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India bans TikTok, WeChat, and dozens of other Chinese apps

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Re: India bans TikTok, WeChat, and dozens of other Chinese apps

#21

Post by kanox »

ppeetteerr wrote: post #4
markovbot wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would find it very problematic if the US government attempted to interfere with it's citizens downloading whatever software they want. I absolutely do not trust the US government to be the arbitrator of what app's are "safe".

This is a common sentiment: distrust in the US government. Given that 30% of income goes to the feds, might be time to change the government to be more trust worthy. Good thing elections are coming up.

You're completely missing the point: no government should get to decide what apps to ban.

Re: India bans TikTok, WeChat, and dozens of other Chinese apps

#22

Post by Avamander »

markovbot wrote: post #6
ppeetteerr wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a common sentiment: distrust in the US government. Given that 30% of income goes to the feds, might be time to change the government to be more trust worthy. Good thing elections are coming up.

This is a pretty common response: just vote for the other guy. Too bad no one trustworthy is running for the executive office.

As long as there isn't a better system, voting for the lesser evil seems like the least one could do. You can continue the fight for a better system when you don't have an actively racist president for example.

Re: India bans TikTok, WeChat, and dozens of other Chinese apps

#23

Post by rpastuszak »

Barrin92 wrote: post #5
president wrote: post #2

Glad to see India understanding the threat to national security posed by these apps. I would like to see the US do the same.

banning the usage of WeChat for public officials or national defense companies and so on would make some sense, I fail to see however how TikTok is a security threat. It's just a response to the clash over the border and nothing else, and not really a particularly effective one at that.

I'm not sure where to draw the line between security and privacy and whether this distinction should be made at all, but: http://archive.is/WYLKa

TL;DR TikTok looks waaaaaay more shady than FB with their Android SDK.

(seems like archive.is is down atm, tried to load via wayback machine, but they don't have this site cached, ugh)

Re: India bans TikTok, WeChat, and dozens of other Chinese apps

#24

Post by Barrin92 »

riffic wrote: post #10
Barrin92 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

banning the usage of WeChat for public officials or national defense companies and so on would make some sense, I fail to see however how TikTok is a security threat. It's just a response to the clash over the border and nothing else, and not really a particularly effective one at that.

Have you seen any of the recently posted analyses of the TikTok binaries? https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=pastWeek&page=0&prefix=fal...

Yes, some of them are somewhat hyperbolic like the Apple keyboard thing which was apparently related to some sort of anti-spam feature, but in general that makes TikTok a privacy mess, which is undoubtly true but not really grounds for a national ban on the basis of security. By that logic you'd have to throw half the app store out.

Re: India bans TikTok, WeChat, and dozens of other Chinese apps

#25

Post by chrisco255 »

cm2187 wrote: post #19
sanmon3186 wrote: post #7

This ban is primarily to satiate anti-China sentiment. The global economy is too interwined with China. No country can afford to put a blanket ban on things that matter, without a viable plan-B.

Overnight, I agree. But I think the decoupling will happen. The outsourcing to China took about 10 years (mid 90s to mid 2000s). It will likely not take a lot longer to decouple. 10y is very rapid.

We in the U.S. should have partnered more closely with India in the first place. India is democratic and hold values closer to our own. The CCP not so much.

Re: India bans TikTok, WeChat, and dozens of other Chinese apps

#26

Post by sremani »

sanmon3186 wrote: post #7

This ban is primarily to satiate anti-China sentiment. The global economy is too interwined with China. No country can afford to put a blanket ban on things that matter, without a viable plan-B.

If we walk into the past a little in 2000 world is not intertwined with China, and very likely 2040 world is not intertwined with China.

If only people read about PBOC, CNY/CNH and how currency is a political tool within China, you realize they have successfully exploited the "free market" impulse to effectively use state capitalism and dumping to create the world we are in Today.

Just because the supply chains got complex and intertwined with China does not mean it will that way forever -- it is going to be a painful 5 - 10 years, just like the ramp up, the tear down will take time.

Re: India bans TikTok, WeChat, and dozens of other Chinese apps

#27

Post by saltedonion »

Barrin92 wrote: post #5
president wrote: post #2

Glad to see India understanding the threat to national security posed by these apps. I would like to see the US do the same.

banning the usage of WeChat for public officials or national defense companies and so on would make some sense, I fail to see however how TikTok is a security threat. It's just a response to the clash over the border and nothing else, and not really a particularly effective one at that.

Tiktok can be a huge threat because their recommendation algorithms are black box. This makes them capable of controlling how potentially dangerous information is disseminated in the United States, including topics influencing elections.

Re: India bans TikTok, WeChat, and dozens of other Chinese apps

#29

Post by rllearneratwork »

president wrote: post #2

Glad to see India understanding the threat to national security posed by these apps. I would like to see the US do the same.

while I absolutely won't allow any of those apps on my school-aged children phones and would never install one myself, it would be absolutely wrong for US government to dictate what software we can and can not use. Same goes for books and movies.

Re: India bans TikTok, WeChat, and dozens of other Chinese apps

#30

Post by Avamander »

Barrin92 wrote: post #24
riffic wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you seen any of the recently posted analyses of the TikTok binaries? https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=pastWeek&page=0&prefix=fal...

Yes, some of them are somewhat hyperbolic like the Apple keyboard thing which was apparently related to some sort of anti-spam feature, but in general that makes TikTok a privacy mess, which is undoubtly true but not really grounds for a national ban on the basis of security. By that logic you'd have to throw half the app store out.

> By that logic you'd have to throw half the app store out.

You almost got it. We do indeed need to make it harder to spy on people. Not doing anything is not the better option right now.

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