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The TikTok Flip-Flop

Puppycow said:
Facebook, Twitter, Google and other American social media companies are blocked or severely curtailed in China.

I don't see how China has any standing to complain if the US does the same to Chinese internet companies.
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Nifty. Not what I'm talking about. I couldn't care less what the CCP thinks. I agree there are valid security concerns with TikTok. I'm just saying those concerns should apply to all social media platforms, to varying degrees. For instance, what did the House of Saud buy when they financed Lord Hairplugs' purchase of Twitter? What do US financial backers get from the social media platforms they fund?
 
dudalb said:
I also wonder just how the hell you enforce a Tik Tok ban.
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Very easily. To start with, there are a lot of TikTok operations located within the US, and they can be shut down trivially. You can also block access to the app within the US through the major app stores.

But of course, that's not the end of the story, since operations outside the country might continue, and people can use VPNs. But here's the real nail in the coffin: even if it's hard to block user access to TikTok, it's easy to block advertisers. And if TikTok can't access the market of US advertisers, whatever US users are still accessing it become a liability, not an asset.
 
Puppycow said:
Something I hadn't realized about TikTok: It's already banned in China.

Yes, the Chinese don't allow their own citizens to use it.
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That's right. The same company has a separate service in China called Douyin, which in form is identical to TikTok - a short-form video sharing app, even the UI is similar. The difference is in the content; videos on Douyin are all of people doing wholesome and inspirational things and conveying supportive messages. The harmful pranks, idiotic "challenges", conspiracy theories, and boasting about criminal activities that comprise the bulk of TikTok content in the US and the rest of the world are totally absent.
 
Donal said:
Hey, if you want simple answers to complicated questions, there's always FOX News. I'm just pointing out that the focus on TikTok seems to go beyond the valid security concerns and into some good old-fashioned xenophobia.
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i agree that it's largely xenophobia with tik tok. i don't think there's anything tik tok is doing that's bad that doesn't apply to amercian social media companies.

that said, there is a lot of bad stuff on all these companies. like, are we really preserving free speech by ensuring giant tech companies have the ability to unethically manipulate an audience and specifically target children, or spread misinformation and lies and offer absolutely no consumer protections? apply that to all of them. it's not a good thing imo

but that's way more general than just tik tok. of course, none of that is a factor with trump, they just pay him money and he does what he's asked. there's no guiding principle with him, tik tok became a huge donor so now they're ok.
 
alfaniner said:
I have to wonder that between this and the other thread how many ways TikTok can be spelled.
TikTok TicTock tiktok Tik Tok TIk Tok
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I never get it right.

I wish David Wong were still here, so that he could give his take on using TT.
 
dirtywick said:
i agree that it's largely xenophobia with tik tok. i don't think there's anything tik tok is doing that's bad that doesn't apply to amercian social media companies.

that said, there is a lot of bad stuff on all these companies. like, are we really preserving free speech by ensuring giant tech companies have the ability to unethically manipulate an audience and specifically target children, or spread misinformation and lies and offer absolutely no consumer protections? apply that to all of them. it's not a good thing IMO
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Ya, there is a conversation her that is really important that goes beyond "THINK OF THE CHILDREN!" and "MUH FREEDUMS"

but that's way more general than just tik tok. of course, none of that is a factor with trump, they just pay him money and he does what he's asked. there's no guiding principle with him, tik tok became a huge donor so now they're ok.
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If he starts rambling during one of his hate rallies and forgets they donated to him, he may bash them while he sundowns.
 
Donal said:
Ya, there is a conversation her that is really important that goes beyond "THINK OF THE CHILDREN!" and "MUH FREEDUMS"
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i agree, tablets are as much a children’s toy as anything else. and as much as i dont want chinese companies or the ccp gathering tons of personal data or using platforms to spread misinformation, i’m also pretty opposed to american companies doing the same as much as i am billionaires doing it.

consumer protections with this stuff are all badly out of date imo
 
Apathia said:
Yes. Jason Pargin used to be an active member here under his pen name.
It's been ten years since he last posted.
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oh i didn't know that he was a member here. i remember a lot of his pre-cracked stuff at pointless waste of time, thought it was some of the funniest stuff on the internet at the time. this is way back in the day. small world.
 
plague311 said:
I think banning Tik Tok is dumb as ◊◊◊◊, but that's the world we live in.
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It's not exactly a ban. It's essentially a requirement that the company be divested from China.

And I'm all for that, because ◊◊◊◊ the CCP. If you think the CCP can't or won't use TikTok to harm US interests, you don't understand the CCP. And nominal legal ownership means nothing to the CCP. Nominally, ByteDance is private. In reality, the CCP can force ByteDance to dance to their tune.
 
Apathia said:
I never get it right.

I wish David Wong were still here, so that he could give his take on using TT.
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I wonder if it wasn't DW aka JP who said he thought it was Reddit that we really should be given attention to in terms of it being a misinformation machine. I seem to recall he agreed there were also issues with TikTok et al, and that Reddit could be super useful, especially now that Google is becoming increasingly useless, but he viewed Reddit as the least understood, least talked about, and potentially most harmful social media site.

Found it:
 
Ziggurat said:
It's not exactly a ban. It's essentially a requirement that the company be divested from China.

And I'm all for that, because ◊◊◊◊ the CCP. If you think the CCP can't or won't use TikTok to harm US interests, you don't understand the CCP. And nominal legal ownership means nothing to the CCP. Nominally, ByteDance is private. In reality, the CCP can force ByteDance to dance to their tune.
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I'm not concerned. I use TikTok when I'm bored on the weekends. Probably 2-3 hours a week and I don't see any influence or anything like that. They aren't collecting anything egregious and, as you conveniently showed, all it's about is petty squabbling and fear mongering about China.

So, yeah, there's no reason to ban them other than to placate the rubes who will just find the next thing to cry about if it has any association with China. Unless they're doing something illegal, or collect more than Google or Facebook, then leave it alone. Quit bitching just for the sake of bitching.
 
Ziggurat said:
I don't think you understand how useful location data can be.
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I fully understand how useful it is but they aren't collecting anything that every other app on your phone isn't collecting (in your link it's a fitness app). If you're bothered by TikTok collecting location data then you have to be bothered by pretty much every single app downloaded on your phone. Google collects more than TikTok ever can, or could, for that matter.
 
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plague311 said:
I fully understand how useful it is but they aren't collecting anything that every other app on your phone isn't collecting (in your link it's a fitness app). If you're bothered by TikTok collecting location data then you have to be bothered by pretty much every single app downloaded on your phone. Google collects more than TikTok ever can, or could, for that matter.
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Sure, I am bothered. But Google's data isn't going to be available to the CCP. That's not a small thing.
 
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