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TikTok Ban, good or bad? (www.latimes.com)

submitted 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) by catch22 to c/[email protected]

30 comments fedilink hide all child comments

As someone in the US who has had their private data leaked multiple times (ive lost count) and is extremely careful when browsing you tube as to not be drawn into a conspiracy ridden rabbit hole, I'm not sure what the point of this tik tok ban is. To me tik tok is social media business as usual. If congress is going to go this hard on a social media company and privacy concerns they should be doing this with all the other companies that pry into our private lives and try their best to manipulate us as well (car makers, appliance manufactures, phone makers, wearbales, ect...) otherwise to me this comes across as the US congress extorting a single company to make billionaires richer. It has been shown time and time again that even US based social media companies are vulnerable to influencing conspiracy theorists and swaying the votes of thousands of people.I feel like we are at the pinnacle of technological ignorance here. Thoughts?

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Gotta love the USA version of capitalism... It's ALL corporate socialism

Tiktok is hot garbage but not hotter or more garbage than Facebook or Reddit or Instagram... Yet if US corps are losing ground, then daddy gov has to step in

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

The ban is about national security and the fact that the TikTok app has been caught snooping on everything it can get its hands on and sends it directly back to Chinese servers.

I haven't read anything that says this, but I suppose it's possible that Meta/Google/Etc. have lobbied to play up that angle, but I would argue that's the capitalism we live in: the biggest pockets win.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Which is different from all the US corps snpooping because it's just not the US?

I mean these days even cars spy on us and sell the data as well... But I guess as long as it's someone in the USA getting richer, the gov does not care

[–] [email protected] -1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I agree that it's not a good thing, but the US gov isn't going to use the data to blackmail a closeted gay senator/govt official against their own government, while China will absolutely do that.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-china-grindr-exclusive/exclusive-behind-grindrs-doomed-hookup-in-china-a-data-misstep-and-scramble-to-make-up-idUSKCN1SS10H/

And considering how good TikTok's content algorithm is at picking up on subtle ques in browsing habits, I'm sure they know (or at least can venture a good guess at) a lot more than just the information users typed into the app, like in the case of Grindr.

I'm not saying data grabbing for the sake of data grabbing like is happening now is a good thing, but at least it's controllable within the US for US companies holding data on US citizens. Lesser of 2 emails, I guess?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

I think you have more faith on the ethics of the US government than I do