Not that it personally affects me- I’m not in USA and it’s one of the platforms I dislike the most. But I can’t find a concise explanation for why.
I’ve searched for news articles and those I found either don’t address the reason behind the ban and talk about US politics, or are vague about it, saying it would collect user sensitive data.
I’ve also found lists of countries banning TikTok from government devices, okay I understand that, and some countries banning it completely because of cultural sensitivities, which I doubt is US’ case.
Fair enough. What kind of user sensitive data would it be collecting? Isn’t this what most social media apps do already? What makes TikTok stand out in this regard?
People from within China have access to extensive user data collected by TikTok and use that access to retrieve the data. TikTok basically contains spyware to circumvent system restrictions, so the collected data is very sensitive.
The US laws do not allow this data to leave the country.
TikTok does not restrict this foreign access for unknown reasons. (Suspected state actors involved.)
So it will probably be banned to stop the spying.
https://apnews.com/article/tiktok-ftc-investigation-china-data-e91e02db5c4f3f7d5836ecafedbf4714
Its illegal, but it most certainly does allow it. US companies also collect this data, and not all of their servers are US based.
What kind of user sensitive data would it be collecting?
From texts and data accessible from your phone or browsing cookies, to straight up biometric data of all kinds that they can use to train their models on.
What makes TikTok stand out in this regard?
It’s Chinese. If you think the US has bad data protection & privacy laws, it’s practically in the negatives in China where you have an authoritarian mass surveillance state.
Those more specific issues aside, there’s also a lot to say about the type of content it promotes on a social scientific level and what that does to specifically youths that are exposed to it. We see a lot of downright dangerous challenges, bad advice, lots of scientific or political disinformation, social pressure for online exposure, bullying, etc.
It’s performative posturing by politicians who want to look tough on China and/or have been (or are pretending to be) convinced by TikTok’s competitors that they are a national security threat because they gather lots of data, just like every other app does.
If law makers really wanted to prevent the data being vacuumed up, they could pass meaningful privacy laws, but they own stock in companies that compete with TikTok and that also profit by vacuuming up everyone’s data, so they pretend that it’s just Chinese apps we have to worry about.
Except, since we have no privacy laws, if China wants to get the data, it’s perfectly legal for them to buy it from data brokers. We could enact laws that make what they (and Facebook, and Google, and…and…) are doing is illegal, but data brokers make billions, and politicians enjoy enabling billionaires in their exploitation of the general public. So the ban doesn’t stop China from bring able to get data on American citizens.
What the ban really does is (try to) force TikToks owners (Bytedance) to sell/divest to US companies that will enrich lawmakers and those lobbying the lawmakers.
Ars Technica has some good write-ups on the situation, and Techdirt has far more, and they don’t pull punches. I suspect EFF has something written on the subject too.
My guess is that it leans more with the latter than the former. Tiktoks ascendancy is a challenge to the currently established capitalistic social media systems and it exfiltrates attention and AD revenue out of the country.
I personally believe that the campaign against tiktok is more an issue with rich people ensuring that they remain rich in the future then it is with any actual national security concern.
I don’t use the app myself, this is just the vibe I have picked up from the various articles I have been exposed to about the entire debacle.
They either want to force tiktok to play by the rest of American companies rules or to take it out so that American companies can vacuum up the user space and AD revenue.
It’s very Randian.
I personally believe that the campaign against tiktok is more an issue with rich people ensuring that they remain rich in the future then it is with any actual national security concern.
I agree, and the evidence is pretty clear about who started the panic, and who benefits from it. That said, it’s clear that Tiktok does have security concerns. They’ve been caught spying on journalists. But that’s a problem with what’s legal in the US of A, not what one company does.
And Bytedance worked on multiple initiatives to make US regulators happy, like moving all data operations to Texas (IIRC, sleepy brain can’t find the links this early) and other acquiescences that actually served security needs, but were inexplicably forgotten and abandoned by people in our end, not theirs.
They either want to force tiktok to play by the rest of American companies rules
They already do. Facebook and Google and Apple have all been complicit in genocide, oppression and domestic spying, but that benefits US law enforcement, who lobby against reforms that would prevent it. Those are the rules: hoover up the data and use it however the f#@k they want, selling access to all bidders.
or to take it out so that American companies can vacuum up the user space and AD revenue.
Exactly. Even at the cost of an entire generation of voters’ goodwill. If “security” is the concern, why doesn’t Congress care about repeated breaches like this?
But who are we kidding? If we cared about national security, would we permit a felon and proven fraud to be elected president? Would we be lying naked with bedfellows such as Saudi Arabia? And look at who is putting up the money to buy Tiktok.
It’s very Randian.
Indeed. Government intervention in the economy, crony capitalism, and economic nationalism. A Randian trifecta.
it all comes down to money. USA felt like the owners of tiktok were preying and taking advantage of us citizens and they wanted a piece of the pie or gtfo. it’s always money, only the attacking entity changes, and not that often.
What makes TikTok stand out in this regard?
the location of its base of operations is what makes it stand out.
it’s been banned in my country since its very inception (one of a very few agreeable thing that our otherwise very regressive far right government has done).
and the HECK lot of data it REQUIRES to operate. Things that are just “Why do they need THAT?”, tiktok is of course not the only one but its very aggressive on this.
Something about tictok and another app being able to recompile portions of code on the device itself so that detection was avoided , but also gave full access to a lot of the phone that permissions should not allow
I believe that’s temu, I can’t find info on tiktok doing that, atleast from the surface level search I did.
I will look for the tech podcast
Kind of a meta question. Is TikTok even worth it as a platform? Had a friend tell me they ditched FB and only use TK exclusively now. Overheard some people who were traveling say they only find restaurants to eat at based on TK. I’ve never used it before, so I have no clue how the interface even works, but I thought it was just random vertical videos?
Tik Tok
Ti To
TTMe, I’m going to start calling it Tito.
Maybe they mean Tik Kok, Bytedance’ underground betting platform and masculine porn tube?
FB is overrun with fascist propaganda, so perhaps TK might be less of a brain rot.
Maybe Trumpeltier brought up the idea of the ban after they played a prank on him during his campaign in 2020
