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

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

#351

Post by numpad0 »

dathinab wrote: post #320
ianleeclark wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are YouTube algorithms open? I don't really see a difference here. Nation state vs. private corporation is different on paper, but I don't see why. They're both going to react to material stimuli to increase their standings.

Good point. But YouTube is not controlled by an authoritarian fascist-like government which has a world view in direct opposition to what you could refer handwaveingly as "western" and is currently pushing to become the dominant power in the world. If you furthermore consider how bad the "western world" (mainly Britten and the East India Company) had treated it in the past, some aspects of the Chinese culture and the…

Since you mention East India Company, what makes YouTube different from them?

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

#352

Post by balfirevic »

ppeetteerr wrote: post #63
kanox wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're completely missing the point: no government should get to decide what apps to ban.

In some countries, people trust their government to do the right thing. If the people in power believe that an app is a security risk, they ban it.

> In some countries, people trust their government to do the right thing.

In some countries, some people trust their government to do such things, and it may even be majority of people. That doesn't help the portion of citizens that get such decisions imposed on them against their will.

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

#354

Post by kortilla »

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…

The language barrier already guarantees that. Only 12.6 percent of Indians speak English and only 6.4 percent of Chinese speak English. The overlap is worse with any other common language.

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

#355

Post by hellotomyrars »

systemvoltage wrote: post #177
ngold wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see a problem with banning Spyware regardless of the country of origin.

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…

Unfair?

Unfair to who?

Whether I agree with it or not (I don't). China gets to have it's cake and eat it too. Big win for China, wouldn't you say?

If everyone else is willing to leave the cake on the table, It's perfectly fair for China to have it if you ask me.

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

#356

Post by riverlong »

I'm seeing lots of comments about national security-style concerns, and framing this in terms of the recent India-China skirmishes. That all makes sense.

Where I think a lot of folks are missing the point is that this is also a tremendous boost to local Indian entrepreneurship. One of the really clever aspects of China's Great Firewall is that it keeps out international competition, which would crush local startups. By banning more advanced, foreign competitors, India gives its local entrepreneurs a chance to grow hugely successful domestic apps, which can then compete internationally.

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

#359

Post by kalesh »

shripadk wrote: post #259
kalesh wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yes & it immediately transmits once it comes back to cellular service.

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

#360

Post by krn »

A reddit user, who claims to have reverse-engineered the TikTok app[1], concluded:

> TikTok is a data collection service that is thinly-veiled as a social network. If there is an API to get information on you, your contacts, or your device... well, they're using it.

> For what it's worth I've reversed the Instagram, Facebook, Reddit, and Twitter apps. They don't collect anywhere near the same amount of data that TikTok does, and they sure as hell aren't outright trying to hide exactly whats being sent like TikTok is.

It doesn't seem surprising now, given that Zoom, which is also being developed in China, acts like a malware application, too[2].

I'm glad, that India is more aware of the possible consequences of using any software made in China than, for instance, the government of the UK is[3].

[1] https://old.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/fxgi06/not_new_news...

[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22748204

[3] https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-52126534

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