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

TikTok goes dark in the US

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

311–320 of 1001 posts

Re: TikTok goes dark in the US

#311

Post by Stephen_0xFF »

_bin_ wrote: post #289
jchook wrote: post #257

Unreal. Land of Freedom bans Social Media app that runs on US servers, on its own terms, with censorship teams staffed by dozens of ex-US State officials[1]. Amazing that Congress will see bipartisan action on this issue before any of the other much more important issues. It absolutely destroys criticisms of China banning Facebook, etc. 1. https://www.mintpressnews.com/tiktok-chinese-trojan-horse-ru...

it's a trade war response to china's long history of walling non-chinese apps off from their billion-odd-user market while happily collecting users, data, and ad revenue from their own apps in other countries. if china removes all limitations on US tech platforms and ceases exploiting our open-by-default policy, we can talk lifting restrictions. until then, all chinese tech services should be banned. basically china'…

In a way you have to hand it to China for this master play. Globalization really complicates economies. China became the world’s factory because it produced products for a fraction of the cost, but it didn’t let the West in to provide services and products built by white collar workers into their economy. It copied and made sure that the services and products were produced by Chinese budding middle class workers. Now you can argue they’re on even footing with the West. I agree with you. They caught up and the handicap should be removed. They want their cake and to eat it too.

Re: TikTok goes dark in the US

#313

Post by ascorbic »

maeil wrote: post #132
AirMax98 wrote: post #98

It's a shame that it's come to this. I feel that all arguments that TikTok is unhealthy or spyware and bad for our general public are valid, but the same arguments also apply to Instagram/Twitter/Whatever. Rather than have some sort of further regulation for what data any application can collect and present to Americans, we've just brought the hammer down on the millions of people that use this application for their…

To an extent, yes, some of the arguments absolutely apply to other platforms as well. But others don't. You never saw such platforms directly impact elections as much, having Russian operations have as big as an impact as they have had on TikTok in e.g. Eastern Europe. Of course they tried running campaigns in the past on Facebook as well, but not with as high of an impact, and after they got caught the platforms hav…

But Russia was using a platform that they don't control for all of these.

Meanwhile we have a member of the inner circle of the US President-elect using the social network that he owns to explicitly attempt to depose the leader of the UK, to support violent extremists, and to support far right parties across Europe. TikTok never did any of that.

> https://www.reuters.com/world/musk-examines-how-oust-starmer...

Re: TikTok goes dark in the US

#314

Post by etchalon »

geor9e wrote: post #141

Apple and Google created individual APIs to serve up phone number, contacts, exact location, device model, time zone, clipboard data, photos, files, and cookies to 10 million different random app developers to harvest to their heart's delight. US government passes law against just one of them for using said APIs. Are they going to fix the root of the issue, or just play whack-a-mole forever?

Congress should ban operating systems is a hell of a take.

Re: TikTok goes dark in the US

#315

Post by picafrost »

It’s always uncomfortable when realpolitik clashes with the values we aspire to have.

What is freedom, anyway? Surely it can’t include allowing a foreign adversary access to a knob to twist on an important demographic of society. A foreign adversary who is actively compromising the network infrastructure of that society [1] but definitely wouldn’t touch infrastructure around an app owned by a Chinese company.

There’s no such thing as a free lunch. One person's portal to a better world is a state's vehicle to shaping it in the state's interests.

[1] https://apnews.com/article/united-states-china-hacking-espio...

Re: TikTok goes dark in the US

#316

Post by whoitwas »

firefoxd wrote: post #294

This morning I felt the urge to download TikTok for the first time. I did, but I didn't bother creating an account. There is a passage in the book Life of Pi, where Pi's family is gathered and ready to leave India for Canada. And his mother does something out of the ordinary: > The day before our departure she pointed at a cigarette wallah and earnestly asked, "Should we get a pack or two?" > Father replied, "They ha…

I would like to understand your position. China doesn't allow US apps. If Chinese apps are allowed, then China has a big advantage over USA.

Do you understand what kind of information can be derived from 150 million smart phones?

Re: TikTok goes dark in the US

#317

Post by MichaelMoser123 »

picafrost wrote: post #315

It’s always uncomfortable when realpolitik clashes with the values we aspire to have. What is freedom, anyway? Surely it can’t include allowing a foreign adversary access to a knob to twist on an important demographic of society. A foreign adversary who is actively compromising the network infrastructure of that society [1] but definitely wouldn’t touch infrastructure around an app owned by a Chinese company. There’s…

that's a slippery slope. The Russian government is also justifying all of its censorship with foreign interference (this line of argument works with the Russian public, just to note), take care!

Re: TikTok goes dark in the US

#318

Post by logicchains »

elfbargpt wrote: post #260
daemoens wrote: post #231

The app was shutdown a couple of hours ago in the US and this was the message all TikTok users saw when they opened the app.[1] The same guy who pushed for a ban massively last year, is going to save the app despite the security concerns he and most of our government said they had. If only we knew what happened in that classified briefing that made them vote together across party lines. [1] https://a57.foxnews.com/st…

I have a feeling the ban is likely the result of "special interest" groups as opposed to a "classified briefing"

Special interest groups that spend a huge amount of money to unseat representatives who go against their interests: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/aug/16/cong...

Re: TikTok goes dark in the US

#319

Post by geocar »

dehrmann wrote: post #300
nomilk wrote: post #288

To those with knowledge in security, what exactly were the concerns? Here are the four I can think of. - Users tend to use the same passwords across apps. It would be trivial for TikTok to provide an email + password combo to CCP. - Until 2020, the tiktok iOS app was accessing the system clipboard at all times that TikTok was running (even in the background) https://www.theverge.com/2020/6/26/21304228/tiktok-security…

There's the "Grindr threat"[1] There are metadata threats around who's connected to whom, where users are, where they go, etc. There can be leaked data in videos posted by military personnel 1: https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/6/21168079/grindr-sold-chine...

Right. Grindr puts IP location and and userid information in the ad exchanges so anyone programmatically buying knows which politician/public person is gay and where they are.

We also know who is fat because myfitnesspal does the same thing.

We also know who is pregnant, who has recently been raped, who feels vulnerable. And so on. You see an ad? We know a thing. We know if you like boobs even if you don’t.

Without trying to speak to what American governments and corporations have done with that knowledge, the “security” point is that the Chinese government has this knowledge as well, and the fear they can do something with it.

That being said, what Cambridge Analytica did (a British company) with this kind of knowledge is well-documented, so I can agree the fear is warranted by both those who seek to monopolise those powers, and those who seek to escape them.

Post reply on HN