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TikTok’s Poison Pill

calnewport.com

31–40 of 430 posts

Re: TikTok’s Poison Pill

#31
It's really aggravating to me because I use different social media sites for different purposes. I understand that our current business model revolves around making more and more money, but if all of the social media sites are the same then they won't be making any money because people won't want to deal with multiple accounts.

Re: TikTok’s Poison Pill

#32
post #5

There is lots of talk going around TikTok, especially now geopolitics has been added to this kind of discussion due to ongoing tensions between two giants. Instead of banning or removing the TikTok app, how about the US government put a firm privacy policy that forbids TikTok, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, Twitter and co from collecting excessive data on users? That would be a better solution, IMHO. Let users download…

> how about the US government put a firm privacy policy that forbids TikTok, [...] from collecting excessive data on users?

This wouldn't address the way the CCP can use TikTok for subversion of America, vis-a-vis foreign election interference by Russia on social media in 2016.

> Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, Twitter and co

The American government has more options with American corporations, these companies aren't intrinsically linked to foreign governments in the way that TikTok is to the CCP. However, the EU should probably kick these American social media companies out of the EU.

Re: TikTok’s Poison Pill

#33
TL;DR "all my friends are here" becomes less of a lock-in factor with TikTok-like model (as social graph becomes unimportant). If others follow suit, losing lock-in advantage might encourage competitors in the industry.

Re: TikTok’s Poison Pill

#34

An a non-American the level of anti-TikTok sentiment seems really weird, it really does just seem like sinophobia - especially given there's no proof that TikTok is actually being used by the Chinese, whereas Snowden etc. has shown us that the USA already does stuff like this. I'm not really sure what the People's Liberation Army will do with all my cat videos anyway...

Yeah, as an European it almost feels nice to diversify, so US agencies&companies don't know everything about me..

Re: TikTok’s Poison Pill

#35

Wow. An article about TikTok that has the word poison in it, that is not actually anti-TikTok. How far we have gone. And yes! TikTok is how we break the shackles of big tech. TikTok on its own we can handle. But a Facebook backed by the full force of the US military surveillance industrial complex. That is going to kill off the whole planet.

TikTok is Big Tech. Neither will "kill off the whole planet", but it is so crazy to me that someone who can hate Facebook and the "US military surveillance industrial complex" can consequentially support TikTok. You don't actually have a problem with big tech or surveillance, you have a problem with the US.

Indeed. Here in Europe, the Chinese we can handle, for the US we have to bend the knee.

Re: TikTok’s Poison Pill

#36
post #9

> If platforms like Facebook and Instagram abandon their social graphs to pursue this cybernetic TikTok model, they’ll lose their competitive advantage. Is it really a competitive advantage if a competitor is doing better without it?

Cal has apparently confused his own language here. A graph of details about rich media is still, in some sense, a social graph. Rather than documenting: who do you know? when did you meet them? Capturing: what do you know? when did you learn it? who did you learn it from? what do you call it? how should it be presented? And so on...

I fail to follow Cal's argument. It seems that he is abandoning his "digital detox" doctrine towards privacy.

If the issue with social networks is the time we waste on them, why would an algorithmically generated feed be less addictive than a social network feed?

Re: TikTok’s Poison Pill

#37
post #24

An a non-American the level of anti-TikTok sentiment seems really weird, it really does just seem like sinophobia - especially given there's no proof that TikTok is actually being used by the Chinese, whereas Snowden etc. has shown us that the USA already does stuff like this. I'm not really sure what the People's Liberation Army will do with all my cat videos anyway...

> has shown us that the USA already does stuff like this. Ya, you're right, China isn't known to collect or do much with population data. China and the US officially regard each other as adversaries. The CCP outright declares the US to be an enemy. The CCP is also not subject to the rule of law within its own borders, even in theory. Then you get into the economics of it. The liberal west is generally in favor of fre…

democraphobia ?

Re: TikTok’s Poison Pill

#38
post #5

There is lots of talk going around TikTok, especially now geopolitics has been added to this kind of discussion due to ongoing tensions between two giants. Instead of banning or removing the TikTok app, how about the US government put a firm privacy policy that forbids TikTok, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, Twitter and co from collecting excessive data on users? That would be a better solution, IMHO. Let users download…

> [...] how about the US government put a firm privacy policy that forbids TikTok, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, Twitter and co from collecting excessive data on users

And also a policy that forbids UX addictive-by-design patterns to induce bad habits.

Re: TikTok’s Poison Pill

#39

An a non-American the level of anti-TikTok sentiment seems really weird, it really does just seem like sinophobia - especially given there's no proof that TikTok is actually being used by the Chinese, whereas Snowden etc. has shown us that the USA already does stuff like this. I'm not really sure what the People's Liberation Army will do with all my cat videos anyway...

I'm non American as well, I get what you mean, the hysteria can sometimes be tiring. And the hypocritical it's-only-okay-when-we-do-it exceptionalism is maddening.

However, you shouldn't put too much weight on the absence of proof for Chinese invasion of your privacy. China is an authoritarian regime, what this translates to in practice is that, while a "democracy" like the US or a European country will spy on you and violate both your and its own citizens rights, it can be caught and its PR will then cry and act really sorry (for whatever good this does), while a regime like China or Russia will brutally lock away or assassinate anyone digging dirt, and in the rare case they do get caught they will just smirk smugly and ask you what you're going to do about it. Both of those options suck, I know, a sane man will get far away from both of them, but one of them is strictly worse than the other in a very clear sense.

>I'm not really sure what the People's Liberation Army will do with all my cat videos

Why, they are going to breed feline supurr-soldiers and subjugate your people with them off course. Meowahahaha.

Jokes aside, you're underselling the amount of power they have over you. Just off the top of my head, and I'm not remotely knowledgeable in security, smartphones put geotags and timestamps in photos and videos. The PLA and their friends are probably not interested in your Mr.ButterMeow, but they are interested in where you live and when you are glued to an app that monopolises your attention. What are they going to do with this ? I don't know, but it can't be a good thing.

There is such a thing as a "I don't have anything to hide" fallacy, it's a fallacy because (1) you don't know your attacker's mind, anything you do could be something you would very much want to hide if you only knew what your attacker intends to do with it (2) Rights are defended on principle, if I broke into your home and stole all the garbage, then that is still a violation of your rights, even if 0 harm or even negative harm was done. A principle is like an algorithm, it has to be followed to the letter even if the circumstances are amenable to a special shortcut.

Re: TikTok’s Poison Pill

#40

Wow. An article about TikTok that has the word poison in it, that is not actually anti-TikTok. How far we have gone. And yes! TikTok is how we break the shackles of big tech. TikTok on its own we can handle. But a Facebook backed by the full force of the US military surveillance industrial complex. That is going to kill off the whole planet.

Yes the metaphorical poison pill is being ingested by Facebook and Instagram.

Yes. It is incredible. They have all the money in the world, the best advisers, you can buy. Yet they do something this stupid.
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