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Military personnel is not what this is about, it's about the data of all the citizens in the US. It's about manipulating public opinion, sowing divide or a thou

Military personnel is not what this is about, it's about the data of all the citizens in the US. It's about manipulating public opinion, sowing divide or a thousand other options.

janekm 4y ago
But shouldn't that concern go the other way? If the Chinese government is dictating content policies of TikTok, that should obviously be a concern, but I have not seen this alleged. Granted collecting say interest data based on viewing figures would be a precursor (I suppose it's likely that TikTok could figure out if a customer leaned left or right politically). But again that's not what the complaint is about. It's also hard to ignore that TikTok's responses are at face value reasonable (such as evaluating touch patterns to identify bots... that's obviously something they have to do given the predominance of bots on social media platforms).
- bcherny 4y ago
  I mean, TikTok can manipulate public opinion and access to information more easily than that, by simply artificially demoting/promoting certain content — no user data needed. Eg. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-49826155 https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-49826155
- bitxbitxbitcoin 4y ago
  Even without the government dictating content policies, the threat is still there. Take how the Chinese government has addressed the exact same concern from their side. That is to say, they've banned US social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter and who's to say if it's solely because of the allegations that those platforms follow US government dictations. A forseeable future is one where Americans are using VPN to access Tik Tok and then we see some government officials clamoring for an American version of the GFW.
Grimburger 4y ago
> It's about manipulating public opinion Do you think Facebook, Twitter and Reddit should be able to do that?
- Redoubts 4y ago
  Dunno, but China blocks all of those.
- fsflover 4y ago
  So if they do, it's fine to add another entity to the list?
phpisthebest 4y ago
China does not need to do anything for that, we will to it to ourselves freely with out reservation, they just have to sit back and enjoy the show
- fhood 4y ago
  Certain adversarial govts have happily participated in the past/ are happily participating

Military personnel is not what this is about, it's about the data of all the citizens in the US. It's about manipulating public opinion, sowing divide or a thousand other options.

janekm 4y ago

But shouldn't that concern go the other way? If the Chinese government is dictating content policies of TikTok, that should obviously be a concern, but I have not seen this alleged. Granted collecting say interest data based on viewing figures would be a precursor (I suppose it's likely that TikTok could figure out if a customer leaned left or right politically). But again that's not what the complaint is about. It's also hard to ignore that TikTok's responses are at face value reasonable (such as evaluating touch patterns to identify bots... that's obviously something they have to do given the predominance of bots on social media platforms).

bcherny 4y ago
I mean, TikTok can manipulate public opinion and access to information more easily than that, by simply artificially demoting/promoting certain content — no user data needed. Eg. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-49826155 https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-49826155
bitxbitxbitcoin 4y ago
Even without the government dictating content policies, the threat is still there. Take how the Chinese government has addressed the exact same concern from their side. That is to say, they've banned US social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter and who's to say if it's solely because of the allegations that those platforms follow US government dictations. A forseeable future is one where Americans are using VPN to access Tik Tok and then we see some government officials clamoring for an American version of the GFW.

Grimburger 4y ago

> It's about manipulating public opinion Do you think Facebook, Twitter and Reddit should be able to do that?

Redoubts 4y ago
Dunno, but China blocks all of those.
fsflover 4y ago
So if they do, it's fine to add another entity to the list?

phpisthebest 4y ago

China does not need to do anything for that, we will to it to ourselves freely with out reservation, they just have to sit back and enjoy the show

fhood 4y ago
Certain adversarial govts have happily participated in the past/ are happily participating