US Downloads of TikTok and WeChat to Be Banned on Sunday

[PinkyMacGodess]

I am against China but you got excellent points. I am a Trump supporter but he is not definately sent by God against China. He is shrewd low morale businessman so he can't be that deep religious person but uses religion as a tool to earn his political points.

Speaking generally here: I hope the tax cuts are worth it. And that trump actually does follow through on his promise of a tax cut for the poor working class in this soon to be third world country. Recall that in the 2018 election runup, he promised a 'middle class tax cut' and a bunch of other things, none of which happened afterward. He's a conman. He's a liar. His agenda only leads to one place. It's not at all sustainable, but sustainability isn't his goal. It's as if a hedge fund company bought America, and is not stripping the country to the bone, and will declare bankruptcy and leave a smoking crater.

 

[macdos]

The playing fields were level before Trump began building walls. If you play in China, you go by Chinese rules. If you play in the US, you go by US rules. And if you play in Europe, you go by European rules (GDPR, hate speech laws etc).

Everyone has always been welcome to play on either field. Now, the "president" has begun closing the US field to some players. That is unfair business practice.

But on a political level, I definitely agree with POTUS's steps and hope that this is only the beginning of levelling the playing field, and ending the highly unfair Chinese business practices.

 

[ericwn]

Oh, I'm wounded...

See how useful OT quotes are.

Now let’s leave making fun of people’s basic human right to religious freedom and get back on topic then. Nice distraction from un-excusing the Chinese camps of course.

 

[lederermc]

What I find interesting is that a lot of the same people who defend this throw a fit when China does similar.

This follows the war time doctrine of Proportional Response.

 

[lederermc]

The U.S. Commerce Department is moving to ban downloads of TikTok and WeChat within the United States from this Sunday (via Reuters).

The U.S. Commerce Department plans to issue an order today that will "deplatform" WeChat and TikTok by banning people in the United States from downloading the apps. The order will take effect from Sunday, September 20.

U.S. government officials speaking to Reuters said that the ban on downloads of TikTok could still be rescinded before it takes effect late on Sunday, providing that TikTok owner ByteDance can agree on a deal to sell its U.S. operations.

Commerce Department officials said they were taking the unprecedented step of banning the apps because of the risks posed by their data collection practices and Chinese ownership. ByteDance and WeChat-owner Tencent Holdings have repeatedly denied that U.S. data collection is used for spying.



ByteDance has been in serious talks with U.S. cloud computing company Oracle for some time, and proposed an agreement to form a new company called "TikTok Global," in order to address U.S. security concerns. ByteDance still requires the approval of President Donald Trump to acquiesce to a deal and prevent a ban, and there is doubt about whether an agreement will be reached.

All domestic app stores, including the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store, will be compelled to remove both apps on any platform "that can be reached from within the United States." Other apps from ByteDance and Tencent, such as games, will continue to be available under this order.

The order will only ban the apps within the United States, and U.S. companies, such as Walmart and Starbucks, will still be able to conduct business using TikTok and WeChat outside of the U.S. as they currently do.

The Commerce Department also said that it will not seek to compel people in the United States to remove the apps or stop using them, but it will forbid further updates or new downloads. A Commerce official said "We are aiming at a top corporate level. We're not going to go out after the individual users."

The order will also bar "additional technical transactions," "content delivery services," "peering services," and data hosting within the United States, meaning that the usability and functionality of the apps for those who already have them in the United States will degrade significantly. For TikTok, to give more time to secure a deal, the degradation in existing service will not take place until November 12.

It is unclear if the news from U.S. Commerce Department officials is intended to serve as a warning-shot to hasten a deal for TikTok with Oracle, or if the White House, dissatisfied with Oracle's proposal, is truly seeking to ban TikTok outright. WeChat is not being considered for an acquisition deal and therefore cannot avoid the ban.

President Trump initially issued an executive order on August 6 that gave the Commerce Department 45 days to determine what apps posed a national security threat. This is why the ban comes into effect on Sunday. Today's new order is set to be published in full at 8:45 a.m. EDT.

Note: Due to the political or social nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Political News forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Article Link: US Downloads of TikTok and WeChat to Be Banned on Sunday

If this is legal then I suppose a Dem POTUS could state the proliferation of Russian/GRU/Qanon propaganda on Facebook and Fox requires shutting them down since they pose a treat to American Democracy... Or is that bridge too far?

 

[lederermc]

Here is another reason why limiting us to only the App Store is bad for consumers.

Social media is destroying our democracy. They all should be banded.

 

[ericwn]

Social media is destroying our democracy. They all should be banded.

That sounds more like an issue of low education if a democracy can be harmed via that channel, doesn’t it?

 

[rhinosrcool]

Looks like Oracle could buy TikTok (Ellison is a Trump supporter).

 

[nicho]

Hongkong (one word, just like Beijing or Xinjiang)

Nice try, but not actually true. Trying to act superior on a provably false platform kind of undermines the remainder of a message.

 

[adib]

So Chinese people in USA buying the iPhone 12 will be unable to download WeChat to talk with their friends and family?

Sounds like more people will buy Samsung phones from now on.

Chinese people would likely have their Apple ID account set to China, and would likely able to still download both apps. That said, there are VPN solutions to re-route your traffic outside of the US.

It's Sunday in Singapore, and both WeChat and TikTok are still available here.

 

[unclemax]

The playing fields were level before Trump began building walls. If you play in China, you go by Chinese rules. If you play in the US, you go by US rules. And if you play in Europe, you go by European rules (GDPR, hate speech laws etc).

Everyone has always been welcome to play on either field. Now, the "president" has begun closing the US field to some players. That is unfair business practice.

In China playing field was never level, the government always preferred domestic companies. Just a small example, mapping of China is illegal unless done by an approved (domestic) entity, so e.g. Apple and others have to license their maps from a Chinese company.

In Europe, on the other hand, they gave advantage to American and Asian companies by having such restrictive labor laws, etc, which I would argue was unfair towards European companies, but nobody from USA or China complained - maybe that's what you mean by "fairness", giving outsiders an extra boost to be able to compete in the market? In my books this is called affirmative action.

So what Trump is doing is exercising home turf advantage, no more, no less. I mean, there are real privacy laws, real privacy concerns about among citizens, and real doubts about handling of private information by Tencent and Bytedance. So how is it unfair to demand that they comply? If they cannot comply by nature of them being Chinese companies, well, tough luck.

 

[carestudio]

Can't comment on the decision is right or wrong, but I seriously think Trump is doing whatever the US Presidents from 10 or 15 years later will be doing. He just did it much earlier than China would expect...

 

[Abazigal]

Can't comment on the decision is right or wrong, but I seriously think Trump is doing whatever the US Presidents from 10 or 15 years later will be doing. He just did it much earlier than China would expect...

Agreed. If China is fine with banning US companies from operating in their country, then they really can’t complain when other countries start banning their companies and services from working as well.

Turnabout is fair okay.

 

[macdos]

Now tell me again, which American companies are China banning?

Agreed. If China is fine with banning US companies from operating in their country, then they really can’t complain when other countries start banning their companies and services from working as well.

Turnabout is fair okay.

 

[Wando64]

Agreed. If China is fine with banning US companies from operating in their country, then they really can’t complain when other countries start banning their companies and services from working as well.

Turnabout is fair okay.

Jeez. It is the US citizens that should complain for censorship in their country.

 

[ericwn]

Agreed. If China is fine with banning US companies from operating in their country, then they really can’t complain when other countries start banning their companies and services from working as well.

Turnabout is fair okay.

I believe a good bunch of US companies were not banned but decided to not cooperate with the local authorities.
If the US wants to pick just two companies and ban them, that requires finding some good legal ground. If the US want to change their laws and make this approach a standard for all foreign companies that would seem like a more sane approach. Cherry picking companies just because they’re successful and then claim they somehow pose a security risk (and just these two and not any other developers from anywhere, plus not providing any details to the accusations) is arbitrary to me.

Censorship is the word.

 

[Abazigal]

Now tell me again, which American companies are China banning?

WhatsApp is blocked in China. Together with other chat services like telegram, which are also heavily filtered and censored on the days when they are allowed. Which forces everyone to use Wechat, which is essentially spyware given how the government is able to monitor everything that goes on in the app.

Social media is blocked in China as well, in favour of China’s own offerings like Weibo, again for tracking and control purposes.

So if these services are blocked from operating in China, what’s wrong with the US blocking Chinese services from running in the US?

 

[timidpimpin]

People should see this as a blessing, because social media rots your brain, and now you have less access to it.

 

[Substance90]

Every day the Chinese Communist Party looks more and more like the Soviet Union under Stalin. It would makes sense for the CCP to take away the liberties of Hong Kong and take over Taiwan like they did to the Uygurs in Xinjiang province and Tibet. It would be a perfect fit politically and culturally. Who cares about the murder of millions and the destruction of political and cultural liberty?

Wholeheartedly agree with you. How does this negate my comment about Trump's foreign policy though? One evil doesn't make another evil ok.

 

[ericwn]

People should see this as a blessing, because social media rots your brain, and now you have less access to it.

Are you going to ban chocolate next with the same silly reasoning? With most things in life it is a question of moderation.

In free countries that avoid censorship the people who know best what they want for themselves in their own life are referred to as adults.

 

[Madhatter32]

Wholeheartedly agree with you. How does this negate my comment about Trump's foreign policy though? One evil doesn't make another evil ok.

Because the US does not "look more and more like a typical ex-soviet country run by the mafia" notwithstanding your dislike for Trump. With respect to foreign policy, per your query, Trump's foreign policy is mostly characterized as one of disengagement -- not expansion.

 

[Tech198]

Trump, the destroyer

Now may be a good time to invest in a paid VPN.

 

[therationalist]

I think they will eventually work something out. No way they get banned.

 

[ActionableMango]

TikTok abused security vulnerabilities and violated app store rules. Taking advantage of software exploits in order to steal user data is quite literally one of the prime goals of malware and hackers.

Any software caught using security exploits to steal personal user data should be banned from app stores and should also disabled/removed/quarantined by virus scanners. There is precedent for this when an Apple security update forcibly uninstalled Zoom.

Trump may be worst president ever, but I cringe at all the people defending TikTok. Abusive malware is not worthy of your defense.