Photo: AJU
Tensions continue to grow.
TIK TOK SAGA
Tiktok is facing a nationwide ban in the United States after the House Representatives passed a bill demanding that the app be sold by its Chinese owner.
Lawmakers are said to have acted on concerns that the social media platform’s current ownership structure is a national security threat.
The measure would give TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, six months to divest the U.S. assets of the short-video app or face a ban.
It comes amid concerns over ByteDance’s alleged links to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Passed in the U.S. House of Representatives by a vote of 352-65, the bill now faces a more uncertain path in the Senate, where lawmakers have indicated it will undergo a “thorough review”.
Lawmakers contend that ByteDance is beholden to the Chinese government, so it could demand access to the data of TikTok consumers in the U.S. — of whom there are about 170 million — any time it wants.
President Joe Biden has said if Congress passes the measure, he will sign it.
No. 2 House Republican Steve Scalise said on X: “This is a critical national security issue. The Senate must take this up and pass it.”
Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, who was in favour of the bill, told AP:
“Separate from your parent company ByteDance, which is beholden to the CCP (the Chinese Communist Party), and remain operational in the United States, or side with the CCP and face the consequences.
The choice is TikTok’s.”
TikTok has denied that it can be used as a tool by the Chinese government, claiming that it has never shared U.S. users’ data with Chinese authorities and that it would refuse to do so if asked.
The company has urged senators to listen to their constituents before taking any action.
“We are hopeful that the Senate will consider the facts, listen to their constituents, and realise the impact on the economy, seven million small businesses, and the 170 million Americans who use our service,” they said.
Social media CEOs last month testified before Congress for over three hours, where Tiktok was grilled for harms they are having on the minds of children across the country.
Ahead of today’s vote, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman, Wang Wenbin, accused the US of “suppressing TikTok” despite never having found evidence that TikTok threatens national security.
He added: “This kind of bullying behaviour that cannot win in fair competition disrupts companies’ normal business activity, damages the confidence of international investors in the investment environment, and damages the normal international economic and trade order.”
“In the end, this will inevitably come back to bite the United States itself.”
The measure is the latest in a series of moves in Washington to respond to U.S. national security concerns about China, from connected vehicles to advanced AI chips to cranes at U.S. ports.
Tensions continue to increase, but not everyone is a fan of the move, including Donald Trump.
He (correctly) points out the dangers of monopolisation of other (equally as bad) platforms.
SOCIAL MEDIA SURVEILLANCE
While Tiktok does have its problems, the answer to authoritarianism isn’t necessarily more authoritarianism, especially given how many now use the platform is an income, and dangers of other social media platforms that seek to return to an outright monopoly over the marketplace.
The social media app has 7 million monthly users in Australia, and more than 1 billion worldwide — double the amount of those found of Snapchat and Twitter.
Last year, the federal government was considering a ban on TikTok for public officials that would bring it in line with other nations, including the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand.
In 2021, Australia was the first country to ban China from our 5G network, setting a precedent for others, including the U.S, Japan, India, New Zealand and more.
And with good cause. The dangerous social media algorithms designed at Tiktok, as we have explored, are leading children down the paths of gender dysphoria, witchcraft, and much more.
But is an outright ban unless they dissolve into the hands of the U.S. really the answer?
Donald Trump recently voiced opposition to the effort, stating that while he believes TikTok poses a national security threat, he is against banning the app because doing so would help its rival, Facebook — which he believes is responsible for his 2020 election loss.
He tried to ban the app when he was President, but the courts blocked the action after TikTok sued, arguing that such actions would violate free speech and due process rights.
But now there is bipartisan support to ban the platform? Just doesn’t seem right.
Critics like Trump are also correct in their assumptions of other platforms like Facebook, which was specifically designed with ties to the CIA and with backdoors to the military-industrial-complex.
X (formally Twitter), despite being under the control of Elon Musk, is also pushing forward with plans to further collect biometric and employment data of paid users of the site.
And, regardless of the platforms, our governments have already designed systems that pry the data of citizens from them, with authorities asking for information more than 4x the international average.
Just this week, it was announced that tech giants will be forced to scan emails, online photo libraries, cloud storage accounts, and dating sites of Aussies for “illegal content”, or face fines of $700,000 per day.
So, although a Tiktok ban would be good because it stops the dangerous algorithms, the only thing it really does it further monopolise the Western intelligence networks and their NWO agenda.
It will hurt Aussies that use the platform as a source of revenue, while their data will still be handed over to government departments to be tracked-and-traced at will.
‘But at least it is our own government tracking us, not China’.
What are your thoughts on this developing story?
Be sure to leave your thoughts in the comment section below!
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I don’t see the bill passing in the Senate, right now its not even on the table.
Bytedance don’t think will allow Tik-Tok to be sold in the U.S. as it has AI built in it and will now allow it
to fall into Americas hands.