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Ask HN: Consequences if the US bans TikTok

4 points by ThinkBeat ↗ HN
What are the likely consequences both short term and long term, if the United States decides to block one of the most popular applications on the internet.

With an alleged 150 million users in the US, there will probably be protests against such a decision.

Of more importance how will it impact competition and applications if the US sets a precedence to ban apps the state does not want their citizens to see.

10 comments

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throwaway2990
There’s no consequences. It’s only positives.
ThinkBeat
Is this a principle then?

The state should ban whatever apps the state dislikes and it would be for the best its population?

Or is it just good for TikTok?

api
First of all TikTok isn’t an app. It’s a service. The app is just a front end. Everything important is on their servers.

(Analogy: the web browser is the app I am using. HN is a web site.)

There are three reasons I see to ban this:

The service is hosted by a Chinese company with links to the Chinese state, so there are obvious security concerns. They are downloading a massive dossier on US citizens and serving propaganda directly to everyone using the service. China would not let the US do this.

There are also obvious social concerns around what TikTok is: insanely addictive slop. All social media is that, but TikTok is everything bad about social distilled and purified. It’s like crack to Meta and YouTube’s coke. Same drug, different potency.

Lastly and probably most clearly: there is a trade issue. China bans US companies from doing this in their market, so we should ban their companies. Free trade must be reciprocal.

My biggest concern with this proposal is how. I’ve seen some very concerning stuff about using this as a gateway to introduce state censorship of platforms. That’s my concern. TikTok can die in a fire with all addictionware.

whatamidoingyo
It gives the government more power, essentially. If tiktok is banned, it opens the doors to ban other apps and imports.

Although I could care less if it's banned or not, I think the world would be a better place without it. Likewise for Instagram, et al.

smt88
This is an irrelevant question because the US has decided to just force it to become a US company instead of banning it.
ThinkBeat
The US has said they will ban TikTok unless the state is allowed to dictate who owns it. If TikTok does not comply with the US demand, then the state will block TikTok
api
This is ultimately a trade dispute. China does not allow Meta or Alphabet to operate there, so we should not allow ByteDance to operate here.
smt88
The state isn't dictating who owns it. They're dictating who doesn't own it. They don't care which American firm buys it.

This was also just the House bill. There's currently no appetite in the Senate or White House to ban TikTok.

tjpnz
Some whiney speech from Beijing about how it hurt the feelings of the Chinese people.
swatcoder
Rhetorical "Ask HN"'s are kind of obnoxious but I'll assume you're genuinely curious about perspectives and are asking in good faith.

Protests over TikTok will blow over. It takes a lot more than a protest for societies to blink, and we've seen many many much more serious protests testify to that. People will get upset when something in their daily routine gets taken away and then almost all of them they'll get over it because it's not really consequential to most people.

> how will it impact competition and applications if the US sets a precedence to ban [select foreign] apps.

As for competion -- well, I'd it to embolden local companies to compete more vigorously in other domains where Chinese apps might be targetted for a ban, and encourage lobbyists to make that happen.

That's not a win for everybody, but it's also not a loss for everybody.