this post was submitted on 20 Apr 2024
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You're just naive if you honestly think companies are somehow "above" the nations of their owners or that government power has some real limit beyond what other nations are willing (and able) to punish them over.
It's also pretty naive to assert there's nothing of value in that data, particularly of the blackmail variety. That stupid distasteful video you uploaded and then "deleted" at a teen ... there's no guarantee they don't have it. The location ping your phone made when you were cheating on your spouse and opened TikTok while waiting for your mistress, there's no guarantee they don't have it.
You could even use popular political videos as the basis for evaluating who's more likely to cooperate or believe you following an attack and mix that with geographic data to figure out how to minimize the risk of guerilla fighters. Similarly, you could use the social network graph to figure out how to put pressure on someone.
I mean, social media is honestly nasty in terms of what it can tell you about a society.
That doesn't even begin to touch on the ability to directly manipulate a proprietary content promotion algorithm. You think they can effectively manipulate Facebook? There are no limits to the manipulation they can perform on TikTok and there is no framework for overseeing social media algorithm performance.
Multi national corporations are so beholden to their countries they cheat on their taxes and break any law they can get away with. Including selling data directly to the CCP.
So no. I don't have time or the willpower to argue with someone who thinks international affairs is a video game and everything is tied to countries.
Just because a nation chooses to let things go unnoticed, it does not mean the nation does not have the power.
If the US Govt decides to break up Apple or Google, they are no longer whole; that's the end of it.
Just because the principal at your school let kids break a few rules and some teachers use sick days like vacation days doesn't mean the principal doesn't have power over the kids and teachers.
You're incredibly naive to think the most powerful entities in the world, nation states, are some toothless, harmless play thing that large corporations can "just subvert." That's the video game perspective.
To be clear, China understands this whole thing very well. There's a reason they're trying to kick US tech companies out and it isn't because they're afraid of the tech company itself.
Oh wow. You really just don't know do you? They have to go to court to break up Apple or Google and prove a case. And this isn't a principal on a power trip. You think it's a button press and you call me naive? Jesus wept.
They have to go to court because the western government itself has checks and balances, as I previously stated.
It's entirely within congress's authority to change the law to make it the press of a button. It's not a matter of "whether or not they have the power." It's where or not they allow themselves to exercise the power.
China doesn't have all these roadblocks, especially in the Xi error; it's much closer to an outright dictatorship than it's been in many years.
Ah yes that bit in the Constitution about due process is just for show. Well I'm sure the police agree with you. You'd have a point, if we were having this discussion in China.
Pray tell, how do you think monopoly law works? What do you think due process is?
Like this.
I give up, you're unreachable.
Yes, cite exactly what I said happens and ignore literally everything I'm saying once again ... because "governments are subservient to corporations" and China is a benevolent government no worse than the US except when it doesn't suit your argument.
So sick of CCP shills.
Lmao you said they just do it. There's literally an Anti Trust case going right now. So where's TikTok's day in court?
PLEASE, tell me where I said "they just do it." Give me a quote.
There you go.
"They just do it" is not in there.
Perhaps the confusion stems from that fact that the US Court System is part of the US Government. Explicitly "If the United States congress gives power to the executive branch to break up a company, the executive branch decides to break up a company, and the company is unable to successfully appeal the decision in the courts, they are no longer whole; that's the end of it."
Lmao. Dig that hole deeper. Go look at that Anti-trust suit. Does that look like the government just did it and Apple is appealing? Due process means the government has to prove a case before it deprives you of property. Because we don't live in a Dictatorship.
K.