Go read Tim Wu’s argument that it’s only fair for the US to ban TikTok

[lost in melb.]

In a new opinion piece for the New York Times, Tim Wu, Columbia University law professor and outspoken promoter of the free and open internet, writes an interesting defense of President Trump’s ban on the Chinese apps TikTok and WeChat in the US. Despite calling Trump “the wrong figure to be fighting this fight,” Wu argues that the threatened bans are “an overdue response, a tit for tat, in a long battle for the soul of the internet.” It’s an interesting counterpoint to the myriad, valid issues that have been raised about the ban, and it’s well worth a read.


Core to Wu’s argument is that China has banned TikTok and WeChat competitors like YouTube and WhatsApp for years. Foreign companies are effectively blocked from fully and independently competing in the Chinese market, while Chinese services like TikTok have been freely able to exploit Western markets. As Wu argues:

The asymmetry is unfair and ought no longer be tolerated. The privilege of full internet access — the open internet — should be extended only to companies from countries that respect that openness themselves....

https://www.theverge.com/platform/amp/2020/8/19/21374934/tiktok-ban-free-open-internet-china-fight-censorship-trump

[FBD]

Its an ok argument, but the real reason is the money laundering features that were built in to WeChat. TikTok got the association because of the banking back end + CCP gets all vid that goes through TikTok - so they are both security risks.

[lost in melb.]

I feel like this articles argument has more ground to stand on. It's irrefutable, vs. theoretical

[FBD]

:-k the ccp having access to the entirety of TikTok's video feeds and the money laundering functions of WeChat are facts, brotha, not theory. you do make it more difficult than it should be by automatically treating everything that isnt trumpeted by CNN/NBC/Reuters/AP/etc as suspicious or completely theoretical. because of this, you have large gaps in information flow and are making decisions from a poisoned well of information.

[lost in melb.]

I don't know details of what the CCP is doing with what... I know for a fact that YouTube etc. is blocked in China. I like looking at overall patterns, you like to delve into minute details. Go for it!

[FBD]

I kinda described things a bit ago in the context of Huawei, where the ccp basically took the cia's go-corporate model and ran with it over there. Huawei has the appearance of being an independent corporation, but it is effectively a corporate branch of the ccp.

[lost in melb.]

Yes, agreed there is the potential for abuse with Huawei. Hence the unilateral agreement to limit its hardware implementation