4 ms·

Trump was condemned as xenophobe for suggesting this during his presidency. The data privacy concerns were of no concern to the Democrats back then, so what ex

Trump was condemned as xenophobe for suggesting this during his presidency. The data privacy concerns were of no concern to the Democrats back then, so what exactly did the Democrats get wrong?

ehutch79 4y ago
You can in fact to the right thing for the wrong reasons. There is more nuance here though. If you start banning companies because you're a xenophobe, that sends a very different message than if you ban then because they're a puppet company for the Chinese govmn't
- infamouscow 4y ago
  The state department was exceedingly clear this was about data privacy from the start. The data privacy concerns were of no interest to the Democrats back then. Or, if it was a concern, it certainly wasn't as important as condemning Trump and anyone that supported banning TikTok as Sinophobes. In other words, data privacy was a lesser concern than xenophobia. To say Trump got it right means the Democrats got something wrong, but they don't want to mention what that something is. What exactly did the Democrats get wrong - the Sinophobia or the privacy problem? I suspect my question will remain unanswered because the honest answer reflects poorly on the party that claims to be for intellectuals. https://web.archive.org/web/20200708024138/https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/07/us-looking-at-banning-tiktok-and-chinese-social-media-apps-pompeo.html?mod=djemCMOToday https://web.archive.org/web/20200708024138/https://www.cnbc.... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump–TikTok_controversy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump–TikTok_controvers...
  - ehutch79 4y ago
    Unfortunately the state dept was not the one tweeting and spewing crap at rallies.
    - infamouscow 4y ago
      Twitter and campaign speeches aren't legally binding.
jfengel 4y ago
I don't think that this is a general Democratic position as of yet. There are liberals and Democrats who concur that Tiktok is a serious problem, mostly those directly involved in intelligence. But it seems a minority opinion. The majority opinion seems to see it as on par with other social media: certainly a problem, but not worse than others just because it's Chinese. Perhaps because it's an intelligence issue, they can't make their case without classified information. Or perhaps viewing things through the intelligence lens makes everything associated with China look dangerous, even if it's not really any more dangerous than the non-Chinese equivalents.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
rvz 4y ago
Just two years ago, just have a look at the herd mentality responses and TikTok defenders around this [0] being in denial of the security risk and concerns raised in [1]. Little did most of them know that TikTok was already under a national security investigation years before Trump suggested the 'ban' on the same grounds [1][2]. I mentioned this in [3] and immediately got [flagged][dead] [3] at the height of 2020. This is unsurprising. Always in election year; sense, evidence, research and the truth gets thrown out of the window and all is revealed and exposed afterwards and after the news. As soon as that happens, it is already too late. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24611558 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24611558 [1] https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases/cotton-schumer-request-assessment-of-national-security-risks-posed-by-china-owned-video-sharing-platform-tiktok-a-potential-counterintelligence-threat-with-over-110-million-downloads-in-us-alone https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases/cotton-sch... [2] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-tiktok-cfius-exclusive-idUSKBN1XB4IL https://www.reuters.com/article/us-tiktok-cfius-exclusive-id... [3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24612012 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24612012
- kwere 4y ago
  democracies need an ulterior separation of powers, let "deeply techinical" sectors like defense in the hand of an elected body of people by people with "junior level" "theoretical"/"practical" backgrounds in that field whenever the eligible pool of population is less than 1% of population. populism is a byproduct of its electoral base

Trump was condemned as xenophobe for suggesting this during his presidency. The data privacy concerns were of no concern to the Democrats back then, so what exactly did the Democrats get wrong?

ehutch79 4y ago

You can in fact to the right thing for the wrong reasons. There is more nuance here though. If you start banning companies because you're a xenophobe, that sends a very different message than if you ban then because they're a puppet company for the Chinese govmn't

infamouscow 4y ago
The state department was exceedingly clear this was about data privacy from the start. The data privacy concerns were of no interest to the Democrats back then. Or, if it was a concern, it certainly wasn't as important as condemning Trump and anyone that supported banning TikTok as Sinophobes. In other words, data privacy was a lesser concern than xenophobia. To say Trump got it right means the Democrats got something wrong, but they don't want to mention what that something is. What exactly did the Democrats get wrong - the Sinophobia or the privacy problem? I suspect my question will remain unanswered because the honest answer reflects poorly on the party that claims to be for intellectuals. https://web.archive.org/web/20200708024138/https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/07/us-looking-at-banning-tiktok-and-chinese-social-media-apps-pompeo.html?mod=djemCMOToday https://web.archive.org/web/20200708024138/https://www.cnbc.... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump–TikTok_controversy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump–TikTok_controvers...
- ehutch79 4y ago
  Unfortunately the state dept was not the one tweeting and spewing crap at rallies.
  - infamouscow 4y ago
    Twitter and campaign speeches aren't legally binding.

jfengel 4y ago

I don't think that this is a general Democratic position as of yet. There are liberals and Democrats who concur that Tiktok is a serious problem, mostly those directly involved in intelligence. But it seems a minority opinion. The majority opinion seems to see it as on par with other social media: certainly a problem, but not worse than others just because it's Chinese. Perhaps because it's an intelligence issue, they can't make their case without classified information. Or perhaps viewing things through the intelligence lens makes everything associated with China look dangerous, even if it's not really any more dangerous than the non-Chinese equivalents.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

rvz 4y ago

Just two years ago, just have a look at the herd mentality responses and TikTok defenders around this [0] being in denial of the security risk and concerns raised in [1]. Little did most of them know that TikTok was already under a national security investigation years before Trump suggested the 'ban' on the same grounds [1][2]. I mentioned this in [3] and immediately got [flagged][dead] [3] at the height of 2020. This is unsurprising. Always in election year; sense, evidence, research and the truth gets thrown out of the window and all is revealed and exposed afterwards and after the news. As soon as that happens, it is already too late. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24611558 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24611558 [1] https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases/cotton-schumer-request-assessment-of-national-security-risks-posed-by-china-owned-video-sharing-platform-tiktok-a-potential-counterintelligence-threat-with-over-110-million-downloads-in-us-alone https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases/cotton-sch... [2] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-tiktok-cfius-exclusive-idUSKBN1XB4IL https://www.reuters.com/article/us-tiktok-cfius-exclusive-id... [3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24612012 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24612012

kwere 4y ago
democracies need an ulterior separation of powers, let "deeply techinical" sectors like defense in the hand of an elected body of people by people with "junior level" "theoretical"/"practical" backgrounds in that field whenever the eligible pool of population is less than 1% of population. populism is a byproduct of its electoral base