It’s mind blowing how many of these takes ignore national intelligence/security. As if NSA spying on Americans is seriously the same as the Chinese government spying on Americans.
Enacting data privacy laws is touted as a solution. Is it even technically possible to prevent data collection? Otherwise that will just handicap X’s national security while other countries collect data.
Additionally, there’s enormous opportunity costs associated with importing foreign software services. Why isn’t there 10s of great search engines? Because Google is imported with little-no tariffs to many countries, removing the need for local search services. Same with TikTok. An American company could pop up to fulfill that need.
The US should just tax Bytedance for operating in the USA. As should Canada, UK, etc tax Google. Maybe Michigan should tax california software services too. We’d see a lot more privacy and a lot more diversified technology culture if this happened more.
The EU doesn't seem to trust its own privacy laws enough to allow TikTok on staff devices[1].
[1]: https://edition.cnn.com/2023/02/28/tech/tiktok-eu-ban-intl-h...
> If we want to address the real problem, we need to enact serious privacy laws, not security theater
We are too late. The ministry of thruth has won.
Wouldn't the middle ground be to have ISPs ban TikTok? The US doesn't need to create a firewall themselves, they can just rely on the fact that internet providers are in effect an oligopoly, and simply tell all 5 or so of them to prevent their users from accessing the website/service. This would, of course, be circumventable by a VPN, but that's a degree of rigor good enough for China, so it should be fine here.
> at worst, a ban would force us to either adopt China’s censorship technology or create our own equivalent.
When india banned tiktok, it was tiktok that actively enforced the ban. Tiktok bans all indian based IPs. I'm sure they'll do the same if the US bans tiktok.
As for censorship, we already have a censorship regime. It's as total, centralized and oppressive as anything we pretend exists in china.
> Unlike authoritarian states such as China, the US has a free, uncensored Internet.
That's because we invented the Internet and we controlled the commanding heights. We could use the internet and social media to brainwash, foster division and destabilize foreign nations. It's amazing how when another nation gets similar capabilities, we suddenly have a change of heart. Just like when we had a monopoly over nuclear weapons, we had no qualms about using it on innocent civilians. Only when someone else got them, we demanded treaties on nuclear technology, weapons, etc to limit the use of nukes.
> Or, at the least, authoritarian government powers like India’s, which could force Internet service providers to censor Internet traffic.
India is authoritarian for protecting its national interests? Is the EU authoritarian for completing banning russian news? Are we authoritarian for banning iranian social media accounts? The only thing suspect about india is why they haven't banned facebook, youtube, etc along with tiktok.
When india does our bidding, we praise them as the largest democracy in the world. When they don't, they are authoritarian. Hopefully, india gets more and more "authoritarian" and improves the lives of their people.