TikTok is no more or less invasive than other social media apps.
People don't like it because:
It's the new thing. If alcohol were introduced today it would be banned in every country on earth. People tolerate Facebook, Twitter, Insta because that's what's been around. They all do the same thing, but TikTok is new and scary.
Short form video is scary! It's a new form of entertainment, and old people don't like new forms of entertainment. See: every newly introduced form of entertainment in history, books included.
They are misinformed about what data a mobile application can and cannot do, and the level of security built into both iOS and Android. Rest "assured", they are collecting as much data as they can -- just like every app creator on the planet. What they aren't doing is capturing mic data while you're sleeping (that's not how microphones in phones work), stealing your passwords from your clipboard (OS's notify users about clipboard paste)
China bad. This primes people to consider negative press about it with a less skeptical eye, feeding the above points. (Don't misconstrue me as being pro-China, I'm not, and that's not what this post is about.)
That's definitely wrong, and definitely worthy of harsh criticism, but not worthy of federal bans, and has nothing to do with the claims of it being "the worst malware in the world".
TikTok bans aren't considered because people dislike TikTok. They are considered because TikTok refuses to comply with local laws regarding sending user data across borders. There are some strict regulations on how this can be done.
And while this plays into your point 4 it's not a China only problem. Facebook and co had similar issues in the EU. But they have found a way to stay compliant with local laws. TikTok was repeatably caught doing not following the laws. And even in the latest hearing they refused to commit to stop sending data to China.
And that's also where TikTok being more invasive comes into place. Because once the data is in China there are fewer rules in place what they can do with it. I also have no way of getting that data deleted either. While if the data stays in the EU there are regulations on what they can do with it, how to store it etc.
I am not that knowledgeable about the difference in data law between China and the US so maybe for US citizen the difference is negligible.
Why is it bad for one app to share data to their country when all other apps are sharing data to theirs, not to mention selling data to data brokers who can do literally anything.
Call for legislation of data brokers if you're interested in calling for anything.
Recently TikTok basically confirmed they are sending US citizens' data abroad. Yes, it's "only" from creators but it still goes against their previous statement of not storing any user data in China.
Yes, the evidence is a little thin. Saying they have been "caught" might have been a bit overzealous on my part. But there was a leaked audio recording where TikTok employees talked about how US user data can be accessed by China before that.
In 2020 TikTok acknowledged that their protocols aren't protecting the user data sufficiently. This was in response to an investigation by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States in 2019.
So even though "caught" might have been overzealous, there has been plenty of evidence dating back to 2020 or maybe even before that, that supports the claim of TikTok sending user data illegally to China. Either by actually sending it or by giving the engineers from China access to the data.
Why sending Data abroad is an issue has multiple reasons. The first is that each country has its own privacy laws. You can only do certain information with the Data, certain Data can only be stored for a short period of time, others can't be stored at all. Again, as a European citizen, I have the right to have my data deleted. But that's pointless if a copy of my data exists in China where the EU has no authority.
Calling for legislation on data brokers isn't stopping TikTok, these legislations exist already. There are rules and protocols on how and which data can be sent abroad. TikTok isn't compliant with that.
Then there is the issue of national security. And that's why China doing this is deemed more dangerous than other western countries because China is a potential hostile nation. You just need to take a look at how social media is a security risk in Ukraine for both the Ukrainians and the Russians. Having a foreign nation access to more extensive data than what is publicly shared is even worse. For example, tracking user Data of key military and government personnel gives them a much easier time on creating a profile. Hence banning TikTok on government phones. If Google or another domestic company does this kind of stuff then the information is at least not in potential hostile hands. And further, the US has the authority and capability to do something against it if the data were used in a hostile manner. They can seize the servers, arrest key personnel, etc. They can't do that with Chinese nationals living in China.
Well, short-video format itself is forcing content to be superficial, disposable and "easy to consume" (for idiots) and the app is populated with users that think that that's a good format. Double wammy.
Usage data that profiles your political leanings and in turn allows them to counter adjust your feeds to make you more sympathetic to said nations views, or even more maliciously, incite artificial political discourse. Profiles made from usage data could also be used to determine individuals who have access to sensitive information which could be made into phishing campaign targets. Or even further, these profiles could be used to monitor and keep tabs on western individuals visiting the country or even monitor Chinese individuals abroad.
I feel like you have to be willfully ignorant to ignore the very real risks that exist here.
TikTok is Chinese spyware. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube is American spyware.
I hate the short video thing. I find many zoomers are into TikTok. The short video length, the subtitles on videos, the filters and the attention span effect it causes does not help. Yeah I get it, social media is bad for everyone in high doses, but zoomers are such a subverted generation and short videos do not help, weather that is TikTok or YouTube shorts.
I am not in favor of banning Tiktok or short video platforms, I wish people will use social media for learning things, exploring ideas and not watching stupid clips of some kid talking about their day. That is what bothers me most about TikTok rise to fame. It is not how it is Chinese based and a privacy nightmare, it is how it changes peoples interaction online and how they use the internet.
I'm a millennial and don't use tiktok, but things change and they're supposed to. Your argument started off good, but immediately went sideways. Privacy is an actual problem, your beef with gen z is not. You sound like an old man shaking his cane at the sky. We can all cry over how much we miss AIM and Myspace, but they're gone. This shit won't last forever either.
Yes, however TikTok is more successful in adoption than Vine. Only a few girls I knew were hooked on Vine.
Privacy is an actual problem, your beef with gen z is not. You sound like an old man shaking his cane at the sky. We can all cry over how much we miss AIM and Myspace, but they’re gone. This shit won’t last forever either.
Yeah I get it. I sound like a old cranky man. Every generation has its flaws. If I have beef with zoomers, then I guess I have beef with every generation alive. I just see TikTok is not helping zoomers. Zoomers seem to be the most subverted generation. Zoomers were raised by society to be the best consumer generatiom that ever lived. Corporate America has achieved creating a generation who is bad with money, chasing identity, wanting status and applause without doing the work, bombarded with ads, very depressed and riddle with mental illness, and very lonely. TikTok is just adding gas to the fire.
Of course not all zoomers are like this. However many zoomers I met just simply fall under these things I listed above and I interact with many zoomers in my day to day life.
I am not for censorship, so I do oppose censoring Tiktok. Unfortunately I have no solutions to offer, all I see is a problem.
People said the exact same thing about YouTube, and people's desires for fame. The world still turns.
All to say, like all social platforms, on TikTok there are good and bad, people of all shapes and sizes. Rest assured, people are learning on TikTok, (and YouTube, and Facebook). Yeah there's misinformation, just like every other corner of the Internet.
People said the exact same thing about YouTube, and people’s desires for fame. The world still turns.
True. The way content was consumed back then was more enriching I guess compared to the short video format now in days.
Rest assured, people are learning on TikTok, (and YouTube, and Facebook).
You can learn lots on YouTube and other simular platforms like LBRY. You can't learn much on Twitter or Facebook. Tiktok "learning" is short clips oviously like "Did you know" or "Here are 3 thing you can do with your phone" but this is not deep as watching a 20 minute YouTube video on WWII history for example.
Upvoted because this is indeed unpopular. I agree though, particularly that people get stuck on #4. We don’t know what China is doing with our data, any more than we know what Cambridge Analytica (now defunct) or the US gov is doing with our data. It could all be “harmless” ad-targeting, it could be more sinister, we don’t know. Until we know what is being done with the data, then Meta or Google collecting my data is just as bad as China collecting my data.
Edit: Some sources related to the matter to help others form conclusions:
I’m very open to being shown that I’m talking out of my ass. I don’t know it all, and made my comment based on my current understanding of the data that is collected by the usual social media apps vs tik tok. Can you point me towards some more info?
Edit: Upon looking into it further, I stand by my statement until someone actually provides a source that shows how I’m wrong.
A nation maintaining a database of a different nation’s citizens is pretty scary stuff. We don’t know the reasons.
A nation maintaining a database of its own citizens is also scary, but less so because it can be excused as data collection for marketing purposes. That could also be a lie.
I hate all of those social media applications personally. It’s perfectly reasonable to hate them for different reasons.
Agreed. Also if you put a firewall app on your phone and watch how often various "closed" apps attempt to phone home. Twitter (or X now if I have to call it that) and Hulu make far more frequent requests, even when closed, than TikTok does. Not that every request is necessarily related to data harvesting, but a good amount of data about your location can be gathered just by tying the IP addresses your phone connects to their servers from to your account. The amount of fearmongering over TikTok in comparison to other apps seems absurd to me, and I haven't even looked at any of the apps from Facebook.
Meanwhile, proving my point, downvotes all over the thread. Which, to be fair, is exactly what I expected when posting this. Not a single challenge to the idea that it's not capturing what the fear mongering says it is. Just people perpetuating the moral panic.