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As TikTok grows, so does suspicion

economist.com

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Re: As TikTok grows, so does suspicion

#61

Post by stale2002 »

dqpb wrote: post #32
yorwba wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TikTok is technically not a Chinese company, so it wouldn't be affected by such a law. But I haven't read the law and don't know how accurate your summary of it is. Do you have a link?

> TikTok is technically not a Chinese company I guess the economist has it wrong then: > As the first consumer-facing app from China to take off in the West, TikTok is a source of pride in Beijing. But the app’s Chinese ownership makes politicians elsewhere uneasy about its tightening grip on their citizens’ attention

The point being here is that the company ownership is setup in a complicate way, that is different than just being straight up controlled by china.

As in, there are apparently sub companies, that are in the US, not in china, that makes it different.

Re: As TikTok grows, so does suspicion

#62

Post by Teever »

sudosysgen wrote: post #41
lumost wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In what world does it make sense to allow a country who blocks access to their market unrestricted access to the US market? If china is a rival to the US, why do they have one of the most favorable trade deals?

Because it's not true that they have unrestricted access to the US market, see Huawei, ZTE, etc... And it's not true they have one of the most favourable trade deals, many tariffs are still in effect.

But surely you see that there is a difference in how China regulates American companies operating in China and vice versa?

Perhaps the US should adopt a tit for tat policy with regards to China in this matter?

Re: As TikTok grows, so does suspicion

#63

Post by dymk »

dijit wrote: post #60
crmd wrote: post #28

85% of US teenagers use tiktok. That's 85% of the future generation of US senators, Cabinet members, and Supreme Court justices, of police chiefs, civil rights activists, mayors, CEOs, etc. in their bedrooms right now consuming content curated by, and filming their lives and that of their friends, and uploading the video to data centers, that are controlled by a strategic adversary of the United States. This is, to p…

This might sound like a fallacious argument; but do you think the same about Europeans who consume almost exclusively US media and interact almost exclusively with US social media platforms? The US (famously) does not have Allies, only temporary allegiances. If you're discussing ties to government, Twitter and Facebook have members on their boards publicly who are sitting and/or former members of government including…

Yes, US/China relations are pretty distinct from US/EU relations.

Re: As TikTok grows, so does suspicion

#64

Post by stale2002 »

okasaki wrote: post #45
rcpt wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"the US and PRC are equally authoritarian" isn't particularly compelling either

Indeed, abortion is legal in China[1], the last time a police officer killed someone was in 2019[2] and their incarceration rate is 5x lower[3]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion_in_China [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_killings_by_law_enforc... [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_incarcera...

Look if you disagree that china is more authoritarian, then I would encourage you to go there, and make a large amount of public statements making fun of their leaders, or saying that Taiwan in a country, (while in china). And to do it in a public and viral way, and see how it works out for you.

Re: As TikTok grows, so does suspicion

#66

Post by dijit »

dymk wrote: post #63
dijit wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This might sound like a fallacious argument; but do you think the same about Europeans who consume almost exclusively US media and interact almost exclusively with US social media platforms? The US (famously) does not have Allies, only temporary allegiances. If you're discussing ties to government, Twitter and Facebook have members on their boards publicly who are sitting and/or former members of government including…

Yes, US/China relations are pretty distinct from US/EU relations.

Why do you think that's the case? Aside from the trade-war that's going on, which is pretty arbirary;

The US has routinely spied on Europe, allowed backdoored technology to make it's way into the continent including to spy on government officials from another sovereign (allegedly allied) nation.

It's hard for me not to draw direct comparisons, because other than the surface level of "everything's fine, we have a common culture and we're all white" - I don't see them as being much different.

Of course you're right, they're not the same, we don't see them the same. But China has arguably done less to the US than the US has done to the EU.

Can you explain it to me?

Re: As TikTok grows, so does suspicion

#67

Post by hunglee2 »

curious_cat_163 wrote: post #16
hunglee2 wrote: post #2

excellent article, surprisingly nuanced and - I think - fair in its analysis. The main fear is not that it is a foreign owned app - after all, most people in the countries all over the world are using foreign owned (US) apps - it is because it is the first non-US app used by US citizens which unnerves both the US government and US commentariat. Whether those fears are justified or not, I suspect US will follow the Ch…

I hope that the US doesn’t ban TikTok. That would be a very bad outcome for the concept of an open internet. I do think more regulation are likely in order. There are some very good arguments for not letting children under a certain age to be allowed on the social media platforms. However, the enforcement of those laws is spotty and is left to parental controls. What we need is an outbreak of social media literacy am…

same, I think the argument for open internet can only be made by example. However, there is no domestic political mileage in maintaining that position, vs plenty of political mileage in china bad policy making. He is out of office but we are in the trump timeline

Re: As TikTok grows, so does suspicion

#68

Post by alex_smart »

hunglee2 wrote: post #2

excellent article, surprisingly nuanced and - I think - fair in its analysis. The main fear is not that it is a foreign owned app - after all, most people in the countries all over the world are using foreign owned (US) apps - it is because it is the first non-US app used by US citizens which unnerves both the US government and US commentariat. Whether those fears are justified or not, I suspect US will follow the Ch…

>The main fear is not that it is a foreign owned app - after all, most people in the countries all over the world are using foreign owned (US) apps - it is because it is the first non-US app used by US citizens which unnerves both the US government and US commentariat

As you can imagine, citizens from other countries are observing this development with great interest.

Re: As TikTok grows, so does suspicion

#69

Post by Avamander »

xan92 wrote: post #12

There is lot of good content creators on TikTok apart from (dancing/singing) ones, the TechTok community is huge , It really depends on what interest the end users have, It's all individual attention driven algorithm that caters to the end user needs based on their likes/dislikes. It's faster to learn if you don't like something it does a good job in not recommending those type of content again. Which I believe Insta…

It's hypertailored compared to YouTube and the likes. When people complain about the content they see, be it terrible DIY hacks or something more bizarre, I can't help but wonder what they've done that TikTok recommends such content to them. After dropping a few hints that it's very tailored a few have gotten a bit embarrassed and stopped complaining.

Interestingly it also separates a lot of the users from the rest, people call them [thing]-toks and crossovers aren't very welcome. Kinda like subreddits, but algorithmic.

Re: As TikTok grows, so does suspicion

#70

Post by lostmsu »

ravenstine wrote: post #23
collegeburner wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

fr it's scary how i watch ppl on it, they're like zombies. and yeah like half that shit is just girls "dancing" (shaking jiggly parts) in short clothes, like i mean that's fine but watching it all the time isn't healthy. look at how much is under #fakebody which is basically all people in short clothing trying not to get banned. and yeah probably you can make it show interesting stuff but it plays to people's weaker…

It's pretty ironic how a large swath of the public decided it was the right thing to ban anything that's Russian, but somehow it's a no-no to be opposed to an app because it's from the PRC. Not saying that necessarily means that no one should use any Chinese apps, but those against anything Russian really ought not to come to the defense of the PRC.

PRC is not quite on the same scale as long as they respect borders.
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