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Help me understand your perspective: are you American or no? I have a hard time understanding why an American wouldn't see FAANG as the lesser of two evils here
by daenz 4y ago
Help me understand your perspective: are you American or no? I have a hard time understanding why an American wouldn't see FAANG as the lesser of two evils here.
- sgjohnson 4y agoBecause the biggest threat to you is your own government, not one half a world away. The Chinese government isn't going to use nefariously collected data about you in order to get a search warrant or something. The American one is.
- roca 4y agoYou don't have to be American to see American big-tech companies as the lesser of two evils here.
- plugger 4y agoConversely, if you're an American in America who doesn't travel abroad what is the threat TikTok poses when compared to the FAANGs? Given the cozy relationship between the US and FAANGs I think it's possible to argue that unfettered government access to FAANG data is more of a threat (to the average US citizen) when compared to the Chinese government having access to your user data via TikTok. But I'm not set on any of this and would like to understand more.
- fsflover 4y ago>if you're an American in America who doesn't travel abroad what is the threat TikTok poses when compared to the FAANGs? They could intentionally influence the public opinion about anything, e.g., elections.
- RealStickman_ 4y agoI'm pretty sure Facebook's already been doing that the past few years.
- fsflover 4y agoTrue, but do you want more of it from a totalitarian government?
- ok123456 4y agoI trust China more than the Koch brothers.
- fsflover 4y agoYou trust them to do what?
- ok123456 4y agoNot do this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_activities_of_the_Koch_brothers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_activities_of_the_Ko... A healthy middle-class in America, with immediate needs like healthcare and housing met, is China's best interests as that means Americans have more money to spend on consumer goods. The Koch Brothers want to dismantle all the organs of state they don't approve of.
- fsflover 4y agoHow about these? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23480918 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23480918, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23506580 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23506580.
- ok123456 4y agoAnd the FBI backdoored skype to silently shut off encryption, back when it was truly peer-to-peer. China never did that to me.
- plugger 4y agoyou mean like Cambridge Analytica and Facebook?
- cowtools 4y agoIt is not a threat to individual safety. It is a threat to the security of the nation at large.
- pm90 4y agoThey’re all nefarious. Your data should not be in the hands of any data broker or Government without explicit consent. But if you wanna beat the drum of Jingoism, here is a counter argument: the Chinese Government has little interest in the activities of most domestic US citizens. Its the US Federal Government that cares if American citizens are feeling too rebellious.
- daenz 4y ago>Chinese Government has little interest in the activities of most domestic US citizens. Including influencing public perception of domestic and international events? You may as well say the Chinese government doesn't care about world politics. Also it's not "Jingoist" to assume that a foreign government (with whom we've had friction) has less of our interests in mind than our own government.
- blackoil 4y agoI am not Op neither an American. Practically, I'll be more concerned about my government having the data vs a third world. I rarely get involved in Chinese politics/threads and have little interaction with them except everything is manufactured there. I may visit China/Taiwan/Hong Kong as a tourist sometime in future. For my own country I am actively interested in and sometime involved in political discussions/forums. I have stronger opinion in favour/against current government and will have lot more influence on my local. So the govt./org. trying to suppress/persecute me will be with high probability my own vs China or Russia.
- DocTomoe 4y agoNot an American, but if I was: FAANG has a data sharing mandate with the US government. My own government spying on me is more dangerous than some foreign government spying on me, because it is unlikely I wake up looking into the barrel of a Chinese exfiltration team at three in the night. Getting woken at gunpoint by the local village idiot/Sheriff because they don't like my surfing pattern is a lot more likely.
- bsaul 4y agonot an american, but don't forget that america strives on democracy, which means approx the same laws for everyone. killing tiktok because it's too successful will undermine US credibility as a fair entity in any kind of business negociation, with any country. I wouldn't be surprised if this case would be used later by the EU in regulating FAANGs even more and inventing taxes just for them ( which, as a european i find completely outrageous, for the same reasons).
- jsiaajdsdaa 4y agoI am in fact American. Just being real-- everyone has our data already.