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What's going on with TikTok getting banned? (mander.xyz)

submitted 6 months ago by [email protected] to c/outoftheloop

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Not that it personally affects me- I'm not in USA and it's one of the platforms I dislike the most. But I can't find a concise explanation for why.

I've searched for news articles and those I found either don't address the reason behind the ban and talk about US politics, or are vague about it, saying it would collect user sensitive data.

I've also found lists of countries banning TikTok from government devices, okay I understand that, and some countries banning it completely because of cultural sensitivities, which I doubt is US' case.

Fair enough. What kind of user sensitive data would it be collecting? Isn't this what most social media apps do already? What makes TikTok stand out in this regard?

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[–] [email protected] 25 points 6 months ago (1 children)

My personal pet theory is the US alphabet boys have a deal with all the other social media giants for first pick of data they mine, and TikTok didn't want to play ball.

The NSA had a plan to implement a wide spectrum data capture on US citizens ... which it cancelled right around the same time Facebook got a large angel investment.

https://unlimitedhangout.com/2021/04/investigative-reports/the-military-origins-of-facebook/

You are nearly certainly correct that TikTok did not want play the same game as other US social media.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 5 months ago (1 children)

The NSA had a plan to implement a wide spectrum data capture on US citizens ... which it cancelled right around the same time Facebook got a large angel investment.

I fucking knew it!

[–] Etterra 2 points 5 months ago

Sounds like standard practice for our government. Personally I just hate vertical videos and short form content, so anything that takes a machete to those is okay in my book. Yeah I'm Gen-X, what of it?