/b/ - Random

>>269543
The bill won't make it past the Senate

China literally spies through tiktok. It is why some other countries have already banned it, but left wing Americans think it just a dumb political move. (not saying OP is one of those americans)

>>269547
What exactly are they getting out of spying on us through it? Millions of videos of kids dancing? It's not like anybody uploads anything classified to it. (OK, maybe some scrotes are that dumb but I haven't seen it.) It is invading our privacy in a way that shoukd be illegal (data harvesting, marketer profile building,targeted ads and so on) but they're not working to make that illegal. They pat zuck on the ass for doing that to the world. People can't seem to name a single real threat the app poses as "spyware" that goes beyond what every company is already doing.

>>269551
I don't think it's necessarily about spying, though I can imagine American soldiers posting TikToks from places they shouldn't be and revealing sensitive info and how that could be beneficial to China. (I think something like that happened with some Russian soldiers in Ukraine if I am recalling correctly)

What I really think it's an excellent tool for is mass manipulation. They employ it in their own country for different means, but it's a very effective way to control a huge part of the population in a "soft" way. I don't doubt that they have some extremely intricate algorithms to feed dissent and misinformation. And then human's tendency to focus on negativity and sensationalism does the rest. Not to mention the fact that younger people in particular tend to want to side with people they "relate" to whether it's age or an adult with edgy makeup and hair (just one example) instead of their own parents or authority figures.

I think that TikTok is horrible and incredibly detrimental to society, but I also think that it's just one cog in the disaster machine that is the modern internet era. And while it probably is being used by China to influence Americans, I think we're all probably fucked beyond recognition from all directions.

>>269554
>I don't doubt that they have some extremely intricate algorithms to feed dissent and misinformation. And then human's tendency to focus on negativity and sensationalism does the rest.
Again, this is the official cope argument but the problem is that even after tiktok gets banned and there's nobody left to spread "misinformation" most of the country is still going to rightfully be disenfranchised with the US government.
Dissent from Americans and growing pushback is completely organic and homegrown. Everything is in such a state of decay that the only real argument left to be had is whether it's because our government is incompetent or actually villainous.
The most you could ever really credit social media with is giving people some false alternative thing to believe which they'd find in all sorts of terrible local personality cults anyway.

>>269551
>videos
The accusations of espionage have more to do with the application being able to access phone functions including geolocation and personal identity which is considered a direct threat to/by anyone working in diplomatic, military, intelligence or research positions. The fact that the US government chose to ban TikTok as federal employment regulation rather than to regulate smartphones to make geolocation actually-fully-disable-able or other solutions can be interpreted in many ways. The paranoid crank interpretation is that they're worried about China having an app to do to westerners what the US government has been using google apps and googled OSes to do for an unknown number of years.

I honestly feel like unflattering content published on the platform by the idf and ukranian forces is a factor as well. the us would most definitely like to keep those alliances high and tight.

>>269574
>>269557
>>269551
TikTok was already banned on federal devices. What the feds were afraid of is China using their algorithm to manipulate public opinion

free speech is dangerous, m'kay

>>269543
It's chinese and therefore le bad and le dangerous

>>269582
China is dangerous though. Imagine giving your credit card information and biometric data to a country that wants you dead.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/mar/25/us-sanctions-chinese-hackers

>>269543
To control narratives through fb-x-yt. The more problems, the tighter control is needed
Be grateful that telegram has not become widespread in America, tiktok are useless toy compared to this

My problem with TikTok is not because it spies. It is because it ruins the youth attention span which will affect their ability learn and get though life. Many News show that ADHD is on rise and I do think its not ADHD but rather short form of entertainment. People are used to endless short videos based on app's analysis of you. Teachers are worried that kids can watch video multiple times for teaching purposes and not understanding the video at all due to lack of focus. This is a poison for young kids and you might say "oh but TikTok is not for kids" yeah thats true but who follows the age guidelines? This also affect adults.

>>269576
Again even if that's their stated concern, this isn't going to sway public opinion in their favor at all. And I refuse to believe they're actually stupid enough to think it will. If they actually are that stupid to believe something so wrong, then that's just one example of the real reason public opinion of our government is so negative.
>>269586
I actually agree with this and would probably say it's the main driving factor in me not using it anymore. But tgat doesn't strike me as a reason to ban it.

Tiktok is cancer

i think this loss actually benefits the american people greatly.

>>269543
Tiktok being banned is a good thing, how it’s being done not so much…

Its only getting banned because the government is full of boomers who dont understand technology and every social media platform has a shorts section now so there will still be ADHD videos the culture of tiktok was bad anyway though and there was a lot of weird communities forming because of it hopefully they disappear

tiktok is only getting banned because the US is threatened by the great hyperborean empire

Also for the longest time girls making money from posting "thirst" videos was a thing and they changed the algorithm to get rid of it overnight randomly

>>269576
This anon sort of gets it.

The U.S. traditionally had control over all media - hollywood, youtube, facebook, &c. Except now this fancy shmancy app called TikTok is literally out of their control and everyone is using it for media consumption. "The algorithm man" except unironically. All apps have an algorithm, but China gets to control this algorithm.

I don't even think the U.S.'s issue is that China is being malicious in the way it controls its algorithm (although it definitely is being malicious). I mean, sure, TikTok is rotting kids' brains and most parents are too retarded to uninstall the app and/or get their kids off the app, but TikTok isn't the only app. The other big ones are doing the same thing too, and have been for years. The issue is really that America has no control over it, the empire is losing its grip and they want their allies to follow suit.

Fun fact: In China, TikTok is far more educational, and they tend to show longer videos. I've also heard that the app tells users they've been on for too long, but I'm unsure about the validity of that one. Yeah this is kinda foul play, but also very smart on China's end and I have to applaud them for that.

>>269547
America spies on us through apple products.
We should probably ban apple in my country, because spying is bad. I guess we need to ban smart phones then, because they're spying. And google. Or is this a case of "No no no, the good guys are allowed to spy on you, but the bad guys are not!"

>>269652
>parents are too retarded to uninstall and/or get their kids away from it
Dumb adults with 5-6 figures of debt from worthless non-degrees rot their brains with it too
Wage slaves fill their 3 minutes of downtime with pointless flashing lights and sounds
I honestly think that as much as I hate bullshit government intervention, nobody was going to save these addicts, and they have no chance of recovering on their own

Politicians with tenuous technical education and ZOG funder pressure are afraid that TikTok can be used by the Communists to make the youth dislike Israel.

>>269656
Ye I meant uninstall the app from their own phone.

The indentured servants using the app is not so bad - it's sad but it's not like quitting the 'tok is going to help them. What really upsets me is knowing that in the 90s university students would read books to relax and now they don't read books even when they need to.

Government trying to undo the Pandora's box they helped open; all the losers complaining about "muh inalienable rights" or whatever are ignoring the fact that the government is the reason they had that tech in the first place.

>>269543
I want to be the first to say that I hate tik tok

>>269663
You can find anti-Israel/pro-Palestine sentiment on any social media site, not just TikTok. If anything the rampant amount of misinformation and conspiracy shit that goes around on TikTok alone is worse for the pro-Palestine side in terms of optics.