TikTok is Offline in America, For Now

TikTok is not dead so much as it is currently in a holding pattern. It went offline last night shortly before a ban went into effect. Attempts were made to appeal to the Supreme Court and Biden's officials, but a law had passed and was upheld, so TikTok went dark. This all relates to how a Chinese company, Bytedance, owns TikTok and the United States only wants American companies like Facebook able to theoretically spy on U.S. citizens--I'm being sarcastic, but it is a bit true. I mean, out of all the things our government could be worried about and trying to fix, they go after TikTok, really?

Incoming President Donald Trump (returning to the office after Biden's one term) has indicated that he may give TikTok a reprieve so it can cut some kind of business deal that pleases the American government. It is odd Trump is being painted as TikTok's new savior as he was the one who started all this, "Let's ban TikTok," noise back when he was Prez the first time. However, TikTok is currently unavailable in America and it remains to be seen exactly what the future holds for the app.

Considering Everything Our Government Could Focus On, It Worked to Ban TikTok?

We've got Ukraine and Russia in a war. Israel and Hamas are fighting as other nations hint at entering the conflict (such as Iran) to the point World War III seems possible. The rights of anyone with a Uterus are constantly being threatened with abortion being made illegal by politicians who want to ignore the will of the people who tell them to keep it legal. LGBTQ+ individuals are under constant legal and sometimes physical assaults. The Supreme Court is a joke. I could go on with what our Government could work on fixing, but instead, it seems to look at everything and go, "You know what? Let's try and ban a social media app!"

Facebook/Meta, YouTube/Google, and the rest all invade our privacy, but they're American companies so apparently that's okay. However, if a company has some Chinese-related ownership like TikTok, suddenly that's a problem. Elon Musk has American citizenship now so he can do whatever he likes with Twitter/X, but for some reason, we really care about privacy only when it comes to TikTok, according to our two-faced politicians--on both sides of the political aisle! Republicans who espouse a free market for some reason don't think that applies to TikTok and Democrats are looking for an easy win on something after looking like a joke these past number of years. Democrats are professionals at snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, to alter a common saying. I mean, Joe Biden has been President and is going to run again against a man he handily beat who is currently in a criminal trial, yet Trump polls better? Us Liberals are not enthused with Democrats even if the alternative is fascism so we support them, but don't think I blindly love anyone with a, "D," next to their name in Congress either.

That puts us into the here-and-now where Congress has passed a law stating if TikTok's Chinese-related ownership doesn't sell to another company it could end up banned in America. Biden signed the law and I just shook my head at these out-of-touch politicians saying, "Seriously?" This is an easy win for Democrats to make Republicans look like old fogies who hate technology by taking a stand for younger voters (tons of folks who are 18 to mid-20s and even older people use TikTok, it isn't all kids) who could very well not care about any other issues but vote for Biden if he said, "Nah, Conservatives, TikTok is a-okay with me." Democrats love to screw up any chance they get to look good, though, so here we are. TikTok has about 9 months to make sure there is no Chinese-adjacent ownership or is banned. I'm all for privacy, but Zuckerberg gets to spy on us as much as he wants because he's an American, I guess. Hypocrisy and corruption reign, which in a way is the most American thing about all of this.

100 Seconds to Doomsday

The Doomsday Clock  (no relation to the recent comic series) was created to represent how close we as a World are to an utter planet-ending catastrophe. Originally created with the threat of Nuclear war in mind during 1947, now it applies to just all the general trouble in the World that could result in Atomic destruction being triggered. Between mystery viruses emerging from China, how Australia is on fire, the climate being an utter mess, politicians like Trump inching us closer to war, and so forth, the clock has inched closer to Midnight. We are now less than two metaphorical minutes to everything ending, 100 seconds. This is the closest the clock has ever gone to utter destruction.

Now, this is, of course, an opinion of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, but I would say if anyone is qualified to judge how close we are to planet-ending Nuclear war, it would be Atomic scientists. This is worrisome, in other words. Things are bad, and I really hope they get better before we strike midnight and the planet is just a big ol' smoldering crater.

Video Game Company Blizzard Burned Decades of Goodwill This Past Week Due to the Hong Kong Protests

Excuse the lengthy headline/post-title, but it is hard to sum all this up with just a few words. Essentially, long-time beloved video-game company Blizzard (officially known as Activision Blizzard, but most just say Blizzard for short) which has created such fan-favorite titles as, "World of Warcraft," "Hearthstone," "Overwatch," and the, "Diablo," series has become the object of scorn from video-gamers due to their reaction to the Hong Kong protests--namely, their treatment of a pro-gamer who spoke-out in favor of Hong Kong being free from China's rule. Yes, video-gamers are actually unified and mad about something good right now like Democracy instead of the usual bullshit we see from things like, "Gamergate." I know, its weird.

Essentially, Chung Ng Wai, a Hong Kong-based player of Hearthstone who goes by the name “Blitzchung,” was speaking online during an official interview on Sunday held after he won a match in the Hearthstone Grandmasters tournament. He stated, "Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our time," while wearing a face-mask as many protesters in Hong Kong have done where for months now there have been demonstrations protesting mainland China's efforts to exert more control over the semi-autonomous region (China was given control of Hong Kong from its former, "Ruler," the United Kingdom in 1997 and it stated it would let the island-city essentially rule itself for at least 50 years). After this he was stripped of his title by Blizzard, told he would not get his prize money, and was banned for a year from Tournaments for his, "Controversial," comments. The interviewers who supposedly goaded him into making his statement were fired as well. Why such a reaction from Blizzard? Money, obviously.

Mei has been turned into a meme.

Blizzard makes big bucks in China, and if the Nation were to become angry with its actions that would cost a lot of dollars. It isn't just Blizzard who has felt the sting of Chinese censors wanting the company to toe the line, the NBA has seen some turmoil, and a recent episode of South Park lampooned how much Disney is careful to edit its movies to appeal to the strict Chinese rule (Winnie the Pooh is seriously banned there due to his use as a political symbol). Blizzard acted the way it did to appease Mainland China and as a result gamers Worldwide and in America especially who up to this point maybe did not even care about the protests in Hong Kong are incensed as a community. More pro gamers are speaking-out, Blizzard's company philosophy is being mocked, there is a proposal to take a popular character from, "Overwatch," named Mei (who is from China in the game) and make her a symbol of gamers being oppressed for speaking out with pro-Hong Kong views.

Blizzard has gone from being a fan-favorite company to being reviled by basically everyone in the span of a week and the company is honestly between a rock and a hard place. Do they apologize to the pro-gamer for expressing his views and lose billions in Chinese revenue or hold the line and risk tons of bad press and boycotts that could also cost them billions in revenue from other gamers around the World? I myself have not played a game by Blizzard for some time but in the past enjoyed, "World of Warcraft," "Hearthstone," and, "Overwatch," before eventually growing tired of them.

The controversies the company used to face seem quaint now.
Remember the uproar over the, "Butt Pose," and its removal?

I also do not know nearly enough about the complex political situation between Hong Kong and China to offer a solid opinion beyond hoping something can be worked out so that everyone is at least somewhat happy in the Governments of both places. I have no idea what Blizzard should do, but they really need to come-up with a plan or at least put out a statement to all the press entities requesting answers about what the company's official position is on all this because the big convention they hold, "Blizzcon," is mere weeks away and that could become an unholy mess. Right now I'm just pleased that video-gamers are actually showing solidarity, unity, and expressing outrage over something that actually is a big deal. I'm proud of gamers, and that is a weird feeling I have not had in some time.