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The whole emergence of TikTok in the US was an almost hilariously slow moving policy crisis. We know it's nefarious, but no one has really figured out a coheren

The whole emergence of TikTok in the US was an almost hilariously slow moving policy crisis. We know it's nefarious, but no one has really figured out a coherent reason of why. Like, even before it really took off in the states you could read reports of this highly addictive, nefarious platform that the CCP had their fingers all over getting ready to be bottled up and shipped over to the US. So now that it's here, we've poked and prodded enough to go "yep, that's a Trojan horse all right". But we still don't know what it's for. Is it meant to push subtle CCP talking points and propaganda? Is this a ruse designed to find and track dissidents? Track rising nascent millennial trends? Lure in important officials to capture or intercept their media habits? And it could just be a vanity project by high ranking CCP members - showing the West that they can develop technology.

sosodev 4y ago
Do we know it's nefarious? I don't think we've seen any proof or as you pointed out we would know why
- dontreact 4y ago
  There have been repeated reports of negative outcomes as a result of TikTok trends. There have been investigations into the amount of information the app collects and it is far beyond what other apps do (all without user consent). The app is clearly highly addictive. What sorts of proof would convince you that this is an addictive app that is causing harm?
- legitster 4y ago
  That's the thing - we don't know. But there are some very high level endorsements for the whole thing from within the CCP despite the whole venture being not particularly profitable.
- pasquinelli 4y ago
  no, "we" certainly do "know" it's nefarious. which isn't to say it actually is. understand that we're in the early stages of a new red scare, so china has gone from an important partner to an adversary to hostile, and now it's the enemy in some circles. so now everything china does is nefarious. it reminds me of this event: https://www.nytimes.com/1950/08/15/archives/dock-workers-refuse-to-unload-russian-crab-meat-on-ship-here-soviet.html https://www.nytimes.com/1950/08/15/archives/dock-workers-ref... personally, i don't think there will be much success whipping up a new red scare. people are too checked out. though maybe i'm just hoping.

sosodev 4y ago

Do we know it's nefarious? I don't think we've seen any proof or as you pointed out we would know why

dontreact 4y ago
There have been repeated reports of negative outcomes as a result of TikTok trends. There have been investigations into the amount of information the app collects and it is far beyond what other apps do (all without user consent). The app is clearly highly addictive. What sorts of proof would convince you that this is an addictive app that is causing harm?
legitster 4y ago
That's the thing - we don't know. But there are some very high level endorsements for the whole thing from within the CCP despite the whole venture being not particularly profitable.
pasquinelli 4y ago
no, "we" certainly do "know" it's nefarious. which isn't to say it actually is. understand that we're in the early stages of a new red scare, so china has gone from an important partner to an adversary to hostile, and now it's the enemy in some circles. so now everything china does is nefarious. it reminds me of this event: https://www.nytimes.com/1950/08/15/archives/dock-workers-refuse-to-unload-russian-crab-meat-on-ship-here-soviet.html https://www.nytimes.com/1950/08/15/archives/dock-workers-ref... personally, i don't think there will be much success whipping up a new red scare. people are too checked out. though maybe i'm just hoping.