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

FCC: TikTok is unacceptable security risk and should be removed from app stores

blog.malwarebytes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

761–770 of 899 posts

Re: FCC: TikTok is unacceptable security risk and should be removed from app stores

#761

Post by bilbo0s »

Msw242 wrote: post #717
bilbo0s wrote: post #680

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are all missing the point. War is a constant. It was in the past. It is a constant today. And it will be in the future. All nations are, at heart, "evil" in this regard. Essentially, nations are just scaled up street gangs with more destructive weapons. The only proven method of keeping these street gangs from getting too far out of hand, of keeping all our war at the level of low intensity conflict, is MAD. Nati…

I mostly agree with you, except I don't believe that MAD is a sufficient deterrent, or that low level conflict is unlikely to evolve into large scale war. The best way, in my mind to minimize conflict is through a global monopoly on violence, one street gang to rule them all This is what the last 30 years have been

This is what the last 30 years have been

Only they haven't.

The reason the US and Russia haven't run rampant the last 30 years is because the US and Russia can blow each other away. So Russia satisfies itself with Georgia and now Ukraine. And the US satisfies itself with those nations in the MidEast region. Remove Russia, and the US would have been all over the yard. Remove the US, and Russia would have been all over the yard.

And now with the rise of China, mankind is even safer. Not only that, but more of mankind have begun to enjoy the benefits of safety. The US and Russia were perfectly willing to fight a proxy war in Korea 70 years ago. They wouldn't dare do that today. Why? The Chinese presence in any MAD calculations.

Today Africa is much safer, it is developing much faster. A large part of the reason for that is the presence of China. Now instead of proxy wars, the great powers compete to see who can deliver Africa the most undersea bandwidth for instance. This is a much better situation for Africans than the situation that existed when only the US and Russia were superpowers. And this situation exists because of MAD. It proves that an armed society is a polite society.

The US, China and Russia are all fulfilling their responsibility to keep the peace by maintaining lethal arsenals of weapons of mass destruction so that they are each confident in their own ability to destroy the others. And that is good for all of us "little people" in the world. Whether we are American, Chinese or Russian. (And even good for us if we are Korean, African, or from South America.)

Re: FCC: TikTok is unacceptable security risk and should be removed from app stores

#762

Post by wcfields »

colinmhayes wrote: post #738
8note wrote: post #690

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't vote in american elections. Being a democracy is no solace to the people for whom the US is a foreign government.

Then maybe your country should designate American social media companies national security adversaries.

When one does that, America usually is punitive against your nation in retaliation.

Re: FCC: TikTok is unacceptable security risk and should be removed from app stores

#763

Post by Xeoncross »

okasaki wrote: post #758
Xeoncross wrote: post #744

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What an odd reply, suddenly I'm the bad person and I 'hate' people because I want to save them? Dissidents = "Disagreeing, as in opinion or belief" The government in power decides who this is and then acts against them according. The CCP just happens to use lethal force on a massive scale in this regard.

Quoted post unavailable.

Another really odd reply, after looking at your comment history I can see you're very pro-china and seem to be a troll in this one area based on others exchanges people have had with you.

Re: FCC: TikTok is unacceptable security risk and should be removed from app stores

#764

Post by yucky »

Clubber wrote: post #704
phpisthebest wrote: post #700

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US is a Constitutional Republic, Arguing otherwise is showing ignorance of governmental structures.

A republic is a form of democracy. This strange differentiation came about as a GOP talking point in the early 2000s. I'm amazed that it is still repeated 20 year later. Saying the US is not a democracy but a constitutional republic is like saying a car is not an automobile. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic

>A republic is a form of democracy. This strange differentiation came about as a GOP talking point in the early 2000s.

What? No, this is not a recent talking point, it's the core philosophical difference in this country since day 1. The names of the parties Republican & Democrat aren't just random words, they represent the philosophical differences in where the bulk of the power in government should rest (the republic being the system with input from the people, or the democracy being the direct will of the people).

Republicans generally believe direct democracy is dangerous and instead rely on the framework of the institutions of our Republic to act as guiderails preventing potential mob rule and other acts of capriciousness. The people get their say, within reason.

Democrats generally believe all power and decision making should come directly from the people, and the systems should be more fluid. They don't see them as guiderails they see them as unnecessary constraints on the people. The people get their say, and their will is done.

I would never argue that our politicians of each party believe in this fully, nor the voters for that matter. But this is a huge philosophical difference that predates the early 2000's by a couple hundred years. It's been a talking point since before our Constitution was drafted.

Re: FCC: TikTok is unacceptable security risk and should be removed from app stores

#765

Post by xorcist »

cowtools wrote: post #107
jmfayard wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US government is a foreign government for 96% of the people, not to mention that its own citizens don't control it much.

The USA is a democracy. Arguing otherwise is the pot calling the kettle black.

Not to disagree with you but it might also nice to nuance that statement. Being a democracy isn't an either/or proposition. It's more of a continuum.

There are some internationally recognized standards what constitutes a democracy, and the USA fits some and not others. For example, the USA wouldn't meet the criteria for democracy to be considered for EU membership, in the unlikely event it would apply for that.

The main sticking point is that it practices capital punishment, together with countries such as People's Republic of China and a handful of African countries. Intralegal execution of minors being especially problematic. Several treaties on international criminal law concerning war crimes is not recognized and its citizens are unlikely to ever be subject to the Geneva convention.

The second important point is the lack of an independent legal system. High ranking judges gets hand picked by politicians, in a very literal way. (Which is something that has also has happened in for example Poland. This is widely regarded as a loop hole in the EU democratic criteria. A country could not have been considered for membership under those conditions, but there is no jurisdictional power against reneging on that policy post membership. Subsidies gets frozen, but that's about it.)

Re: FCC: TikTok is unacceptable security risk and should be removed from app stores

#766

Post by ethbr0 »

Msw242 wrote: post #717
bilbo0s wrote: post #680

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are all missing the point. War is a constant. It was in the past. It is a constant today. And it will be in the future. All nations are, at heart, "evil" in this regard. Essentially, nations are just scaled up street gangs with more destructive weapons. The only proven method of keeping these street gangs from getting too far out of hand, of keeping all our war at the level of low intensity conflict, is MAD. Nati…

I mostly agree with you, except I don't believe that MAD is a sufficient deterrent, or that low level conflict is unlikely to evolve into large scale war. The best way, in my mind to minimize conflict is through a global monopoly on violence, one street gang to rule them all This is what the last 30 years have been

Russia specifically developed their "de-escalation" policy of tactical nuclear weapons use under MAD assumptions.

Basically, betting that there were scenarios where the US wouldn't risk escalation to nuclear war in response to a calibrated Russian tactical nuclear strike in a third party country, thus allowing Russian nuclear effects to nullify superior western precision weapons without consequence.

https://thebulletin.org/2022/03/russian-military-doctrine-ca...

Re: FCC: TikTok is unacceptable security risk and should be removed from app stores

#767

Post by tremon »

ncr100 wrote: post #668
627467 wrote: post #368

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> this data collection done by a foreign government and exploited for surveillance or espionage is a national security risk. How were Snowden revelations of USG Bigtech relationship materially different from what's happening here? Maybe it was less transparent? Any "woke" person can see the cognitive dissonance here. It's all fine that you use the geopolitical rivalry argument but not if you try to paint one side of…

China is not the US. China's kompromat and industrial espionage policies differ from those of the US. It is off base to compare while ignoring intentions and impact, because they're Very different countries.

It's only off-base for citizens of the US. For other countries, there is no material difference between what either is doing. Except that one of them has a track record of extralegal assassinations, of course.

Re: FCC: TikTok is unacceptable security risk and should be removed from app stores

#768

Post by mullen »

gverri wrote: post #751

I think this is a dangerous move from the US. If this goes forward I can see an increasing number of countries banning all US social media. Specially since we know very well how close of a relationship they have with TSA and other US intel bodies. Are we going to see a future where every country/economic block has their own separate social media/search engines like China and Russia? It's is an attack on users freedom…

> Are we going to see a future where every country/economic block has their own separate social media/search engines like China and Russia?

You are way too late to this part of the discussion.

Re: FCC: TikTok is unacceptable security risk and should be removed from app stores

#769

Post by tylersmith »

the_only_law wrote: post #725
tylersmith wrote: post #710

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a similar comment here that's dead. People love to complain about the US not being democratic, but when you point out that they're correct and the US is in fact not a democracy and not democratic it gets downvoted.

Because it's a lazy boring way to try to detail a thread. You're arguing something that the other people aren't even saying . Anyone with a half working brain who's gone outside in the last 20 years understands colloquial use of words.

They're saying they want to live in a more democratic place. We're saying the US isn't and won't be that place. It's an actual, incompatible disagreement on how much individual people should affect the government not just a debate about wording.

Colloquial misuse of the word only sets people up for disappointment when they find out that a government they call a democracy isn't one.

Re: FCC: TikTok is unacceptable security risk and should be removed from app stores

#770

Post by dahart »

hammerheadtech wrote: post #655
tablespoon wrote: post #474

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The problem should be that the data is collected and provided to the government whenever they want - not that it's not the Chinese government. We had this discussion after the Snowden leaks and nothing changed whatsoever. Back then it was the US government and the US gov had the chance to change the rules so this could not happen. Now they're up in arms because other governments do the exact same thing. It's really…

Rubbish. China is less of a threat to anyone outside the US than the government inside the US. If the FCC clarified their stance and highlighted very specific threats, I might be swayed but only if it was demonstrated that the US government isn't doing exactly the same thing. All opaque data harvesting of public platforms, no matter who collects it, is bad. Your example is garbage as well. In both situations you high…

> China is less of a threat to anyone outside the US than the government inside the US.

Why do you believe this, and based on what evidence? By “anyone outside the US”, are you referring to the population of China? What US threats are you referring to, and why do you believe they’re worse in the US? While the US has ample room for improvement, as do all countries, there’s a fairly wide range of serious humanitarian issues that are documented and indexed by a large number of people globally, and there seems to be very little disagreement about how China compares to the US on various censorship and freedom rankings. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_freedom_indices

Post reply on HN