This is why the US Government wants to ban Tiktok. It’s very easy for them to force Google, Apple, Microsoft or Twitter to spy on people. It’s much harder with a Chinese company that is headquartered overseas.
When the US does it it’s just established practise. When a non-US entity does the same thing, it’s suddenly a matter of national security.
The anti-Chinese vibe in the US right now is rather absurd. The rise of China should have been viewed as an opportunity, not a threat.
Any country, US or not, spying on other countries’ citizens ought to be taken as a matter of national security in the target countries. China does take it as a matter of national security, which is why, among other reasons, many foreign social media sites and services are blocked, run as separate instances from the rest of the world, or restricted heavily
On the other hand, if all of this public attention leads to restrictions on ALL digital tracking, not just from foreign corporations, I’ll be soo happy.
Every accusation levelled at china is projection
The only issue I’ve ever had with TikTok is that it’s the Chinese government spying on American citizens in a way they don’t allow America to do to theirs. Not that either instance is right but you can’t say something is wrong and not allowed and do it yourself.
But America spies on non-American citizens in the exact same way as TikTok does. The US complaining here is just hypocrisy. And the US has been doing it for far longer than the Chinese have.
So as a European citizen there is no difference between USian or Chinese Big Tech in terms of spying on me.
China doesn’t let anyone spy on their citizens as they ban all foreign social media etc. That’s the difference.
Have you ever wondered why people are so eager to accept the premise that China is doing everything to spy on foreign nationals?
Considering that those claims are almost all getting started by American agencies, and given the details of the Snowden leaks… America is projecting.
See also: Huawei
Quite. All American networking equipment is being used to spy on people, so clearly all Chinese networking equipment must be, too. Evidence? Unnecessary.
Now we understand what the “National Security Threat” was all this time, not that it wasn’t painfully obvious from the jump. Every other major social media platform is in bed with the Feds, giving them access to whatever they wish at a moment’s notice. The “threat” to the nation isn’t foreign influence it’s domestic influence. If they can’t have backend access to the system to monitor these domestic threats, then the whole system is a threat. If you are using TikTok as a means of ORGANIZING then you are a THREAT to the NATIONAL SECURITY because the Feds can’t WATCH YOU LIKE A HAWK.
At one point, TikTok reportedly altered language that would have allowed government officials to demand changes to the apps recommendations algorithm if it promoted content the agencies disagreed with.
But but but… MUH FREEZ PEACH!
File it under “no shit” and “stuff that was called from the beginning but now we’ll all act surprised.”
Every accusation is a confession rule
Everything the Americans accuse China and Russia of, they are guilty of it themselves.
The draft document, which Gizmodo could not independently verify,
So they have no idea what is or isn’t actually in this agreement, but sounds like they’ve asked for data access and audit capabilities to ensure US user data is separated and not sent where it shouldn’t be.
This honestly seems reasonable. It’s a foreign app from a country that has banned every American tech app, data is only flowing one way and that’s concerning.
But honestly without knowing what’s actually in there this article is pretty pointless. Just more unverified fearmongering clickbait.
Too late… China already installed the foreign spying features first.
How unsurprising. There will be no consequences for the federal government, even if this information should become common knowledge.
Whoever is responsible for making it common knowledge will be hated by the people and branded a traitor. We’ve already seen this story play out before.
