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The FBI alleges TikTok poses national security concerns

npr.org

271–280 of 430 posts

Re: The FBI alleges TikTok poses national security concerns

#272

I have no idea if it's a legitimate security risk, but regardless, if China wants to play the game with us that they are currently playing (banning non-Chinese apps from their country) we have to play that game, too. It makes no sense to play the "we'll take the high road" approach with them. If they ban our applications and services in their country, we need to ban their applications and services in our country. Ful…

"if China wants to play the game with us that they are currently playing (banning non-Chinese apps from their country) we have to play that game, too" That's not the American way. The United States became the center of the modern global economy because it said "you can sell your goods here, and we're gonna push really hard to make you let us sell our goods there, too. But if you don't, fine, you can still sell your g…

I don't care if it isn't the American way. This is an economic cold war. China views all trade as a zero-sum-game war, and currently, we've ceded the fight completely. They can collect info and revenue in our markets, but we can't in theirs. If appeasing them is how we decide to continue, we've lost the fight and will continue to lose the fight.

Remember, to the Chinese government, a Win-Win situation is not when both parties walk away happy, it's when the Chinese side wins twice.

Re: The FBI alleges TikTok poses national security concerns

#273
post #56

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.

We really should have some sort of reciprocity with China by now. Frame it however you want, don't mention China specifically in the bill, etc. But they are no longer a developing nation, they are the largest or second largest economy and military power in the world, and are advancing a set of totalitarian values completely antithetical to what the US and our democratic allies have been fighting for (literally and figuratively) since WWII at least.

If US social media, search, and other internet companies are banned in China, then similar Chinese companies should be banned in the US. If US companies can't operate in China except through a joint venture with a Chinese company, to which the US company must transfer its technology to, then same should apply to Chinese companies operating in the US. Etc.

It should be clear at this point that negotiations with China won't change anything internally in China. The only option is for the US to do what is in its power to within the US (and perhaps with fellow democratic allies). Aka reciprocity.

Reasons for banning Chinese social media particularly: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33657429

Re: The FBI alleges TikTok poses national security concerns

#274

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…

"engaged in adversarial conduct against the West for years - including extensive psyops." And the US has an extensive and well-documented record of doing exactly this to other nations (and far, far worse). If we start a new Cold War every between every two nations that try to undermine each other we'll quickly run out of trading partners, which isn't going to work out too well for a preeminent trading nation (or it's…

I read an article the other day that argued that TikTok should not be banned on the basis of free speech. The argument is, while American's have the freedom to say whatever the hell we want, we have an arguably even more freedom when it comes to what we consume, with only very select content (CSAM for example) being illegal to consume.

Yes there might be targeted misinformation there, but it's up to individual Americans to decide if they want to consume that content, government should not be in the business of curating content.

Re: The FBI alleges TikTok poses national security concerns

#275
post #205
post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's obviously entertainment. it's not obvious to me at all, in France it's used by islamist organisations to push for communitarianism and separatism, I don't call that entertainment https://www.lefigaro.fr/actualite-france/de-youtube-a-tiktok... https://www.mediapart.fr/journal/france/111122/ados-en-abaya... https://www.lemonde.fr/pixels/article/2019/10/23/de-la-propa...

I'd blame France for their immigration policies more than I would blame a platform full of user-generated content

Feel free to elaborate on this cryptic comment

Re: The FBI alleges TikTok poses national security concerns

#276
TikTok is hitting a much broader slice of the US population, and getting a much broader slice of political opinions. And it's connecting all these people and all these opinions. You can find communists and nazi's on TikTok, building communities, and getting their voice out.

The administration hates TikTok because it is potentially destabilizing. The FBI's concern is not that it's foreign influence, but that it's allowing internal movements to gain traction. Just as the FBI suppressed internal movements throughout the 20th century they want to suppress this new medium that may threaten the status quo.

Now I don't want to see the US fall into chaos, but neither do I want to see a world where political change is stifled, which is what the FBI wants to do here.

Re: The FBI alleges TikTok poses national security concerns

#277
post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Chinese government owns tiktok. The algorithm that decides what videos americans will consume is signed off on by the Chinese government. That is an enormous national security threat.

> The Chinese government owns tiktok Only figuratively in the hacker/gamer sense. TikTok is owned by ByteSense. The "TikTok can be used to spy on americans" is much like "Russians interfered in our elections". Both are true, both are legitimately very concerning, but both are also things that the USA has been doing for decades with minimal domestic outcry. So implicit in our attempts to reign in other countries behav…

As has been stated voluminously elsewhere in this comment section, and better by others than my attempt here: we have a (quasi-?)democratic apparatus and constitutional framework that governs our country's use of this power.

Does China or Russia allow for those kinds of tools for holding government accountable? Not as far as I can tell.

Therein lies a massive difference in kind.

Re: The FBI alleges TikTok poses national security concerns

#278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Compelling news story, but is there a less-tabloid source? In my cursory Googling, I haven't been able to find anything. Murdoch-owned media is pretty low in my trustworthiness/objectivity rankings.

Was the original edited? It currently points to BBC, which is not Murdoch-owned.

The original pointed to the NY Post.

Re: The FBI alleges TikTok poses national security concerns

#279
post #245
post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don’t need to escape a sandbox to monitor people’s communications that are done through your own backend servers.

And God knows China is collecting all that important juicy information on teenagers' love for the latest fad ... Man the FBI acts like tik tok is used in jet planes and nuclear power plants...

Those teenagers will grow up to be the leaders of tomorrow, and shit they liked or interacted with on tik tok is blackmail material.

Re: The FBI alleges TikTok poses national security concerns

#280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"if China wants to play the game with us that they are currently playing (banning non-Chinese apps from their country) we have to play that game, too" That's not the American way. The United States became the center of the modern global economy because it said "you can sell your goods here, and we're gonna push really hard to make you let us sell our goods there, too. But if you don't, fine, you can still sell your g…

I don't care if it isn't the American way. This is an economic cold war. China views all trade as a zero-sum-game war, and currently, we've ceded the fight completely. They can collect info and revenue in our markets, but we can't in theirs. If appeasing them is how we decide to continue, we've lost the fight and will continue to lose the fight. Remember, to the Chinese government, a Win-Win situation is not when bot…

"China views all trade as a zero-sum-game war"

No, they don't. That's an absurd statement. China has become a great power by virtue of engaging with the global trade system.

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