Most active commenters

    ←back to thread

    Trudeau government bans TikTok from operating in Canada

    (www.cbc.ca)
    747 points empressplay | 14 comments | 06 Nov 24 23:04 UTC | HN request time: 1.132s | source | bottom
    Show context
    not2b ◴[07 Nov 24 00:01 UTC] No.42071538[source]▶
    Instead of the laser focus on TikTok as a threat, it would be better for the US and Canada to have real data protection laws that would apply equally to TikTok, Meta, Google, Apple, and X. What the EU has done is far from perfect but it bans the worst practices. The Chinese can buy all of the information they want on Americans and Canadians from ad brokers, who will happily sell them everything they need to track individuals' locations.

    Perhaps the way to get anti-regulation politicians on board with this is for someone to do what was done to Robert Bork and legally disclose lots of personal info on members of Congress/Parliament, obtained from data brokers and de-anonymized.

    replies(14): >>42071557 #>>42071563 #>>42071688 #>>42071710 #>>42072099 #>>42072166 #>>42072254 #>>42072301 #>>42073186 #>>42073359 #>>42073828 #>>42075283 #>>42076039 #>>42097112 #
    imgabe ◴[07 Nov 24 00:03 UTC] No.42071557[source]▶
    It is not about the data. It’s about a foreign government controlling the algorithm that decides what millions of people see, and their ability to shape public opinion through that.

    Like imagine if China owned CNN and the New York Times and decided what stories they could publish.

    replies(38): >>42071596 #>>42071716 #>>42071772 #>>42071817 #>>42071833 #>>42071939 #>>42072002 #>>42072050 #>>42072201 #>>42072215 #>>42072256 #>>42072299 #>>42072351 #>>42072358 #>>42072658 #>>42072956 #>>42073124 #>>42073165 #>>42073184 #>>42073214 #>>42073220 #>>42073395 #>>42073441 #>>42073500 #>>42073558 #>>42073861 #>>42073884 #>>42074322 #>>42074602 #>>42076004 #>>42076190 #>>42077183 #>>42077776 #>>42077779 #>>42077855 #>>42079213 #>>42079968 #>>42085466 #
    1. cpursley ◴[07 Nov 24 00:53 UTC] No.42072002[source]▶
    What’s crazy is few people even talk about who currently owns major US news networks and what their motives might be. People don’t like Musk owning Twitter/X, that’s a start - but start reading about who owns the rest (especially traditional media).
    replies(6): >>42072018 #>>42072244 #>>42072360 #>>42072829 #>>42073225 #>>42073425 #
    2. wilg ◴[07 Nov 24 00:55 UTC] No.42072018[source]▶
    I would argue that has been a persistent topic of conversation for my entire life!
    replies(1): >>42075888 #
    3. idopmstuff ◴[07 Nov 24 01:25 UTC] No.42072244[source]▶
    To be fair, as it relates to this topic there isn't really a need to discuss because foreign entities have been banned from owning controlling stakes in TV and radio networks without approval. A Chinese organization would never be allowed to control a news network in the way they control TikTok.
    replies(3): >>42073020 #>>42073824 #>>42074198 #
    4. csdreamer7 ◴[07 Nov 24 01:42 UTC] No.42072360[source]▶
    > What’s crazy is few people even talk about who currently owns major US news networks and what their motives might be.

    People talk about Rupert Murdock and Jeff Bezos all the time. Who else do you feel we should talk about? There is that one conservative owner of most radio stations in the US.

    > People don’t like Musk owning Twitter/X, that’s a start

    After Elon took over, he deleted my Twitter account. Still not sure why, but it happened around the time reporters who retweeted #Elonjet had their accounts deleted. And I did retweet it.

    Media consolidation is an issue, but Musk with Twitter is so petty, racist, and blatantly self serving. I refuse to be associated with it.

    > but start reading about who owns the rest (especially traditional media).

    traditional media != social media. The potential for manipulation is much greater with social media.

    replies(1): >>42072652 #
    5. ruthmarx ◴[07 Nov 24 02:25 UTC] No.42072652[source]▶
    Murdock has been American for decades now, it doesn't matter where he was born.
    6. ◴[07 Nov 24 02:48 UTC] No.42072829[source]▶
    7. nine_k ◴[07 Nov 24 03:21 UTC] No.42073020[source]▶
    But the news networks are on the way out, and tiktoks are in. Do you remember the joyous declarations from 1990s that meatspace state borders do not apply to cyberspace? That was not entirely wishful thinking. The same properties that allow information from "free world" to make way into the "world of oppression" work for different definitions of "free" (democratic, communist, fundamentalist, etc) and "oppressed" (communist brainwashed, capitalist exploitative, sinful and godless, etc). A very similar situation enmeshes cryptography.
    replies(1): >>42073449 #
    8. flappyeagle ◴[07 Nov 24 03:55 UTC] No.42073225[source]▶
    They seem like a random collection of people I’ve never heard of before.
    9. kfajdsl ◴[07 Nov 24 04:36 UTC] No.42073449{3}[source]▶
    Well, China has the great firewall, so information flows less freely from the "free world" to the "world of oppression" than the other way around.
    replies(1): >>42073498 #
    10. nine_k ◴[07 Nov 24 04:45 UTC] No.42073498{4}[source]▶
    This is so. But places like Turkyie, Russia, or even Iran have much weaker blocks; same applies to much of the authoritarian African regimes.

    Basically, to enforce border controls on the internet, you have to break the internet.

    11. downWidOutaFite ◴[07 Nov 24 05:55 UTC] No.42073824[source]▶
    Murdoch bought himself an American citizenship, problem solved. We've had that foreigner's propaganda dominante our politics for several decades now.
    12. RobotToaster ◴[07 Nov 24 06:59 UTC] No.42074198[source]▶
    How many are owned by dual citizens?
    13. gchamonlive ◴[07 Nov 24 11:57 UTC] No.42075888[source]▶
    I'd love to hear what you have to say about this discussion
    replies(1): >>42082109 #
    14. cpursley ◴[07 Nov 24 23:04 UTC] No.42082109{3}[source]▶
    The book is pretty dated so some of the specific examples might be boring, but this is a good book on this topic:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufacturing_Consent

    You could probably get by with the cliff notes version.