I'm as technologically illiterate as they come. I couldn't tell you the difference between an HDMI and a POP3 (whatever the hell that is). I'm the guy who just turns stuff on and expects it to do what it is supposed to. I know nothing of this stuff, so bear with me.

How is it that we could ban TikTok? Would they just make it illegal to have the app on your phone, or is there an electronic way to make it unavailable to those in the US? Or, why couldn't a person who wanted it (Lord knows why...) just go somewhere where it is available, download it, and come back? What about the dingbats who already have it on their devices? Does it just get nuked somehow?

If the website was made illegal one could pressure tech companies to ban it from their app stores and generally make it difficult to access the website to discourage its usage.

I think actual blockage is possible, but I am likewise, no expert.

China (and other totalitarian governments) actively blocks access to much of the internet in their territory.

Go into your phone settings, go to apps, scroll down to tick toc and Uninstall. I've done this as I don't want the trash. Next I will get a ad blocker because every YouTube video has their ads and I gotta keep X ING them out.

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:
I'm as technologically illiterate as they come. I couldn't tell you the difference between an HDMI and a POP3 (whatever the hell that is).

HDMI: High-Definition Multimedia Interface - Digital physical, electrical, and data protocol specifications to facilitate the transport of audio and video between devices.

POP3: Post Office Protocol version 3: An email client/server protocol to allow the fetching of email from servers to clients.

Now you know

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:
How is it that we could ban TikTok?

Force service providers (Alphabet/Google, Apple, etc.) to remove it from their app servers. Ban stateside servers.

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:
What about the dingbats who already have it on their devices? Does it just get nuked somehow?

It could.

Android users could still sideload it, if they wanted to live dangerously. (Some might suggest inadvisedly.) Of course: If they're already so st00pid as to be using it in the first place, welll...

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:
Would they just make it illegal to have the app on your phone

No, "banning TikTok" doesn't mean making using TikTok a crime. Law enforcement isn't going to be going around checking phones to see if TikTok is installed and arresting those who have it.

As mentioned by ensigmatic, they will just force service providers to remove that app's availability, and restrict access to Tiktok servers.

There will be ways around it, for those who are dead-set on gaining access. But for 99% of the population, merely making it hard to access will cause them to move on to the next thing. Especially since there are already other short-form video app alternatives out there that are basically identical to TikTok (Youtube Shorts, Instagram Reels, etc.), none of which will have that restricted access.

Not a Tik Tok fan but jmo it's a dangerous precedent to allow the government to choose what information we can and cannot receive, and to ban applications from use by it's citizens.

Think about it, China bans access, Russia bans access, North Korea bans access to all kinds of web information. Do we really want our country to join that club? Our government forcing data providers to turn off whatever data source they feel is "dangerous".

Next thing they will turn off is any app that supports the other political party or agenda like Rumble, Truth Social, Parler, or gun forums need to be banned, porn sights because a kid could see it, onlyfans, dating sites, just because it offends someone, there would be no end to the damage that could be done.

It's a heck of a slippery slope,

Here's a good article on how apps can be banned by specific countries. Scroll down to "1. Blocking Through ISP".

I would imagine if you had such a banned app it would simply not connect to the server rendering it non-functional on your phone.

The notions I have read about to "ban TikTok" are simply to mandate that Apple and Google remove it from their application repositories, "App Store" and "Google Play." This will not remove the app from user's phones, but, over time, there will be a withering of the user base since new installations and updates would require extraordinary efforts. If there are fewer people to TikTok to, the incentives to use it are greatly reduced, and competitors are more likely to thrive. I suspect this will eventually happen just as TikTok supplanted Instagram as "the cool kids app," something else will come along and relegate it to history.

Sideloading is not difficult, on Android at least, but it is something that the great majority of users do not want to do, or even learn how to do.

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:
Not a Tik Tok fan but jmo it's a dangerous precedent to allow the government to choose what information we can and cannot receive, and to ban applications from use by it's citizens.

Think about it, China bans access, Russia bans access, North Korea bans access to all kinds of web information. Do we really want our country to join that club? Our government forcing data providers to turn off whatever data source they feel is "dangerous".

Next thing they will turn off is any app that supports the other political party or agenda like Rumble, Truth Social, Parler, or gun forums need to be banned, porn sights because a kid could see it, onlyfans, dating sites, just because it offends someone, there would be no end to the damage that could be done.

It's a heck of a slippery slope,

Agreed. If we are concerned about spying and data collection, address that more directly.

How do you ban an app? Easy.

1. Stir up panic that unless immediate action is taken by the entire planet, humankind is doomed.

2. Demand people stay at home, not going anywhere except grocery stores and medical facilities.

3. Demand people wear paper surgical masks 24/7, even if you live alone and are at home in the shower.

4. Demand people stand a minimum of six feet apart.

5. Write a virus that self-infects every digital platform to prevent the app from functioning.

6. Mandate that everyone download and install this virus on all of their digital platforms. Refusing to do so will lead to societal shunning, and perhaps even prosecution. Note, the virus also automatically reports who installed it, when, and the version of the virus. This functionality remains on the platform after the app is deleted. This is to prevent people from claiming to be protected when they are not.

7. When you discover the app isn't going away, blame everyone else for the failure, claiming items 1-6 were still needed.

It sad, as I started writing this as in jest. Now, I can see that the response to COVID was a clown in a dumpster car fire.

For this to work you'd have to ban Facebook, since half the videos on that platform come directly from Tik Tok.....

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:
HDMI: High-Definition Multimedia Interface - Digital physical, electrical, and data protocol specifications to facilitate the transport of audio and video between devices.

POP3: Post Office Protocol version 3: An email client/server protocol to allow the fetching of email from servers to clients.

Now you know

You could have written that in cyrillic and it would make about as much sense to me.

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:
For this to work you'd have to ban Facebook,

I'd be perfectly OK with that.

quote:

How is it that we could ban TikTok? Would they just make it illegal to have the app on your phone, or is there an electronic way to make it unavailable to those in the US? Or, why couldn't a person who wanted it (Lord knows why...) just go somewhere where it is available, download it, and come back? What about the dingbats who already have it on their devices? Does it just get nuked somehow?

I'm not an expert in this either, but I wonder if a suppressive government could actually ID anyone attempting to use a banned app. For instance, every ISP has an Autonomous System Number (ASN) assigned to it. They could create a third-party website with an ASN that includes that ISP number, and all traffic would be re-directed to the government website. From there is would be simple to trace the log-in to the individual attempting to use the app (unless they're going through a VPN).

I wouldn't put it past some countries for doing something like this.

Whatever happens, there will always be workarounds. When I'm in China with my iPhone on Verizon's int'l. plan, I can access any website because Verizon is not subject to the "Great Firewall of China." However, the last time I was there, I exceeded my daily data limit, had to get on my in-laws' home wifi for some work stuff, and then there were certain sites that were blocked. Anyone in China knows how to bypass all this stuff. They all have multiple cell phones and chat apps. It'll eventually be the same here, the more authoritarian our regime becomes.

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:
Not a Tik Tok fan but jmo it's a dangerous precedent to allow the government to choose what information we can and cannot receive, and to ban applications from use by it's citizens.

I agree, but, if a government believes an app presents a credible threat, what is it to do?

Initial impulse might be to say "Well, just ban it on government property" (as was done with HikVision and Dahua security cameras). Fair enough, but, what about government personnel that have personal mobile devices? Easy: Prohibit their devices on government property. Ah, but, what are gov. personnel doing with those apps elsewhere, on their own time? What might they inadvertently reveal? Ok, ban the use by gov. personnel anywhere and everywhere, period, as a condition of employment. That should do it, right? Maybe. What about wives, husbands, progeny, close friends, etc.? What might they inadvertently reveal about the activities of gov. personnel, some perhaps in sensitive positions?

Where do you draw the lines and how firmly?

quote:

The notions I have read about to "ban TikTok" are simply to mandate that Apple and Google remove it from their application repositories, "App Store" and "Google Play." This will not remove the app from user's phones, but, over time, there will be a withering of the user base since new installations and updates would require extraordinary efforts.

Last time google blocked an app on my phone, it literally was no longer available on the phone. I struggle to remember which app it was, but they were able to hide the installation on the phone. A few days later, after the publisher resolved a security issue they had a problem with, it suddenly reappeared. This was Android/google play/Samsung... Seems that once the play store blocks an app, all downstream devices using the app are disabled.

That was creepy AF.

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:
For this to work you'd have to ban Facebook, since half the videos on that platform come directly from Tik Tok.....

Wrong.

It seems some of you aren't seeing the big picture here. It's not the content that is the problem (though it is insidious and harmful to young minds); it is the app itself. It literally allows China to gobble up an enormous amount of information.

Ban that shit. Ban it yesterday for chrissakes.

quote:

Originally posted by Balzé Halzé:

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:
For this to work you'd have to ban Facebook, since half the videos on that platform come directly from Tik Tok.....

Wrong.

It seems some of you aren't seeing the big picture here. It's not the content that is the problem (though it is insidious and harmful to young minds); it is the app itself. It literally allows China to gobble up an enormous amount of information.

Ban that shit. Ban it yesterday for chrissakes.

[FLASH_VIDEO]<iframe frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/wtGwlQWqQWs" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe>[/FLASH_VIDEO]

We all know the the app is an issue, nobody has missed it. Apps gathering data are nothing new, every app does it, TOS agreements if anyone took the time to really read them allow massive amounts of invasive actions by the developer. That the data is going to China is problematic, however, that's not the real danger.

The point about FB is that it allows users to get to Tik Tok through it, that would have to be stopped as well.

JMO the big picture isn't that China is getting intel from a phone app, it's that we have a government that is on the verge of setting up bans on internet access for it's people, some people are so blind with hate towards social media apps that they miss what's really going on which is governmental censorship, in the name of "national security"

I have zero faith that our current government, instituting a ban on the guise of national security, would stop with Tik Tok, at that point every app becomes under the national security or threat to the country oversight.

Scary is the letter agencies with money, and approval to monitor and control access to information, regardless of the source.

Look at the crap the Letter agencies pulled with Twitter and other social media over COVID and the Election. This is the big picture scary part.



All this reminds me of the movie Enemy of the State

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:

The point about FB is that it allows users to get to Tik Tok through it, that would have to be stopped as well.

How is it doing that? If you mean Tik Tok videos are simply being played and shared on Facebook, who cares? Again, the content is not really the overlying issue here. The issue is the ChiCom owned app.