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ByteDance confirmed it used TikTok to monitor journalists’ physical location

forbes.com

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Re: ByteDance confirmed it used TikTok to monitor journalists’ physical location

#121

Post by Jolter »

phpisthebest wrote: post #111
bioemerl wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We should do both. This is detracting from the fact that we have an actively hostile actor with a huge platform here in our country, and that needs to be handled as soon as possible. I totally support broad regulation of privacy law. TikTok is a much deeper concern. I don't like seeing a good cause used to distract from another good cause.

I often wonder why the average american should be more concerned about China than the CIA or FBI? the FBI has the power to put me in a cage, China does not... I am confused as why china is a bigger threat to me personally than the FBI?

I guess there is a tacit assumption that you and the US government have some shared goals, but that you share fewer goals with ByteDance or the government of China.

I guess most Americans aren’t very scared of the feds “because they have nothing to hide”, which as we know is a false sense of security in any surveillance state. But it can still be true that you have /more/ to fear from the government of China, given that they can have economic impact on your life at a macro level.

Re: ByteDance confirmed it used TikTok to monitor journalists’ physical location

#122

Post by lmm »

kranke155 wrote: post #52
Bud wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's not fool ourselves. US companies have been doing the same thing, and they will continue to.

US has laws, independent courts and elections. You might want to debate it’s level of efficiency and fairness, but on the other side you have a dictatorship.

> US has laws, independent courts and elections.

Most of which the NSA is exempted from. China has laws and courts too.

Re: ByteDance confirmed it used TikTok to monitor journalists’ physical location

#123

Post by biohacker85 »

Bud wrote: post #35
system2 wrote: post #26

[flagged]

Let's not fool ourselves. US companies have been doing the same thing, and they will continue to.

Is the threat of a foreign adversary spying on US citizens the same as the US Government spying on its citizens? I'm in the camp that a foreign adversary is a more dangerous situation.

Re: ByteDance confirmed it used TikTok to monitor journalists’ physical location

#124

Post by pksebben »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #84
Bud wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The claim wasn't that they did so for the Chinese government. But Facebook, for example, did so, for its own purposes. This is just as bad. We can't really have journalism being threatened, regardless of whether it's threatened by China, or supposedly-loyal US companies.

> Facebook, for example, did so, for its own purposes. This is just as bad It’s in a totally different league. Domestic corporation spying for commercial purposes versus a militaristic dictatorship with a track record of extrajudicial harassment.

Facebook perhaps, but it's hard to see the differences between China and the US in terms of spying/wiretapping/harassment.

If we really wanted to avoid China spying on our citizens, we'd implement broad and strong encryption across our network - but we fight that (as a country) because it would weaken our own surveillance.

We could absolutely choose to deescalate in this field, we just don't.

Re: ByteDance confirmed it used TikTok to monitor journalists’ physical location

#125

Post by lmm »

kranke155 wrote: post #108
DiogenesKynikos wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is rewriting history. Production moved to China because China began allowing foreign investment, and Chinese labor was cheaper. Foreign companies made their own decisions to take advantage of cheap Chinese labor. This wasn't some sort of nefarious Chinese plot. The US also wanted China to open up to American investment.

China made a large effort to woo western companies to manufacture there. Afaik they built special economic zones, it was a deliberate effort by the govt. If it all happened by accident then why didn’t manufacturing move to India? Both China and India moved to the GATT at the same time afaik.

Manufacturing didn't move to India largely because their quality wasn't good enough. There's no need to make it more complicated than that.

Re: ByteDance confirmed it used TikTok to monitor journalists’ physical location

#126

Post by [deleted] »

8note wrote: post #85
shrewduser wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

personally despite all that, it seems weird that western social network / tech companies aren't able to operate in china but the reverse is fine.

The west values free enterprise, association, etc. China does not. If you want to be more like china, you can ban them, but if you think that freedom is valuable, it's you who's losing out

[deleted]

Re: ByteDance confirmed it used TikTok to monitor journalists’ physical location

#127

Post by h4x0rr »

DiogenesKynikos wrote: post #106
h4x0rr wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I aggree, it's a much more pragmatic solution. But do you really think the CCP would follow this rule?

The CCP doesn't have anything to do with it. TikTok would have to follow the rule, just like any other company.

CCP is part of bytedance and it's more than likely they'll follow government requests. The OP was about journalists, not regular users mind you.

Edit: CCP has a committee inside of ByteDance. Also CCP has power over all chinese companies. (Wanted to answer that to the subcomment but there is no answer button)

Re: ByteDance confirmed it used TikTok to monitor journalists’ physical location

#128

Post by ProAm »

LarryMullins wrote: post #95
ProAm wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Ed Snowden proved to us this is not true. Room 614a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Room_641A

That was revealed several years before Snowden's defection.

I meant that as two different things, both were largely disregarded as punishable.

Re: ByteDance confirmed it used TikTok to monitor journalists’ physical location

#129

Post by fn-mote »

notwokeno wrote: post #115

Why are journalists running TikTok?

Guesses:

1. The same reason they're playing Clash Royale... down time, filling the wait. Do you think they were on their employer-provided phone? Do you think they even have an employer-provided phone?

2. Maybe they also have a social media presence. That would be a different issue, and actually easier to address by the employer.

Re: ByteDance confirmed it used TikTok to monitor journalists’ physical location

#130

Post by dang »

system2 wrote: post #26

[flagged]

You're welcome to make thoughtful comments on any side of the issue, but please don't post unsubstantive comments and/or flamebait. It's not what this site is for, and destroys what it is for.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

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