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TikTok Owner Had 'Backdoor' for CCP Access to US Data, Lawsuit Alleges

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Re: TikTok Owner Had 'Backdoor' for CCP Access to US Data, Lawsuit Alleges

#221

Post by wslh »

1101010010 wrote: post #52

Social media access to user data (whether foreign or domestic) is bad, but it is a distraction from the real evil: behavioral management at scale. When you can target specific demographics and control what they see 8-10 hours of the day, you can change what they think, say, do, and most importantly, how they vote. People are literally being programmed (euphemistically, "conditioned") by the specific triggers and stim…

I wonder if full homomorphic encryption plus ZKP are the way to go and if time will prove it in this decade.

Re: TikTok Owner Had 'Backdoor' for CCP Access to US Data, Lawsuit Alleges

#223

Post by kranke155 »

slim wrote: post #200
lopkeny12ko wrote: post #133

Half of the comments in this thread sound like they were written by CCP propaganda chatbots. A dead giveaway is the failure to address the topic at hand and immediately deflect to "but the USA does XYZ too!" No one is disputing such a claim, but that's also not what we're talking about here.

I know this feeling. It probably just means that you live in different reality than half the people commenting here. Maybe half the people commenting here are not americans ? It's still interesting and on subject, because social networks are probably what is causing this divide, because bubbles are isolated by design

No, chat bots are a huge problem so are botfarms and sock puppets supported by huge bot farms.

They are everywhere and they are degrading content

Re: TikTok Owner Had 'Backdoor' for CCP Access to US Data, Lawsuit Alleges

#224

Post by Animats »

Of course the party committee can access data. That's how China works under Xi.[1][2] Party committees had less presence in private companies post-Mao and pre-2003, but now they're back. Most larger non-state owned companies now have one, so the party can keep an eye on the private sector from the inside. They have roughly board-level authority.

Nominally, the party committee represents the party members who work for the company. But they're not chosen by the employees; they're appointed by higher levels of the party.

[1] https://thediplomat.com/2019/12/politics-in-the-boardroom-th...

[2] https://www.seafarerfunds.com/prevailing-winds/party-committ...

Re: TikTok Owner Had 'Backdoor' for CCP Access to US Data, Lawsuit Alleges

#225

Post by jstarfish »

karmajunkie wrote: post #175
ipv6ipv4 wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How do we get rid of it? Put down your phone.

You get points for pithy snark, but given that the problem predates smartphones, this isn't likely to solve it.

No, it really is that simple.

Never before has a foreign entity been able to deliver personalized content at the individual level. Not at this scale. The only way a device could get any more embedded would be through rectal insertion.

Not every problem can be solved. Sometimes the best we can do is mitigate.

[Smart]phones are spyware in every pocket...by design.

Re: TikTok Owner Had 'Backdoor' for CCP Access to US Data, Lawsuit Alleges

#226

Post by DangitBobby »

nojonestownpls wrote: post #219
bostonwalker wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For reference: this specific fallacy being invoked by the CCP astroturfers is called “whataboutism”.

It's strange that old expressions like "the US is throwing stones from a glass house" or "the US is like a pot calling the kettle black" have existed for a long enough time to be idioms, but the term for decrying such expressions "whataboutism" is relatively much newer and more of a political term than a language idiom.

Well, being aware of and actively combating propaganda is a fairly recent social development.

Re: TikTok Owner Had 'Backdoor' for CCP Access to US Data, Lawsuit Alleges

#227

Post by hiatus »

meowtimemania wrote: post #198
hiatus wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Ultimately you are in control of your eyeballs and your time. Stop watching! There are people making hundreds of thousands of dollars whose sole job is to get you locked into a feedback loop in these apps. We are engineering addiction.

Why would TikTok or FaceBook not engineer addiction? It generates more money for them. If they don't engineer addiction, another company will emerge and engineer addiction. I think this type of problem has to be solved by the government.

My point was, my parent was in a sense blaming the victim for not peeling their eyes away from the screen when literally millions of dollars of thought and effort went into making sure that they don't.

I agree that in the absence of direct negative consequences it seems unlikely we will see a change in the status quo.

Re: TikTok Owner Had 'Backdoor' for CCP Access to US Data, Lawsuit Alleges

#228

Post by godelski »

karmajunkie wrote: post #174
godelski wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do we get rid of it? Can you get rid of it? No. Doing so would result in the loss of many important rights and have unintended consequences. Not even China can get rid of this. BUT that doesn't mean you can't put regulations and limitations on them. As one example, we may want to make laws that ensure that ads are easily recognizable as ads. I'm referencing Native Advertising. I want to use an example from the NY…

While i think these are ideas worth considering, what I think is the answer is perhaps staring us in the face: put regulatory limits on the amount and kind of data that apps and websites can collect. The real problem with tiktok is not the CCP; it seems likely in my mind that our own government has equally nefarious techniques at play in other countries, and I think its unfair to single out a single company over this…

> put regulatory limits on the amount and kind of data that apps and websites can collect.

Yeah, I would be in full support of this. I think there's a double edged sword that people are playing with and don't see the other edge. Any data that you use to control your population can also be used by an adversary for the same purpose. The same is true about encryption. We have two competing forces in our own government. Blue team and red teams. But we know red team gets a lot more money and is a lot flashier. Focusing all on red team is fun and exciting but makes you a glass cannon.

Re: TikTok Owner Had 'Backdoor' for CCP Access to US Data, Lawsuit Alleges

#229

Post by hiatus »

whitemary wrote: post #167
hiatus wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Ultimately you are in control of your eyeballs and your time. Stop watching! There are people making hundreds of thousands of dollars whose sole job is to get you locked into a feedback loop in these apps. We are engineering addiction.

The addiction is a side effect of a society built on exploitation. In other words, capitalism is literally the problem.

Does addiction exist in non-capitalist countries? Could you expand because I'm not sure if I understood the point you're making.

Re: TikTok Owner Had 'Backdoor' for CCP Access to US Data, Lawsuit Alleges

#230

Post by jstarfish »

sebzim4500 wrote: post #153
Garvi wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you hear something outrageous on FOX or CNN, you yell "bullshit" at the TV. When you read the same thing on Facebook and see 20 of your friends positively interacting with the news story and showing their approval, you remain quiet at best, join the lunacy at worst. What you don't see is the three shadowbanned accounts explaining why it's lunacy.

If the last decade has taught us anything, it is that a lot of people will not "yell bullshit at the TV".

Most people will read a room and refrain from sharing politically-unpopular opinions that invite public and private retribution from a deranged mob.

Silence is not implied agreement. What the internet masses say is popular and what people actually vote for are two very different things.

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