Ban TikTok: or
All IPs Within the Scope Of 130.44.212.XXX? or
Stop being Stupid about IT. Get Smart about MultiModal AI
— More Government Stupid IT Tricks:
Even Bing is unsure how a ban of a website as well established as TikTok
could be done. When someone proposes banning a website
like TikTok there
is no one thing to ban. When a Senator proposes to ban TikTok,
the pol really is saying a range of
IP addresses must be banned. In
TikTok's case, a very long and geographically spread out across the
globe range of both IP addresses and servers would need to be blocked.
To
ban all of TikTok from streaming into all US states and territories is not
something easily done. The action may not be feasible. When
Senators mention what the US has done regarding the ban of certain
Chinese sourced IT products, Huawei is always mentioned.
Hauwei manufacturers telecommunications and other IT products.
To ban things from importation into the US is a matter of blocking ships
at US ports. To prevent the distribution of goods within US
borders is within the scope of what the government can actually do.
The list on the left is a part of what TikTok actually is in
these US of A. Federal authorities would be in a never ending game
of
Whack-a Mole in quixotic attempts to
hit the IP address du jour. TikTok does list a single US IP for
tracking purposes, but TikTok is an almost infinite range of IPs that
all must be blocked if all of TikTok is to be blocked.
Not one
bill of the three proposed bills in the current Congress gives any ink to exactly how
this almost
impossible feat would be accomplished.
Is federal law enforcement going to hold responsible an eight year old who somehow manages to bypass the TikTok bans and watch his favorites vids of Chihuahuas eating Peanut Butter? Seriously, is the FBI and the US Department of Justice going to prosecute and send that Juvenile Delinquent to the slammer? No, of course not. So why all the pretensions?
The bill introduced in the House of Representatives by Michael McCaul has a
catchy title: "Deterring
America's Technological Adversaries Act" or "DATA Act."
[ed. note pdf of each bill will open]
There is no mention of how this ban would be implemented by
authorities.
The Josh Hawley bill in the Senate has a very assertive title, "No TikTok on United States Devices Act.'' The bill as written is only 5 pages long and has neither a Table Of Contents, or any mention of the technical means to do what his 5 pages require be done. The other bill introduced in the Senate has several co-signers, along with the author, Senator Mark Warner. Titled, "Restricting the Emergence of Security Threats that Risk Information and Communications Technology Act" or the "RESTRICT Act," is a 55 page bill that is big on the What, Where, Why, and Who. Yet, in all its 55 pages there is no mention of the How.
In not one of these proposed pieces of
legislation is there any mention of what TikTok actually is as it
exists. The bills
treat a series of IP addresses as if they were things that can be
confiscated like any other contraband. The other problem with banning
an IP address is IP addressees
can be bounced off of servers anywhere on Earth.
Like cash, IP
addresses are fungible. As Miriam-Webster's Dictionary
defines the term, IPs can be easily exchanged or substituted. Assigning
new IP addresses, assuming the Feds might succeed at blocking any one
range of IPs, will be endless and pointless swinging at windmills.
Instead of these silly efforts of doing what Congress probably can't do, Congress must immediately address the growing numbers of scams facilitated by Artificial Technology's ability to closely mimic anyone's voice. Add a person's voice to a set of stolen credentials, and the frauds will fly and the fraudsters will get fat off of other people's features.
With the coming multimodal AIs that have the ability to generate convincing sounds, films, and images of anyone or anything, fraudsters will be feasting on the all the fleeced sheep. The coming upgrade to ChatGPT-4 may unleash a tsunami of ID theft.
To anticipate and prevent these real crimes that will happen to Americans of all stripes, no legislation needs to be written. The Federal laws against ID theft are spelled out clearly in The Privacy Act of 1974, (5 U.S.C. 552a). This Act has been amended many times to adapt to new technologies and challenges not imagined when the original law was passed. Federal organizations are already established to enforce and enact the measure. The states could all enact similar laws.
My simple proposal is Congress should amend the ACT above to include any
unauthorized reproduction either by analogue or digital technology of
any American citizen's personal attributes using any kind of sound,
voice, images, and other mediums. Strong penalties must be
implemented and punishable by some real mean and stiff penalties.
This can be done immediately. There is no partisan divide here.
Simply amending an existing law to make the law relevant to new and
changing conditions and events is what the US Constitution is written to
do. This requires no technical know how to do.
Stop
the all silly grandstanding. Just do this and tell the people how you
have protected
