Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

India bans TikTok, WeChat, and dozens of other Chinese apps

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

251–260 of 847 posts

Re: India bans TikTok, WeChat, and dozens of other Chinese apps

#251

Post by quantummkv »

ehsankia wrote: post #232
systemvoltage wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The parent comment isn't talking about spyware. Imagine if US.app and China.app were both clean, no spyware. If China subsidizes and allows China.app to have access to their domestic market but bans US.app, while US allows China.app to rake in billions of dollars in revenue in the US - this is purely an economic fairness and global trade issue. There is no sane defensive argument against this. Chinese market is 1.3 b…

The reality is closer to "Imagine if US.app and China.app were both spyware" But India only banned the China spyware and left the US spyware roam free. If they truly cared about spyware, many other apps do similar stuff, scooping just as much data.

The big difference here is that the US is not engaged in an armed, public war with India over territory. And the US is currently friendly with India.

The US spyware might be a problem in the future. But the Chinese spyware is a big problem right now. Both require different strategies to counter. And the immediate concern and first priority will always be China

Re: India bans TikTok, WeChat, and dozens of other Chinese apps

#252

Post by sa1 »

OkGoDoIt wrote: post #107

So if WeChat is basically the only messaging app allowed in China, and WeChat is not allowed to be used in India, is there any widely available platform that Indian citizens can use to chat with Chinese citizens? Making it impossible or at least very difficult to communicate with people in another country seems like it’s only going to make any divide even worse in the long term. Think of the fallout of Facebook filte…

Signal works inside China, as long as you installed it outside.

Re: India bans TikTok, WeChat, and dozens of other Chinese apps

#253

Post by Veen »

ianleeclark wrote: post #161
saltedonion wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have a good point. But TikTok is much more risky, and as as such requires much more scrutiny given existing body of knowledge between how chinese social media / chat companies such as WeChat enforce government censorship and aid in propagating misinformation. This might be a shock to most people in the western world, but if you go on almost ANY news website in china, the headline news is dedicated to government p…

> The reality is that Chinese firms and government operates together intimately No, I get this, but here's the thing: YouTube and, more specifically, it's advertisers do everything that you're accusing China of. There are material consequences if YouTube doesn't keep in line. What this means is that a status quo that pleases advertisers will be maintained. It's every bit propaganda as dropping leaflets, but you can't…

Here's one difference: the CCP is a totalitarian dictatorship that exerts direct control over Chinese corporations. Youtube, flawed as it is, is not that.

Re: India bans TikTok, WeChat, and dozens of other Chinese apps

#254

Post by sa1 »

jumelles wrote: post #133
OkGoDoIt wrote: post #107

So if WeChat is basically the only messaging app allowed in China, and WeChat is not allowed to be used in India, is there any widely available platform that Indian citizens can use to chat with Chinese citizens? Making it impossible or at least very difficult to communicate with people in another country seems like it’s only going to make any divide even worse in the long term. Think of the fallout of Facebook filte…

Would iMessage work between India and China?

Facetime works.

Re: India bans TikTok, WeChat, and dozens of other Chinese apps

#255

Post by bad_user »

jjoonathan wrote: post #250
bad_user wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The paradox of tolerance is bullshit though, as it's not based on empirical evidence. It's just armchair philosophy used as justification for intolerance by intellectuals, the mental gymnastic people need to get over their cognitive dissonance. AFAIK Plato came up with it to justify autocracy. That says it all actually.

> The paradox of tolerance is bullshit though So do you tolerate intolerance?

Sorry, not falling in that trap ;-)

Re: India bans TikTok, WeChat, and dozens of other Chinese apps

#256

Post by unishark »

parthdesai wrote: post #68
agilebyte wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More democratic than China, yes. A low bar to clear.

While you may disagree with the current elected government in India (I do as well), it is the definition of democracy. Majority of the population did want that government. Also, in India a person managed to lead a protest, form an entire new party and become the chief minister of a state because people were behind him. That is democracy as well. Tell me when has that happened in the states in recent times.

> Also, in India a person managed to lead a protest, form an entire new party and become the chief minister of a state because people were behind him. That is democracy as well. Tell me when has that happened in the states in recent times.

This seems like a really specific request. I'm not sure what aspect you're looking for. But for starters, here's an interesting wikipedia page for governors that went outside the major parties:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_third_party_and_indepe...

Looks like the most common thing in recent times is to just use the label "independent" rather than start a new party.

Re: India bans TikTok, WeChat, and dozens of other Chinese apps

#257

Post by jlmorton »

saltedonion wrote: post #42

India is absolutely right in banning TikTok as it is a significant national securities threat. As long as the platforms recommendation and ranking algos are a black box, there is no guarantee that China isn’t conducting misinformation campaigns via the platform. At the very least, the government should audit the algos and make sure China can’t arbitrarily alter ranking results.

> there is no guarantee that China isn’t conducting misinformation campaigns via the platform.

And who cares if they are? We live in an open society, and in the US, freedom of speech is a foundational principle. This is among the trade-offs you face when prioritizing absolute freedom of speech.

Re: India bans TikTok, WeChat, and dozens of other Chinese apps

#258

Post by bluGill »

crispyporkbites wrote: post #120
ppeetteerr wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can send a text message...

International text messages can cost a fortune to send

Or even receive in some cases. My driver in India was paranoid that I might get his number because I receiving a text could cost more than a days wages.

Re: India bans TikTok, WeChat, and dozens of other Chinese apps

#259

Post by shripadk »

kalesh wrote: post #194
dheera wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I run WeChat on a separate phone with LineageOS and monitor its actions via the XPosed framework. It regularly scans my Wi-Fi network, checks the list of installed apps, randomly accesses sensors, and does plenty of other dubious things. There was also a period of time where if you didn't give it Location permissions, it wouldn't let you login to WeChat. With LineageOS I was able to "give" it the permission but hand…

Do you know Android tracks your location even after turning on Airplane mode?

GPS tracker works via satellite and is a receiver. It is not a transmitter. Airplane mode turns off cellular services. So realtime tracking is not possible unless Airplane mode is turned off. Android can record tracker information but it has no way of transmitting it if the phone is in Airplane mode.
Post reply on HN