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US government accuses TikTok of being a mouthpiece for the Communist Party

npr.org

81–90 of 115 posts

Re: US government accuses TikTok of being a mouthpiece for the Communist Party

#81

Apparently bleating about Tik Tok is all this government can do to try and hide the fact that it’s been bleating about Tik Tok for months and not achieved anything besides having increased the deficit with China to record numbers while still paying Midwest farmers tens of billions for that privilege. It’s also failed to actually do anything about Tik Tok for months despite having committed some blatantly illegal acts…

I do wish they would show us some examples. I would not be hard to convince that CCP would like to brainwash Gen Z into being sympathizers. Some of the interviews I've see with protestors who don't have a clue about the real roots of what they're protesting for has me a bit skeptical of some of the white protestors for BLM. The black youth seem to be much more informed on what they're protesting for. A lot of the white kids just seem to be angry at the world.

Re: US government accuses TikTok of being a mouthpiece for the Communist Party

#82
post #44

One of the claims I’ve read about is that there’s fear that Beijing could use TikTok to “brainwash kids”, which I thought was a crazy thought...until I read about how the FDA had to issue a warning begging kids not to do the “Benadryl challenge” they saw on TikTok because it was sending them to the ER.

Those types of stories are great fodder for the CCP propaganda engine on how stupid Americans are and we're just lucky to be the lead world power right now and are just talent-less yokels who got here randomly.

Re: US government accuses TikTok of being a mouthpiece for the Communist Party

#83
post #6

How does this even matter now when TikTok has successfully partnered with Oracle? They are now free to operate.

> Trump said he gave a deal to save TikTok involving companies Oracle and Walmart his tentative blessing, but an agreement never materialized, as the U.S. firms and ByteDance appear at odds over a number of details, including what firm would hold the largest stake in the new company. TikTok acquisition talks are ongoing.

It's still very unclear, these companies would be part of the Pre-IPO investment and the new govt is also about to come.

Re: US government accuses TikTok of being a mouthpiece for the Communist Party

#84

I find this quite strange and short sighted. I see my kids look at TikTok all the time. I don't really see how you could spread propaganda through 5 second dances and jokes. Especially since peers are doing that. I would think the Party influence on Hollywood and other entertainment such as Computer Games would be way more disturbing. Injecting propaganda into a real story seems way more effective. Especially when yo…

1. It can be used as propaganda to make Americans look stupid an capricious.

2. They can get information on kids now to be used against them in the future as blackmail (and similar) when those same kids become politicians. Say what you want about the Chinese but they are great at long-term 5, 10, 20 year plans.

Re: US government accuses TikTok of being a mouthpiece for the Communist Party

#85
post #15

The evidence that TikTok is a mouthpiece for China, according to NPR's account of the Commerce Department memo (I still need to read it myself): 1. Bytedance employs 130 Party members. 2. The party members had a rally with Communist salutes and pledges and such. 3. Bytedance's CEO once apologized over an app that the authorities shut down because, as far as I can tell, the memes were too dank. The first two are norma…

Although heavily redacted, part of their claim is that US user data is stored on servers leased by a PRC state owned enterprise located in Virginia (China Telecom?).

TikTok has repeated said American user data is safe because it's stored in the US, and it would never give data to the PRC government. This arrangement could (depending on the specifics) be a circumvention around both of those promises.

Maybe it’s not nefarious, but certainly not good optics.

Re: US government accuses TikTok of being a mouthpiece for the Communist Party

#86

Who cares? The US governement lost all credibility.

No it hasn't. However, it probably has with you. If you believe the CCP over the US government then I think you might want to go over to your local Chinese consulate and have some interesting conversations with the People's Party.

Re: US government accuses TikTok of being a mouthpiece for the Communist Party

#87
post #32

> ByteDance has had a party committee since 2017 and is headed by CCP secretary and company editor-in-chief Zhang Fuping (張輔評), reported Human Rights Watch. Members of the committee hold regular gatherings at which they study speeches by Chinese Chairman Xi Jinping (習近平) and "pledge to follow the party in technological innovation." > In addition, ByteDance on April 25, 2019, signed a strategic cooperation agreement w…

Since it is from Taiwan I feel that I should correct the translation: >aiming to give full play to the professional technology and platform advantages of Toutiao and DouYin in big data analysis

DouYin is the Chinese App, which is hosted in China, and TikTok is hosted in Singapore and Canada I believe.

I don't know if the incorrect translation was on purpose or not, thought correcting it can only be fair.

Re: US government accuses TikTok of being a mouthpiece for the Communist Party

#88
post #53

I’ve seen plenty of U.S. military personnel posting TikTok videos while browsing the app. Many of them are casually posting their experiences of reserve duty life but I’ve seen a couple taken from outposts in Syria. Why is this tolerated if the U.S. Gov has major concerns about the PRC’s having access to TikTok’s data?

Yeah I'm surprised it isn't a misdemeanor (or whatever the military calls it) for a milserv person to appear in a tik tok video at all or even have it on their work or personal device.

Re: US government accuses TikTok of being a mouthpiece for the Communist Party

#89
post #6

How does this even matter now when TikTok has successfully partnered with Oracle? They are now free to operate.

that's not true the deal is still in flight. The USA government has to review it and it's contracts in a final form as do the CCP reps.

Re: US government accuses TikTok of being a mouthpiece for the Communist Party

#90
post #15

The evidence that TikTok is a mouthpiece for China, according to NPR's account of the Commerce Department memo (I still need to read it myself): 1. Bytedance employs 130 Party members. 2. The party members had a rally with Communist salutes and pledges and such. 3. Bytedance's CEO once apologized over an app that the authorities shut down because, as far as I can tell, the memes were too dank. The first two are norma…

I think the evidence is that any Chinese company is under the umbrella of the omnipotent CCP who do as they please. Placing 100 million (and growing) US persons' location, likes, dislikes, contacts, and sms messages in the hands of the CCP on a silver platter is why this is happening.
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