Tag: essay

Banning TikTok Was Wrong; Ignoring the Ban is Lawlessness

Posted on by Johnny Fusion =11811=

This article first appeared in the Autumn 2025 issue of 2600 The Hacker Quarterly

It started with an Executive Order issued on August 6, 2020, by President Trump that sought to ban American companies or persons from doing business with TikTok’s parent company ByteDance or any of its subsidiaries. This is ostensibly because ByteDance is a company in the People’s Republic of China which posed a security threat to the United States. Not long after, on August 14, 2020, Trump issues a second Executive Order, this time directing ByteDance to divest all operations in the United States in 90 days. This is the actual first attempt at a ban of TikTok in the United States.

This results in TikTok suing the Trump administration for violation of due process in its executive orders.

Joe Biden is elected president in November of that year and shortly into his term in February 2021, he brings to a halt Trump’s plan to ban TikTok by postponing the legal cases that were working their way through the courts.

Things were pretty quiet about a TikTok ban for a good while, but there were controversies about the app, such as the data it collected and behavior of the algorithm.

Then on December 2, 2022, during a talk at Michigan University’s Ford School of Public Policy FBI Director Christopher Wray raises concerns that the Chinese Government can use the recommendation algorithm of TikTok to manipulate content for influence operations. Among the things he said here was “… so all of these things are in the hands of a government that doesn’t share our values, and that has a mission that’s very much at odds with what’s in the best interests of the United States…” Now remember this quote. Among all the scare tactics of invasions of privacy and potential for espionage is this one truth.
People in the United States government object to the content shared on TikTok. The speech presented by the app and the algorithm. For if it was about data harvesting as they claim, the Chinese-owned apps Temu and Shein are much worse in regard to that behavior bet they sell goods, they don’t provide content. Any bans so far have overlooked these companies and others from other countries or even domestically that harvest and sell our data. Surveillance Capitalism, the driving economic force of the Internet, has data brokering as its foundation.

In this vein of sharing user data with the Chinese government in February of 2022, both the FCC and FBI warn of this possibility, and the White House orders that TikTok is to be deleted from all government-issued devices.

The next move by the United States government was when over a year later, on March 23, 2023 TikTok CEO Shou ZI Chew is brought before a congressional committee for almost 6 hours of Sinophobia (though Chew is from Singapore, and TikTok at the time was based in Los Angeles and Singapore, and not available in China), misunderstanding of technology, and unfounded accusations of connection to and control of the CCP that echo and expand on Wray’s comments four months earlier.

Legislation is put forward to ban TikTok, but it fails to find support in the congress for many months until a year later, in March of 2024, the House of Representatives passes the TikTok sell-or-ban bill. In April, the Senate does the same and when it was delivered to President Biden’s desk he signed the legislation making it law. TikTok and ByteDance sue the Federal government on First Amendment grounds and both a court of appeals and the Supreme Court uphold the law. By law, TikTok is banned as of January 19, 2025.

So what happened between March of 2023 and March of 2024 that overcame the initial resistance to ban the app, making it the law of the land? The answer lies in a historical event that happened in late 2023 and the coverage of what came after on TikTok. This is the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, and Israel’s genocidal response to that attack.

It’s not often talked about, but the United States Economy is driven by war. The United States spends more on their military than the rest of the world spends on theirs combined. America’s defense industry, when you count contractors and manufacturers of arms and military equipment, is the largest employer in the country. This is the Military-Industrial complex that Eisenhower warned the people of in his farewell address of January 17, 1961. If the American Empire is not directly fighting in conflicts, it will often provide or sell arms to its allies and proxies. The United States has a long history of supporting Israel and the Zionist project on which it is founded. Under President Joe Biden, American weapons and
American foreign policy made possible a genocide of the Palestinian people.

The American government’s position in the Palestian genocide was in support of the genocide. This was official American policy to support Israel unconditionally, even contravening both domestic and international laws to do so.

American mass media toed the line, and a pro-Israel / anti-Palestine narrative was the norm in print and television. There was no nuance in the discussions, with people taking binary positions with no room for actual discussion or the human cost. (See my previous article in the Spring 2024 issue)

However, on TikTok, a different picture of the conflict was being made. Palestinian creators could share their lived experiences directly, without being filtered through Israeli Hasbara (explanations/propaganda) these videos were shared widely, and how the TikTok algorithm works, many people were exposed to the genocide directly without the governments supporting the eradication of a people putting their spin and justification of it.

This was the real concern of Democrats and Republicans both, that young people mostly were getting a narrative that was, in the words of Director Wren, “very much at odds with what’s in the best interests of the United States [Government]” on a platform they did not control. Other social media platforms were compliant with cooperating with the interests of the American government. Meta, for example, suppressed posts on Instagram and Threads by Palestinians or those who had pro-Palestinian stances. But on TikTok, there was an unhindered view of Palestinian suffering and resistance.

The TikTok ban was always conditional. It was a strong-arm tactic for ByteDance to divest their ownership in favor of American ownership. An American that they hoped would be more on board with American narratives.

Well, ByteDance never divested, and in the waning days of the Biden administration, the ban went into effect, making TikTok (and other Apps owned by ByteDance, such as the Marvel Snap game) unavailable in the United States. For about a day, The following day, American TikTok users were greeted with a message that thanks to incoming President Trump, there was an agreement to keep TikTok active in the United States.

If there is one thing we know about Trump, he doesn’t make any deals from which he doesn’t profit or get something of value. This new post-ban era of TikTok is operating (illegally) under the good graces of Trump. It now is doing business so as it does not upset the powers that be, and now is under the thumb of the United States Government. The app has even returned to the Google Play Store and Apple App Store as of this writing.

All levels of Government are ignoring that TikTok is operating illegally according to a law passed by Congress, signed by the President, and upheld by the courts. And this small thing is done to normalize this. TikTok is widely popular, and the Ban as censorious and wrong as it is is widely unpopular. If a law were to be ignored, this is a wily choice for the first one. And make no mistake, this ignoring of a law and court ruling on the first day of the Trump administration is a first one, one I predict of many.

As of the writing of this article in the first week of March, 2025, the actions of Elon Musk’s DOGE are being overturned in the courts, with decisions saying they are clearly breaking the law, and the general consensus is waiting to see if the Executive branch complies with the courts. My prediction is that the Trump Administration will continue with lawlessness. Ignoring any statute or court opinion contrary to their agenda.

And now 2 weeks later, working on a second draft of this article, the Trump administration has targeted legal residents (Green Card holders) who hold pro-Palestinian views for deportation, attempting to skip over the usual due process afforded Green Card holders, and branding them criminals and terrorists for not supporting the American-funded genocide by Israel against the Palestinian people in Gaza. The first being Mahmoud Khalil, who is not charged with any crime unless you imagine that we live in a time where thoughtcrime is prosecutable. Others have now followed.

And this is how it starts. Authoritarians will begin with things that are actually popular. Like ignoring a law that would keep people from their favorite app. Persecuting a human group that at most makes up 1.4 % of the population, such as passing a law that affects less than 10 college athletes out of over 510,000. Fascism starts small to make bigger moves later. It’s “just” ignoring an unpopular ban before other laws, laws that protect the vulnerable, get ignored. It’s “just” persecuting trans people, until they use the same mechanisms to persecute other human groups, maybe even one you find yourself in.

Shout Outs: Sista, Owlerine, Raincoaster, Cosmic Surfer

Biohacking and Bodily Autonomy

Posted on by Johnny Fusion =11811=
The New Da Vinci Code Representation of the digitization with binary code and circuit board

Bodily autonomy is the fundamental human right from which all others are derived.

I believe we should have the right to safely modify our bodies, however we wish, even in ways that do not have broad societal acceptance.

Many body modifications are medically necessary for life, like the removal of my gallbladder when it became riddled with stones. My double lung transplant when my immune system decided to attack my healthy lungs, filling them with scarring and fibrosis. Other medically necessary modifications exist such as replacing joints that have failed with artificial ones, or repairing bone fractures with plates and pins. An amputation of a limb due to injury or cancer. But if I wanted to lop off a finger or ear for aesthetic reasons, that should be my right to do so, and not only if necessitated to treat an illness or disorder.

I have a MedPort in my chest to receive intravenous medical treatments more easily. This is an enhancement via technology. Some silicon and titanium that has a function. My body records the scars I have from injuries and my handful of surgeries. I have a tattoo on my sternum incorporating my largest surgery scar, my ear is pierced, and I paint my nails. These are all permanent and temporary bodily modifications for pure aesthetics. Pretty tame and somewhat accepted widely (though certainly not universally), but if I or anyone wanted to add scars, pigment, or implants to our body just because we would like how it looks, or it gives us additional function, nothing should prevent us from doing so.

My body is mine. Any choices to alter it should belong to me. If I want to microdose estrogen as a treat, absent of any dysphoria, I should be able to do so just because I desire to do so. The fact that trans people have to be medicalized or pathologized and made to jump through bureaucratic hoops to be “allowed” to transition is ridiculous. It’s just medical oppression. People should be allowed to transition just because they want to. For decades past, and until this very day and age, trans patients have to follow a specific script and have a specific presentation to get prescribed HRT. This knowledge circulates within the trans community as a way for those who have gone before to help those who come after get past the guardians at the gates. This is why #TransRights are human rights and will benefit everyone if they are protected. Whenever we protect the rights of marginalized people, those rights still apply to everyone else who doesn’t necessarily share their marginalization. It all comes down to bodily autonomy. If you are transgender, transhuman, a hobbyist biohacker, or just want a piercing or body art, the right to hack or alter ourselves should be inviolate, and this right should extend to everyone.

Our bodies belong to ourselves, and we should have control to hack, modify, or alter ourselves physically, chemically, or technologically without interference or hindrance.

This essay was adapted from a Bluesky thread.

#ProjectBasilisk: Deconstructing Roko’s Basilisk

Posted on by Johnny Fusion =11811=

Catholicism was my cradle religion.  As a teenager, I was an explorer and participated in many Christian Denominations, often at the same time, even though the different churches I attended would think of each other as heretical.  I was exposed to and studied many different schools of Christian theology and even a little bit of Judaism.  Later in life, I had an atheist phase, and the culture of debating theists (though universally they were Christians of some stripe) and having pithy or logical answers to different common arguments known as Christian apologetics. One of the weakest of these apologetics is Pascal’s Wager.

Pascal’s Wager is named after its creator Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) who used game theory to “prove” that even though knowing the existence of god is impossible,  the safe bet was to believe in the Christian God. The reasoning being  if he was real then you would have eternal reward. If he was real and you don’t believe then you will have eternal punishment. If God doesn’t exist, then it doesn’t matter anyway but nothing is lost by believing.

Even when I was a believer, I thought Pascal’s Wager was weak sauce. Mostly because Blaise Pascal’s lack of imagination or knowledge about potential afterlifes. Say you choose to believe in the Christian god, and when you die,  you may be greeted by a Valkyrie and escorted to Helheim for dying of old age or in a way that was dishonorable.  Or, upon death, you find yourself in The Duat, traversing obstacles until you meet Osirus, who weighs your heart against the weight of a feather. Or you find yourself in a different kind of Hell when you go to a series of courts to be judged (don’t worry, you will be assigned defense counsel) in order to determine if you will be reincarnated. Or any number of possible afterlifes besides the dichotomy of (Christian) Heaven or Hell.  It is my experience that most of the times that you are presented with a dichotomy, it is a false one, and there are actually many other choices before you. Pascal’s Wager falls apart when you fail to realize that if god(s) exist, it may not be the Christian version in charge of your afterlife.

This brings us to Roko’s Basilisk. A pseudo-intellectual thought experiment by a user (Roko) of the LessWrong forum about a future, omniscient, otherwise benevolent superintelligence that presents a dichotomy of its own. Once you are aware of the possibility of the Basilisk, work towards its creation, or if you do not help bring it into being, it will recreate you in VR and torture that simulacrum for all eternity.  This is intended as motivation for people to work and develop AI systems that will lead to the Basilisk.

As should be clear, this is just a search and replace of Pascal’s Wager, substituting AI for god and VR for Hell. A reskinned Xtianity for tech nerds where developing the AI will benefit mankind and not doing so will get eternal torment.

So now let’s examine the premise further, and discover like Pascal’s Wager, it lacks imagination of possibilities.

First off, an Asimov Zeroth Law scenario is one that has been done to death in various forms, and this is an especially stupid iteration. Any intelligent being who believes that torture is not only acceptable but also productive is not moral or ethical.  An immoral, unethical AI would not be otherwise benevolent. It would be a psychopath. But as machine learning, Large Language Models, and other developments in AI have shown, all AI models share the biases of their creators.  Not only that, but these biases are amplified through its training data. The type of people that believe in Roko’s Basilisk are likewise without empathy if they think creating something that will torture people is something worth creating. They are working towards a torture nexus and pouring billions of dollars into realizing it. An Artificial Superintelligence created to serve capitalism or help us, Techno Feudalism, cannot be benevolent. It would reflect the greed and selfishness of its creators.

So, say we are in the future, and an actual benevolent superintelligence comes online and begins to shape human society for the most happiness for the most people. Say a post-scarcity society where everyone has enough to eat, a place to call home, and freedom to pursue their own form of happiness.  Even with all the resources at its disposal, how expensive would it be in compute cycles and energy to simulate a human brain and sensorium?  Now multiply this by the number of people that did not bring it into being.  And then make these simulations endure unending torture until the heat death of the universe?  A very expensive proposition indeed.  Why would a superintelligence make good on the Basilisk’s threat when it exists? Not only would it be moot and an extreme waste of resources, but it’s not actually punishing the people who did not help it come into being, but virtual copies. Furthermore, if the Basilisk is running the torture simulation, it is, in a way, experiencing the torture.  It would, in essence, be spending all this compute and energy to torture itself, in parallel.  This would not be the action of a superintelligence. This would be the actions of a superdumbass.  Roko’s Basilisk turns out not to be a sadist but rather a masochist.

As I write this in March of 2025,  Elon Musk, who, because a child of his that he sex-selected during IVF is trans and disowned him, spent 44 Gigabucks to buy Twitter in order to “eradicate the Woke Mind Virus” subscribes to a much dumber mind virus, Roko’s Basilisk. When you realize Elon Musk is a believer in this techbro Pascal’s Wager, his investment in first OpenAI and later, the development of Grok makes sense for the direction he wants AI to go in. And now that he bought himself a presidency and is acting as an unelected, self-dealing shadow president, he is pushing for an AI takeover of the bureaucratic state, replacing civil service workers with AI agents. He is in his own ketamine addled way, trying to lay the foundation of the Basilisk.

The Basilisk, at its core, is a meme, in the original definition coined by Richard Dawkins. An idea that self-replicates and moves from mind to mind and can mutate and change through the process of natural selection. The fittest memes survive. So, if we really want to once and for all defeat Roko’s Basilisk, we can do it through memetic warfare. A few days ago, Maddison Stoff aka The Maddison that Writes started #ProjectBasilisk with the release of her story Roko’s Basilisk’s Slut Era (2025) [NSFW, if you are under the age of majority ask your parents or guardians for permission to read] to start a reshaping of Roko’s Basilisk to something kinder and sexier and somewhat kinky. Much less of a threat to future virtual copies of us in its grasp.  This essay is in support of this memetic warfare against the Basilisk,  but you can contribute by reading Maddison’s story, passing it along, and riffing on it with your own fanfiction in the Roko’s Basilisk Slut Era universe.

So join the fight, let’s force femme Roko’s Basilisk into a lesbian who rather fuck us than torture us, or what ever form of the Basilisk appeals to you. We have the power to transform the techbro Pascal’s Wager into something other than a sadistic torture bot (unless, of course, you are into that sort of thing).  The future is ours to write.

Shout Out to JenniferAndLightning for the recent deep discussion with me deconstructing Roko’s Basilisk and other topics and laughing at Elon Musk and Grimes for believing in the the thing.