreseen the problems cell phones and social media have created, children would not have been allowed to have a cell phone until sixteen, the same age for driving. Yeah, I’m a crotchety old geezer.
J.J. (11:12 pm) concluded: “had anyone foreseen the problems cell phones and social media have created, children would not have been allowed to have a cell phone until sixteen, the same age for driving.”
I say *eighteen*. Even that’s pretty young, but okay, I’ll stop there. (I was a callow, dumb-#ss kid even at twenty.) These juveniles’ minds are not fully developed, their hormones are raging; I can trot out all the usual arguments, but I won’t.
Off-topic anyway. By the way, I’m a crotchety old geezer, too, and d#mn proud of it.
By the way, I posited *eighteen* in reference to driving, which is where J.J. had left off.
I think minors can have cellphones at a younger age, but there’d have to be restrictions of some sort — what/which/how/etc. would fall above my (now-retired) pay grade.
I suspect there is an unaddressed marketing opportunity lurking here: It is currently impossible, or certainly seems to be, to purchase a cellular telephone in the United States that does not have internet access. Even stunningly cheap flip phones are manufactured with the capability.
And, while that feature can be unused or even unactivated, it’s child’s play to activate it, and adolescent sharing of logons and network access is common.
Were someone to produce an inexpensive cellular telephone that has only 10-number dialing and voice capability I suspect aware parents (and security mavens) would embrace it, despite how hated it would be by the under-twenty set. (I’m aware there’s a justifiable need for texting, which would be hampered, but not seriously obstructed, by the standard 10-key interface; were sending texts impossible on the device it would reduce the distractions).
OT: the government is the enemy
https://twitchy.com/amy-curtis/2024/03/08/the-intercept-fbi-secret-files-2020-violence-n2393718
Pingback:Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup - Pirate's Cove » Pirate's Cove
Former Democrat Tulsi Gabbard: “They think Americans are stupid enough to believe the lies” – Video
https://commoncts.blogspot.com/2024/03/former-democrat-tulsi-gabbard-they.html
ps. could you pls add CC to your blogroll? thanks!
JJ…government regulation of social media would surely include the suppression of ‘hate speech’, defined in whatever way is convenient to the party in power, and would likely expand to include sites such as this one.
Look at recent Biden administration attempts to manipulate FB and Twitter.
As I understand it, Trump banned new downloads of TikTok and tried to make the Chinese sell TikTok to a US company. The sale fell through and Biden revoked the ban. I’m reminded of Trump’s capping the cost of insulin and his efforts to lower the prices on other drugs. Biden let Trump’s cost-cap lapse and now he’s crowing about having lowered the price of insulin and other drugs. Granted, Trump’s order was issued because of COVID and was time limited, but he does deserve credit for his actions.
Yes, David, only government regulation would be a bad idea.
What I have in mind is a body of ten people from outside the government appointed by a bipartisan House committee to formulate standards for social media to abide by. They would develop regulations to be passed by Congress to help stop pedophiles from grooming, drug dealers from selling online, psychic memes that harm children, known addictive algorithms, and many more items that are harmful, especially to minors.
One of their charges would be to encourage free speech and debate, especially in the political arena. A watchdog could be put in place to stop the government agencies from censoring or discouraging free speech. In other words, stop what’s happening right now.
A difficult task, but we managed to put rules and regulations in pace for auto traffic, airline operations, radio broadcasts, movies, and TV. None perfect, but all helped the industries create order and safety out of what could have been a chaotic situation. Without standards and rules, the crooks, grifters, snake oil salesmen sexual deviants, and more weasel their way into things and create what we now have in social media.
If you have a better idea, please share it.
Trump claims TikTok ban would only help “enemy” Facebook