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TikTok’s Poison Pill

calnewport.com

81–90 of 430 posts

Re: TikTok’s Poison Pill

#81

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...

Well we know that US intelligence agencies reserve the right to access all data harvested by American companies. They have a law about that. Do I particularly agree with the CCP politically? No. But I want everyone to be equal to the law and I'm not going to delude myself that Americans give one flying fuck about the privacy of foreigners- or their own citizens even.

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Re: TikTok’s Poison Pill

#82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Maybe we didn't punish contrary opinions quite as badly as China / Russia Understatement of the year. We also currently don’t outlaw homosexuality or religion or engage in genocide and we elect our leaders democratically among other things.

You should probably check your facts. All but the first one is false. They have engaged in genocide: see Native Americans; trail of tears. The USA is a republic, not a democracy.

Republic and democracy refer to two different axis.

Republic is about how the vertex of government is structured.

Democracy is about where the executive/legislative power comes from.

The US is both, you could argue that Canada is not a republic as they have a recognized queen, but it would be a stretch as she has essentially zero power there.

Re: TikTok’s Poison Pill

#83
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…

Does tiktok actually collect that much (valuable) information? It seems all the scaremongering people spread (rightfully or not) is around it's moderation and attempts to steer discourse and change opinions to pro-china?

Re: TikTok’s Poison Pill

#84
post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How exactly would you word or enforce such a policy? What is a "bad habit"? Is fun or happiness addictive? Why might the puritan nanny state approach work better here than with alcohol, drugs, or abortion?

You hire the same kinds of people that these companies hire to design their products to be addictive and then you draft legislation banning the things that they say are addictive.

what's the "addictive" part of tiktok to ban? Scrolling? Providing recommendations? Seems quite nebulous to legislate against.

Re: TikTok’s Poison Pill

#85
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…

It'd be practically impossible to enforce the 'privacy' concerns, because the data is so vast and accessible to CCP entities employed by ByteDance. I mean, they literally pay CCP members to promote government policy agenda within the company. As for trade - FB, Google etc. - none of it is even allowed in China. So purely from a 'trade parity' basis, Chinese social apps simply should not be allowed in the US. If we ca…

>It'd be practically impossible to enforce the 'privacy' concerns,

But US would first need a law, now you just surrendered before you even tried. It could be possible to enforce it, you find an illegal action you slap them with a fine, find a new infraction slap them again and again.

Do I need to spend my time thinking for americans? Make a law so Tik Tok keeps US people data in US, force them to have US employees and offer a bounty to this employees to report illegal stuff. The only downside is that most US citizens and companies will have no choice then to accept EU privacy laws as really good and valid (but I am sure the world can find soem other laws to make fun off, like something about bananas shape).

Re: TikTok’s Poison Pill

#86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But the CCP is not our government, and at least it can mean that your government knows less about you. In the old East Germany, it wasn't a problem that the CIA knew everything about you. It was that the Stasi did.

> But the CCP is not our government, But there are Chinese dissidents and Tibet independentists in your country which are at risk, so it's OK if China spies on those because "they are not your government"? https://edition.cnn.com/2016/04/13/opinions/j-michael-cole-o...

I don't think they are at risk while they remain here in my country. It's very unlikely that the Chinese government decides on a strike against any dissident here. That's more typical of the US like they did yesterday in Afghanistan.

Re: TikTok’s Poison Pill

#87
post #63
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They could present videos of dogs that look like cats to influence your opinion to be more favorable about dogs. They could simply show addictive videos to school-aged children to reduce their time available to study or interact with other children to make them less intelligent or less socially prepared. Or, they could flood your child’s feed with videos from children their age discussing perceived mental illness sel…

> They they they I’m, aren’t parents supposed to be keeping track of their own kids, not some company? The stuff you said in the last half there is insane to me, so I’ll assume you’re either trolling or perhaps we have a very different view of certain things.

It's better to look at the world from a perspective of possible/impossible rather than sane/insane as there exist people inside governments who are paid to do insane-yet-possible things.

I don't believe the theories around the Chinese government controlling children's minds through TikTok are likely to be true. It's probably just a dumb app. But there's nothing impossible about it.

Re: TikTok’s Poison Pill

#88
post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should probably check your facts. All but the first one is false. They have engaged in genocide: see Native Americans; trail of tears. The USA is a republic, not a democracy.

Republic and democracy refer to two different axis. Republic is about how the vertex of government is structured. Democracy is about where the executive/legislative power comes from. The US is both, you could argue that Canada is not a republic as they have a recognized queen, but it would be a stretch as she has essentially zero power there.

They said they elect their leaders democratically which is simply not true no matter how you want to phrase it. The president is elected by an electoral college and not a democratic vote.

Re: TikTok’s Poison Pill

#89

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...

(Non-American too.) China may not have been proven to use TikTok data specifically, but their track record about human rights and privacy is what it is. > I'm not really sure what the People's Liberation Army will do with all my cat videos anyway... Ah, the old "nothing to hide" argument.

No, but really: Facebook collects very private data, including personal messages. Google has even more sensitive information. I also don't see why suddenly TikTok is such a concern, except for sinophobia or pure misinformation.

Re: TikTok’s Poison Pill

#90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But the CCP is not our government, and at least it can mean that your government knows less about you. In the old East Germany, it wasn't a problem that the CIA knew everything about you. It was that the Stasi did.

> But the CCP is not our government, But there are Chinese dissidents and Tibet independentists in your country which are at risk, so it's OK if China spies on those because "they are not your government"? https://edition.cnn.com/2016/04/13/opinions/j-michael-cole-o...

So we shouldn't use TikTok because... Chinese dissidents who live in the US can be harmed?
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