4 ms·

At this point I'd put TikTok ahead of Facebook/Meta as the US gov has TikTok on a much tigher leash.

by schappim 5y ago

ed25519FUUU 5y ago
TikTok is a Chinese company and the USA has literally zero input or transparency into its operation.
- schappim 5y ago
  You're right, but this is why the US is more likely to bonk them over the head, admittedly this is less of a threat now w/ Biden in Office, but still a threat. TikTok's biggest short term threat is probably the CCP, which has been increasingly taking a hardline approach w/ their own tech companies (think Ant Financial, JD etc).
  - bpodgursky 5y ago
    Come on. The CCP is taking a hardline with companies domestically. There's a huge push to stop corrupting the youth, treat data responsibly, etc. The CCP gives 0 shits what those companies do to the rest of the world, and are probably thrilled if TikTok causes political and social chaos in the US.
    - schappim 5y ago
      >> The CCP is taking a hardline with companies domestically. There's a huge push to stop corrupting the youth, treat data responsibly, etc. Exactly, w/ 72% of their users being domestic[1], TikTok's biggest short term threat is probably the CCP. >> The CCP gives 0 shits what those companies do to the rest of the world, and are probably thrilled if TikTok causes political and social chaos in the US. You're not wrong. [1] https://www.statista.com/chart/25867/percentage-of-tiktok-users-in-the-last-12-months-by-country/ https://www.statista.com/chart/25867/percentage-of-tiktok-us...
- colinmhayes 5y ago
  Except there were legitimate threats of banning TikTok by Trump which ended with ByteDance making multiple reforms to increase legislative oversight.
optymizer 5y ago
This doesn't make sense for US citizens. In the worst case scenario, the government could seize a company's assets, including the data centers, which contains data on all its users. In the case of FB, the US government would get that data. In the case of TikTok, it's the Chinese government who would get the data on you, the US citizen. Objectively speaking, it would be strictly worse if lots of data on US citizens would end up in the hands of the Chinese government, because it's a foreign government and, as we know, information is power. Data on one person is not that useful, data on millions of US citizens, even when noisy, can be extremely powerful. We also know at this point that a feature like News Feed can be trivially used to influence what information people see and how that information is presented, which then influences the people's opinion of matters in the world, even if the information is delivered via a fun, engaging or funny medium, it's still being absorbed by the brain and the end result is the same: successful control of the information dispersed to the masses. It's one thing for the US government to influence its citizens opinion (all governments do this for various reasons, for example to cultivate feelings of patriotism and national pride), and it's a completely different ball game if the Chinese government can influence what US citizens think of certain matters. For example, they can try to sway the public opinion towards a political candidate that is more favorable for the foreign government, thereby meddling in a foreign election, only this time it's done with a ton of plausible deniability and the foreign citizens themselves are helping out. This doesn't mean that Facebook is good, just that it is the lesser of two evils, and, in my opinion, it's a strategic mistake on the US's part to allow TikTok to be used en masse by US citizens. I would have banned it a long time ago. You could also replace US and China with any other two states that can control what information billions of people see on a daily basis and I would argue the same point.
- ok_dad 5y ago
  On the other hand, I trust the US government about as much as I trust the Chinese government, or any other government for that matter. None of them, when push comes to shove, give a crap about a plebe like myself. They’ll all use whatever they have on me to get what they want if I could be of any use in the future.
  - 5y ago

At this point I'd put TikTok ahead of Facebook/Meta as the US gov has TikTok on a much tigher leash.

ed25519FUUU 5y ago

TikTok is a Chinese company and the USA has literally zero input or transparency into its operation.

schappim 5y ago
You're right, but this is why the US is more likely to bonk them over the head, admittedly this is less of a threat now w/ Biden in Office, but still a threat. TikTok's biggest short term threat is probably the CCP, which has been increasingly taking a hardline approach w/ their own tech companies (think Ant Financial, JD etc).
- bpodgursky 5y ago
  Come on. The CCP is taking a hardline with companies domestically. There's a huge push to stop corrupting the youth, treat data responsibly, etc. The CCP gives 0 shits what those companies do to the rest of the world, and are probably thrilled if TikTok causes political and social chaos in the US.
  - schappim 5y ago
    >> The CCP is taking a hardline with companies domestically. There's a huge push to stop corrupting the youth, treat data responsibly, etc. Exactly, w/ 72% of their users being domestic[1], TikTok's biggest short term threat is probably the CCP. >> The CCP gives 0 shits what those companies do to the rest of the world, and are probably thrilled if TikTok causes political and social chaos in the US. You're not wrong. [1] https://www.statista.com/chart/25867/percentage-of-tiktok-users-in-the-last-12-months-by-country/ https://www.statista.com/chart/25867/percentage-of-tiktok-us...
colinmhayes 5y ago
Except there were legitimate threats of banning TikTok by Trump which ended with ByteDance making multiple reforms to increase legislative oversight.

optymizer 5y ago

This doesn't make sense for US citizens. In the worst case scenario, the government could seize a company's assets, including the data centers, which contains data on all its users. In the case of FB, the US government would get that data. In the case of TikTok, it's the Chinese government who would get the data on you, the US citizen. Objectively speaking, it would be strictly worse if lots of data on US citizens would end up in the hands of the Chinese government, because it's a foreign government and, as we know, information is power. Data on one person is not that useful, data on millions of US citizens, even when noisy, can be extremely powerful. We also know at this point that a feature like News Feed can be trivially used to influence what information people see and how that information is presented, which then influences the people's opinion of matters in the world, even if the information is delivered via a fun, engaging or funny medium, it's still being absorbed by the brain and the end result is the same: successful control of the information dispersed to the masses. It's one thing for the US government to influence its citizens opinion (all governments do this for various reasons, for example to cultivate feelings of patriotism and national pride), and it's a completely different ball game if the Chinese government can influence what US citizens think of certain matters. For example, they can try to sway the public opinion towards a political candidate that is more favorable for the foreign government, thereby meddling in a foreign election, only this time it's done with a ton of plausible deniability and the foreign citizens themselves are helping out. This doesn't mean that Facebook is good, just that it is the lesser of two evils, and, in my opinion, it's a strategic mistake on the US's part to allow TikTok to be used en masse by US citizens. I would have banned it a long time ago. You could also replace US and China with any other two states that can control what information billions of people see on a daily basis and I would argue the same point.

ok_dad 5y ago
On the other hand, I trust the US government about as much as I trust the Chinese government, or any other government for that matter. None of them, when push comes to shove, give a crap about a plebe like myself. They’ll all use whatever they have on me to get what they want if I could be of any use in the future.
- 5y ago