[HN Gopher] The reason behind the TikTok ban
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       The reason behind the TikTok ban
        
       Author : primogen
       Score  : 43 points
       Date   : 2025-02-16 19:09 UTC (3 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.kenklippenstein.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.kenklippenstein.com)
        
       | joshdavham wrote:
       | Please use the title of the actual article being linked. This is
       | mentioned in HN's guidelines here:
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
       | 
       | Your title should be "TikTok Ban Fueled by Israel, Not China",
       | not "The reason behind the TikTok ban".
        
       | j_maffe wrote:
       | If this post gets flagged I will lose all trust in this forum and
       | its admins. This is not the first instance a post like this gets
       | flagged. This post perfectly relates to the themes of the forum.
       | This is completely and utterly unacceptable.
       | 
       | Edit: I'm at least thankfull the admins have restored the post.
        
         | jazzyjackson wrote:
         | Lots of users flag things because it's a guaranteed flame war,
         | I almost flagged it after reading because it's kind of one
         | persons opinion with a few references to politicians'
         | statements and it asserts that this is the whole story when
         | it's not, ie, just someone's crappy substack without any
         | substantial new info. But I'll refrain hoping that there's some
         | discussion on the merits of banning Tik-Tok, but really
         | anything Israel adjacent is not going to last long on hacker
         | news. Arguing about it does not do much to build community.
        
           | j_maffe wrote:
           | The comment by the politician that pushed for the bill gives
           | the post sufficient merit.
           | 
           | > but really anything Israel adjacent is not going to last
           | long on hacker news. Arguing about it does not do much to
           | build community.
           | 
           | I'd like to believe that the forum I'm reading from does not
           | censor or facilitate the censorship based on political bias.
           | I don't think I'm the only HN user to feel this way. This
           | argument is purely defeatist.
           | 
           | NB: The post got killed from an abundance of flags btw so you
           | were right about that. This flagging and "vouching" system is
           | ripe for abuse and needs to be fixed.
        
       | like_any_other wrote:
       | > As Warner describes, the briefing tipped the anti TikTok
       | legislation over the edge, passing through a key committee with a
       | vote of 50-0.
       | 
       | If only US politicians were so united in protecting America as
       | they are in protecting Israel.
        
       | jazzyjackson wrote:
       | Government contractors have been banned from having Tik-Tok
       | installed on any device they use since June 2023, legislation to
       | force divestment was introduced in January prior, so I was
       | tempted to dismiss this article front the first sentence, of
       | course it did not start with oct 7, but fine, the matter became
       | more urgent with the swell of content that's, let's say, critical
       | of Israel.
       | 
       | But the article is reaching by asserting that pro Israeli
       | lobbyists have outsized sway and we banned Tik-Tok as a favor to
       | an ally. There are other factors that freak out American
       | politicians and their constituents (I just wish they were equally
       | freaked out by American corporations doing the same things wrt
       | surveillance and behavior modification)
       | 
       | https://www.acquisition.gov/far/52.204-27
       | 
       | https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/senate-bill/85
        
         | j_maffe wrote:
         | Isn't what you're saying fitting to the narrative presented by
         | Gallagher? Also why are you focusing on what the article is
         | portraying and not what the politician who pushed for the bill
         | is literally stating exactly what happened?
        
       | j_maffe wrote:
       | One has to wonder why the only major non-Western social media
       | outlet turns out to not suppress anti-Israeli sentiment. Of
       | course it could be possible that TikTok could have placed a bias
       | in the algorithm somewhere. But honestly I think it's more likely
       | that the bias is in the Western social media platforms, as has
       | been reported by non-other than Western-media.
        
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       (page generated 2025-02-16 23:01 UTC)