Social network != messaging app.
Social networks have a natural tendency toward monopoly because the utility they provide to their users increases superlinearly with their number of users. The same is not true for the software facilitating access to the social network, or the specific messaging app.


Otherwise, I agree with you and also (surprisingly) fender. It's not a move coming out of principle, and it's hypocritical that Trump is accusing a Chinese app of doing the same thing his own country's data krakens like google, facebook & co. have been doing for a decade plus, but banning WeChat is still a net positive.

This post was edited by Black XistenZ on Aug 10 2020 04:29pm

1-1=0 plz

Chat programme being fragmented is limiting just like social media is

The Chinese-American community will eventually settle onto one other chat program that they will all use. This is not creating more fragmentation than there already is anyway. Keep in mind that Chinese-Americans are already being forced into using WeChat that almost no one else in the US uses. They are effectively using two different apps anyway, say WeChat for their family and WhatsApp for their non-Chinese friends and colleagues.

The fragmentation is coming from the fact that China banned WhatsApp and similar American-based messaging programs, not the other way round.

This post was edited by Black XistenZ on Aug 10 2020 05:07pm

China is asshole

*asshoe

as an american living abroad i use wechat to communicate with my family and friends in the states.

there are other things we could use to communicate with but quite frankly, wechat is just better.

The evils of the CCP genuinely resemble the third reich. The world will be a better place stained with their blood.

It wont be hard to find a different messaging app with similar functionality, or to even program a new one from scratch. The issue with WeChat is not its functionality, it's the mass collection of data which are being sent to the CCP.

Difference is our giants don't report to the US gov't who then send the gestapo to take care of the person if the posts are anti-American. I suspect there's massive amount of anti american rhetoric on any one of those platforms. Maybe those people go on some list but unless that person is going to act on some of his negative feelings i.e. terrorist attack, nothing happens to that person for the most part. The bar for action for the Chinese is much much lower, especially in places they can exert some level of pressure. It's similar to Erdogan's influence on Germany in some respect in my opinion, or the Saudis in much of the Sunni world.

This post was edited by ofthevoid on Aug 10 2020 07:53pm