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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

#311

Post by autoexec »

bioemerl wrote: post #117
phpisthebest wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Depends hugely on who you are and what happens with the politics. CIA and FBI are very big threats to you, which is why you vote regularly to ensure that your rights are represented and those agencies aren't able to abuse their power. China is a much more distant and abstract, but much more serious threat. If the FBI or CIA fucks up, they will put let's say 10% of people in prison for opposition to the state. If Chin…

> The CIA and FBI have checks on them and are balanced as we speak.

Considering the director of the NSA lied to congress about what they were doing and got away with it, I'm not sure we should be putting much faith in any checks or assuming the balance of three letter agencies.

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

#312

Post by autoexec »

8note wrote: post #82
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.

We should do the one because it covers both cases. A TikTok that doesn't have the ability to do bad things isn't an issue. Focusing on TikTok pretends that it's the only hostile actor with a large platform in that needs to be handled asap You can handle Facebook and TikTok at the same time by putting in strong privacy regulations, along with all the other similar hostile actors

But our government depends on those other apps spying on you and violating your privacy so that they can collect a copy of all that data for themselves. If we solved the problem with actually providing privacy protections for the American people against unwanted spying by corporations the US government would have to back to spying on Americans themselves.

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

#314

Post by autoexec »

bioemerl wrote: post #236
DiogenesKynikos wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TikTok isn't a state actor. Contrary to the current American discourse, not everyone in China is a government bot.

All companies in China are under the control of their state. TikTok is a state actor. No, not everyone in China is a state bot. However, every company has to keep at least a few party members on their board and obey state controls constantly.

> All companies in China are under the control of their state. TikTok is a state actor.

Couldn't the same be said of companies here in the US? We know the government is collecting data from US corporations. Should other countries be blocking Google, Facebook and Microsoft?

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

#315

Post by sterlind »

philwelch wrote: post #309
monocasa wrote: post #307

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's something that GenZ actually uses that is run by a friendly state.

China is a “friendly state”?

relative to Russia, yeah? China isn't like, literally invading them. China could get ByteDance to pass location data to Russia, but it doesn't seem like China really wants to get in the middle of the war.

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

#316

Post by remarkEon »

nier wrote: post #248
vanadium1st wrote: post #184

I was really pro open internet. I remember the old internet and feel nostalgia about it that probably won't ever completely fade. I am Ukrainian, and when some years ago my government banned the most popular social network at our country - Russian-made VK, I felt strange about it. I kind of understood some of the security concerns, but didn't feel like they were enough to turn off my open internet fantasies and free-…

It was surprising to me seeing the news with Ukrainian soldiers using TikTok out in the field.

It's interesting in and of itself that ByteDance allows this.

Perhaps PLA believes that bleeding Russia dry via America expending all of her reserve weaponry means that that American combat power can't be used in the Pacific. If you squint hard enough, it might actually be in CCP's interest for Russia to extend itself in Ukraine because it means that the Americans spend infinity dollars and burn through stocks of key weapons. It's Machiavellian but it makes sense.

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

#317

Post by remarkEon »

Schroedingersat wrote: post #232
8f2ab37a-ed6c wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I still have no strength to quit it by myself. This sounds like addiction? Just delete the app from your phone and move on? You'd be surprised by perfectly fine life goes on without Twitter / Facebook / TikTok / Instagram.

This is massively underselling the difficulty. If you delete your facebook and twitter accounts you lose access to the only customer support channel in many places. If you delete faceboom you lose access to local second hand markets, you lose access to information about community events, you cannot participate in group chats, you get harangued at every social event if you try to share another contact channel.

I deleted my facebook during Lent in 2017 as part of a social media "time out" and never brought it back.

Interestingly enough, friends started calling again. Quitting social media cold turkey is great because you get to find out who is actually important in your life, and you find it out really fast.

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

#318

Post by robswc »

snehk wrote: post #281
robswc wrote: post #140

I truly wish Trump would have been able to actually ban TikTok (or at least force a sale). The recent twitter files show that the bond between Government and social media companies is a little too close... but it would be foolish to suggest that the lesser of the two evils here is China. It is actually insane that we let China do whatever they want here while US companies are effectively prevented from gaining a foot…

> It is actually insane that we let China do whatever they want here while US companies are effectively prevented from gaining a foothold in China. I wish people, at least of this site, would stop with this argument. US and European companies in China simply have to follow the same rules Chinese companies have to. It's admirable that they then go ahead and just don't do business there but they're not being prevented…

> simply have to follow the same rules Chinese companies have to

I don’t think it’s simple at all. That might be how it works on paper but I’ll ask you this. Do you think a US or European equivalent would ever be allowed to gain a comparable market share? Or would they find many convenient barriers while a Chinese clone, backed by the government, was being built?

I just don’t see a world where Chinese and US companies are on equal footing in the eyes of the CCP as long as they just “simply follow the rules.”

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

#319

Post by remarkEon »

AbrahamParangi wrote: post #158

A bit of meta commentary but I’ve noticed in recent years a phenomenon where people will adamantly defend something because they associate attacking it with their political opponents . You see this very clearly in the conservative response to US support of Ukraine. You’d expect to see more conservative support for simultaneously defending a free people while also destroying a primary adversary for pennies on the doll…

Perhaps, but these two things are very very different, and while I think your observation is apt it only exists at the margins (i.e. on twitter).

You can steelman an argument for supporting Ukraine in their war that goes something like "bleeding Russia dry means they won't be able to enter into the Pacific as a co-belligerent with China in a potential WWIII scenario".

Similarly, you can steelman an argument for banning TikTok that goes something like "this algorithm can nudge people into believing certain things in a measurable way, and it's bad that an adversary (PLA) has the ability to do this in our country, so we should stop that".

GOP skepticism of support of Ukraine is linked to that aforementioned goal, which we've probably achieved at this point. Why continue to print money and weapons and send them to a place 99% of America couldn't find on a map without googling, especially when this adversary has been shown to be a paper tiger?

Democratic skepticism of the TikTok calamity is, yes, linked to Trump Syndrome to a certain extent, but I think its also an adherence to boilerplate neoliberalism where you let companies compete in a globalized way, and banning TikTok because its Chinese has a tinge of racism (not me saying that, I'm outlining why the Democrats would be skeptical of a ban).

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

#320

Post by zodiakzz »

snehk wrote: post #278
SoylentYellow wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Country of origin is irrelelvant. Country of origin is still very relevant. China has National Security Laws that compel companies and citizens to provide access to and actively help their intelligence agencies. The CCP right now can lawfully order TikTok to push a version with a backdoor and then gaslight the US about its existence if found, e.g. oh that was just an innocent software bug. Or to secretly provide us…

You should read up about things like Crypto AG and then you'll notice that country of origin is indeed completely irrelevant.

No it isn't. Tracking is a side issue, CCP can influence public opinion during elections by altering the "For You" algorithm.
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