The majority of Americans — about 59% — say TikTok a threat to the national security of the United States, according to a recent survey of U.S. adults. The findings from Pew Research Center’s…
About 59% of Americans say TikTok a threat to the national security of the United States, according to a new survey of U.S. adults.
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.
World doesn't exist in an individual vacuum. The people negatively influenced by disinformation go onto to take a role in society and interact with others to either negatively or positively affect the people they encounter. Congratulations on your individual resilience, but the world is not a population consisting of only you with you alone determining the impact other people have on the world.
Yeah and, once again, those people are the problem.
Unless you want to ban any food that isn't fruits and vegetables, cars, not sleeping enough, not getting enough exercise etc, at some point you have to accept that people do in fact make their own choices.
I'm not for banning things because some people are idiots.
algorithms can't "become evil" any more than your toaster can. It's being directed and programmed by people who know exactly what they're intending to achieve.
But, algorithms don’t understand the impact of it, since it’s either a 0 or 1 of user stays or user leaves.
It's to say algorithms despite no intent to be evil have led to negative impact due to no care for the context of the recommendation. So someone can go in searching up health information then go down a rabbit hole of being recommended pseudo health advice then flat earth and so on. Not because the algorithm wants to turn people a certain way, but because it's just recommending videos that users that liked similar videos might find of interest. It's just broad categories.
Wasn't implying algorithms are sentient. At least not yet until AI integration happens.
It's not a distraction. It's a justification. The bill behind it in Congress is so broadly worded that the government can effectively shut down any Internet business with little to no warning.
It's not a company, it is the CCP. There's is a massive difference, both in terms of what the organizations can access and the warrant requirements at the governmental level. I'm getting really tired of having to explain the difference in privacy rights concerning governments and private institutions. It's just like freedom of speech or religion. It has everything to do with private vs public institutions.
And that is exactly what the Ukrainians thought about Russia. These are all actions intended to gain an edge to enable a potential future conflict. They are acting like it. We should too. War in the South China Sea is something everyone should be afraid of.
Not only is that factually false with them invading Alaska, it's like you're saying that you'd be okay with another world war because we would win in the end. I would personally prefer to deter one which this effort is a part of.
Well, the majority of Americans disagree with you per this article. A world war with China absolutely would ruin a lot of lives. I cannot even comprehend how you could come to the conclusion otherwise.
The majority of americans are fuckin stupid and believe whatever their TV programming tells them to believe.
Who said anything about war??
I'm staying "in this regard", which is about privacy and data being taken and used by a government.
Outside of that context yes I think the CCP is absolutely worse than the US in just about every category. There's no question there.
I am not inherently conservative but I am involved in the defense space and I could not disagree with this take more strongly. It 100% is about the CCP. Don't try to make this a partisan issue. It is not.
It is absolutely a partisan issue because that's why Republicans brought it up in the first place. The CCP gathering metadata on users has no bearing on our ability to beat them at sea, which is the only sphere of influence that matters with Chinese aggression.
Should US military bases ban TikTok? Sure. Should the government block the app on all government phones, also sure. Banning social media wholesale is a disgusting precedent to set, and is fundamentally anti-American.
There is precedent in banning spyware. So, what is your reason for why the current administration wants to ban it? You cannot provide any proof for your claim outside of conjecture. There are no records and it doesn't even make sense in the current political climate.
They have the access to the data on your device and the CCP has been accessing it at scale according to former employees. You are not going to find a government record out of the CCP like you would in the US.
This is not including what the intelligence services know which is undoubtedly more extensive. Something tells me you wouldn't believe them one way or another but they do not come out with things as specific as this without cause and it certainly is not partisan.
TikTok now makes it clear that it may collect users' images and audio to enable filters and video effects, allow it to moderate content, and "for other non-personally-identifying operations."
Not a problem for me or any other sane person
As for the CCP bylaws, I'm all for the Chinese overthrowing their hell-gov and instituting liberal democracy but until they do, it's a non-factor.
Folks just won't get it until it hurts you and your families. By then it will be too late and they will have already invaded Taiwan. They want to generate video and audio models of you. They want to use those against your family and for propaganda purposes. They want to ensure they know where you are at all times to gain maximum impact when they do. It's not insanity. It's what they are actively trying to do.
You keep trying and failing to ban all social media while China continues to gain a foothold under the current unchanged rules. We'll all be doing on the front lines of the next world war but at least in the end you can hold your head up high and say that it was worth it to take a stand.
It's like saying that you shouldn't ban murder because all weapons should be banned. How they use it matters.
In that analogy, Facebook is armed but not even brandishing. People aren't doing anything because Facebook isn't waving their weapon around and threatening their families but instead was using their knives to cut up more food to sell you. Sorry, I'll use a more clear analogy next time.
We are talking about the preparation of the battlefield for the next conflict. It is pretty well documented in cyber warfare circles. conflicts are won and lost before they are fought. conflicts are mitigated when the chances of success are lower.
Facebook has been giving data to the CCP for over a decade. If that's the big bad, then that's it. It doesn't matter who owns the company. If you want to talk about battlefield shaping I can speak to that. I was in the military. When comes down to it I don't care how the minefield got breached. It's breached and there's a hole that can be exploited. I don't care if company A did it or company B.
There's giving data through API, and then there's complete access to everything your device sees. It's the difference between taking a trench and allowing your enemy to build a complete logistical hub behind your lines. It's an order of magnitude worse.
FWIW, I never got notified that the download was ready, so make sure you check back for reddit mail every few days if you request yours. It took about a month for mine.