I absolutely refuse to use TikTok but let's be honest here in that our own politicians and the decisions that they make that are anti-working class and anti-poor are more of a national security threat than TikTok.
this post was submitted on 10 Jul 2023
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Not to mention the data mining being done is an issue with Google and Meta too. And this isn't to excuse tiktok. It's to say that Google and Meta have to start being put in check too, since it's all getting so out of hand that isn't no longer just concerns of specific nations. It's an international concern that we are all in together regardless of where we are from and what international or domestic company we are dealing with.
You can't even pay for YouTube premium to stop treating you like the product for example, since your viewing and browsing habits will be data mined anyways. The phrase if you don't pay you are the product has ceased to be relevant. We are the product no matter how much we pay and no true opt out. Even just the contact lists people keep and use with messenger apps are uploaded exposing our personal numbers and names to services of companies we don't even use.
I get that you aren't excusing TikTok. You rightly point out the double standard. It's okay if an Amurican (misspelling intentional) company mines data and sells out its own citizens? I think not.
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Yeah I mean, I downloaded my reddit data and uh... wow. I was surprised to see how much you could learn about someone when it's all bundled up like that 👀
Which is why I find the whole banning TikTok concept absurd.
It’s picking one easy scapegoat company to rally around, completely ignores the thousands upon thousands of other applications that collect data on us.
It’s not security, it’s security theater. It’s lazy and designed to distract us. It’s to keep us from not asking questions about any company’s practices that might hurt someone politically or financially.
We don’t need to ban TikTok. We need to ban Tik Tok and thousands of others like it. We need to have real conversations and put forth real solutions with regards to privacy, globally. It won’t happen though. Because it’s going to cost somebody money.
I've come to the conclusion that it is algorithms that have become evil. There was a thread where someone was asking for help stoppinh YouTube from radicalizing their mother due to the videos it would suggest to her.
I use stuff like newpipe and freetube to try and get away from these personalized attempts at content, since there is still good content on YouTube. It's just that so many sites try and keep you there as long as possible and then start feeding you content that can warp people. But, algorithms don't understand the impact of it, since it's either a 0 or 1 of user stays or user leaves.
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Eighty one percent of Americans think God will save them, so why would you care about any of their other opinions?
I think 81% agree to say they aren't non believers because many don't want the questions of saying they might be an atheist/agnostic. ~30k different Christian sects in the U.S. and none of them can tell me why they are in their own group, so if you just say oh yeah I believe everyone shuts up. Being raised a catholic, I like to remind my mother that all 30k of them are anti catholic and they believe catholics are going to hell. They don't know what for, but they damn sure know they aren't catholic.
In truth I think ~30% of Americans are religious. The rest just keep covering for themselves. If we really wanted the truth we could instate taxes like they have in some EU countries. Pay an extra 5% taxes to your church. *poof, 50% gone in a year and claiming they paid it, while the others wondering why they didn't think to check a mon religious box.
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Good. It pretty clearly is. It's not the only one by any stretch, but "a threat" is a low bar. Would a single one of you stand confidently by it being "no threat"?
Hell, facebook is a threat to national security, and it's an American company.
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Yes but so are Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn
I'm not here to defend tiktok but I really don't care what the average person thinks is a national security threat.
I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that same 59% completed the poll on TikTok
Seeing how many people rushed to use threads and people are just excited that X is there too wouldn't surprise me. I don't understand why the average person is fear mongering tiktok when the official social media apps choose to use have so many sketchy permissions. Reddit too now set to try to become the next Meta with their IPO.
I can understand privacy focused people who try to avoid them due not liking them for the same reasons they don't like meta, but the average person singling out tiktok as they use Facebook, Instagram, and threads is not one that makes sense to me.
This is only because of republican propaganda, which they only did because young people did political coordination on ticktok.
I think there are both real and performative concerns being raised about Tik Tok as a platform.
Ideally the federal government shouldn't be deciding this sort of thing on a per-case basis at all. Pass actual data privacy legislation and force data collection to be transparent and potentially housed in US datacenters that are subject to US regulation. Then if Tik Tok can prove it's behaving responsibly it can continue to compete on an even playing field with other platforms.
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I don’t even have it and I clicked a link my friend sent and my vpn blocked 6 trackers. Can’t imagine what the app has access to
What does your vpn tell you about Facebook, Instagrams, Twitter, Threads, and Reddit?
I actually don’t have any of those anymore. If I get links from there, I’ll check. It’s been interesting to see how many get blocked
So people are complaining if the CCP censors western social media like Facebook etc. but then discuss to censor chinese social media. Isn't there freedom of speech in America? I mean nobody is forced to use TikTok.
This is why I can't wrap my head around any of the tiktok hate. I don't trust tiktok with my data so guess what? I don't use it. I don't see how my coworker using it is going to be the downfall of America. We've already banned it from government networks, that's plenty.
And to be honest there shouldn't be any social media on government networks. Unless it's "Civil Service R US" or something run by the government. But yeah no reason to have social media on 99% of official devices. (The 1% are the PR people putting stuff out and IT can wall them off)
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Majority of Americans don't understand national security, cyber security, or privacy.
Well of course they're going to percieve a place where alternative ideas and organisation takes place as a threat
Nothing there is all that alternative.
I'm not american. My country had basically built out a strangle hold on traditional media, facebook and is building it on other sites like instagram and twitter. The only platform that not been affected at all is tiktok. Instagram and Twitter is tankfully heavily fighting back the government propaganda but on tiktok, there is just none. Not sure if it's because of the algorithm it uses or simply they don't consider it a threat but there is a ton of liberal counter-culture which I'm sure the government would not be happy about if they found them.
As an avid user of both TT and Reddit (now lemmy obv), I can say the content and perspectives between the two have some parallels (both lean left) but also some very stark differences (TT leans younger and has a more early internet style chaotic energy).
I’m not saying the security concerns aren’t warranted. But the idea that so many people on here are so onboard with sacrificing a platform because they don’t get it is kinda disheartening. Especially given how concentrated social media is getting under the Meta umbrella.
I feel like many people on here still view the platform as the app where people dance to music, which isn’t representative of what the app is at the moment.
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The US exports social media platforms all over the world.
Beyond that, many mostly older folks don't understand TikTok, even more than most social media, and because they don't understand the culture of it, they have decreed it a bad influence out of ignorant fear.
Yes, I'm sure China does mine the data, as do we. If my government wanted its citizens to "rah rah murica" in the global powers dick measuring contest, it shouldn't have legislated civic buy in away for the last 50 years to make the owner class richer at everyone else's expense.
Patriotism is for societies.
It probably is, but holy fuck I'm hooked on the swiping to the point where I'd miss it a lot
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TikTok is a threat to my productivity if anything. That app will ruin me if I download it again.
For once a majority agree and are correct.
So are the rest of the "social media" companies too though.
Threat to national security? Who could know besides the higher ups.
Threat to society? Again I don't know but god, most of TikTok is extremely cringe and has people wasting so, so much of their time either viewing stupid videos or filming them.
Idk, I just think turning society into a popularity contest/mediocre talent show is.. weird. Collectively, how many billions of hours have been wasted by people staging, viewing and filming simplistic dances due to apps like this?
When we could be doing.. anything of significance.
Sure, there's some informational stuff on there no need to remind me but let's be honest how much of it is basically "Look what I can do!"
Even if it's Chinese spyware, how would they ban it? You can always install the apk from a third-party source if you're on Android.
They can ban it through other means that would involve your arrest, prosecution, and potential incarceration. If they catch your device with TikTok installed you could face those kinds of criminal penalties. Remember that your mobile phone is identifiable by IMEI to you the owner. I know that it's incredibly fascist, dystopian, and authoritarian all rolled into one but the potential does exist for this to happen. If it's banned, I don't know that I am ready to be a martyr for the cause of free speech because I don't know that I will get any help and I am just a poor working class guy that is almost always about 2 or 3 paychecks from homelessness.
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