Since this entire thread is full of “hurr durr, I already knew that, nothing to see here” style posts, I’m going to attempt to provide something of fucking substance in this thread so that it doesn’t turn into another fucking version of reddit.
TikTok is not like the other social media sites, it is significantly worse. Not just because it’s a foreign, hostile government that slurps the data from it, we can ignore all that for now.
No, what’s important is that you can go on western socmed sites and criticize whoever you want, but on TikTok, criticism of Xi Jinping, Putin Erdogan, or the Uigher genocide will be censored. TikTok also censors pro-LGBT content, and to a higher degree than what is recommended by the countries this censorship occurs in. [Source: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/sep/26/tiktoks-local-moderation-guidelines-ban-pro-lgbt-content]
Unlike other services like Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, or Instagram, TikTok has been banned by numerous government agencies in many countries of the world, as well as by various Fortune 500 companies such as Wells Fargo. But clearly these companies and government agencies know less than a couple of neckbearded former redditors masquerading as experts on the internet.
Now let’s go back to why it matters that it’s a foreign government that has all of this access. We already know what happened during Cambridge Analytica, and how this sort of information was used to manipulate an entire country into voting against their best interests, resulting in the clusterfuck known as Brexit, which is currently costing England 100 billion pounds per year.
Don’t be an idiot and don’t be a simp, this information should make you outraged, not cynically complacent. There’s an old saying from a sorta cheesy movie known as the Devil’s Advocate: The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled, is convincing the world they didn’t exist.
For one final reason why you shouldn’t trust TikTok: just look at how China treats our social media, or how they treat TikTok itself, at home, and why it has an entirely different set of guidelines and results for content.
I’ve looked for the “source” of the leaked guidelines from the Guardian, but I can not find them. They only say that someone from The Guardian has access to these leaks. The rest of the evidence of censorship is anecdotal at best, unless you have a more direct source.
Data collection is done by all in app browsers from major social media platforms, not just TikTok. Don’t believe me? Then let’s ask the guy who wrote the report. What’s the name of that report again? Oh it’s iOS Privacy: Instagram and Facebook can track anything you do on any website in their in-app browser. Why do none of the hundreds of articles mention that? It should be noted that as of this comment you can open any webpage in your native browser in TikTok. Seems strange to only be talking about TikTok in this regard.
Again, this article is citing something they have “obtained” and yet, won’t post for the public to consume. Unless you have the information the cnn is reporting on, we can’t know for sure what it even says. We know that the employees in question were fired apparently, and that the IP address used to connect to TikTok was viewed, but no information on the intentions and from what I can tell, nothing was published. Regardless, in a linked article from the CNN article, it’s mentioned that: Uber was delivering politicians a different version of their app to avoid regulations.. This information should make you outraged, but it won’t because the US media has decided this is not something you should worry about. There were no congressional hearings about this, no outrage, no endless news reports.
There is a clear pattern here, and it’s one that shows just how little the American population cares about their own country exploiting them. There isn’t even clear evidence of exploitation in regards to TikTok. They appear to be engaging in all the same practices as US tech giants. Last I knew, China could just buy your data and use it for their own means. I mean, that’s what was happening with the Cambridge Analytica stuff right?
You prevents Cambridge Analytica type events by regulating or abolishing Surveillance Capitalism in the US. Instead the US propaganda network has us talking about ghosts in TikTok’s shell.
Since this entire thread is full of “hurr durr, I already knew that, nothing to see here” style posts, I’m going to attempt to provide something of fucking substance in this thread so that it doesn’t turn into another fucking version of reddit.
TikTok is not like the other social media sites, it is significantly worse. Not just because it’s a foreign, hostile government that slurps the data from it, we can ignore all that for now.
No, what’s important is that you can go on western socmed sites and criticize whoever you want, but on TikTok, criticism of Xi Jinping, Putin Erdogan, or the Uigher genocide will be censored. TikTok also censors pro-LGBT content, and to a higher degree than what is recommended by the countries this censorship occurs in. [Source: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/sep/26/tiktoks-local-moderation-guidelines-ban-pro-lgbt-content]
Unlike other services like Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, or Instagram, TikTok has been banned by numerous government agencies in many countries of the world, as well as by various Fortune 500 companies such as Wells Fargo. But clearly these companies and government agencies know less than a couple of neckbearded former redditors masquerading as experts on the internet.
Beyond that, the app has been found to: collect biometric data such as face and voiceprints, track IMEIs and MAC address (in violation of Google’s policies), a keylogger for any links or apps clicked while using the site [Source: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-22/tiktok-in-app-browser-can-monitor-keystrokes-researcher-finds/101356198].
Still not important enough news? How about when in 2022, employees at Bytedance used location information to try and track journalists critical of Bytedance/Tiktok and dox their sources. [Source: https://edition.cnn.com/2022/12/22/tech/tiktok-bytedance-journalist-data/index.html]
Now let’s go back to why it matters that it’s a foreign government that has all of this access. We already know what happened during Cambridge Analytica, and how this sort of information was used to manipulate an entire country into voting against their best interests, resulting in the clusterfuck known as Brexit, which is currently costing England 100 billion pounds per year.
Don’t be an idiot and don’t be a simp, this information should make you outraged, not cynically complacent. There’s an old saying from a sorta cheesy movie known as the Devil’s Advocate: The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled, is convincing the world they didn’t exist.
For one final reason why you shouldn’t trust TikTok: just look at how China treats our social media, or how they treat TikTok itself, at home, and why it has an entirely different set of guidelines and results for content.
Yes let’s not be like reddit:
There is a clear pattern here, and it’s one that shows just how little the American population cares about their own country exploiting them. There isn’t even clear evidence of exploitation in regards to TikTok. They appear to be engaging in all the same practices as US tech giants. Last I knew, China could just buy your data and use it for their own means. I mean, that’s what was happening with the Cambridge Analytica stuff right?
You prevents Cambridge Analytica type events by regulating or abolishing Surveillance Capitalism in the US. Instead the US propaganda network has us talking about ghosts in TikTok’s shell.