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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

#371
post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't. "Propaganda" is a western word for any argument coming from the eastern enemies of the state, and "Brainwashing" is a western word for being convinced by them. The way we control behavior is by depriving people of unfiltered information, not showing them cat videos and remembering if they liked them.

Not everywhere, which is a good thing. A year ago I saw (and thoroughly enjoyed) an exhibition of 80's arts posters in Spain. What struck me were the description labels, and especially the terminology used. Where the English part described something as "advertising", the Spanish descriptions unashamedly used the word "propaganda". Let's not fool ourselves. The mechanisms of advertising have been lifted, adapted and f…

In Brazilian Portuguese advertising is still most commonly called “propaganda”.

But it also has the bad connotation when it’s used in the context of politics.

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

#372

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…

AKA advertising

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

#373
post #362

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's say you're an american... and that you're plotting some anti-government movement at home. Which is more problematic... china knowing that, or your own government knowing that? I live in a small eu country... and as in most other eu countries, any weird request from china (for extradition or whatever) would just get ignored... if US asked... well, just look at assange.

> Let's say you're an american... and that you're plotting some anti-government movement at home. Which is more problematic Okay and for the hundreds of millions of us who are not, do we prefer our govt knowing about us or the CCP. I’m not a fan of the USG by any means - I have many many criticisms of the govt and I’ve participated in protests. To put contemporary USG and CCP in the same league is crazy talk.

Difference is - I can be extradited to the US

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

#374

This seems sloppy. If I were to build an app that was popular in say Cuba or something I wouldn't leave myself technical gateways to access the data and manipulate things directly. That would leave a clear paper trail and open me up to some innocent engineer stumbling across what's happening. Rather I would embed trusted people into the company at low to mid-level positions of power, like software engineers, content…

From a Leninist bureaucratic perspective, a paper trail is exactly what someone wants as a mid-level official: if something goes wrong a paper trail transfers responsibility to her higher-ups, reducing the chance this person becoming a scapegoat. Especially useful if someone's caught in a intra-party power struggle, in an area dealing with foreign entities where waters are muddier. Trust is very rare in the Leninist party. Not sure if the same logic works in other governments though.

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

#375
post #307

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, to be clear I wasn’t “in a sense” blaming the victim. I’m directly blaming anyone who hates their relationship with TikTok and leaves the app on their phone and continues to watch it.

Do you similarly blame people stuck in abusive relationships or those who abuse substances? You haven't addressed the fact that the app on their phone is an engineered pachinko literally designed to glue you to the screen.

No. Just because I blame one set of victims doesn’t mean I blame all sets of victims.

And I don’t need to address that fact because the root of the issue is the person installing the app. It doesn’t matter how well engineered the pachinko machine is if I can long-press it out of my existence.

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

#377

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, because you live in the west. Again, that's not true for the rest of the world. I for sure would rather prefer China reading my stuff than the US if I was still living in the middle east, for example.

Why? If you say “fuck Biden” nothing is gonna happen to you. If you say “fuck Xi” then you better hope you never travel to China. There’s a massive difference between east and west and what you say on the internet.

Perhaps change the example to someone in the Middle East saying, "fuck the US" or "down with the US", versus "fuck Biden". I don't think the person from the Middle East would necessarily have an easy time traveling to the US either. In the end there's just different "trigger" words that would make traveling to different countries more difficult.

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

#378
post #349
post #329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This I get, and have seen before (cool Mexican tv shows), but I'm more intersted in a detailed history of "USian"'s initial use and spread. So far I've only seen it on hn, but definitely more than I'd expect since it's such an odd to read word.

Do you have a similarly brief alternative?

I don't, I'm interested in origin spread, but I guess it's just an HN thing.

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

#379
post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They might be trying, but the end result will be a petty destruction of progress. "In order to make any change you must fix my much larger and harder to solve issue" will ensure that nothing ever gets done. In the face of just how serious this risk is, this sort of stance is self destructive and nearly malicious.

Why can't you believe both are issues and be in support of the resolution of both?

The way you would solve both issues is simply have data protection laws that affect all social media companies, rather than singling/discriminating against one company because it's "foreign", and moreover "Chinese".

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

#380

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Based off your past comments, you have some pretty strong feelings about both China and the USA which might lead one to think you’re not really approaching this discussion in good faith.

Oh good, another thing is to accuse people who have different opinions of being propagandized drones. Pretty effective is controlling the narrative too.

I don't think you're a drone or that you're propagandized, I just that you have strong opinions. I'm admittedly flattered that you think my idle observations are part of some concentrated effort of 'controlling the narrative' though :)
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