this post was submitted on 10 Jul 2023
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I am not inherently conservative but I am involved in the defense space and I could not disagree with this take more strongly. It 100% is about the CCP. Don't try to make this a partisan issue. It is not.
It is absolutely a partisan issue because that's why Republicans brought it up in the first place. The CCP gathering metadata on users has no bearing on our ability to beat them at sea, which is the only sphere of influence that matters with Chinese aggression.
Should US military bases ban TikTok? Sure. Should the government block the app on all government phones, also sure. Banning social media wholesale is a disgusting precedent to set, and is fundamentally anti-American.
There is precedent in banning spyware. So, what is your reason for why the current administration wants to ban it? You cannot provide any proof for your claim outside of conjecture. There are no records and it doesn't even make sense in the current political climate.
Unless you can prove TikTok is spyware and not just gathering user data per already accepted guidelines then you have no leg to stand on here.
They have the access to the data on your device and the CCP has been accessing it at scale according to former employees. You are not going to find a government record out of the CCP like you would in the US.
ByteDance has lied on multiple occasions about their security protocols and only fess up when they are caught.
The CCP according to their own bylaws do not see chinese companies as private. It is literally the definition of a fascist government system.
This is not including what the intelligence services know which is undoubtedly more extensive. Something tells me you wouldn't believe them one way or another but they do not come out with things as specific as this without cause and it certainly is not partisan.
Not a problem for me or any other sane person
As for the CCP bylaws, I'm all for the Chinese overthrowing their hell-gov and instituting liberal democracy but until they do, it's a non-factor.
Folks just won't get it until it hurts you and your families. By then it will be too late and they will have already invaded Taiwan. They want to generate video and audio models of you. They want to use those against your family and for propaganda purposes. They want to ensure they know where you are at all times to gain maximum impact when they do. It's not insanity. It's what they are actively trying to do.
Lmao well if they're trying to feed me propaganda they're fucking up because all I'm seeing is standup comedians, thicc goth girls, and Taylor swift clips, along with some of the best old-school-youtube content still on the internet.
Are you even on TikTok?
Edit: also China won't invade Taiwan because the Chinese armed forces are as embarrassing as the Russian armed forces.
I am absolutely not on the platform in any way.
Why would you underestimate them? They are in a similar manufacturing position as the US was before WWII. They have stated when they want to invade in their national security strategy document. They have also said how they want to do it which includes a significant code breaking and informational dominance component. They are doing what they said they would do. They are getting away with everything we allow them to get away with. This is a decision we are making right now. Are we okay with them having complete knowledge of everything that every western citizen does, from location, to social connections, to enough fine tuned data to build exact replicas digitally of their persona. They don't get that with existing western digital media apis.
Yes I'm OK with them having into from TikTok because they are not a real threat.
Well, the entire DOD and national security apparatus disagrees with you about them being a threat. I am sure you know more about threat assessments.
I 100% support the banning of TikTok on government devices, which was the DoD's initial suggestion. Republican congressional leaders then expanded this threat window to the average American.
No foreign apps should ever be allowed on US Gov phones, and very few domestic apps should be allowed. That's just basic infosec.
But the average people don't matter? Does the government have a responsibility to protect civilian networks the same as they do the rest of our critical infrastructure? Does it matter that 44% of US phones have now become always-on sensors for the PLA? Look again at the headline. It is not asking about you, but about national security as a whole.
The United States may as well be a continent-wide fortress. It's not that citizen security doesn't matter so much as the threat to civilians is negligible.
The most dangerous goal of the CCP with TikTok is spreading anti-Western and anti-capitalist sentiment. Democracy will survive that just fine. The kids are OK.