Poll of the Day > Executive Order on Addressing the Threat Posed by WeChat

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-addressing-threat-posed-wechat/

What's your opinion of the Trump banning software / software companies by executive order?

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Well, they're international companies with close ties to a foreign power that has repeatedly demonstrated a willingness to spy on Americans, engage in corporate espionage, etc, so... I guess there are some legitimate concerns? That's not getting into the fact that China itself has gone of its way to block foreign tech firms from operating in China (which is why at least some of these companies exist in the first place), so it has a "good for the goose, good for the gander" feel to it. However, this is one of those things where I can see an EO being used as an injunction, but congress should probably be involved afterward.

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i don't care

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I agree with zues?

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WTF is WeChat

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papercup posted...

WTF is WeChat

It's the most popular website in China. It's like a government funded Facebook, so it combines basically every popular app into one.

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First piece of good news I've heard in a while. Fuck tencent, and fuck the Chinese government.

But I'm sure the enlightened few on gamefaqs who just gotta have their baby Yoda tik toks will tell me how I'm a xenophobe for not wanting to suck xinnie the poohs tyrannical cock.

I mean hey, fuck Hong Kong and fuck the ughyr, I will just die if I dont get my league of legends, Disney, iphone, Nike, fortnite, shiny shit! Human rights only matter to me until xinnie the pooh dangles something frivolous that I want in front of me at which point I'm gonna start *glug glug glug"ing that fat authoritarian dick.

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Does the president have the power to ban private enterprise?

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captpackrat posted...

Does the president have the power to ban private enterprise?

does the president have the power to ban blatant foreign espionage?

yes. yes he does.

im sure there will be lawsuits over it. this is only a first step, but it is a big one.

those of you about to cry over how much this inconveniences you might take a second to realize how deep china has to be in your life to make this inconvenience you.

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Noop_Noop posted...

But I'm sure the enlightened few on gamefaqs who just gotta have their baby Yoda tik toks will tell me how I'm a xenophobe for not wanting to suck xinnie the poohs tyrannical cock.

I'm on the line. I'm against software censorship but I'm also against data collection (and profiting off of data). Zeus makes a good point.
The solution is to ban data collection but nobody will agree to this because we're in the data science bubble.

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Like it or not the CCP are an evil regime and a threat to not only America, but the free world at large.

Id rather see legislation with very clear regulations of what is allowed and not allowed as far as data collection goes for all apps and websites

There are domestic companies openly using personal data for lucrative means without consumer knowledge, but people are being bamboozled into focusing only on chinese sites and apps when so far all the evidence points the the large mega-corporations like facebook and google being the ones guilty of using personal data for nefarious goals and collecting information without user consent

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Honestly, we should probably all just throw our phones into the nearest body of water until our leaders and tech giants can show that they actually give a flying fuck about our privacy or at least pretend they do. 10 years ago, people would've thought it was appalling what we accept as completely normal nowadays

PyroBlade1985 posted...

So in other words..."both sides"

pretty much, yeah

there should be regulations protecting Americans right to privacy from all sites and apps

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I haven't really been following any of this, but it sounds like this is definitely a good thing.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

There's a difference between "both sides are guilty, so it's all right" and "both sides are guilty, so crack down on all of them."

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keyblader1985 posted...

I haven't really been following any of this, but it sounds like this is definitely a good thing.

There's a difference between "both sides are guilty, so it's all right" and "both sides are guilty, so crack down on all of them."

This isn't a sides issue at all, period. Lol

The only reason its a sides issue to some is because orange man bad

Judgmenl posted...

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-addressing-threat-posed-wechat/

What's your opinion of the Trump banning software / software companies by executive order?

The CCP is vile and I'm all for it as long as it's just their state-controlled software being targeted.

I do worry about attempting to go after more companies than just that (like Trump's threats against U.S. internet-based companies).
And I'm not sure how it'd hold up in court.

But I agree w/ Trump when it comes to these Chinese companies. It's one of the only areas he's right about, and I hope liberals don't reflexively oppose the moves just because Trump pushed for them. Conservatives primary motivation seems to be to "troll dah libs!", I'd rather not have the left react the same way back.

OhhhJa posted...

This isn't a sides issue at all, period. Lol

I don't think anyone said anything about sides until post #14.

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keyblader1985 posted...

I don't think anyone said anything about sides until post #14.

Yeah he was making of fun of mead and mead just went with it

keyblader1985 posted...

I haven't really been following any of this, but it sounds like this is definitely a good thing.

There's a difference between "both sides are guilty, so it's all right" and "both sides are guilty, so crack down on all of them."

Honestly I question how much difference this will make.

Probably the most real and direct consequence is that thousands (millions?) of Chinese Americans will be unable to contact their families back in China.

I dont know how much, if at all, this will protect American national security.

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This move is unusual, unethical, and possibly illegal but that sums up about everything this administration has done.

PyroBlade1985 posted...

*whoosh*

I got it,

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I don't like social media much but trump seems to not like it enough to do things about it.
Personally, idk what's worse, government or business having so much of our information. I kinda am more comfortable with a government I have a say in rather than a business that just wants money.
I digress though. We'll see the effects soon and can go from there. I'm sure NPR and PBS will cover it well.

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pedro45 posted...

I don't like social media much but trump seems to not like it enough to do things about it.
Personally, idk what's worse, government or business having so much of our information. I kinda am more comfortable with a government I have a say in rather than a business that just wants money.
I digress though. We'll see the effects soon and can go from there. I'm sure NPR and PBS will cover it well.

This has nothing to do with that. If it was a matter of Trump having beef with social media, it would be Twitter or Facebook having problems.

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Zeus posted...

This has nothing to do with that. If it was a matter of Trump having beef with social media, it would be Twitter or Facebook having problems.

The two platforms he used to get elected?

Yeah, he hates them so much he's up at 3 am tweeting about how much he hates the platforms he's using to communicate his displeasure, lol

OhhhJa posted...

This isn't a sides issue at all, period.

It's not a left/right issue, but specifically targeting only one country's privacy infringements is focusing only on one side of the issue. To that end, the fact that Trump is focusing only on how invasive Chinese software is seems less like he's genuinely concerned about the privacy implications of the modern data industry and more like he's putting on a show for the portions of his base that are excited about the idea of him getting tough on China (which he's generally failed to do, despite publicity stunts like this). I quite agree that WeChat, TikTok, and the like are all very concerning, probably even more so than many similar apps coming out of Western developers (TikTok in particular is pretty terrifying in how insidiously aggressive it is about data collection), but those concerns are far from being unique to China, and banning a couple of Chinese apps does little to solve the problem of the big picture.

Blightzkrieg posted...

Honestly I question how much difference this will make.

Probably the most real and direct consequence is that thousands (millions?) of Chinese Americans will be unable to contact their families back in China.

I dont know how much, if at all, this will protect American national security.

Also this. As much as it seems like Trump is sticking it to the Big Chinese Tech bogeyman and protecting Americans in the process, odds are, this won't actually do much in terms of security (whether national or personal), but it will be devastating for the countless people that rely on WeChat to keep in touch with friends, family members, coworkers, or other acquaintances in China. It's a lazy, hamfisted solution to a vague problem that's almost certainly going to result in more collateral damage than benefit, which I guess is to be expected given that he opted to use an executive order to effect it rather than go through the more nuanced, collaborative process of involving the rest of government to pass legislation.

streamofthesky posted...

The two platforms he used to get elected?

Yeah, he hates them so much he's up at 3 am tweeting about how much he hates the platforms he's using to communicate his displeasure, lol

Pretty sure most people who voted for him have never used Twitter. More importantly, Facebook and Twitter are platforms he complains about. If he has an axe to grind against social media, which platforms would it be against? The ones he rails about or the ones he's not on and never discussed until the ban?

And, as a side issue, I should note that back when Trump ran for office, Twitter wasn't actively suppressing his speech.

_AdjI_ posted...

It's not a left/right issue, but specifically targeting only one country's privacy infringements is focusing only on one side of the issue. To that end, the fact that Trump is focusing only on how invasive Chinese software is seems less like he's genuinely concerned about the privacy implications of the modern data industry and more like he's putting on a show for the portions of his base that are excited about the idea of him getting tough on China (which he's generally failed to do, despite publicity stunts like this). I quite agree that WeChat, TikTok, and the like are all very concerning, probably even more so than many similar apps coming out of Western developers (TikTok in particular is pretty terrifying in how insidiously aggressive it is about data collection), but those concerns are far from being unique to China, and banning a couple of Chinese apps does little to solve the problem of the big picture.

No, those concerns are *pretty* unique to China because it's a matter of apps harvesting data for the CCP. A large reason why China had blocked Western companies from the space is so they could have a platform they could easily control. Anything harvested by those companies will end up in the CCP's hands (and that's not even touching on the speech issues). Compare that to Western companies who have done more to resist government intrusion into their platforms.

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Just let the free market take care of it :)

FourthDimension posted...

Just let the free market take care of it :)

If the free market had been allowed to function, these apps wouldn't exist at all =p

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