Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The FBI alleges TikTok poses national security concerns

npr.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 430 posts

Re: The FBI alleges TikTok poses national security concerns

#21

Post by mc32 »

HlessClaudesman wrote: post #10
Reason077 wrote: post #2

Besides the obvious concerns about tracking/spying, TikTok has great potential as a propaganda tool to gain subtle influence over America's youth. For example, its algorithm could be tweaked to elevate content that is favourable to the Chinese Communist Party.

I think their strategy is more insidious than that. Chinese social media inside China is actively directing youth towards vigorous / productive / pedagogical endeavours, whereas ticktock outside China heavily promotes pointless endless innane naval gazing such as pranking, gaming, influencers etc. They seek to create a generation of feckless know nothings in The West.

Yep, shore up your own and undermine your enemy. Promote strength, work ethic, and achievement at home and promote idleness, listlessness and parasitic attitudes for the enemy.

Re: The FBI alleges TikTok poses national security concerns

#22

Post by weego »

darkteflon wrote: post #12

Utterly ridiculous to allow TikTok to continue to operate in the current geopolitical climate. China is a surveillance autocracy and has been engaged in adversarial conduct against the West for years - including extensive psyops. Shut it down, yesterday. Build a local clone so that people can get their fix or whatever. China sure as shit doesn’t allow its citizens to cough up their personal information for algorithmi…

The US is a surveillance pseudo-democracy.

The problem here being this time they can't insert themselves into the surveillance pipeline.

They're not better or worse (unless you're fine with your own Govt surveilling you but not another state), just not the status quo.

Re: The FBI alleges TikTok poses national security concerns

#23

Post by Tenoke »

lm28469 wrote: post #17
Tenoke wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it's that ridiculous. The default should be not to ban entertainment, and it's not so clearcut whether the danger outweighs the benefits much more than for many other legal forms of entertainment.

> The default should be not to ban entertainment It's only entertainment if you're completely blind. They're using our tolerance as a weakness, while themselves having absolutely 0 tolerance for western bs/propaganda in their home country This is next level "turning the other cheek"

It's obviously entertainment. It could additionally be other things, how Top Gun is both entertainment and propaganda or bar drinking is both entertainment and has health risks.

The math might come to the risks being higher than the benefits but pretending people aren't entertained by it ironically suggests that you might be more radicalized or brainwashed than TikTok users supposedly are.

Re: The FBI alleges TikTok poses national security concerns

#24

Post by mc32 »

soup10 wrote: post #19
darkteflon wrote: post #12

Utterly ridiculous to allow TikTok to continue to operate in the current geopolitical climate. China is a surveillance autocracy and has been engaged in adversarial conduct against the West for years - including extensive psyops. Shut it down, yesterday. Build a local clone so that people can get their fix or whatever. China sure as shit doesn’t allow its citizens to cough up their personal information for algorithmi…

Not sure that US really wants to set a precedent of protectionism when so many large US technology companies operate globally.

We're among the least protectionist -not to say we are not protectionist, but comparatively. Others have set the precedent for us. They need no examples or encouragement.

That said, yes, the 1A implications are thorny.

Re: The FBI alleges TikTok poses national security concerns

#25

Post by hvs »

soup10 wrote: post #19
darkteflon wrote: post #12

Utterly ridiculous to allow TikTok to continue to operate in the current geopolitical climate. China is a surveillance autocracy and has been engaged in adversarial conduct against the West for years - including extensive psyops. Shut it down, yesterday. Build a local clone so that people can get their fix or whatever. China sure as shit doesn’t allow its citizens to cough up their personal information for algorithmi…

Not sure that US really wants to set a precedent of protectionism when so many large US technology companies operate globally.

The U.S. has a long, proud history of protectionism: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China%E2%80%93United_States_tr...

Re: The FBI alleges TikTok poses national security concerns

#26

Post by dbsmith83 »

HlessClaudesman wrote: post #10
Reason077 wrote: post #2

Besides the obvious concerns about tracking/spying, TikTok has great potential as a propaganda tool to gain subtle influence over America's youth. For example, its algorithm could be tweaked to elevate content that is favourable to the Chinese Communist Party.

I think their strategy is more insidious than that. Chinese social media inside China is actively directing youth towards vigorous / productive / pedagogical endeavours, whereas ticktock outside China heavily promotes pointless endless innane naval gazing such as pranking, gaming, influencers etc. They seek to create a generation of feckless know nothings in The West.

> Chinese social media inside China is actively directing youth towards vigorous / productive / pedagogical endeavours, whereas ticktock outside China heavily promotes pointless endless innane naval gazing such as pranking, gaming, influencers etc.

This would be interesting if true. Do you have any sources for this or is it just an observation?

Re: The FBI alleges TikTok poses national security concerns

#28

Post by nemothekid »

HlessClaudesman wrote: post #10
Reason077 wrote: post #2

Besides the obvious concerns about tracking/spying, TikTok has great potential as a propaganda tool to gain subtle influence over America's youth. For example, its algorithm could be tweaked to elevate content that is favourable to the Chinese Communist Party.

I think their strategy is more insidious than that. Chinese social media inside China is actively directing youth towards vigorous / productive / pedagogical endeavours, whereas ticktock outside China heavily promotes pointless endless innane naval gazing such as pranking, gaming, influencers etc. They seek to create a generation of feckless know nothings in The West.

It's hard to call this a strategy when the reason TikTok operates the way it does in China is due to regulation. Instagram reels promotes the same garbage, does the CCP direct Meta as well? If you tried to push for the same kind of social media regulation in the US, the internet would shut down in protest.

Re: The FBI alleges TikTok poses national security concerns

#29

Post by dahfizz »

weego wrote: post #22
darkteflon wrote: post #12

Utterly ridiculous to allow TikTok to continue to operate in the current geopolitical climate. China is a surveillance autocracy and has been engaged in adversarial conduct against the West for years - including extensive psyops. Shut it down, yesterday. Build a local clone so that people can get their fix or whatever. China sure as shit doesn’t allow its citizens to cough up their personal information for algorithmi…

The US is a surveillance pseudo-democracy. The problem here being this time they can't insert themselves into the surveillance pipeline. They're not better or worse (unless you're fine with your own Govt surveilling you but not another state), just not the status quo.

This is absurd, frankly.

"The US government collects taxes on US citizens, why not let China collect taxes on US citizens? Its the same."

"The US government throws US citizens in jail, why not let Chine throw US citizens in jail? Its the same."

Yeah, it would be great if the Federal government turned down their surveillance. That doesn't make it okay for China to run psy-ops against us.

Re: The FBI alleges TikTok poses national security concerns

#30

Post by dd36 »

weego wrote: post #22
darkteflon wrote: post #12

Utterly ridiculous to allow TikTok to continue to operate in the current geopolitical climate. China is a surveillance autocracy and has been engaged in adversarial conduct against the West for years - including extensive psyops. Shut it down, yesterday. Build a local clone so that people can get their fix or whatever. China sure as shit doesn’t allow its citizens to cough up their personal information for algorithmi…

The US is a surveillance pseudo-democracy. The problem here being this time they can't insert themselves into the surveillance pipeline. They're not better or worse (unless you're fine with your own Govt surveilling you but not another state), just not the status quo.

The US is not better or worse than an autocracy?
Post reply on HN