[yonaguska]

A foreign government can't execute a no-knock raid on my home, can't garnish my wages, can't throw me in jail from outside of my country...etc. I know you used the wording "domestic company", but we are talking about governments here.

[josefresco]

China is building "police stations" worldwide to do just this. See their agreements with Fiji* and how that backfired when Chinese police showed up and rounded up 77+ "suspects" and basically abducted them.

*https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/interactive/2023/china-...

[vineyardmike]

China has shown to have an international police force to enact their will overseas. They probably won’t harm you, but they’re inching closer. I would also be vaguely worried about them sharing data with other companies in China that slowly influence commerce in America.

I support the ban from a competitive perspective. Until meta can spy on Chinese citizens, why should the Chinese spy on Americans?

Also I support it from a privacy perspective. We can’t as easily ban American companies from spying on us, but we should use any power to limit other companies from starting business spying on Americans. Make it less profitable globally.

[sitkack]

The FBI is also global. https://www.fbi.gov/contact-us/international-offices

[adventured]

So you wouldn't be super worried about Russia and its hacker farms having deep info on every US citizen, for one example?

Foreign attacking agents can do much worse than garnish your wages. They can get a no-knock raid sent to your home if they have your info and you're a target of theirs. That's relatively easy. They can drive the US system to attack you by screwing with your life from outside the US where you can't do anything to stop them. And that can be done in so many ways it's rather obscene. Let's talk about the IRS economic ways they could do it; let's talk about the child protective services way they could do it; let's talk about the no-knock SWAT raid way they could do it; let's talk about the way they could go after your identity and bank accounts; let's talk about how they could focus in on your job, boss, co-workers, etc. and try to make your life hell there; and on and on and on it goes.

Yeah right. I dare anybody on HN to proclaim that, I want to see the supporting premise where the foreign party like Russia having all your info is not as big of a deal.

The notion that the FBI would do worse things from that position than Russia would is absurd, given what we've seen out of Russia. And China is absolutely no different in terms of its willingness to attack the US opportunistically (the Obama Admin had to obtain a cease fire agreement with China in regards to aggressively attacking the US re hacking, recall).

There are no chains at all on what Russia can do to screw with the US citizenry, given the information. And more advanced AI systems should make it even easier for them to do it in the near future.

If Russia could push a button and blank out 30 million US bank accounts, via a hacking plausible deniability means (anything that gives them the required minimum cover), they'd do it immediately. There's so little downside from where Russia is sitting these days, it'd be a no-brainer for them. What are you gonna do? Sanction them? We're sure as hell not going to war with Russia over that.

[enterprise_cog]

So Russia having info is worse because they would then sick the overreaching and cruel US govt on you? You do see how silly that sounds, don’t you? It proves the parent comment’s point that we should be fearing our domestic government more than a foreign one.

Imagine if the US wasn’t a police state, and the average person had good social/financial protections. We’d make China and Russia powerless according to your logic.

[johnnyworker]

Your own government is in theory accountable to you, a foreign government is not even in theory.

[edgyquant]

Your question is basically, “Why would France not want Nazi Germany to have an analytical device attached to 2/3 of its citizens in 1940?”

This is a foreign government we have a decent chance of being in a great power military conflict with, the first of such since the Second World War. It is so obviously a tool that would be used in such a conflict that I have a hard time accepting this is a good faith question you’re asking. If it is, then you need to stop thinking of it as a social media platform and remember that’s just the front end of the network.