• cyd@vlemmy.net
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    1 year ago

    Given TikTok’s precarious situation, it’s no surprise they’re going out of their way to bend to the whims of US politics. Face it, there are a lot of Republicans ready to justify banning TikTok by pointing to teenagers getting abortion advice from the platform.

    • P03 Locke@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      1 year ago

      There are plenty of other reasons to ban TikTok, namely the massive and unchecked data collection by the Chinese government.

      I’d prefer not to install Chinese spyware, thankyouverymuch.

      • Pigeon@beehaw.org
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        1 year ago

        Maybe ban targeted advertizing, or that degree of spyware, for all companies, instead of opening that pandora’s box of giving the power to ban social media apps altogether to the government.

        Especially since the anti-tiktok bills actually include a lot of other stuff, up to and including making VPN’s illegal.

        • P03 Locke@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          1 year ago

          Every US bill includes a lot of other stuff. That’s Congress’s gig.

          The US needs a tighter set of restrictions like what the EU has been passing out lately. But, that doesn’t change the fact that ByteDance is a Chinese corporation, under the control of the Chinese government, and has no pretenses of data regulations.

          • Prunebutt@feddit.de
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            1 year ago

            ByteDance is corporated in the Cayman Islands, buddy.

            They are about as cooperative with the CCP as Apple and Facebook are.

        • Steeve@lemmy.ca
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          1 year ago

          Targeted advertising isn’t even on the same playing field of sketchyness as “massive and unchecked data collection by the Chinese government”. Even mentioning it in the same sentence seems like an attempt at forum sliding.

          And while I agree that the bill is an overreach and absolutely shouldn’t go through in it’s current form, it’s exactly what would be required to achieve your authoritarian stance of banning all social media.

          • Prunebutt@feddit.de
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            1 year ago

            Really? Because you could argue that targeted advertising lead to the January 6th riots.

            The chinese government doesn’t really benefit from data collection on western citizens. At least not if they don’t work for intelligence agencies or want to proclaim that Taiwan is a country while being on mainland China.

            • MrWiggles@prime8s.xyz
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              1 year ago

              If you think they’re not capable of if not already engaged in PSYOPS, I’d suggest you look deeper into targeted advertising and who is paying for it.

              • Prunebutt@feddit.de
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                1 year ago

                What is your point? Tell me, what the chinese government is supposedly doing with non-chinese user-data that is not worse than what the US surveillance capitalism is currently doing?

                Do you seriously think that China spread misinformation about “stolen elections”?

        • P03 Locke@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          1 year ago

          Blah, blah, I hear the same tired argument over and over again about how Google, Facebook, Amazon are just as bad as China. But, it’s just not true.

          These large corps are definitely something we should paying attention to and they get away with far too much. They should be broken up just like Ma Bell. But, they are still subject to the same data restrictions that the US and the EU have put into law.

          TikTok, on the other hand, is owned by a Chinese company, and by extension, the Chinese government. Any data it collects goes straight to the Chinese government. ByteDance, of course, denies this, but the US military, CIA, and other government entities know better, as they have specifically banned the platform for any of their personnel. The data tracking permissions you have to allow on phones is far higher than any other social media platform. It’s a more aggressive data collection platform.

          TikTok serves a wildly different set of media to the non-Chinese public. It wants to dumb down the non-Chinese population by serving addictive short-form content that hones in on their interests, in a more extreme fashion than any other social media platform, and gets them into a constant loop of video watching for hours and hours.

          • dabe@programming.dev
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            1 year ago

            TikTok really doesn’t perform that much more data collection on their apps than Google does, if at all more. Sure, data going into the Chinese government might be a bit more concerning, but I’d say most if your argument is dangerously close to Chinese fear-mongering.

          • Prunebutt@feddit.de
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            1 year ago

            The CIA has banned that stuff because their employees are high value targets for chinese intelligence agencies.

            You don’t have any data collection restrictions in the US (thanks to the patrion act).

            Law enforcement has coplete access to the ring doorbell cameras. Google and Facebook have repeatedly worked together with the CIA and FBI. It has been established that the US elections have been tampered with via targeted advertising in combination with misinformation. As a regular US citizen, you are simply not a target for China. The US government however has repeatedly proven that it spies on foreign and their own citieens.

            And all that “dumbing down” conspiracy theory: It is far more likely that a profit driven corporation simply optimizes for maximum engagement for ad revenue.

          • Steeve@lemmy.ca
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            1 year ago

            But when I google tacos I get ads of tacos and that’s just as bad as the Chinese government choosing the content I get to see on the internet

            • Prunebutt@feddit.de
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              1 year ago

              Yeah. The chinese government clearly wants you to see as many ads for some shitty car or makeup or whatnot. That’s definetly the CCP and not some Ad company who pays ByteDance. /s

          • Prunebutt@feddit.de
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            1 year ago

            The chinese government neither wants to sell you shit, nor will harrass you with their cops (unless you live in China).

              • Prunebutt@feddit.de
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                1 year ago

                It’s not more naive than trusting the US government. That one has a more direct control and interest in implementing a surveillance police-state.

                • RosalynKirk@kbin.social
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                  1 year ago

                  Yes, it absolutely is, because the US government does not require companies by law to hand over any and all information they collect to them.

                  • Prunebutt@feddit.de
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                    1 year ago
                    1. They might not need to, since the NSA has quite an arsenal of tools.
                    2. The companies might share all the info volutarily.
                    3. They’ll definetly share the data if the price is right.

                    Google Amazon and Facebook have repeatedly worked with law enforcement in the past. You can still believe that the chinese goverment is sooo much worse than the US, but don’t call other people naive if you do.

      • Uriel238@lemmy.fmhy.ml
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        1 year ago

        If you’re concerned about Chinese spyware, You might want to also be concerned about US spyware as well. The US justice complex is not a friend to the US public, nor is the US national security complex.