3 ms·

TikTok is feared not because of privacy, but because it shows China can do tech too. America placed its economic bets on being a tech superpower and that is now

TikTok is feared not because of privacy, but because it shows China can do tech too. America placed its economic bets on being a tech superpower and that is now under threat. Restricting American companies in the same way would only serve to also diminish tech in the US.

ethanbond 4y ago
Eh, not really. There have been plenty of perfectly functional apps working in China for a long time. Makes sense that people are worried about feeding video streams, geolocation data, facial recognition data, social network data, etc. to our adversary who uses the very same data sources to manipulate and control its own population.
- cma 4y ago
  Wasn't Eric Schmidt working for the department of defense while pushing Google+ for other countries? Letting most Silicon Valley-style platform stuff into your country is a bit crazy: why would you want network lock-in effects to mean 30% of taxi revenue or whatever flows back to the US, or that a US AI matchmakes your dating population and drains money out of the country having people pay to get more swipes than each other in a zero-sum competition? For most countries Silicon Valley-style companies with strong moats aren't entering in and helping with comparative advantage: they are just a taxation that goes overseas, capturing people through failures of collective action causing inability to shift platforms when something competitive comes along.
  - ethanbond 4y ago
    I don’t blame other countries for banning American information providing/gathering services either.
- randomdata 4y ago
  > There have been plenty of perfectly functional apps working in China for a long time. But, for the most part, they've seen little fanfare outside of China. Even the breakouts, like Alibaba and WeChat, have really only succeeded where they are able to bridge connections with China. They hadn't proven they can develop software for a wide audience. TikTok changed the landscape. TikTok is an app that could have come straight out of Silicon Valley and is successfully going head to head with American players on their own turf.
  - ethanbond 4y ago
    Sure, but this set of observations is actually much more explainable by: people are uncomfortable with China either pushing or pulling data directly to/from Americans. This set of observations is not very explainable by "we didn't know China can 'do tech,' now we know, and now we don't like it."
    - washadjeffmad 4y ago
      Or, the state's agenda of fearmongering during our parents' generation over foreign enemies did not pass on to their children and grandchildren, and perhaps our domestic strategy of refusing to acknowledge the value of individuals' data and privacy to grow US companies has backfired since they now do not have any sense of ownership or an expectation of privacy to any company. This was a blunder writ in hubris and xenophobia from the start.

ethanbond 4y ago

Eh, not really. There have been plenty of perfectly functional apps working in China for a long time. Makes sense that people are worried about feeding video streams, geolocation data, facial recognition data, social network data, etc. to our adversary who uses the very same data sources to manipulate and control its own population.

cma 4y ago
Wasn't Eric Schmidt working for the department of defense while pushing Google+ for other countries? Letting most Silicon Valley-style platform stuff into your country is a bit crazy: why would you want network lock-in effects to mean 30% of taxi revenue or whatever flows back to the US, or that a US AI matchmakes your dating population and drains money out of the country having people pay to get more swipes than each other in a zero-sum competition? For most countries Silicon Valley-style companies with strong moats aren't entering in and helping with comparative advantage: they are just a taxation that goes overseas, capturing people through failures of collective action causing inability to shift platforms when something competitive comes along.
- ethanbond 4y ago
  I don’t blame other countries for banning American information providing/gathering services either.
randomdata 4y ago
> There have been plenty of perfectly functional apps working in China for a long time. But, for the most part, they've seen little fanfare outside of China. Even the breakouts, like Alibaba and WeChat, have really only succeeded where they are able to bridge connections with China. They hadn't proven they can develop software for a wide audience. TikTok changed the landscape. TikTok is an app that could have come straight out of Silicon Valley and is successfully going head to head with American players on their own turf.
- ethanbond 4y ago
  Sure, but this set of observations is actually much more explainable by: people are uncomfortable with China either pushing or pulling data directly to/from Americans. This set of observations is not very explainable by "we didn't know China can 'do tech,' now we know, and now we don't like it."
  - washadjeffmad 4y ago
    Or, the state's agenda of fearmongering during our parents' generation over foreign enemies did not pass on to their children and grandchildren, and perhaps our domestic strategy of refusing to acknowledge the value of individuals' data and privacy to grow US companies has backfired since they now do not have any sense of ownership or an expectation of privacy to any company. This was a blunder writ in hubris and xenophobia from the start.