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 mean that's all fair but the title says that it's a matter of national security because it's a Chinese owned company. Facebook is absolutely aggregious and could possibly also be considered a matter a national security (probably should be imo), but because it's an American company it's not immediately seen as a threat.

Pointing out Chinese company's shady behavior isn't bullshit or racism. I work in security and we're currently having to take out most Chinese cameras since they've been found to regularly ping Chinese addresses and have backdoors built in. Chinese companies quickly become an extension of the CCP.

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.

Aggregated data is always scary.

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.

As a hard core liberal, I promptly uninstalled that shit as soon as I saw my first Chinese military propaganda.

Nothing there is all that alternative.

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 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.

The TikTok algorithm is magical and I love it

People who don't even use tiktok are scared of it? Goodness gracious.

I mean.... If you're scared of something, why would you use it?

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.