Drew Harwell

New: Senators are taking aim at TikTok, which 100 million people in the U.S. use for free expression, based on speculative "concerns" over how the Chinese government could misuse it:

We want to use “all instruments of American power and American policy to address the Chinese Communist Party challenge,” including “our commitment to liberty"

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/03/07/tiktok-ban-senate-proposal/

New Senate bill would give Commerce a more direct route to ban TikTok

The bill marks the federal government’s latest attempt to resolve a standoff with TikTok, the wildly popular short-video app owned by the Chinese company ByteDance.

The Washington Post
Mar 7, 2023 at 10:04pmWeb
Show threadDrew HarwellMar 7, 2023

I'm old enough to remember in 2020 when a federal judge said banning the Chinese app WeChat based on "modest" evidence would "burden substantially more speech than is necessary to serve the government’s significant interest in national security"

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/03/07/tiktok-ban-senate-proposal/

New Senate bill would give Commerce a more direct route to ban TikTok

The bill marks the federal government’s latest attempt to resolve a standoff with TikTok, the wildly popular short-video app owned by the Chinese company ByteDance.

The Washington Post
Show threadDavidMar 7, 2023
@drewharwell "We can't trust China but we can trust Saudi Arabia." 😆
Show threadMy Head’s Exploding 🤯 💥Mar 7, 2023
@drewharwell @david1 “We can’t trust China but we can trust a sitting Seditionist Congress, Tucker, Fox News, and Domestic Terrorists (for which there isn’t really prosecutorial laws?” Now THAT is laughable 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤯🤯
Show threadKevin LeecasterApr 6, 2023
@leswarden @drewharwell @david1
"We can't trust TikTok, but we can trust Guo & Bannon to run Gettr" 🤣
Show threadStr8ngerMar 8, 2023
@david1 @drewharwell we can’t trust either 🇨🇳 or 🇸🇦 but the biggest threat is sadly within 🇺🇸 #GOPDomesticTerrorism #TRE45ONcaucus 🐘 💩 🔥
Show threadJohn MoonMar 8, 2023
@drewharwell I think banning things rarely works, but TikTok is pretty worrying for me. An adversarial nation being able to control the narrative flow to a large portion of the USA is a problem that should be addressed somehow... The same power lies with Meta and Twitter even though their interests are different.
Show threadpedatnMar 8, 2023
@johnmoon @drewharwell the usa is itself adversarial to its people idgaf about china
Show threadpedatnMar 8, 2023
@drewharwell im old enough to remember pegasus because it was last year
Show thread[email protected]Mar 8, 2023
@drewharwell I’m sure China would never use TikTok for surveillance or propaganda purposes. Just as I’m sure China’s balloon over the US was “only” just studying the weather. Lol
Show threadMike ParsonsMar 9, 2023

@drewharwell as the app review this bill creates would end up on the desk of Gina Raimondo, I have to assume that the most likely outcome will be whatever gets her on more Sunday morning shows.

She’s useless, except insofar as something could potentially help her run for president someday.

Show threadHistoPol (#HP) 🏴 🇺🇸 🏴Mar 25, 2023

@drewharwell

That judge was clearly not digging deep enough. It is not even that difficult now to find evidence.
For instance, investigative journalists of the #German #SZ even made a multipart pod on their findings called #thegreatfirewall

How I found out originally? - Buy a cheap new phone, install #QQ and #WeChat and look at the permissions it asks for.
Afterward: hard reset.

Also, the case to abolish all privately owned big social-media platforms is very strong:
https://mastodon.social/@HistoPol/110063156122320582

Show threadTotal Sonic MediaMar 8, 2023
@drewharwell
The default Android app install has 5 embedded trackers and an insane level of 73 cross device permissions - so is indeed arguably spyware. The question beyond that (which, yes,.other invasive apps also do) is whether the app does key logging that gets sent to the CPP. But a ban to be not arbitrary should be on apps doing key logging, not just against TikTok
Show threadreally? why?Mar 8, 2023

@drewharwell it's a conversation worth having. we're only scratching the surface, regarding the consequences of the modern info space.

info is not less real than the material world. there are ways in which it can be significantly more real. we've entered a totally new reality.

Show threadSpike Mar 8, 2023
@drewharwell as far as I am aware, TikTok never actually committed sedition or attempted to overthrow the US government, though there are apparently some elected representatives in Congress who take their talking points directly from the Global Times and other Chinese propaganda outlets. Maybe the appropriate response is to ban seditious assholes from serving their propaganda masters in Congress and in state legislatures. 🤔