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

171–180 of 430 posts

Re: The FBI alleges TikTok poses national security concerns

#171

Post by ehnto »

pjc50 wrote: post #56
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…

sigh can we not have targeted-by-nationality bans and instead have .. rules? If Tiktok the app is performing surveillance, ban surveillance by apps . All of them. Or make it technically impossible to escape its little sandbox, and let people have their entertainment.

Surveillance isn't the issue I don't think, it's influence. It was easy to underestimate the affect of misinformation back in 2016, but I think by now, after a few political sojourns and a pandemic both riddled with division and information chaos, we should be taking it seriously.

It's not that China would try to convert Americans to communism, but I think we should be worried that they could attempt to sway election results via TikTok. TikTok is the most efficient algorithmic feed based website to date, it's ability to take a human and just pour bite sized information into their lives is unmatched in my opinion. It makes you feel like you're part of a group that doesn't even exist, get enough talking heads talking about a topic and you get grass roots cultural movements as people imagine extreme ideas are widespread when they're not.

Re: The FBI alleges TikTok poses national security concerns

#172

Post by vorpalhex »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #120
darkteflon wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We can - and should - have robust privacy laws at home. We should also not roll over for our adversaries. China under Xi Jinping is, without a doubt, adversarial, and the risks are existential.

You need to specify who "our" is there. USA's upper echelons, presumably? The risks are existential to ...? Again presumably you mean those who thrive under USA-centric capitalism? You think the CCP are planning a forced takeover of Western democracy?

I think the genocide of a people concerns us all.

Re: The FBI alleges TikTok poses national security concerns

#173

Post by luckylion »

whywhywhywhy wrote: post #166
luckylion wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US can probably replace TikTok with something "homegrown" that's sufficiently like TikTok that people will be happy to use it once it becomes widely adopted. What could replace Facebook, TikTok etc in Europe? Do we just shut down the internet because it's run by third parties who don't have our best interests at heart?

> The US can probably replace TikTok with something "homegrown" You say that, yet Instagram, Twitter(1), YouTube who have all tried so far have all failed. (1): You're probably reading this and saying "What? not they haven't", well open a video on Twitter then swipe it up off the screen, you're now in TwitTok.

Sure, but that's with TikTok still around. Outlaw TikTok (essentially killing it), and there's no more stickyness keeping people from doing their dances on YT Shorts or whatever alternative would win.

Re: The FBI alleges TikTok poses national security concerns

#174

Post by est »

samatman wrote: post #79
est wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> not a single western social network You are wrong. Myspace works fine in China.

This is, rather, evidence (as though we needed it) that Myspace isn't a social network.

Explain Linkedin.com then? It also works 100% well in China.

Re: The FBI alleges TikTok poses national security concerns

#175

Post by computerfriend »

CyanBird wrote: post #147
Xeoncross wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Global rules for user privacy would be fantastic! But lets start by simply banning the most criminal organizations first. If the KGB, CCP, or any other group known for imprisoning and killing literally millions of people is running a social network we need to block it right away. Bytedance has forced CCP members on their board and you can bet the government uses the user data, behavior data and biometrics to help squ…

> But lets start by simply banning the most criminal organizations first NSA and cghq have tapped onto the global fiber optic systems on a global scale and see spying on every single person on the planet with dragnet systems alongside as you say biometrics, and that includes US citizen data. Where does that fall into?

Lots of things can be bad at the same time. What NSA and GCHQ do is worth discussing, for sure. But it has nothing to do with this.

Re: The FBI alleges TikTok poses national security concerns

#176

Post by mistermann »

dd36 wrote: post #53
mistermann wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does the US public have any genuine, identifiable democratic power over the FBI?

Absolutely. The FBI head must be appointed by the President and approved by the Senate. Oversight is performed by Congress. He can be fired.

I don't disagree that it is possible in theory, but are there any substantial examples of initiatives genuinely spawned at the general public level changing policy of the FBI? This would be required to upgrade the binary (True/False) proposition from a belief to a fact...but then only as a binary (the FBI could still be 99% beyond the will of the people).

Re: The FBI alleges TikTok poses national security concerns

#177

Post by est »

samatman wrote: post #67
pjc50 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

sigh can we not have targeted-by-nationality bans and instead have .. rules? If Tiktok the app is performing surveillance, ban surveillance by apps . All of them. Or make it technically impossible to escape its little sandbox, and let people have their entertainment.

We should have rules that include forbidding any Chinese company from selling SaaS or social media until CCP takes the Great Firewall down. They've made a pariah internet and they should stay there. Suit you? Suits me.

How about block .edu access to China in exchange for GFW?

Re: The FBI alleges TikTok poses national security concerns

#178

Post by computerfriend »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #120
darkteflon wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We can - and should - have robust privacy laws at home. We should also not roll over for our adversaries. China under Xi Jinping is, without a doubt, adversarial, and the risks are existential.

You need to specify who "our" is there. USA's upper echelons, presumably? The risks are existential to ...? Again presumably you mean those who thrive under USA-centric capitalism? You think the CCP are planning a forced takeover of Western democracy?

> You think the CCP are planning a forced takeover of Western democracy?

Forced or otherwise, yes. This is the whole point of the "making the world safe for dictators" thing.

Re: The FBI alleges TikTok poses national security concerns

#179

Post by p0pcult »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #167
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…

I mean the US is just as guilty of that, with e.g. Facebook and companies using it manipulating global politics; see for example Cambridge Analytica and the list of elections they influenced [0] through nasty means. There's also the Snowden revelations that revealed the US security services have free access to social media; if you want surveillance, that's the one. And let's not even start about the psyops that the U…

Cambridge Analytica, while problematic, isn't a government, which makes your analogy extremely weak.

Cambridge Analytica, while problematic, doesn't have control over FB/its algorithm, which makes your analogy extremely weak.

Post reply on HN