this post was submitted on 08 Mar 2024
251 points (96.3% liked)

Technology

73698 readers
3291 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related news or articles.
  3. Be excellent to each other!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
  10. Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.

Approved Bots


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/12876226

The measure that sailed unanimously through the House Energy and Commerce Committee would prohibit TikTok from US app stores unless the social media platform — used by roughly 170 million Americans — is quickly spun off from its China-linked parent company, ByteDance.

US officials have cited the widespread commercial availability of US citizens’ data as another source of national security risk. The US government and other domestic law enforcement agencies are also known to have purchased US citizens’ data from commercial data brokers.

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] verdantbanana@lemmy.world 49 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

our minimum wage is $7.25, no universal health care, the cops are militarized and keeping citizens in their proper places, food/ housing costs are more than our pay, transportation costs have skyrocketed, the postal service needs attention, we have fifty states not working together

but we showed that China TikTok what for BY GOD! they ain't gonna spy on us

[–] soloner@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago (16 children)

Fuck your whatsboutism. This is good news; tiktok is a propaganda machine.

[–] TORFdot0@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago (26 children)

The cyber security professional inside of me wants to agree with you. The Liberal in me doesn't want to give the government the authority to ban speech and what citizens are allowed to watch.

load more comments (26 replies)
[–] Specal@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

Lemmy is also a propaganda machine, let's ban this platform too then.

[–] Nima@leminal.space 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

are we going to ban youtube as well? which has more than tiktok? or lemmy for that matter? or any other forms of social media?

people who fear monger tiktok make me worry that they fail to see the bigger picture.

tiktok isn't the problem. the fact that propaganda is monetized is the problem. and banning tiktok will fix nothing whatsoever.

[–] CeeBee@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Propaganda is a major problem no matter what.

I mentioned in another comment that Tiktok is a massively direct pipeline to the minds of younger people by the CCP. Studies have demonstrated that the Chinese only version of Tiktok (Douyin) promotes positive content to users whereas Tiktok promotes highly negative content. To the point that a study concluded it was affecting the mental health of younger people.

[–] retrieval4558@mander.xyz 2 points 1 year ago (7 children)

How do you differentiate purposeful manipulation vs it being a natural effect of Western social media? I stopped using Facebook and Twitter because it was obviously toxic and affecting my mental health. I use TikTok a fair amount and don't find it nearly as bad.

It's also possible that there's manipulation in the other direction. In their own app they could be artificially increasing positive content while allowing the natural social media toxicity and ragebait to dominate in other areas.

My personal opinion is that TikTok is a way that peer to peer information and news travels very quickly in a way that they can't control, and they don't like that. As with all things, they want to keep us isolated.

load more comments (7 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
[–] Maggoty@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

So you're going to shut down YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, etc as well right? Considering they all do the same thing and FB even interfered in an election?

[–] asdfasdfasdf@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

I would 100% be for shutting those down. Doing so would probably lead us into the next Renaissance.

load more comments (12 replies)
[–] ares35@kbin.social 9 points 1 year ago

the legislation that needs to get passed, cannot, unless and until the house majority swings about 20 points the other way and the sliver of a majority in the senate is boosted by at least another 10.

[–] retrieval4558@mander.xyz 27 points 1 year ago (6 children)

This may sound like a rhetorical question but I promise it's sincere.

Why would I be more concerned about China having my data than when the US has the potential to collect that same data AND MUCH MORE through surveillance that we know they do? My own government has a much higher potential to do me harm than one on the other side of the world.

[–] shalafi@lemmy.world 16 points 1 year ago (10 children)

Saw another post that had many great points. What if TikTok leaned into propaganda, topics like reunification with Taiwan? I promise that will effect us, big time.

load more comments (10 replies)
[–] pastabatman@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

Because China has interests that are in opposition to US interests, and they can sway US opinion any way they want by covertly manipulating the feed. They absolutely can do significant harm with this, including but not limited to selecting politicians, inciting chaos and political unrest, and even economic destabilization. I'm not sure that the US government actually has a much higher potential to do you harm than a foreign enemy of the US with a weapon like social media as you stated. You could make a strong argument that the political shitshow we are currently in is partially due to foreign interference through social media, and that is before they owned the actual platforms. The US government is not incentivized to destabilize itself at least.

[–] force@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

probably because China is a foreign country and the US is (presumably) where you reside, and you should apparently trust your own government only. but i don't know exactly what a foreign government would want with your personal data anyways

[–] m13@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

As an individual I’d rather be giving my data to China who probably have no interest in me personally, rather than a Five Eyes country who want my data to spy on me, and have more interest in persecuting me, stopping me at borders, etc.

[–] erwan@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago

I can insult Trump and Biden on social networks, travel to the US then travel back alive to my home country.

I wouldn't try that with China.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 19 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Why doesn't the US government just make their own spyware entertainment app that's better than tiktok? 🤷🏻‍♂️

[–] BeMoreCareful@lemdro.id 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

YouTube shorts algorithm sucks. It sucks so bad you realize how bad YouTube videos algorithm sucks.

[–] GeneralVincent@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah comparing the TikTok algorithm to the YouTube shorts algorithm is like comparing the original Avatar the last Airbender to any of the remakes.

[–] Dark_Arc@social.packetloss.gg 16 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

This is a misleading headline. It mandates that Tiktok be sold if it's to continue operating in the US.

Which honestly I support. It'll probably just be sold. Even if it's not, the CCP should not have a direct pipeline to feed US citizens whatever they want (even if they're allegedly "not using it for that").

load more comments (1 replies)

Congress’ priorities are fucked.

[–] degen@midwest.social 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I, for one, only want domestic adversaries abusing my personal information. Actual rocks and fence posts are smarter than this.

[–] CeeBee@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Tiktok isn't about advertising. It's CCP propaganda. Studies have been done that demonstrate that the Chinese only version Douyin shows more positive content to its users and Tiktok shows far more negative content that has a measurable effect on the mental health of younger people.

[–] degen@midwest.social 1 points 1 year ago

To me that sounds an awful lot like TikTok being closer to good old American media than some Chinese psyop.

[–] Maggoty@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

That's uh... The NYPost article you're flogging. Which is brave considering NYPost is a rag.

[–] Jamil@lemm.ee 6 points 1 year ago (13 children)

Tiktok has been the only massively popular social media app that hasn't censored pro-Palestinian content. I used to be against tiktok for it's ties to China, but I've been convinced it's important to maintain freedom of speech.

[–] DrSteveBrule@mander.xyz 14 points 1 year ago

I don't use TikTok but wasn't it heavily criticized for censoring pro-Hong Kong content?

load more comments (12 replies)
[–] retrieval4558@mander.xyz 3 points 1 year ago
[–] dzaffaires@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Let's ban one app instead of making laws that govern personal data for everyone.

[–] bassomitron@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Not to mention this does nothing. ByteDance could easily just stand up a shell company with a puppet in another country and have it become the owner. Our lawmakers and regulators are fucking morons.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›