From what
Data access is just one issue. Executing CCP propaganda policy (shadowbanning topics critical of the CCP and amplifying topics that divide/destabilize western democracies) is at least as worrisome.
They’d just buy the data like they do every other social media company.
This is performative bullshit. If they really really cared, they’d ban companies from collecting it in the first place.
This is more about pro-palenstinan content on TikTok than data.
This issue far predates the current outbreak of war in Gaza. It’s also about the CCP being able to directly feed propaganda to Americans.
(Only American companies are allowed.)
The national security argument is actually valid, but banning TikTok doesn’t resolve the core problem: that the data exists and is being sold everyday to basically anyone that can afford it, including the CCP, Russia, North Korea, Iran, ISIS, other people like ISIs, Domestic terrorists that pretend they’re not like ISOS, and dozens of organized crime groups.
No backdoor necessary. They own the data. It’s theirs to do what they want with.
All online services have access to everything done on their system. Unless it uses End to End Zero Knowledge Encryption.
But this isn’t about collecting data. Its about China shaping the algorithm to shape American public opinion. As NYT discovered they are in fact doing already.
I just wish they would address the US corporations doing the exact same thing, using algorithms to shape American public opinion.
It’s just hypocritical for them to go after TikTok for doing it, specifically, when Meta and Google are doing the same thing, and have been doing so for longer.
If they really cared about this negatively affecting US public opinion, they would make a blanket law about algorithm shaping and go after any corpo that breaks it. Sadly, that won’t happen, because the US corpos are in our politicians pockets.
