The House on Wednesday passed legislation that could ban TikTok in the U.S. if its Beijing-based parent company ByteDance doesn't sell its stake.

https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/7521

Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act

This bill prohibits distributing, maintaining, or providing internet hosting services for a foreign adversary controlled application (e.g., TikTok). However, the prohibition does not apply to a covered application that executes a qualified divestiture as determined by the President.

Under the bill, a foreign adversary controlled application is directly or indirectly operated by (1) ByteDance, Ltd. or TikTok (including their subsidiaries or successors); or (2) a social media company that is controlled by a foreign adversary and has been determined by the President to present a significant threat to national security. The prohibition does not apply to an application that is primarily used to post product reviews, business reviews, or travel information and reviews.

The bill authorizes the Department of Justice to investigate violations of the bill and enforce the bill’s provisions. Entities that violate the bill are subject to civil penalties based on the number of users.

The bill requires a covered application to provide a user with all available account data (including posts, photos, and videos) at the user’s request before the prohibition takes effect.

The bill gives the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia exclusive jurisdiction over any challenge to the bill. Further, a challenge to the bill must be brought within 165 days after the bill’s enactment date. A challenge to any action, finding, or determination under the bill must be brought with 90 days of the action, finding, or determination.

  • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldOP
    1·
    8 months ago

    If “just” protesting guaranteed a good outcome, the world would be a better place. And if we could know the long term outcome of any event then things would also be a lot better.

    But instead we sent in the French Air Force to destabilize Libya and funneled billions in weapons to Israel in our proxy war with Syria and Lebanon and Iran - all of which underwent their own protests and none of which seemed to meaningfully improve from the revolts. The revolution in Egypt only lasted long enough to hold elections, which were immediately undone by a western backed military coup (because the winners were too Muslim-y for our tastes). Meanwhile, the Saudis managed to escape the Green Revolution comparatively unscathed for mysterious reasons nobody seems interested in talking about. And in Palestine, well… Anyone want to ask what happened to the peace marchers in Gaza in 2018??

    Twitter provided people with a way to not only see the outside world but to also coordinate protests and activism.

    Several left-wing activists had their Twitter accounts suspended after a false-report campaign by far-right users

    This isn’t the first time its happened or even the only social media system that’s done it. Reddit, Facebook, YouTube…

    Social media feels more and more like a honeypot. If nothing else, it is a graveyard of movements - from OWS to BLM - that never develop any kind of party character and always get overrun with grifters in the end.

    Which is why I don’t think “tiktok is bad for culture” is an argument unless it is backed up by medical and sociological research.

    Which the podcast I linked goes into.