Listening on CSPAN to arguments on Tik Tok being shut down if ByteDance does not divest.... great discussions of 1st Amendment on content and China and free speech. All 8 Justices having great discussions with Counsel for TikTok and content creators except Justice Thomas whose one question was silly haha. US Solicitor General accusing China/ByteDance of things instagram and FB been doing for years (collecting personal info). Gorsuch, Alito, Roberts, Jackson, Barrett, Kagan, Sotomayor all asking great questions on the law
So basically Biden looking to stop law he signed from going into effect. Biden administration looks for ways to keep TikTok available in the U.S. Barring action by the Supreme Court, a ban on the popular app in the U.S. is set to begin Sunday. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/joe-biden/biden-administration-keep-tiktok-available-us-rcna187902
So they ban TikTok and the users just flock to other similar Chinese apps. Genius level move by the U.S. government. TikTok will be banned without a savior. Here are the alternative apps users are flocking to https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/16/tech/tiktok-ban-alternative-apps/index.html
Claims that tik tok data can be used by Chinese government..... forget that temu, alibaba and baidu are used in the U.S. and collect way more info than tik tok. foreget that the things they are whining about are still avaialble to any hacker through instagram, facebook, snapchat (has GPS tracking) and these were not even mentioned.... forgetting that the claims of china manipulating the algorithm to push anti-american ideas ignores the fact that any open social media site posts same information and government cannot eliminate speech that might something or other or some made up potential risk 10 years from now while ignoring other avenues where same thing can happen... Solictor actually said China can take tik tok posts and use them to compromise people who eventually end up working in military or U.S. government.... like idiots post dumbshit all the time and the internet is forever and this is tik tok? What about the shit they are posting on insta and FB and twitter at same time. This could have been solved by simply passing a law demanding sensitive data from tik tok cannot be shared with bytedance if that was what this was really about... it wasn't..just good old fashioned "China is bad" while Africa and Russia keep hacking and spreading misinformation on U.S. platforms. Justices questions the solicitor general on these items but seemed to be pussies on really pushing the U.S. government for strict scrutiny
It's not much about privacy but the ability to influence tictok users' emotions on topics and generally. Just as St. Thomas Aquinas argued that excessive tolerance can sometimes be immoral, because it may enable or perpetuate harm, the idea that free speech is immutable and without limits is similarly flawed. Absolute freedom in any context, including speech, can lead to the suppression of others’ liberties or the spread of harm. For example, tolerating speech that incites violence or promotes exploitation can undermine the very foundation of a just society. Like Aquinas’ notion of tolerance, free speech must be balanced against the broader principles of morality, justice, and the common good.
Another merger proposal has emerged... Perplexity submits bid to merge with TikTok’s US unit, CNBC reports https://finance.yahoo.com/news/perplexity-submits-bid-merge-tiktok-200231811.html (Bloomberg) — Perplexity AI submitted a bid to TikTok parent ByteDance Ltd., to merge with its US operations and create a new entity, CNBC reported on Saturday. The structure would allow most of ByteDance‘s existing investors to retain their stakes, according to CNBC, which cited a person with knowledge of the situation. Perplexity AI, an artificial-intelligence search-engine startup, started 2024 with a roughly $500 million valuation and ended the year worth about $9 billion, CNBC said. The Supreme Court on Friday unanimously upheld a law that would shut down TikTok, the wildly popular social media platform, as soon as Sunday in the US because of national security concerns. President Joe Biden told reporters after the ruling that he would not enforce the ban in his final days in office and that a decision on the app would be made by his successor. TikTok’s China-based parent company is required to find a buyer for its US operations or face a shutdown on Sunday under the law. A president can grant a 90-day extension on that deadline if a serious purchase negotiation is underway. President-elect Donald Trump told NBC on Saturday he “most likely” will give TikTok the reprieve, saying in a telephone interview that he’ll “probably announce it on Monday” — the day of his inauguration to a second term. Finding a buyer for TikTok presents a challenge, not just because ByteDance has balked at the idea of selling but because of the expected price tag. Few companies or individuals could likely afford TikTok, which is estimated to be worth as much as $50 billion. One possibility is a billionaire acquirer, such as Elon Musk – whom the Chinese government is already evaluating as a potential new owner – or a team of investors, like Frank McCourt and Kevin O’Leary, who have publicly trumpeted their desire to take control of the app.
Trump says he will grant TikTok a 90 day extension to arrive at a deal. With a US ban on TikTok hours away, Trump says he 'most likely' will grant an extension https://finance.yahoo.com/news/trump-says-most-likely-tiktok-180210228.html
My wife's niece is horrified despite bring eleven, not having TicTok and a US shutdown not affecting her anyway as she lives in Colombia. Not at all disturbing that little kids are mouthpieces for them. She does actually know why it worries her but she's heard from other kids that's it's a big deal. Or rather kids have been told by influencers. I'm coming to agree that social media needs to be made over 16s or older only.