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U.S. Senator Calls on Apple and Google to Ban TikTok From App Stores
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Beyond the privacy concerns and CCP involvement, the app should go because of all these stupid challenges it keeps spawning, most notably the Kia Challenge in which you see how many Kias or Hyundais you can steal and take for a joyride. I wish I was joking
I know this has been said lots of times but social media was a mistake.
That US government is happy to have US based companies do the same but heaven help you if a foreign company does it. Hell, the NSA was doing it, and yet that's all good but no, lets ban Tiktok
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Right now if Apple bans Tik Tok, Apple will get sued by Tik Tok under antitrust laws. That’s how dumb the American legal system is. So I ask this senator to work towards banning Tik Tok by law. That will make sure even side loading is not possible.
Social media, like anything else, is only a "mistake" when humans decide to use it for the worst possible reasons without any thought to the outcome. Same as a knife, or a car, or alcohol. All of them have perfectly fine uses, but mishandling can cause a lot of problems.
So if TikTok is such a danger, why does the US still allow military members to post aircraft and other military related things?
Then choose not to use it. You know what I think brings nothing to the world? Posting histrionic sweeping nonsense on web forums stating how the world would be if one was some global monarch/dictator. Yet here we are.
As I mentioned in my post above, it's not that simple. Most of us do choose not to use it and ignore it. The problem stems from the dangerous challenges TikTok constantly spawns. It's gone beyond just slapping each other with tortillas or dancing in random places, to now stealing people's cars and committing felonies just for internet clout, and showing people how easy it is to commit these TikTok crimes.
Side loading is always possible. There is no way to stop it short of removing the ability to side load from the OS.
And of course one can always use the web interface. Clunky, but it still works.
I'm more curious about what kind of "data" Tik Tok is supposedly collecting that is worth anything to someone outside of advertising.
I've seen the signup process and profile data elements. Ohhh email addresses and demographic data.
Google, Meta, and Apple collect WAY MORE data than that. Of those, Meta is the only one who actually shares the data to 3rd parties.
Google collects it and uses it to sell ads, but they don't actually sell the data. That would be stupid and destroy their business model. They sell aggregated data, not PII.
Meta... they let the data flow to the highest bidder.
TikTok is viewable from a web browser so an app is not required, just preferred, and thanks to case law from Apple vs Epic Apple has the argument that people can just choose to use a web app over a dedicated app so if TikTok got banned from the app store it wouldn't be the end of the world.
Whole lotta crazy there. eeeek
I am thankfully not American, nor do I want to move to China. I just take pause when Americans throw rocks at China while living in a glass house.
There are three issues:
1. TicTok influences what is promoted and therefore what is popular on the platform. By hindering or encouraging certain videos, China can manipulate viewing content.
2. TicTok can track what users are watching and then use that information for psychological advertising to gain influence on user decision making.
3. Like many apps, TicTok uses tracking and other bots to literally follow users through the web and, with location tracking, where they are.
The issue isn’t that a high communist official may become your kids most recent Sub; the issue is the manipulation and tracking from an unfriendly government and its allies.
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YESSSSSS!!!!! LET'S GOOOOO!!!!!! This app is basically an end run around human decency and intelligence, turning people into complete idiots who hurt themselves and influence others to hurt themselves and has made watching content on other platforms frustrating due to the absolutely tiny amount of content in an obnoxious letterbox.
1 Minute videos is not content. And also, the value of the content is the lowest minimal effort or even questionable in its veracity or contribution to society. How many times are people gonna make spaghetti on a table before someone says "This is just God Damned Stupid."
Not to mention the onslaught of just Pornography, even in some cases involving minors.
Why are we allowing this?
1 Minute videos is not content. And also, the value of the content is the lowest minimal effort or even questionable in its veracity or contribution to society. How many times are people gonna make spaghetti on a table before someone says "This is just God Damned Stupid."
Not to mention the onslaught of just Pornography, even in some cases involving minors.
Why are we allowing this?
Don’t ban a single app, write data privacy laws for all apps.
Ah yes a classic case of the ”pot calling the kettle black”. Don’t want to get political but BS of psychological projection transcends corporations and national borders. With that said I don’t trust TikTok, Facebook and for that matter any Meta product. No problem though as I just refrain from using those services. YES you can live a life within the world of tech without using those services. I am also not the biggest fan of Google but that one is a little bit harder to avoid so I just limit my use.
The issue is that Facebook and Google are subject to US Law. TicTok is subjected to Chinese law which requires them to give full consent to Chinese governmental surveillance and espionage.
As far as Facebook and Google, their time of reckoning is already in motion.
Whole lotta reality bub
Where have I heard this before? I wonder what's (D)ifferent now....