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Apple Explains Why It Removed TikTok From the App Store in the U.S.

Jumpthesnark said:
The problem that so many people have with TikTok (hence the law that Congress passed) is not the app, it's the ownership, and what that owner does with the users' data. People opposed to ByteDance want to force it to sell the app to an American entity, they don't care about video sharing.

So anyone who keeps discussing this as if the app itself is the problem really needs to read a news story about the issue. Just one should do it.
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TikTok has been accessible to Americans and in use by them for years. This has only become a fast-tracked issue because of recent political events. Yes, I’m aware that the video-sharing format and “brain-rotting content” is not why it’s being banned. I am questioning why this particular Chinese-owned company only became an issue recently. And whether this has more to do with lobbying from Meta and X and the lack of a US back-door into the app than genuine “security threats”.

Ameer_1 said:
TikTok is coming back
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It’s already back lmao. A load of political theater this all was.
 
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surferfb said:
Yes, because the US companies the EU is shackling with draconian regulations stripping them of their intellectual property are actually owned by the EU’s geopolitical adversary who is using them as propaganda to whitewash its ethnic cleansing and territorial ambitions.🙄
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Why you keep repeating the EU is only taking on US companies? The EU is taking on those companies who not obey the EU law.

Same for European companies doing business in the US. They’ve to obey the US law/rules as well.

It is soooooooo simple!

If you don’t obey the law you risk fines. That happened to Apple, Google, Temu, TikTok and many more. Wherever they come from.

Deal with it or go away!
 
HJM.NL said:
Why you keep repeating the EU is only taking on US companies?
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Because the law was clearly written to target American companies and avoid targeting European ones. You don’t have to take my word for it, here’s a quote from a European professor:

The spectre of protectionist intervention is reinforced by the fact that revenue thresholds outlined in the DMA seem designed purposefully to exclude European platforms, notably Spotify.
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HJM.NL said:
The EU is taking on those companies who not obey the EU law.
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Suggesting the DMA is needed because companies aren’t following the DMA is a textbook definition of circular reasoning.
 
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I7guy said:
Another post comparing an alleged national security issue with the purchase of a product by and profit consumer discretionary lifestyle company. Yep, exactly the same circumstances.
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The US is a foreign country for us too. What does YouTube, meta, google, Apple, Microsoft, etc do with our data? Could be a national security issue for every other country outside the US as well.
 
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surferfb said:
Because the law was clearly written to target American companies and avoid targeting European ones. You don’t have to take my word for it, here’s a quote from a European professor:
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Those are opinions. A law is a law. Same as forum rules, to make use of this forum you’ve to obey the rules.

If those companies don’t like it, they could stop doing business here or play by the rules. Apple chose not to play by the rules so it’s got fined. And now Timmy is asking Trump for help 😂

Spotify isn’t misusing its power as a gatekeeper. Apple is.
 
icanhazapple said:
No matter what country you live in - you are the product. You are the stock that is farmed for others economic benefit.

In China this benefit is managed by the political elite. In the US, this is managed by a kleptocratic alliance between the political and business elite.
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Yep. However in a democracy the people have the power to reform it if they have access to true information, in other political systems it revolution.
 
B4U said:
And makes us wonder why does it have to be a separate app, doesn't it?
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Because China handles different rules. I think 75% of TikTok movies fall into the porn category in China 😂

The parentcompany byte dance is the same and is Chinese.
 
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HJM.NL said:
Those are opinions. A law is a law. Same as forum rules, to make use of this forum you’ve to obey the rules.

If those companies don’t like it, they could stop doing business here or play by the rules. Apple chose not to play by the rules so it’s got fined. And now Timmy is asking Trump for help 😂

Spotify isn’t misusing its power as a gatekeeper. Apple is.
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Honest question, why do you always call Apple’s CEO “Timmy”? His name is Timothy, and he goes by Tim, not Timmy. Why do you feel the need to constantly call him by a name he doesn’t use?
 
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VisceralRealist said:
I am questioning why this particular Chinese-owned company only became an issue recently.
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It became a political issue in 2020, when Trump was president. He wanted a ban after coverage of a low-attendance rally in Tulsa indicated that a bunch of K-Pop stans had snapped up many of the tickets with no intention of going, leading to a mostly empty venue. Planning for the prank was spread on TikTok, and that was what made the then-president angry about the app. Being owned by a Chinese company made it easy for the famously anti-China Trump to declare it social media enemy #1. He signed an executive order banning the app (courts struck it down).

Trump later flip flopped on TikTok after he met last year with a Republican donor who owns a hefty share of ByteDance. There was lots of coverage at the time calling him out on the flip flop, but he said he was concerned for the free speech of TikTok users (something that hadn't occurred to him a few years earlier, apparently).

But by that time members of Congress had already passed a law banning the app on gov't devices, and then they passed the law last year that forced ByteDance to divest or sell itself to a U.S. - owned company if it wanted to keep operating in the U.S. Biden signed the law and the Supreme Court upheld it.
 
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cjsuk said:
A free country doesn’t exist. And it’s a silly idea anyway. Utterly naive.

All civilised society should aim for a functional democracy where the voters are well educated and well informed.

TikTok, and notably most other big tech owned or managed spaces, are breeding grounds for democracy to be well misinformed.

…as indicated by the google trends in the US shooting through the roof for “what’s an oligarchy?”
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Exactly. So let’s not have every major social media controlled by the same small set of people. We want democracy we need diversity of ideas.
 
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surferfb said:
Honest question, why do you always call Apple’s CEO “Timmy”? His name is Timothy, and he goes by Tim, not Timmy. Why do you feel the need to constantly call him by a name he doesn’t use?
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Trump calls him Tim Apple, others call him Tim Crook and I like to call him Timmy. In either way you understand we are talking about the same person.

And if some persons call him Tim while his name is Timothy, Timmy is right in the middle 😂
 
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surferfb said:
Yes, because the US companies the EU is shackling with draconian regulations stripping them of their intellectual property are actually owned by the EU’s geopolitical adversary who is using them as propaganda to whitewash its ethnic cleansing and territorial ambitions.🙄
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Like threatening invasion of Denmark, Canada or Panama? :rolleyes:
 
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kycophpd said:
You might want to try it before posting it. This does not work with a VPN on the app or the website.
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I’m not in the US, so couldn’t exactly try. For other services, VPNs so far always worked for me to circumvent geo-restrictions. I would assume it would work if you create a new account. Anyway, it’s moot now that TikTok has resumed service again in the US.
 
grantishere said:
It’s ironic that 4547 supporters it banned but extreme leftists want him to unban it
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That's misinformation. The House vote to ban was 352-65 and Senate 79-18. And today Trump said TikTok can continue. I realize we live in a post-factual world, but come on.
 
DaveN said:
No. It says they know how it is used for information collection on citizens and they don’t want the same algorithms used on their people as they use on the citizens of other countries.
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Interesting claim, but undermined with Zuck explicitly mentioning the EU laws against data collection as something he and Trump agreed to “work on” via tariffs.
 
surferfb said:
Honest question, why do you always call Apple’s CEO “Timmy”? His name is Timothy, and he goes by Tim, not Timmy. Why do you feel the need to constantly call him by a name he doesn’t use?
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A guy will use it as a way to undermine Tim because it makes them feel like more of a man. Naturally, they would never have the actual chops to run Apple (or much else). They know that if they acknowledged what he accomplished takes a lot of hard work over a lifetime, they have to also acknowledge that they failed to dedicate themselves to achieve their goals, and that’s a bridge too far. Therefore, they resort to grade school tactics to save their Very Special Important Big Boy status.
 
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FFabian said:
Unlike China the USA did actually follow through and has started several wars and invasions in the last decades. Found the WMDs yet?

United States involvement in regime change - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
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I’m well aware of the US’s recent history, I protested the war in Iraq before the invasion. Doesn’t change the fact that Trump’s ramblings aren’t going to happen and China’s rumblings absolutely could.

But if you’re seriously suggesting the US are the bad guys when compared to China, I would encourage you to come to Washington and yell “Trump is a dictator who murders his own people” in a public place and then go to Beijing and yell “Xi is a dictator who murders his own people” in a public place and observe the differences in reactions.

Anyways we’re far enough apart here than I’m not sure further replies will be useful for either of us or anyone reading. Cheers!
 
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CapitalIdea said:
A guy will use it as a way to undermine Tim because it makes them feel like more of a man. Naturally, they would never have the actual chops to run Apple (or much else). They know that if they acknowledged what he accomplished takes a lot of hard work over a lifetime, they have to also acknowledge that they failed to dedicate themselves to achieve their goals, and that’s a bridge too far. Therefore, they resort to grade school tactics to save their Very Special Important Big Boy status.
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The non-response and reference to “Tim Crook” in his reply was *chef’s kiss*
 
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