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Judge temporarily blocks U.S. ban on TikTok downloads from U.S. app stores

reuters.com

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Re: Judge temporarily blocks U.S. ban on TikTok downloads from U.S. app stores

#411

Post by dfischer »

082349872349872 wrote: post #404
dfischer wrote: post #364

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most definitely cia has a history with manipulating information. But at the point of information, how do you know what to even trust at any level? Evidence can be provided for anything. Information and disinformation all at the same time. This is only increasing - how will anyone be able to sort themselves out? I’m not so sure it’s possible. https://youtu.be/IQPsKvG6WMI Also 60 seconds of video is a ton of informatio…

thoughts on sorting oneself out, albeit with difficulty: seek variety of manipulated information: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24600424 systematically analyse received information: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23897577 analyse especially source levels: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24459177 compare https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24403135 and remember we may have evolved big energy-guzzlin…

Thank you for contributing something thoughtful and relevant among the disheartening engagements.

Re: Judge temporarily blocks U.S. ban on TikTok downloads from U.S. app stores

#412

Post by mrpopo »

yibg wrote: post #112
devwastaken wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any business with china is a national security issue. There's plenty of evidence to the level of dictatorship in China. It's your responsibility to look at its history and make reasonable conclusions from it. If you want some sort of smoking gun evidence you're not going to find it, unless you somehow have a security clearance in China good enough to gain knowledge about their operations. It's a Chinese company, they…

Let’s not pretend this is anything other than just plain old geopolitics with TikTok caught in the middle. Going by “national security” reasons most countries should ban Facebook and google, not to mention amazon, Microsoft, oracle, Cisco etc. since the us government has already shown willingness and ability to spy on anything they can get their hands on, including foreign heads of state. Allowing US controlled socia…

> Going by “national security” reasons most countries should ban Facebook and google, not to mention amazon, Microsoft, oracle, Cisco etc. since the us government has already shown willingness and ability to spy on anything they can get their hands on, including foreign heads of state. Allowing US controlled social media and other tech companies is a huge risk.

Yes.

Re: Judge temporarily blocks U.S. ban on TikTok downloads from U.S. app stores

#413

Post by jonathanstrange »

miki123211 wrote: post #380
CraigJPerry wrote: post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Surely Facebook’s a bigger issue than 60 second videos since any bad actor can target messaging at susceptibile users and no one will know. This just seems like yet another case of Republican double speak. Say one thing do a different thing that just coincidentally happens to grab power over others. Also, what is the method of using a 60 second video platform to share messaging with a crowd who will immediately scrol…

>Surely Facebook’s a bigger issue than 60 second videos since any bad actor can target messaging at susceptibile users and no one will know. TikTok relies much more heavily on an algorithm than FB, though. FB primarily pushes content posted by your friends, while TikTok pushes anything that might interest you. They can subtly influence you. If they hate Trump, the can push joke videos about tax returns and his sexual…

> In other words, try creating an unconscious association between Trump and evil in your brain.

So...like following Trump's tweets. That's indeed a great danger.

Re: Judge temporarily blocks U.S. ban on TikTok downloads from U.S. app stores

#414

Post by gabaix »

howlgarnish wrote: post #342
tooltalk wrote: post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> ... being banned essentially on executive whim: The US Senate unanimously approved a bill banning federal employees from using TikTok on government-issued devices last month. So there is some consensus among lawmakers that some sort of privacy and/or security threat exists -- it's hardly on "executive whim."

You're tautologically correct (TikTok is banned because TikTok is banned!), but that still doesn't answer the question. Put another way: if whatever Tiktok is doing represents a categorical privacy/security threat, then why aren't they banning all apps that engage in said activity, instead of just Tiktok? I suspect the answer is that Tiktok is just doing the same as Facebook etc, and that's unacceptable only because…

It is quite likely the US will continue to look at companies on which CCP can have control over. I agree it is odd to not have made a more comprehensive list.

Re: Judge temporarily blocks U.S. ban on TikTok downloads from U.S. app stores

#415

Post by abc-xyz »

DarthGhandi wrote: post #355
searchableguy wrote: post #339

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ban all Chinese apps?

I can buy location data on millions of people across the world right now from American companies who make free apps What exactly is stopping the Chinese from buying that same data? Name one hindrance they will face, please. The delusional jingoism on HN is painful to fight. https://apnews.com/f6a83c0b8e0a65563e4c76955c37c0ab

But they cannot buy the same data - the quantity and quality of the data they obtain themselves (through apps like TikTok and WeChat that are running in the background 24/7 while collecting any information possible, such as secretly copying your clipboard which is likely to reveal passwords and other sensitive information) is far higher than what they could pay for.

You’re also ignoring the fact that they can use their apps to easily spread propaganda and influence elections. They’ve already censored videos that criticized the Chinese government. And inside the app then they have a very prominent “Covid-19” button where they can cherrypick what information to display.. they’ve for instance chosen to omit the fact that the Wuhan Virus originated in China.

Re: Judge temporarily blocks U.S. ban on TikTok downloads from U.S. app stores

#417

Post by _fx6v »

tester34 wrote: post #409
dfischer wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TikTok is the generation that is most malleable to propaganda in a way that can undermine an entire generation. TikTok also has history of recording telemetry that’s extremely alarming. Look into what is mined. Look into how algorithms get optimized to influence behavior. See a recent paper on this with using social media to shut down a power plant. Memetic warfare is real and it’s been going on in cyberspace for a w…

What makes you think that zoomers are more likely to be influenced by social media than boomers or millenials?

I don’t think they’re any less or any more other than the potential net vectors exposed. A boomer typically has traditional media as a source of information which shapes their world view. These channels have their own programming and narratives.

The zoomers are entirely on internet platforms which has a higher degree of manipulation. Every single person is mined against. Every single person gets optimized against. There’s more room for coercion based on the algorithmic use targeting demographics, and with the capability of individual optimization with machine learning tech.

If the typical “hacker” can launch a botnet with GPT2 and automate conversation and thread demographics based on interactions putting a “group” into a human in loop pattern with a goal ... imagine what state actors are doing.

Re: Judge temporarily blocks U.S. ban on TikTok downloads from U.S. app stores

#418

Post by deepstack »

localhost wrote: post #20

Unlike some other commenters below, I don't believe that this is a privacy issue. Instead, I believe that it is a national security issue because TikTok is controllable by the CCP which is ideologically opposed to the United States. The next global conflict will likely be one between the east and the west, with control of information being advantageous to both sides in the conflict. China already blocks the western I…

Yes I have said so many times about WeChat to friends in USA. I CCP polices are terrible, however there are many in us tech wish they can do what CCP is doing with their apps.

Re: Judge temporarily blocks U.S. ban on TikTok downloads from U.S. app stores

#419

Post by emptysongglass »

detaro wrote: post #408
emptysongglass wrote: post #405

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That sounds exactly like lebensraum, which if you're not familiar was an effort to create a "Greater Germany" through the annexation of ethnically German neighbors. There are more than a million people whose only crime was they were not Han Chinese who have been sent to camps. It is an ethical imperative to make a stand.

Lebensraum was not about annexing ethnically German neighbors. Lebensraum was about the "German race" needing space to thrive and, being superior, having a moral right and "biological necessity" to conquer that space and wipe out the "inferior races" currently inhabiting it.

You are correct; lebensraum did go hand-in-hand with Hitler's Grossdeutschland. I argue that the Anschluss (the annexation of Austria) was in Hitler's eyes a test of pavement for lebensraum: for an even greater Germany. China's reconstitution of half a century old territories is evidence of this same desire.

Re: Judge temporarily blocks U.S. ban on TikTok downloads from U.S. app stores

#420

Post by nicoburns »

Scapeghost wrote: post #400
dfischer wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TikTok is the generation that is most malleable to propaganda in a way that can undermine an entire generation. TikTok also has history of recording telemetry that’s extremely alarming. Look into what is mined. Look into how algorithms get optimized to influence behavior. See a recent paper on this with using social media to shut down a power plant. Memetic warfare is real and it’s been going on in cyberspace for a w…

Kettle, meet Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter, Reddit, HN.

And particularly Instagram, Snapchat for the younger generation.
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